Blue Horizon tells the story of Maris Le Marcus, a famous and privileged musician, who maintains a selfish and carefree lifestyle of excess: girls, drugs and trouble. He is void of trust and refuses to let anyone grow close to him due to his difficult upbringing. After a brush with the law due to some poor life choices, he finds himself obligated to perform community service at a wellness centre for people living with disabilities. There he meets a resident named Douglas, a reclusive man with severe Cerebral Palsy. When Maris finds out they were both orphaned and raised in state care, a friendship forms that sets them on a path to change both of their lives for the better.
As Blue Horizon prepares to have it’s World Premiere at the upcoming Gold Coast Film Festival, Nick L’Barrow spoke with the film’s writer and director, Josh Hale, about casting Damien McCoy, an actor with cerebral palsy, and making a film that has something personal to say.
Nick: To me, this is such a great pick for a film festival closing night movie! It’s such a heartfelt story that I think audiences will really connect with, and a part of that is this universal message it carries about hope, love, acceptance, and the power of art. Doug expresses himself through poetry. Maris does through music. I’m curious, is filmmaking your way of expressing your own feelings too?
Josh Hale: Yeah, great question. I’ve made a couple of films prior to this that were genre films. But with this film, creatively, I felt like this was the first time I was actually saying something. There’s a line of dialogue in the film that Dougie says to Maris, “You talk, but you don’t say anything.” And as a writer, that’s kind of me in conversation with myself. “You make these movies, but what are you saying?” For the first time, I really feel like I’m saying something.
The themes of the different ‘ships’ – friendships, relationships – the power of those things is what I wanted to show people. We designed the story around this rich musician who has everything – the Lamborghini, the women, the mansion, the game, the good times, but he’s not happy. And when you break life down, focusing on those ‘ships’ that are a part of it was important to me.
The other theme I wanted to break down was the stereotypes that come about with people that live with disabilities. This is a story about inclusion, and how someone like Doug is just a normal guy experiencing living with a disability. And Damian McCoy, who plays Doug, this is his first movie! He’s such a cool, insightful, funny guy. He just embodied the character and brought it to life.
Nick: Damien is incredible in the film. What were the conversations with him about the portrayal of cerebral palsy in Blue Horizon?
Josh Hale: So, I used to do a bit of volunteer work with the Special Olympics, and when I originally wrote the script, the character of Dougie had Down Syndrome. But then I had a chance meeting with Damo at a masterclass at film school. And he was this guy sitting at the front, asking all the questions. I’d watch him walk through campus high-fiving everyone and just being this beaming light for everybody. I thought he was such a cool guy.
So, of course, I struck up a conversation with him. And I mean, he’s so outgoing. He is nothing like the Dougie character in the film! But as we were talking, I said, “I think I have something for you.” So, I reworked the part in the film for him. And it has been his dream forever to be an actor in a film, and his chances seemed far and few between because of the level of cerebral palsy. Then I put my research hat on to make this character seem so authentic.
Giving Damo the script was the most nerve-wracking thing, because here’s me writing about an ailment I don’t have for a guy who is living with this. But I did plenty of research, gave him the script, waited one or two days. I started thinking this wasn’t a good sign. But 4 days later, he calls me, and he told me he was laughing and crying throughout the whole script. And that was the best compliment I could’ve gotten. He said to me, “I was Dougie 20 years ago. I was in this place where people didn’t have my best interests at heart. Their intentions were good, but they were restrictive.”
When he saw the first cut of the film, he was sobbing by the end. And I was trying to figure out if they were happy tears or sad tears! But he just looked at me and said, “I achieved my dream.” And, man, I was so honoured and so touched that I got to be a person to help show off and represent people with disabilities in this film. Damo is the greatest human being I’ve ever met. He’s just a beautiful, shining light. And we’re blessed to have him in the film.
Nick: His energy in the film is so infectious. And it’s amazing that he is a poet in real life, as well as playing one in the film. Was that something that was worked into the script when he came on board?
Josh Hale: It was totally coincidental! I used to write a lot of poetry myself, and then I saw this guy, and he won Toastmasters! When we filmed that big moment towards the end of the film, it was such a stressful day on set. Damo’s first day on set was a bit timid as he was trying to figure everything out. By the end of the shoot, this guy was a rock star. Everyone loved Damo!
We gave him a nickname, and he’s so proud of it. But we had this huge 12-hour day to get that major scene. And we did it multi-cam, and we were just trying to nail it. We wanted a few good takes of it because it’s the catalyst of the film. Everything relies on this being our payoff. He stood there, and he brought the house down. He nailed that end scene, even the extras were tearing up.
Nick: I’d be remised if I didn’t mention that Aussie music icon Pete Murray makes his debut film appearance in Blue Horizon. What made him the right guy to play Benjamin?
Josh Hale: It’s funny, because Pete is nothing like Benjamin! He’s a rockstar, right? Whereas Benjamin is so uptight and rigid. They’re nothing like each other. When he first saw the film, he even said that he didn’t see himself onscreen. It was weird because he’s obviously seen videos of himself performing, but as Benjamin, he didn’t see himself. And it probably felt weird to him because he did a great job!
Nick: I’d love to ask a nerdy, technical question – I couldn’t help but notice the opening scene is a one-shot take that felt very reminiscent of Boogie Nights or Goodfellas. What was the inspiration behind that shot, and was that always something that was part of your original vision when writing the script?
Josh Hale: Yeah, it was definitely inspired by Paul Thomas Anderson. I’m a big Boogie Nights and Goodfellas fan. They’re both in my top five of all time.
I really needed to have something that brought the audience into our world, you know? It was very ambitious on our budget, by I started planning that shot with our DOP, Nathan Jermyn – who shot a beautiful film – early on. It’s very much of a talking heads movie, but we wanted it to be cinematic. And I knew the oner would make that happen.
I hired out Miami Market on the Gold Coast for like 10 hours, and we knew we needed the one shot take, and another little scene in there. And we didn’t even know if enough extras were going to show up for the shoot. But Nathan and I started planning the shot at the location, and my first AD, Dom Polito, came up to me and said, “I don’t know how we did it, but there is a line of people around the block to get in here right now!” And it was a crazy shot. It’s 3 and half minutes long, where we go from exterior to interior, we’ve got a stunt, a concert, and 170 extras! I went to bed that night and I couldn’t believe we did it. It’s greater than anything I’ve ever achieved in my film career.
There’s also a moment in the shot where it seems like the camera goes through a wall, but in reality there was a roller door there, and we had a shot of the door closed, then it pans away, and we had a grip pull the door up for the camera to go through, and then close it again before the camera sees the door again! We had a 3D camera mounted on Nathan’s camera, so there is some cool BTS footage out there for it!
Thank you to Josh for his time, and to Gold Coast Film Festival and PJ Marketing and Media for organising the chat. Blue Horizon is closing the Gold Coast Film Festival on May 11. You can find more information here.
