Craig Silvey’s beloved best-selling novel leaps onto the big screen in a charming new Australian family movie. RUNT is the heartfelt and hilarious tale of eleven-year-old Annie Shearer and her best friend Runt, an adopted stray dog with remarkable abilities. In a bid to save their family farm, the two aspire to compete in the Agility Course Championships at the prestigious Krumpets Dog Show in London, whilst overcoming hurdles, obstacles and nefarious villains.
As Runt prepares to leap in to Australian cinemas for the school holidays, Nick L’Barrow spoke with the film’s director, John Sheedy, about the way he shot the dog agility scenes, collaborating with writer Craig Silvey, and how the unique advantages of working with kids and animals.
Nick: I found it incredibly interesting that Craig Silvey wrote both the manuscript for the book and the screenplay somewhat simultaneously. How did you first come across the story of Runt? Was it the book or screenplay?
John Sheedy: I saw the script beforehand. Craig and I are long time collaborators. We did The Amber Amulet together. We did Jasper Jones, adapting that with Kate Mulvaney to the stage. So, we have a shorthand dialogue and a great collaboration.
After H is for Happiness, he had seen that and his brain was ticking, because he is a genius writer and has a billion stories. He came to me with this film and told me he had written it for me. And I wasn’t looking to do another family film at the time, to be honest.
But I read it, and it was full of charm, it had a beautiful balance of humour and pathos that only Craig can deliver. How could I say know to this? It’s just so beautiful. Plus, I love dogs. I’m a big, big dog lover.
And Craig had the novel being penned in his very, very talented brain at the same time, which was great because that developed an audience. And so, by the time the film came out, we already had an audience and a following. It’s all played into each other perfectly.
Nick: I’m curious to know how, from a director’s point of view, a film evolves visually from reading someone else’s screenplay, to what we as an audience end up seeing on screen. How much of what your visualised reading the script the first time was similar to what you got to film?
John Sheedy: Yeah, great question. To begin, whenever I read a screenplay, there are some where every turn of the page, you have a strong visual of the characters and the world, and even the actors you want to play. With Craig’s, it was just exciting to me how much I could see the town of Up’s and Down’s. I could see the Shearer family. That plays a big part when you’re reading it the first time.
Visually, the whole film was playing out as I turned each page. So, then it’s about finding the team who can deliver the world I’m thinking of. The town of Up’s and Down’s is a small, country town with a beautiful, quirky community that is struggling through a drought. It had a timeless feel to me as I was reading it, and that’s what really attracted me, that we were not kind of bogged down into a specific era. That’s a great palette to start visualising.
I got Terri Lamera, who did the costumes for H is for Happiness, and we talked through it. And Clayton Jauncey [production designer] and I talked through that as well. It has a really storybook, fable-like quality to it. It’s wonderful that it’s set in WA, it’s very Australian, but it’s also a little town that you could pick up and place anywhere in the world.
The themes are so universal, and making it feel timeless is where we landed. The creative team were so incredible and so brilliant in delivering that vision that I presented, while also adding their own magic to it, you know?
Nick: I think ‘magic’ is the key word there. Timelessness and magic seems to be the key ingredients for incredible cinematic experiences.
John Sheedy: Yeah, and it’s a great world to play in. It’s fun. It’s Babe, it’s Strictly Ballroom, it’s Muriel’s Wedding. It is all of those great classics that have a fun visual element to a story that has hardship, but also humour. It allows us to celebrate our flaws and celebrate the things that we succeed in with our family and all of those things. It’s really a wonderful thing to be able to the style with the words and create that world.
Nick: There’s an old Hollywood adage that says filmmakers should never work with kids or animals. But from everything I’ve seen with Runt, I can only imagine your experience making this film would scream the opposite. What is a unique advantage working with kids and animals that you’ve learnt over your last two films?
John Sheedy: Let’s start with the children first! Young people – and I experienced this with H is for Happiness, and when we did Jasper Jones and Storm Boy – young people come with such an open heart. They don’t turn up with ego. They come with a little light shining inside them. They’re happy to be there. They’re playful. They take direction, but they’ll also add their own thing that you didn’t think of.
Lily LaTorre was just an absolute ray of light every time she turned up on that set. I would direct her, and she would add to it. The worst thing you can do is shut that down; you know? You leave that open. Let the young actor tell you their thoughts, because there’s gold there. There’s things that you won’t think of, because as a director, your head’s in so many different departments.
For me, the joy and the approach to the work, to be very open to those young people, and allow them to add their own thing, 90% of the time, they’re on the money! Lily is such a natural on screen, as well as her brother Jack. That was a joy being able to cast two siblings. Of course they had natural chemistry. They were funny, and fun, and light, and humourous. Then be respectful when we drill down for the tougher moments of the Shearer’s, which they understand as well.
I’ve always approached it as you can’t be patronising to young people or a young audience by watering down those tough moments. Young people like feel all the feelings, and you trust that they’ll navigate those.
So, I say poo poo to “don’t work with children or animals”, because they’re a delight. If anyone’s difficult, it’s the adults running the show behind the scenes. That’s the tricky part! The kids and animals are golden and beautiful.
Nick: To dive a little deeper in working with the dogs on this film, how was it directing the dog agility show scenes? Working the cameras around the dogs doing their thing, you made it feel like an action film!
John Sheedy: We put a lot of work and thought into it. Brad Shield, the DOP, and I talked about the dog agility courses having the feel of F1 car racing. We got tunnel cams in there, the see-saw cameras. We had little cameras all set up around the agility course so we could catch those moments of the dogs jumping down, running through, diving over things.
And then it became about raising the pace and the bar from each dog agility competition. They had to go up one and up one and up one. And each time we added more cameras, so by the time we got to London, there were nine cameras at play. The stakes just kept getting higher and higher, and the coverage gets more and more complex by the time we got to London and the Krumpets.
Nick: I had the chance to speak with Matt [Day, actor], and I loved chatting with him about how this extravagant villain, Fergus Fink, came together. What was the collaboration with Matt like in bringing that character to life so vividly?
John Sheedy: Fergus is one of my favourite characters in the film. You’re not meant to have favourites, but Fergus Fink is one of my favourites! And Matt Day is one of my favourite actors.
This is the second collaboration we’ve done together, and Craig Silvey had written this dastardly villain. But when Matt and I talked about it, we said we either do it with conviction, or we don’t. Because if we go the whole hog, and not apologise for it, and have a lot of fun, then audiences will cheer when the villain finally has their upcomings, you know?
I think one of the qualities Matt and I identified pretty early on was, in the dog agility courses, it’s not really about the dog, Chariot. It’s about Fergus Fink and his performance. So, we really lent into that a lot. Then we got the costumes, and the hairstyling, to play with.
I knew Matt would commit beautifully, and he and I had a lot of fun. I somehow ended up being a choreographer of those bits as well! I knew he had a great sense of comic timing. I think he’s one of the sparkling favourites of the film.
Nick: We’re getting close to the end of our chat, and I have to ask this. I love talking to filmmakers, who choose to do this, about great toilet humour in their films. Matt has a hilarious line delivery and scene where a dog urinates on his foot that had me in hysterics. In your opinion, what is the difference between good toilet humour and bad toilet humour?
John Sheedy: Oh, I think there is no bad toilet humour! I think toilet humour is toilet humour. And I’m a big advocate for toilet humour. The fact that the dog wees on the villain… of course it has to! It’s a gold moment!
Thank you to John for taking the time to chat, and thank you to StudioCanal and ThinkTank Communications for organising the interview. Runt is in Queensland cinemas September 12, and all other Australian states and territories from September
