Written and directed by award-winning actor Mark Leonard Winter, who makes his feature filmmaking debut with THE ROOSTER. Produced by Logie-nominated actor Geraldine Hakewill (Wanted, Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries), and AACTA award-winning producer MahVeen Shahraki (Ellie and Abbie, The Translator) for Thousand Mile Productions, THE ROOSTER follows small-town cop Dan (Phoenix Raei). When the body of his oldest friend is found buried in a shallow grave, Dan seeks answers from a volatile hermit (Hugo Weaving), who was the last person to see his friend alive.
Leading up to The Rooster‘s release in Australian cinemas on February 22, Nick L’Barrow had the chance to talk with writer/director Mark Leonard Winter and producer Geraldine Hakewill about how their acting careers helped with their feature film debut, and how Hugo Weaving was an essential part in getting this film made!
Nick: It’s a pleasure to meet you both! I believe you’re both in Brisbane at the moment right?
Geraldine Hakewill: Yes! I’m doing a play at the Queensland Theatre. Our opening night is the same day of the cinema release of the film!
Nick: Oh, that’s uncanny timing! I genuinely appreciate you both taking the time to discuss The Rooster. I’m excited to discuss the visual aesthetic of the film, especially those haunting dream sequences! How did you initially visualise the dream sequences? And what was the process of bringing that ethereal feeling to the screen?
Mark Leonard Winter: Yeah, I’ll tell you the sort of jumping off point for the tones and textures, which were really inspired by a book called ‘Instant Light’, which is these pictures of [Andrei] Tarkovsky’s polaroids. And they’re just absolutely beautiful. Basically, throughout his career, he made his films, but throughout his travels he made a visual diary of these polaroids and poems to coincide with them. They really just took me. They’re so evocative and such an invitation to step into this mysterious world that you’re not quite sure what’s going to happen. It’s dark, but not scary. The mystery of it is so exciting.
So, with Craig Barden, our DOP, we sort of tried to develop what we called “The Russian Look”, which is what we wanted to do with the dream sequences. We wanted to utilise the natural surroundings of where we shot the film, and you know, use those colours and those tones, those textures, and the natural fog that exists. And hopefully all those elements sort of come together to support the ideas of the movie and really be an invitation to step into that world, much in the same what I sort of felt looking at those polaroids.
Nick: You mentioned the how important it was capturing this location where you shot the film. And I guess this is sort of a ‘chicken or the egg’ question – but did the location dictate the aesthetic of the film, or did you search for a location based on what you had in mind with the script?
Mark Leonard Winter: It’s sort of funny using ‘chicken and the egg’ in the context of The Rooster! [laughs]
Nick: Oh, my god! I didn’t even intend for that to be the case [laughs]!
Geraldine Hakewill: The sequences you were talking about in the beginning and peppered throughout the film – that amazing tree is on a property that our friend kindly let us film on! We spent a lot of time on that property, so it was probably just percolating in your [Mark’s] mind. It was really special, and it looked incredible at night with that amazing lighting!
Mark Leonard Winter: The location really was everything on this film, you know? It was my first film and our goal was to make something that was achievable on whatever budget we could get our hands on essentially! So, I wrote this film for things that were within our grasp. It became this sort of creative proposition and these puzzle pieces that came together to form the script. A lot of the themes in the film are kind of born at our house. We made part of the film at our house!
So, it was really about trying to take all of those elements and bring them together into something coherent but have that natural world around it all. I felt like, particularly, that fog just talks so clearly to the sort of feeling inside your brain when you are lost withing a battle with your own mental health and well-being. That was very clear early on that those two things were talking to each other, and I wanted to find a way to highlight that.
Geraldine Hakewill: It was constant conversations where you’d [Mark] would have a story point that would come to you when we’d be driving to the supermarket or something! We’d be out doing something, and something might happen, or someone would tell us a story and we would both look at each other and know that it would just elevate the story. There was just constant conversations about plot and location.
Mark Leonard Winter: And the community really came together to help us achieve it. We couldn’t have done it without them.
Geraldine Hakewill: It was a really great community. It was really beautiful.
Nick: I’m sure many people have asked about being a husband-and-wife filmmaking duo, but I’m more interested in the fact that you’re both actors who have started your filmmaking adventure together. By the way, I just want to mention I think you’re both fantastic in Disclosure. So, I’m curious to find out whether you approached making this film with an actor’s mentality? What was this experience like for you both?
Mark Leonard Winter: I guess the great benefit of being an actor is that you get to step on to a lot of different people’s sets. If you’re just a director, you may only walk onto one set every three or so years, roughly. Whereas an actor, you get to experience a lot of different styles, a lot of different ways that people work. And you sort of gradually assemble a little toolkit of things that you think are really useful and really help create a creative environment.
Look, it was really nerve wracking in a sense! You’re worried about all these people who have come together to help you achieve your vision, and you don’t want to let them down. But I tried to stay really open about what my strengths and weaknesses were, and I do think my strengths probably leaned more towards the performance side of things.
Then it became all about assembling a beautiful team who can support the more technical things that you’re not as ofay with. I think my main goal was to really create an environment that was open and creative, and that meant being a believer in setting the parameters of what you’re wanting to do. But the collective mind is much stronger than your own. I think great directors manage to filter all these different seeds, and offers, and propositions through the filter of the movie, and that’s where things get more exciting and bigger than what you, by yourself as an individual, could imagine.
Geraldine Hakewill: I think making Disclosure together was a good experience because that was an even smaller budget that this, just seeing what was possible with such a limited budget. I mean, we’ve both done a lot of independent film throughout our career, but I think because we were in a place where we began to think we could do this ourselves, that was a great catalyst to jump into the deep end!
We didn’t really know how hard things would be, or how long things would take. I think we now have a great understanding of what it takes, and we’ve learned so much. I mean, we keep saying it feels like we’ve put ourselves through film school making this film! Not just in the respective roles that we were in, but because we were living together the whole time. I feel like Mark knows so much about production now, and I feel like I know so much about writing and directing. We kind of have really gone through everything together. It’s challenging, but it’s incredibly rewarding.
I think because we have been on so many sets before, I was able to bring a real sense of how I wanted to run it as a workplace. As an actor, you’re really invested in the creative aspects of making something, but once you start producing, you realise that it is a workplace. It’s a job, and you want people to have a good time at work. So that was really important for us the whole way through.
Mark Leonard Winter: And on a film of this scale, like, smaller scale, you’re trying to sell the experience to the crew that it will be a family. Actors I think are a little more used to the experience. But with our crew it was all about letting them know that we’re making this thing together. We had breakfast and lunch everyday in our garage! There’s no trailers. The makeup room was our spare bedroom and wardrobe in our other bedroom. So, when you’re talking to professionals who are really great at what they do, and don’t need to do this job, you have to set up an environment where the experience might fill up their soul a bit.
It’s hard making shit. There are hard days, of course. And we were in the elements making this film. But I think, for the most part, we managed to do it, and I feel like people did have a good experience making it. And they’re still talking to us! [laughs] I’m really proud of that.
Nick: I’d be remised if I didn’t ask about Hugo Weaving joining the film. I’m curious to know what the evolution was like for the character of The Hermit from how he was written on the page, to when Hugo came on board.
Mark Leonard Winter: The movie wouldn’t have happened without Hugo. I wrote the part for him. I’ve acted with him a few times. I really look up to him. I just love him and the way he carried himself in the industry.
So, I wrote it for him and sent him a draft. I was so nervous sending it to him. But he was so encouraging. He was one of the first people to read it, and he said if we could get it together, he would do it! So, I had to get it done. Then when I approached other cast members and crew members, suddenly people are taking a second look when they saw Hugo’s name. They’d be like, “Is he definitely doing it?” And I’d say, “Yeah, definitely!” But, inside I had to sort of go, “I fucking hope he shows up!” It was an extraordinary gift to have him in this role.
To be honest, he didn’t do too much improv. It was written like this, but there’s an extraordinary vulnerability and bravery and sense of play that he brought to the role which was hilarious and deeply moving to watch unfold. I loved crafting it with him. It’s a scary character to take that step, particularly if you’re a person of stature and you have a reputation, then you’re working with a first-time filmmaker! It was really a thrill to watch him and Phoenix Raei [Dan] work together in that space. Phoenix carries the film so softly inside himself, and it’s such a remarkable skill and faith that he had in his own presence.
Geraldine Hakewill: It speaks volumes to their skill and technical craft that they managed to bring to life Mark’s voice. Every punctuation mark ends up on screen. They managed to make Mark’s words feel like improv. That is so hard. It’s hard than improv! I’m amazed by both of them, and their ability to do that.
Thank you so much to Mark and Geraldine for their time, and to TM Publicity and Bonsai Films for organising the interview. The Rooster is playing in limited Australian cinemas from February 22, with some special Q+A sessions at select cinemas.
