“Scruff,” a Short Film In-The-Making
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision Audio Conservator Alex Porter has hidden talents. Outside of her day job as an archivist, she has an impressive career as a filmmaker. A few of the films she has directed include: Super8man (2007), a comic short film inspired by Richard Bach’s book Johnathan Livingstone Seagull and exploring the world of an amateur filmmaker; A Sense of Place (2008), a fantastical observation of fine wine and art; and N or Nor W, Study of a Canterbury Wind (2011), which looks at a Canterbury Nor’ wester from the perspective of a young girl living in the 1950s (we exhibited this film here at the archive in 2013).
In this blog post she puts on her producer’s cap, and shares a new filmmaking project she’s working on with Ed Lust.
I was stoked when Ed Lust [1] asked if I would produce his short film, Scruff, because pretty much everything Ed does is cool and generally involves cosmic wonder. We met during postgraduate years at the University of Canterbury in 2009: he was completing his MFA, and I was starting my Hons. A fact was established in my mind when I saw Ed’s final submission that this man stood apart from the crowd; not only because he was gay (in both senses of the word), but because he was in the business of making and creating great art across disciplines, prolifically and seamlessly. We have shared a couple of road trips and exhibition spaces over the last few years and generally founded a loose sort of working exchange which brings me to the now, the project at hand: Scruff, the short film.
We are coming up to two years on from where we began with a New Zealand Film Commission Fresh Short grant, and have one more weekend of drama to go before the production can be fully realised from script to screen, project this baby into post, to master and apply to festivals. Anyone who has ever had a hand in making a short (but works full-time in their other field of interest) will know [2], really know this is just how the timeline rolls sometimes — and let it be known Ed is also a full-time archivist [3]. Scruff is a personal story; it’s a coming of age tale that pushes open the edges of envelopes, wide. Follow this link to hear Ed’s story, see his Boosted campaign and witness his bold approach as he stands naked [4], putting himself on the line.
Boosted!? I hear you cry, hasn’t he had enough support already? As his producer I say no, he needs a little more, actually one weekend of production costs more. Fellow film lovers, it is time to stand up and join the faithful posse of family and friends, the existing support of Christchurch’s “we help people like Ed because we believe in them” network collective and other available squeezed-dry resources. Follow the link, hear his plea and create an opportunity to be part of the love, if all you do is “like” or “share” his message, God Bless you anyway [5].
Thanks,
Alex Porter
Friend and Producer fighting to represent filmmaking in Christchurch
Footnotes
[1] Yes that’s his real name.
[2] NB. 24 hour filmmakers aside.
[3] Collections Technician of Earthquake Recovery at Canterbury Museum.
[4] Not really naked, just in the sense that that’s what it feels like when you bare your soul.
[5] But hurry this special offer to help ends July 16th 2015.
