Overview
New Zealand's ever expanding film industry is breeding a whole new generation of filmmakers who are committing their infinite talents, their finite time, and their even more finite funds to bringing to life stories that, without their dogged efforts, would never make it off the page. Anoushka Klaus and her band of merry filmmakers at Hybrid Motion Pictures are part of this new generation, and their debut feature film Jake is their story.
Jacob (Jason Fitch) is your average twenty-something Aucklander. A man who, not long ago, believed that the world was his very own oyster, complete with fancy black pearl. However time and apathy have done their dirty work and now lazy, lethargic and just generally defeated, Jacob's monotonous life is all too quickly becoming inconsequential. Enter a mysterious corporation called The Forge. They've sent in a fresh and dynamic actor (Leighton Cardno) to replace Jacob in his own life, and he's here to do with that life what Jacob himself never had the initiative, or the energy, to do. With everyone in Jacob's life happily accepting the actor as the newly nicknamed Jake, the real Jacob is free to start life afresh – to become whoever and whatever he wants to be. But when Jake wins back Jacob's lost love Violet (Klaus), Jacob realises the only life he wants is his old one, and he'll stop at nothing to get it back.
The hugely original screenplay for this homegrown dark comedy was penned by Hybrid Motion's Doug Dillaman, and the story appealed to producer and lead actress Klaus immediately. "The story was so unusual and surprising," Klaus remembers, on reading the script for the first time. "It didn't end like I thought it would – and I hadn't seen anything made like it in New Zealand before." So she got together with a bunch of very young and very talented aspiring filmmakers, whose previous film experience virtually started and ended with The 48 Hour Film Festival. "We were shooting short films every weekend," Klaus explains, "a little like how a band holds regular practices, and we were looking to challenge ourselves. Doug [Dillaman] had a script, so we thought we'd give it a go."
Initially visualised as a small hobby of a project and shot in just 23 days, the telling of Jake quickly evolved into a six-year monster of a journey, costing the group of friends almost $100,000 to produce. As fellow producer Alistair Tye-Samson points out, that is a "pittance, in film terms", but Hybrid Motion lived precariously on the poverty line for years and pooled together their life savings to get this film made. "It's been incredibly hard, of course," shrugs Klaus, "but most things worth doing are." And now that things are finally stepping away from post-production and onto distribution, Klaus says she "can't wait to watch it with a proper audience – people who don't know the story – and re-discover the moments where people laugh."
While Klaus acknowledges that self-funding and self-distributing an independent film in New Zealand is an incredible challenge, she asserts that it's all worth it if you've got your priorities in the right order. "The challenge is always that film takes a lot of money and a lot of time," she says, "and in a country the size of New Zealand, it's difficult to make your money back on a local release… there's no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow – just the satisfaction of a job well done."
And a job well done is definitely what Jake is. Portrayed by a bevvy of sincere Kiwi actors, Jake is an inventive and sardonic tale about identity that twists and turns into ever darker and increasingly unpredictable places. Opening for a limited run at Auckland's Academy Cinema from June 27th until July 5th before moving on to the Paramount in Wellington from July 11th, Jake is set to be the little Kiwi film that could, would and should.
Jake premieres at Academy Cinema, Auckland on June 27th and at Paramount Cinema, Wellington on July 11th. Both premieres will be followed by a Q&A.
