HER OWN MUSIC is the debut film from writer and director Olivia Aleksoski, a graduate of the Actor’s Centre Australia.
Olivia brings her performer’s training and extensive experience in theatre, which includes helming It Doesn’t Snow Here, written by Cassandra Sorrell and presented in 2018’s Sydney Fringe Festival. She has assistant directed many independent theatrical productions including Wink at KXT theatre, Normal at the Old 505 under Anthony Skuse, Fierce at The Old Fitz under Janine Watson and on the Lazarus Theatre Company’s The Hatpin in 2012, at the Blue Elephant Theatre in London.
Olivia has appeared in UBU (dir. Andrew McInnes), Jackie (dir. Angela Punch-McGregor, The Boys) and Transience (dirs. Anthony Skuse and Julia Cotton). She’s excited for Her Own Music to resonate with young, queer women everywhere.
1. Hi Olivia, this is your debut short dilm that you have made?How would you describe the movie to readers.. I find the film ‘s title intriguing. Is it like the Henry David Thoreau quote- ‘Each man beats to the sound of his own drum’?
The film is about Maddie who is at an integral moment in her young life. She’s school captain at a prestigious catholic girls high school and she’s on the path to getting great grades and achieving at a very high level. She is the epitome of the perfect private school girl.
Maddie is asked to tutor Tessa, a younger student in music and it is in the music room that an unlikely friendship develops into an even more unlikely relationship. This makes Maddie question the environment that has raised her and the institutionalised homophobia that has created her internalised homophobia.
She has never questioned the life she leads and this is the catalyst for Maddie to go on a journey of self-discovery and ultimately feel in control of her own destiny. The title is sharing a similar sentiment to David Thoreau for sure. Maybe just with a female perspective attached! Maddie’s journey begins at the piano and they create music and learn different ways to use music and so Her Own Music refers to Maddie’s turn, Maddie’s new life.
2. How difficult was it to make the transfer from theatre to filmmaking ? What were some of the challenges that you faced?
Well, at acting school we had a fabulous film teacher Pearl Tan and she made us write, direct, act, and edit a film each which was an amazing introduction to film. I realised after creating 4 films that this was something that really excited me. Live performance is a magical thing. There is something that transpires between performer and the audience and that cannot be recreated on film. However, there is something wonderful about the very different process involved in creating a film, from the performances in front of the camera to the shooting process and then the many departments of editing that bring it all together. They say a film is written 3 times, once on the page, a second on set and a third time in the cutting room. I got this immense satisfaction too from there being a physical product at the end of the process. With theatre it’s gone. And it’s different every time. You cannot recreate it. But with film; it’s there forever.
I definitely learnt a lot on the go, however, I had people around me from my sound recordist, cinematographer and the lead actors who had been on many more professional sets than I had. So I sometimes deferred to their better knowledge or asked questions to learn from my mistakes along the way. The thing I was confident in was getting the performances I wanted from the cast and I was clear about how I wanted it to look and feel. Everything else was a steep learning curve.
3. You wrote the main role of Maddie for Alexandra Morgan, a fellow graduate from Actors Centre Australia. What was that process like? Did you do any do improvisation work?
I wrote the script with Ally in mind, so in some ways I was writing for her voice. She was involved from the get go. She helped me develop the script and she really was the champion of the project. Ally was the one who brought Hew Sandison on board and eventually realised she was acting as a producer so she took on that role formally. Ally and I would read the script out loud. We would play all the roles and make sure the dialogue sounded natural and authentic. We didn’t do any improvising on set. We did get to do a week of rehearsals though which was fab because we knew we would have very limited time on location.
4. What was it like casting for the other roles? Did you have an open casting for the role of Tessa> How hard was it to find someone to play the role of this feisty loner?
For the role of Tessa we wanted the character to have that youthful confidence that adults really lose once we become jaded and self conscious. We reached out to Zoe Terakes ( a non binary actor) privately. I had seen their work at the Old Fitz and thought they were amazing and knew they had this abundance of confidence and youthfulness because they were still a teenager! At the Old Fitz season launch for 2019 I asked if they would be interested in reading the script and they were and then we had them in for a chemistry test with Ally and from there the production team and myself couldn’t imagine anyone else in the role. Thank goodness they said yes and it all worked out because they are an amazing talent and an important voice for queer young people. For the roles of Mum and Miss Yates we just asked our mates who were knew would be amazing in those roles and for Grace and Lola (Maddie’s best mates) we did hold auditions but we reached out to people we already knew of or really wanted to audition. I think we auditioned about 20 or so young women.
.5. film came together well. What’s the future hold? Do you want to continue in filmmaking – making some more shorts and maybe a feature sometime in the future? Are you happy to still sometimes go back to your theatre roots?
Who knows what the future holds in these crazy times! But what I do know is I want to do it all! This was a really challenging project to get off the ground with no money and no support but ourselves, and the next one will hopefully have funding and backing and we might be able to pay people. I equally love both mediums. Hit me up! I’ll read your script! Let’s make something special together.
Olivia Aleksoski’s HER OWN MUSIC is touching, authentic queer filmmaking and takes its place proudly amongst the Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films at this year’s Sydney Film Festiva
