MOST movie fanatics don’t watch films in the back row, lying face down.
But Kealba’s Matt Bertollacci has a legitimate excuse: it was the premiere of his second short film, Graceland.
“I hate watching my own films, because I see all the mistakes and flaws,’’ he said. ‘‘But I guess every artist goes through that. We put too much pressure on ourselves.”
The budding Spielberg is on a hot streak, with two short films under his belt at the age of 22.
He has also been nominated as best director, for Graceland, at this year’s Colortape International Film Festival. “I actually thought I’d read the letter wrong,’’ Bertollacci said.
‘‘I was so excited and confused I couldn’t even read it properly, so I got my mum to read it for me.”
The 45-minute mini-feature, which Bertollacci also wrote, was shot in and around Sunshine. It focuses on a sub-culture of clowns who are segregated from society.
More than 250 people attended last year’s premiere at Sunshine Village cinemas. Graceland, now doing the festival circuit, is the result of a bold decision made three years ago.
After finishing a multimedia course at TAFE in 2010, Bertollacci set himself the goal of making his first feature film before he turned 23.
After his 25-minute Nightfall in 2010, several music videos and now Graceland, Bertollacci has kept his word with his feature debut The American Girls, about a Melbourne rock star, now in the works.
Filmmaking can be an expensive hobby – Bertollacci spent $7000 of his own money to make Nightfall, with $1500 spent on public liability insurance alone. He’s poured every last cent into his passion.
“Most of the budget is on equipment, make-up and catering,” he said. “I had to buy all of my equipment brand new [for Nightfall].
“Graceland was a little cheaper, around $5000.
“Every day we had to put on clown make-up on the actors. One day, make-up had to be done on 50 actors, which took forever but looked great.
“The makeup artists are the only people on set who get paid. My crew are friends from my multimedia class and my actors are all up-and-coming or established actors.”
Bertollacci said Sin City director Robert Rodriguez offered the best advice for filmmaking: “Stop saying you want to be a filmmaker. Make some business cards and become one.’’
‘‘So that’s what I did,’’ Bertollacci said. “Next year I’ll be saving for a cinema camera and writing my next film. I want to do something big and ambitious.”
For information about the Color- tape festival, visit http://www.colortapeinternational.com/
