CPR: It’s been a fantastic year for Australian film, with Samson and Delilah, My Year Without Sex and now your film Last Ride. Three words have appeared in each of these films, being “Adelaide Film Festival”. What is the festival doing for the Australian film industry?

IVIN: I think Katrina Sedgwick [festival director], in partnership with the South Australian Film Corporation, has this different eye out there as they’re looking for ideas that they personally really like.  Although I’m not a producer, so I’ve dealt with them in a very different way. But there seems to be a very different approach; it wasn’t as beaurocratic as some other funding bodies can be.

For instance, when we sent the Adelaide Film Festival the script, they said: “we really like this, how can we help?” And that’s a very different way to enter into a conversation than with other tradition funding bodies. So I kinda always joke about saying ‘it’s nice when an organisation uses its power for good’. (laughs)

CPR: So is it easier nowadays to find funding for a film?

IVIN: Oh no matter who you are, or what film you’re trying to get up, it’s really tricky to do. This film had a good script, a really good writer, Hugo Weaving attached, was based on an existing novel that people liked and also had me attached as well. But it was still really really tricky! There was lots of ‘OK we’ve got 24 hours to find half-a-million dollars’ type phone calls. (laughs) You know?  I think it’s always been tricky and always will be tricky to make a film.

CPR: On your blog, you described your first screening at the Adelaide festival as being “like your wedding day”. What does your wife think about such a comparison?

IVIN: (laughs) No, i think she’d totally understand that! I think it’s that thing of when you’re actually there, there’s nothing to be nervous about…

RUSSELL: Yeah, It’s like being on stage.  It was a bit like what I’ve done at School, except bigger. You get really nervous, but then once you’re there and you see all these people and realise you shouldn’t be nervous. I just found it a really fun experience.

IVIN: I should also just say that the wedding day was more of a highlight, if you’re going to write that up…

CPR: Just in case your wife reads it… (laughs)

IVIN: (laughs) exactly!

CPR: Did you go back to the editing room after the Adelaide Film Festival screening and change anything given it was a few months prior to commercial release?

IVIN: I couldn’t change the edit at all. I don’t think I would have. But I went and spent another few days on the sound. For probably half or two thirds of the film, I went and did some subtle remixing. That’s probably what I was more fussy about than everything else. You actually end up doing sound more than you do anything else.

But the thing I learnt eight years ago is that you can have a really bad picture – shoot on a really dodgy camera or whatever – but if your sound is perfect, people will stay there. Say if you have everything shot on 35mm, by the best DOP in the world, but if the sound is shit people will just lose interest. Watch something like Blair Witch Project and the sound design is just killer. That’s the thing that’s fantastic about it, even though the image quality in the film is so rough. They got away with it because the sound design is so good.

CPR: Also on your blog, you talk about your fears of releasing a film into the public sphere, stating it’s “a wonderful thing to have something to be terrified about”. What do you mean by that?

IVIN: Well there are a lot of people out there who go “oh, I’d love to write a book or paint, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t be good at it” or “I’m afraid people will criticise it or laugh at it”. Which I totally understand; it’s a really brave thing to do what I do, and what actors do, in putting themselves out there to be judged.

But I never really thought about that on a smaller scale. Like I’ve done ads and short films, but when I realised “far out, I’m making a feature film…there’s people out there that are paid to write about it!” Whether they liked it or not, they’re going to put their opinion in writing. Or someone’s going to say “gee, I didn’t like that” when it’s something you might have sweated over for two years to get right. So in the end, it was a really nice thing to come to terms with the fact that I’d be more upset if I didn’t have this film. So that’s the idea of being excited about something you’re also terrified about. It’s where I realised that even if this is a failure, I’ve learnt so much from the process. But I have come through fairly unscathed so far; I’m very proud of the film and I’m proud of everyone I’ve worked with.

CPR: Say you could make any film you wanted next, where money was a non- issue, what would it be?

IVIN: Well someone said to me that now that I’ve done a three and a half million dollar film, next I should do a twenty million dollar film. But I’d actually be interested in making something a lot less, like a million dollar film or a two hundred thousand dollar film. I’m not exactly saying that that’s what I’m going to do, but it’s not like I want to go and make a massive film next time where it’s going to be all action.

RUSSELL: I’d make a musical!

IVIN: Yeah, you’d make a musical but I think tonally, I’d like to do something that wasn’t as heavy. You know, tonally sat somewhere else. I really like spontaneous performances and the raw energy of acting. So I’d try and find something where I can explore that process a bit more.

CPR: Do you still plan on doing commercials?

IVIN: Yeah, I’m back there now, paying penance after going off and making a feature film for a year and a half! (laughs)

CPR: Thank you Glendyn and Tom for your time and best of luck with Last Ride!

IVIN: Thank you!

RUSSELL: Thanks!

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Watch Ivin’s award wining short film Cracker Bag online here.

Also be sure to check out Glendyn Ivin’s  personal blog. It’s a fantastic read that vividly charts the genesis of Last Ride from day one!

Last Ride opened nationally July 2^nd.

Follow the author Anders Wotzke on Twitter.