Stories

Take Home Pay is complete – the third feature film with cinema release by the Vaiaoga-Ioasas in four years. A fact that still fills me with awe. What is this secret recipe that allows them to consistently comple a production?

After my experience on this and other projects, there’s one thing I know is true every time:

The most important part of making movies happens before the cameras start rolling.

What do I mean by that?

At a basic level, it’s finding the right cast, thinking of your audience first and spending the time to hone the script. Stuff we were taught at Uni or film school. Get this part right, then everything flows naturally and easy from then on – from shooting to editing. Even though sitting in an office looking at spreadsheets, making phones calls, months of writing and rewriting is often dull and painful; it’s the part that, by far, has the greatest impact when someone sits in the cinema and watches your film. I can paint out mistakes in the picture, Dick Reade can smooth out problems in the sound, but there’s no black magic that can revive a dull story.

But I’d like to take that maxim further. It’s the things we’ve learned to make us better humans, before even learning to use a camera, that influences the success of a film.

I remember meeting Dinah and Stallone 13 years ago. It was on a documentary about kids growing up in a small state-housing block in Northcote we made as a Uni project. We worked together on countless little films after that. Dinah was always on set – I can’t even remember what her jobs were but it was basically everything from sound or lighting or people management. Stallone had no limits to his ambitious, out-of-the-box ideas – he was the first person who taught me to jump cut. (Secretly I think he just did a bad job of shooting!) Their mum, Vaeani would always cook us the best sapa sui and a vast network of their loving friends would always come on board to support.

I could easily tell that this family was raised on pure virtue: study and work hard, stay humble, put others before yourself and always give back to the community. That’s why I, and so many others, cherish any opportunity to work with them. There’s so much to learn from how they are as people and I hope a tiny bit of it rubs off every time that chance comes around.

Fast forward to today and their virtue hasn’t changed. Each shoot day begins with a short encouraging speech, introductions to new faces and a prayer. Each day ends with a debrief with the cast and crew forming a circle and everyone getting a chance to say something if they choose. The atmosphere on set is overflowing with their charismatic leadership. Our crew is still tiny - the 7 or so of us seem to naturally follow in their footsteps and give more than we’re given.

So, if you want to know how to keep making successful movies time and time again – well, actually, I have no idea. But a great start would be to become a great person that people would always want to say yes to.

Thank you, Stallone and Dinah, for the privilege of being a part of your film. I’m so proud you and so proud of the film we’ve created. I can’t wait to see you guys stand in front of a packed audience at the Civic and share it with the world.

Take Home Pay premieres tomorrow (Sunday) at the Civic Theatre in Auckland.

August 25th - WORLD Premiere | Auckland
August 26th - Wellington Premiere | Embassy Theatre
August 29th - Australian Premiere | Sydney, EVENT Cinemas Campbelltown
Sept 5th - Opening in Select NZ and AU Cinemas
September 19th - Opening in Samoa, Fiji, Papua New Guinea & Cook Islands
U.S.A. – Coming soon

Take Home Pay is the third independent feature film that I've worked on with brother-sister team S.Q.S and Abba-Rose (M2S1 Films/Cadness Street). It's easy to forget how miraculous it is that a film which is 100% self-funded (no crowdfunding, no government grants, just the producers' own hard-earned cash, blood, sweat and tears) is set to be released on the big silver screen. It doesn't hold back either - this is a genre film that punches well above its weight, complete with action set pieces and high speed chases!

I'm extremely proud to present the official trailer for Take Home Pay, releasing first in New Zealand cinemas on September 5th 2019. Other countries to follow.

So, what do you think?

[VIDEO::https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFkzWL9HA24]

Aspiring Private Investigator Bob Titilo (Tofiga Fepulea'i) helps Alama (Vito Vito) to find his brother Popo (Longi Taulafo) - who has run away with Alama's money. Bob's unconventional methods take the pair on a wild goose chase, leaving the chances of recovering the money less and less likely.

It's an absolute pleasure to be working again with the A-team on this trailer: master musician Andrew Faleatua, graphic designer Opeta Elika and sound guru Dick Reade/Reade Audio. Edit, motion graphics and grade by me in my little Unko Films studio.

It was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Last September I was offered a job to direct a Discovery Channel documentary on the blend of tea, history and culture in India's Assam state. My first time in India - and what an amazing first impression it was.

Assam takes its name from the Ahom Dynasty which ruled this region until the 19th century. They were people of the Tai/Dai ethnicity - who migrated from China in the 1200's and are now spread across South-East Asia. Having shot a documentary in China's Yunnan province previously, it's very interesting to see how fluid culture is and the challenges of defining political borders.

The once gold-plated buildings of the Ahom Kingdom are now in ruins. Incredibly, I was allowed to walk around the bare walls of Rang Ghar, a sporting pavilion, and Talatal Ghar, an ancient imperial palace. Our guide pointed out the stairs onto which the emperor would dismount from his elephant. I wandered around the dark depths of the palace buildings imagining where a bed or a kitchen might have been. I'm told the Archaeological Survey of India, who manage historical monuments like these and the Taj Mahal, are notorious for not allowing or charging huge fees for any filming done on a tripod (apparently that's the thing that sets apart a 'professional' crew and a tourist...) so we were lucky to be here.

After the Brits came and took over, they planted huge tea gardens and gave Assam its main and most famous product. Assam produces half of India's tea, and if you know how much tea India drinks, that's a heck of a lot. There's more tea gardens in this small region than any other similar-sized region in the world, even the tea-growing centres of China.

Near the border of Myanmar, we hung out with locals of the Singpho tribe, said to be the first people to drink 'wild' tea in India. Here, the architecture and the food have a very Eastern look and taste.

The Brahmaputra River is one of the main rivers of Asia, flowing from the holy Lake Manasarovar in Tibet through Assam and out to Bangladesh. It was eerily calm when we crossed it, but this is a river known for violent, immense floods. There's plenty of floating tree debris floating past, ripped from forests upstream.

We rushed to Majuli Island, the largest freshwater island in the world, to catch a festival called Gayon-Bayon, celebrating the founding of neo-Vaishnavite culture. Satras are the religious and cultural institutions where various song, dance and craft traditions are preserved. We visited master mask maker Dr. Hem Chandra Goswami whose masks are used to tell the epic tales of Hinduism. Definitely helps if you can tell the difference between the hundreds of characters in Hindu mythology!

This doco was very well researched and produced by Rajendra Kondapalli of Pulse Media and AP Sumit Sharma. Rajendra's crew, who have been working together for 20 years, really blew me away with their skill and professionalism. As usual, it was high-pressure, low-budget and fast-turnaround, but everyone performed valiantly.