Rain Fuller Pretty Good Friends Interview

Rain Fuller Pretty Good Friends Interview

Cast: Jenni Townsend, Rain Fuller
Director: Sophie Townsend
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Romance
Running Time: 77 minutes

Synopsis: The term -mumblecore' was first coined in 2005, at America's South by Southwest Film Festival. It is classified by low budgets, unpolished, -real' sounding dialogue, real places (not studios or sound stages) and a departure from simplistic plot structures common to movies designed for mass appeal. The only region outside the USA to document the movement thus far is Berlin, which began making its own mumblecore films in 2009.

Emerging writer and director Sophie Townsend (Amalume Productions) was inspired to create a Melbourne mumblecore film using a small cast and crew and an even smaller budget.

'I wanted to create a story that captured Melbourne on screen in a way I had not seen before, utilising some of it's less explored nooks and crannies," says Sophie.

'We wanted our actors to have a major input in creating their characters. We encouraging improvised dialogue and blocking, and even sought their input in costume design."

The film tells the story of Jules Thompson (Jenni Townsend), who moves home to Melbourne with the hopes of re-inventing herself in time for her 25th birthday. She moves in with her childhood friend, Sam Johansson (Rain Fuller), and they soon discover something isn't quite right between them. Juggling the awkwardness of a stale relationship whilst an exciting new one emerges tests the boundaries of friendship and puts Jules in a dangerous position.

A combination of comedy, romance and drama, Pretty Good Friends examines the highs and lows of relationships and how human connection can inspire and ignite unknown truths within ourselves, for better or worse.

Jenni Townsend is writer-director-actor of her own feature film The Pull, shot in Glasgow, Scotland. Rain Fuller has starred in a feature film shot on the banks of the Ganges River in India, as well as co-starring in two other Australian indie features last year.

Pretty Good Friends will screen at Testing Grounds, a temporary and free outdoor art space purposed to experiment and test ideas, in the heart of Melbourne's arts precinct.

Pretty Good Friends
Release Date: The Melbourne made film will make it's American debut later this month at Florida's Starlite Film Festival, an innovative festival that celebrates micro-budget features.

Time: screening begins at 8:30pm sharp
Date: Friday 6 February
Where: 1-23 City Road, Melbourne
Bookings: not required. FREE.

Interview with Rain Fuller

Question: What originally interested you about the script for Pretty Good Friends?

Rain Fuller: When I first read about the concept of the film what interested me was that it dealt with an emotional affair - which I haven't seen done much on screen. How close is too close when your best friend and your partner are concerned? We were investigating the grey areas, where there aren't clearly defined moral answers. That's what was interesting.

Also when I auditioned it was such an inspiring improvisation session. I could feel Sophie (the director) was so curious to see what would come out, and wasn't just working to a blueprint in her head.

I have to say a lot of my freedom and ability with improvisation comes from working with Peter Kalos at the Melbourne Actors Lab (http://www.melbourneactorslab.com/). All the scene work begins with improvisation, and all the actors there have become very good at it. I've been training there and working with Peter for over four years. We are about to open our own theatre – the Melbourne Actors Theatre!

In terms of the script itself, it was more of a treatment with a map of scenes and interactions. We made the rest up, with guidance from Sophie.


Question: Why is it important this film have real and unpolished dialogue?

Rain Fuller: As actors the improvised dialogue obviously gave us a lot of freedom, we were able to explore a lot more and it was exciting to be so creatively involved. I think without it we wouldn't have been able tease out the complexities of emotion as we navigated our characters evolving relationships. Those complexities are so important to the story, so I can understand why Sophie chose to make it like this. From watching other mumblecore films – the unpolished, real dialogue makes the whole thing so much more believable! I really get lost in their worlds and forget I'm watching a movie. Hopefully our film has a bit of this.


Question: How does this film explore Melbourne?

Rain Fuller: This was fun. We explored Balaclava a lot – where (my character) Sam's apartment is set. We did some guerrilla filming inside some eccentric barber / $2 shops, video stores with themed horror rooms, laneways with crazy characters making cameos (these were real people, not actors). Then there was a cool shoot on a rooftop in Carlton, underground walkways, and quite a few other things – you'll have to watch it to see!


Question: How did Sophie Townsend allow you to have major input into your character?

Rain Fuller: I think I might have answered this above – from the audition process right through filming she was always a real collaborator. She even let me choose my characters last name!


Question: Can you tell us about the character of Sam Johansson?

Rain Fuller: Sam is pretty earthy and grounded, focused on her studies and quietly driven in finding her career path. She is smart and, maybe because of how driven she is, she can occasionally feel lonely. She doesn't admit it to herself though. She is a pretty stable character, and knows who she is. She has a lot of love for her boyfriend.

When the film starts she has just finished her Masters in Environmental Science, and is quick to get an internship. This throws her best friend and boyfriend together for a short time, and when she comes back things have changed.


Question: Have you ever had similar experiences to Sam regarding maintain past friendships?

Rain Fuller: Not specifically like this no, but I've experienced a lot of the emotional scenarios she finds herself in.


Question: How can you relate to the character of Sam?
Rain Fuller: I love Sam's earthiness and can relate to her focus. She is probably more stable and grounded than I am though!

I think everyone has felt left out at some point in their lives, and felt awkward. This is a big thing that Sam goes through. I went to four different high schools and moved around a lot (29 times in 21 years!) so I've probably had more than my fair taste of it.


Question: What did you learn about yourself whilst filming Pretty Good Friends?

Rain Fuller: I learnt a lot about trusting my intuition.


Question: Can you tell us about the film you shot in India, Project 103?

Rain Fuller: It was an amazing experience, a Skype audition and a couple weeks later flying over to Delhi then to the world's oldest city Varanasi – I asked to go by train so I could see the countryside! Little did I know sometimes the trains in India just decide to slow down for no apparent reason – so what was meant to be a 7 hour journey became a 23 hour journey! That kind of adventure was the flavour of the whole trip. The crew were amazing - I was lucky to work with some of India's national award winning creatives, and I made some wonderful friends.

I played an American journalism graduate who meets a young Indian guy on a journey to find answers to some of the biggest questions. We challenge each other, and an intense relationship forms. There is a hint of romance but it's not the usual Bollywood ending you might think! The film will be distributed internationally in India, Europe and Latin America – hopefully to Australia too.


Question: What's next, for you?

Rain Fuller: I am currently shooting the first season of a web series, which I co-created and co-wrote with Osamah Sami and Shahin Shafaei. It's called Two Refugees and a Blonde, and as you'd guess it's a comedy! Very early days, but we have assembled an amazing team and we're pretty excited about it. You can see a bit about it here: https://www.facebook.com/tworefugeesandablonde

In April I'm going to work with a theatre company in California – I've been developing and performing with them for different periods over the last two years.


Pretty Good Friends
Release Date: February 6th, 2015
Interview by Brooke Hunter