Interview with Crash Test director Sam Voutas

How did you came up with the idea of human crash test dummies (I must say that even the idea sounds highly bleak)?

The idea sprang to me after passing an art store with a little wooden marionette in the window. I imagined that it looked rather like a crash test dummy, and perhaps I could make a film with the marionette using stop motion. It began as a comedy then gradually became darker as I went along, developing into a five minute live action short.

I'd say the feature developed after I was at a film night in Melbourne. An Australian funding body representative was providing advice to young filmmakers wanting to make features. She said that in Melbourne each year up to fifty independent features were made, all of which go nowhere and are seen by no one. If you wanted your film made and seen, you had to go to the government body. This speech in a way acted as the birth of Crash Test. I thought, how can I bypass such a closed-minded system, one that offers no route but their own? That's the philosophy of Crash Test, defeating the organization that dictates the way things must be done, ala Spartacus. The human crash test dummies in the movie are the slaves, the story is a celebration of rebellion.

You shot the original Crash Test on 16mm but the feature on digital video. What were the reasons for changing the format?

The reason was both budget and practicality. The original short was made on a virtual one-to-one shooting ratio, but for the feature, because of the stunts and the extreme locations, I needed the flexibility of lots of takes, and instant playback. When we were in the Australian desert, or in the car testing site, we only had a few hours, so set-ups needed to be fast. The film is about technology, so shooting digital, electronics versus celluloid, was perfect.

Have you had a education for movie making or acting ? What about other people at Scopofile?

I got into movie making through my desire to act in movies. Role-playing has long been a love of mine, starting in theatre at school, then through small roles in short films at university. I majored in media at the Victorian College of the Arts, and studied some of the Suzuki method of acting. Melanie Ansley, who produced and acts in Crash Test, and I have been acting in projects together for years.

Crash Test has been featured in numerous film festivals around the globe - where has the best feedback come from to date?

When Crash Test was highly commended at the 15th International Festival of Fantastic Films, that's really when interest started to come in, when it first landed on the radar. Shortly thereafter Scienceplusfiction, the Italian fantasy festival, invited the film to screen in Trieste. A scout in the States had seen it and recommended it for their line-up. Recently we signed a contract with an American distributor. This was a big goal for me, to make the film available on the market, so that John Doe can pick up the title in a store, rental outlet, or online, and get some escapism.

What was the main reason for shooting the film black & white?

Crash Test is in de-saturated colour, I think there's five percent colour in every shot. The reason for this was that I wanted to stay true to the roots of the original film, while also giving the image more of a drained look, as if the warmth or vivacity of the digital image had been surgically removed. It makes the film a lot colder, more distant. Bright colours would have added too much realism.

Your biggest influences for Crash Test / in general movie making?

I had two films in the back of my mind when writing the script. The first was George Miller's original Mad Max, about the transformation of man into road warrior. I occasionally walked to university through the car park they shot a key scene in. I think that may have inspired me to create the giant car park testing site in Crash Test. The other influence is Shinya Tsukamoto's Tetsuo: The Iron Man, about the transformation of man into metal. Both are very gung-ho and in their own ways changed the genre.

Some hypothesis here - if some huge production company from Hollywood wanted to buy the script of Crash Test, who would you like to see as director of remake (besides you, of course).

I've always envisioned Crash Test as a franchise. I think I've taken Crash Test to only one percent of its potential. It would be cool to do a sort of Mission Impossible, where each installment was handled by a director with their own unique vision. In terms of Hollywood, I'd have to say Robert Rodriguez could definitely take it interesting places. Tsui Hark perhaps. If it was made for the Japanese market, I'd say Ryuhei Kitamura of Versus fame. Or Crash Test in manga would be interesting. There are countless more battles for 171096 and his posse.

Can you tell a some history of Scopofile?

The company name derives from the cinema studies term scopophila meaning the love of looking. Scopofile was created in 2000 as a free film magazine that was hand-distributed across Melbourne by myself and Melanie Ansley. It catered to the grass roots film community there, both filmmakers and film enthusiasts. We put together thirty issues then collapsed from exhaustion. We then took the company to where we really wanted it to be, making independent films.

What are your future plans in movie making or in life in general?

I've just relocated to China. It's all happening in this region film-wise so I'm looking forward to joining the flow. Meanwhile, I'm in production on a documentary called Shanghai Bride and doing post on a horror film about voyeurism called Watch Me. Melanie Ansley directs and I play a dubious merchant of voyeur films. I've found the Beijing winter, with all its ice, quite inspiring and am throwing around some ideas for a big apocalypse film.

Thank you! Last, what would be your three main advices for indie movie maker beginners?

Two bits of advice only. First, try to remember that there are no rules. Establishing shots, crossing the line, storyboards, over-the-shoulders, all these are simply techniques that filmmakers have adopted to tell their story. Film, too often, is mimicry. Ultimately the system of filmmaking, or how you make the film, doesn't really matter. Whether you've got five people behind the camera or fifty, the audience should only be interested in what's in frame. So concentrate on what's on the screen, and if that means breaking the system, so be it.

Also, I think it is important to remember that it was not long ago where many countries had only a few film cameras and they were owned by governments and big studios. Now you can shoot a movie from your mobile phone. With DV, then HD, entering the consumer market, we are seeing a world where starving artists have access to their own canvas and paint. So my advice is to wait for a good idea, nurture it, then utilize the every-day technology to bring it out into the world with ferocity.