One of my biggest weaknesses in writing has been focusing in on how a scene actually functions. In so many ways a scene should be a microcosm of the three act structure, of an entire film. So for this analysis of Selma, I’ve tried to go through each scene, show it’s length, and detail the SETUP, REVERSAL and PAYOFF of each.

Script is provided for educational purposes only. Copyright respective of owner.

ACT ONE

#1 - Stairwell - (2)
SETUP: Kids in the stairwell of church
REVERSAL: Room EXPLODES
PAYOFF: Children are killed

#2 Grand Hotel - (2)
SETUP: King corrects his dress - frustrated that he’s away from the cause
REVERSAL: Coretta eases his concern - “not a crime to be away.
PAYOFF: they dream about perfect ‘phone-less’ house together

#3 Oslo University - (1)
SETUP: Intro to King’s award
REVERSAL: (not sure if this is a reversal) King acknowledges the murder of the children in Church.
PAYOFF: We shall overcome

#4 Small Courthouse Lobby - (2)
SETUP: Annie Lee Cooper fills out voting enrolment form
REVERSAL: Registrar tests her - looks like it’s going her way. “Name 67 judges”. She can’t.
PAYOFF: Registrar DENIES enrolment.

#5 Washington DC - (1)
SETUP: King and advisors trying to identify negotiation points - poverty program.
REVERSAL: Attack the surveillance issue.
PAYOFF: King wants to stay focused on vote. “Maybe won’t need to go full-scale”

#6 White House - (4.5)
SETUP: Johnson wants the Civil rights issues solved - for King to do what he wants!
REVERSAL: King arrives. Johnson flatters him - he’s very delicate in his language. Wants King not Malcolm X to run the show.
REVERSAL: King brings up Voting Rights.
REVERSAL: Johnson tries to make it a focus of poverty eradication
REVERSAL: Cannot wait! Murder of thousands, inc. church. Whites are protected by whites.
REVERSAL: Literacy question for blacks in Alabama - not in cursive writing.
REVERSAL: Johnson understands, but it’s not a priority just yet...
PAYOFF: Having left, King declares “Selma it is”

#7 U.S. Highway - (1)
SETUP: King travelling with entourage - “Big Speech doc?”
REVERSAL: Need to see what’s what.
PAYOFF: They enter Selma.

#8 Edmund Pettus Bridge - (0.25)
SETUP: The Edmund Pettus Bridge
REVERSAL: Why’d they give Pettus a bridge?
PAYOFF: “Decent looking place to die”

#9 Hotel Albert - (1.5)
SETUP: Whites Only signs in the hotel
REVERSAL: Things seem to be rather civilised
PAYOFF: King is PUNCHED by the EARNEST MAN. 

#10 Hotel Room - (2)
SETUP: King in pain from punch. “That white boy can hit”
REVERSAL: King argues w locals about response to attack. We have to play a bigger game here.
REVERSAL: Barker and Boyton debate about responsibility to protect King.
PAYOFF: Staying at hotel is a calculated act of desegregation.

#11 King Residence - (1)
SETUP: King playing dodgeball w his children
REVERSAL: Bunny hit w ball by Dex
PAYOFF: King makes Dex apologise

#12 King Residence - (1)
SETUP: Coretta receives threats on phone.
REVERSAL: Talking about Selma campaign. King jokes “It’s as good a place to die...”.
REVERSAL: Coretta upset by remark. She goes to bed.
PAYOFF: King calls Halie to sing to him.

#13 Selma Residence - (1)
SETUP: Arrive at house
REVERSAL: Crowd eager to support you tomorrow
PAYOFF: I don’t want to put them in harms way.

#14 Jackson Residence - (1.75)
SETUP: Breakfast is cooking and more supporters are introduced.
REVERSAL: We might be in town a little longer than expected.
PAYOFF: The men all eat breakfast

#15 Jackson Residence - Night - (1)
SETUP: Everyone is asleep, save King who writes.
REVERSAL: King uneasy with news of Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
PAYOFF: They’re full of spirit - It’ll sort out.

#16 Brown Chapel - (2)
SETUP: King at the pulpit - protesting injustices.
REVERSAL: We see various supporters, inc. Annie Lee Cooper in congregation
PAYOFF: “Give us the Vote!”

#17 Brown Chapel - Later - (0.5)
SETUP: After mass, King challenged by white Photographer.
REVERSAL: “Are you truly non-violent if you’re provoking violence?”
PAYOFF: “The onus for their behaviour rests with them, not us”

#18 Brown Chapel Meeting Room - (2)
SETUP: Strategy meeting in progress - Is SNCC with or against?
REVERSAL: You want us but you’re giving nothing in return
REVERSAL: You haven’t succeeded yet...
REVERSAL: Simple tactics - set up confrontation and wait for adversary to make a mistake. There was no drama in Albany.
REVERSAL: You mean there were no cameras.
REVERSAL: Exactly - we have to raise white consciousness
PAYOFF: Good that Sheriff Jim Clarke is aggressive.

#19 Selma Streets - 0.75 page
SETUP: Protestors marching through streets
REVERSAL: Clarke controls the courthouse.
PAYOFF: We have a focused place to attack!

ACT TWO

#20 Courthouse - (3)
SETUP: Police expecting the protestors. Standoff exists.
REVERSAL: Disperse!
REVERSAL: Segregation is illegal now.
REVERSAL: Volunteer Arrestees sit w hands over their heads
REVERSAL: Old Cager having trouble sitting - family tries to assist.
REVERSAL: Clarke shoves Cager - who falls onto Annie. REVERSAL: Police start to use force against the crowd. Attempting to provoke
REVERSAL: Jimmie balls fist/ As Annie Lee strikes Clarke! 
REVERSAL: Police wrestle Annie to the ground. Police strike Annie on head.
PAYOFF: On King who witnesses - This is drama. And he asked for it.

#21 White House - (1)
SETUP: President Johnson sees newspapers w photos of Selma
REVERSAL: Sees himself on TV supporting civil rights
REVERSAL: Governor George Wallace - protesting King
PAYOFF: Johnson slams table in frustration

#22 Oval Office - (1.5)
SETUP: J. Edgar Hoover speaks w President Johnson
REVERSAL: Johnson supports King’s non-violent agitations
PAYOFF: Hoover offers to weaken King’s family relationships - Johnson unsure.

#23 Selma Jail - (2)
SETUP: Several Marchers are in jail - cold inside thanks to open door.
REVERSAL: King asks “What’s the prize? What is equality?” - his faith in the cause is challenged.
REVERSAL: Abernathy assures King in the value of holding the course.
REVERSAL: King “They are going to ruin me”
PAYOFF: Abernathy “Who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?”

#24 Brown Chapel - (2)
SETUP: Something is wrong! National Guard might be coming
REVERSAL: Malcolm X arrives
PAYOFF: Bring Coretta here.

#25 Amelia Boynton Residence - (0.25)
SETUP: Coretta traveling
REVERSAL: What’s going on?
PAYOFF: We need your help

#26 Car - (2)
SETUP: Nash is driving - Coretta knows it must be serious!
REVERSAL: You do more (for the cause) than you know.
REVERSAL: Nash details her anger about their situation and cause
PAYOFF: Coretta is glad things are happening now.

#27 Brown Chapel Meeting Room (1.75)
SETUP: Malcolm X is apologetic - supporting King
REVERSAL: Coretta finds it hard to believe him
REVERSAL: X is not the enemy - he’s changed.
PAYOFF: But X’s presence is a veiled threat to the cause - will show Sheriff the alternative to King.

#28 Selma Jail Cell - (2)
SETUP: Coretta w King - Do we believe X?
REVERSAL: Coretta is sensitive to X’s remarks - she believes he’s changed
REVERSAL: King does not.
REVERSAL: “You don’t sound like yourself”, “You sound enamoured”
PAYOFF: King is tired.

#29 Capitol Building - (2)
SETUP: George Wallace furious that X is in his state. How did it happen?
REVERSAL: Johnson’s gonna get jumpy.
REVERSAL: “He's got to start giving them nigras access to the courthouse.”
REVERSAL: LINGO - “You need dominance in Selma”
PAYOFF: There’s a night march we can attack - fewer cameras.

#30 Street - (0.5)
SETUP: STATE TROOPERS have penned a group of JOURNALISTS and PHOTOGRAPHERS against the wall. 
REVERSAL: Streetlights switch off PAYOFF: Troopers beat Journalists and break cameras

#31 Mack’s Cafe - (0.5)
SETUP: Police are attacking black marchers
REVERSAL: Jimmy drags Cager into cafe to hide
REVERSAL: Police enter and find them hiding
PAYOFF: After a fight, they shoot and kill Jimmy

#32 Morgue - (1.5)
SETUP: King walks through the Morgue
REVERSAL: Sees the dead Jimmy and Grandfather
PAYOFF: Any reserve, any distance King has held to prevent himself from becoming fully entrenched in Selma and its people vanishes. He’s in it now. 

#33 Brown’s Chapel - (1.5)
SETUP: King gives eulogy at Jimmy’s funeral
REVERSAL: Sermon challenges the apathy of whites - they’re as responsible now too
PAYOFF: King tells congregation “We are going back to Washington to demand change”

#34 Jackson Home - (2.5)
SETUP: King supporters debate list of demands to take to LBJ
REVERSAL: King tells them to get specific on their demands
PAYOFF: But they cannot agree on them.

#35 White House - (0.25)
SETUP: King has arrived at White House
REVERSAL: Johnson is furious. “No one invites themselves to the
White House!”
PAYOFF: I ain’t seeing him! I’m done talking to King! 

#36 Oval Office - (2.5)
SETUP: Johnson with King - What’s your next plan
REVERSAL: March from Selma to Montgomery
REVERSAL: It was always your plan to provoke. The march is too far! Too unsafe.
REVERSAL: King tells Johnson to legislate an stop the march.
REVERSAL: Johnson will not. He’s playing politics.
REVERSAL: Do you want Wallace to be President?
REVERSAL: If blacks can vote, he never will be. But if you won’t help, King will have to attack him publicly.
REVERSAL: Johnson “Meet me half way?”
PAYOFF: King cannot. We didn’t come here for compromise.

#37 White House Sitting Room (1.5)
SETUP: Lee White asks Andrew about their plans.
REVERSAL: Asks Andrew to postpone protest - threats on King’s life.
PAYOFF: There are always threats.

#38 Oval Office (0.5)
SETUP: How’d it go Mr. President?
REVERSAL: Johnson is troubled.
PAYOFF: Get me Hoover.

#39 King Residence (2.8)
SETUP: Coretta hears sex sounds on phone. Voice threatens King’s character.
REVERSAL: “That’s not me, Coretta.” “I know”
REVERSAL: Coretta talks about her fears of death. Asks King if he loves her.
REVERSAL: Yes.
REVERSAL: Anyone else?
PAYOFF: No.

#40 King Home (1.5)
SETUP: Need to put march back a day.
REVERSAL: Good. But the march will go ahead without you. SNCC boys ready to go.
REVERSAL: King understands.
PAYOFF: Hangs up call, listens again to threat recording.

#41 Wallace Press Conference (0.25)
SETUP: Wallace reads statement to press
REVERSAL: There will be no march.
PAYOFF: March will not be tolerated.

#42 Brown Chapel Meeting Room (2)
SETUP: Wallace speech continues on TV as black leaders watch.
REVERSAL: You won’t be Governor long.
REVERSAL: Forman doubts the march. Will do more for King and the SCLC than Selma. Debate continues amongst supporters as to King’s benefit in the situation.
REVERSAL: Forman kicks Lewis out of SNCC.
PAYOFF: Men draw straws for leader of march.

ACT THREE

#43 Montage of Preparations (0.75)
SETUP: Everyone gets ready for the march.

#44 Pettus Bridge - Selma Side (0.5)
SETUP: Black marchers walk towards Bridge
REVERSAL: White Onlookers taunt them
PAYOFF: The bridge comes into focus - as a voice over narrates…

#45 Pettus Bridge - Montgomery Side (0.25)
SETUP: State troopers don’t move - they’re ready.
REVERSAL: Marchers crest over bridge.

#46 Pettus Bridge - Selma Side (0.25)
REVERSAL: Lewis and Williams see…

#47 Pettus Bridge - Montgomery Side (0.75)
SETUP: Mounted police come into view, along w white protestors
REVERSAL: The police have barbed wire clubs

#48 Pettus Bridge (2.25)
SETUP: Marchers are nervous.  “Can you swim?” “No”
REVERSAL: Police begin to attack marchers
PAYOFF: Marchers flee…

#49 Telephone Booth (0.25)
SETUP: Journalist who narrates is seen
REVERSAL: Reading report into phone
PAYOFF: Which is going to the media.

#50 Brown Chapel (0.25)
SETUP: Marchers have set up base at the church.

#51 Car (0.25)
SETUP: Car speeding, driving footage to lab.
REVERSAL: Don’t get us killed
PAYOFF: This is gold!

#52 King Residence (0.25)
SETUP: Coretta hands King his hat
REVERSAL: They understand where he needs to be
PAYOFF: He leaves.

#53 Brown Chapel (1.25)
SETUP: Church is a triage for injured
REVERSAL: Angry Marchers are eager to get guns… to retaliate
PAYOFF: That will only trigger increased retaliation

#54 Amelia Boynton Residence (2)
SETUP: King and collaborators are told to turn on TV
REVERSAL: We see the news report
PAYOFF: Seventy Million people are watching

#55 Various Locations (0.25)
SETUP: We see some of the 70 million who watch
REVERSAL: They are stressed by these images
PAYOFF: Some whites are moved to action.

#56 Jackson Residence (0.25)
SETUP: News report cuts away
REVERSAL: We have 70 million people witnessing
PAYOFF: We’re going back to the bridge

#57 Press Conference (0.5)
SETUP: King addresses media
REVERSAL: He invites any one, black OR white, who disagrees with their treatment to come and join their march
PAYOFF: We need you to stand with us!

#58 Reeb Home (0.25)
SETUP: White Preacher is packing
REVERSAL: Wife; “What are you doing?” “Packing”
PAYOFF: I’ll pack, you book a flight.

#59 Luizzo Home (0.5)
SETUP: Viola Luizzo is booking flight
REVERSAL: All flights are full
PAYOFF: I’ll take the car

#60 Jackson Residence (0.25)
SETUP: Greek Orthodox Archbishop arrives
REVERSAL: You came!
PAYOFF: You’re not alone.

#61 Jackson Residence (1.3)
SETUP: King Investigating what Archbishop brought
REVERSAL: You might need a heavier coat… Feels like home… Greece? Connecticut!
REVERSAL: Seriousness overcomes jovial attitude - don’t take anything from whites here for granted
PAYOFF: Archbishop reminds King “Don’t allow darkness to envelope your soul”

#62 White House (1.5)
SETUP: Johnson disdain at White House Picketers
REVERSAL: WHITE: “King has won. Give him federal protections and then you’re back in control”
REVERSAL: “Of what, another civil war?”
REVERSAL: Johnson demands that King better not march…
REVERSAL: Wallace’s already being supported closer to Presidency
PAYOFF: Johnson knows what he has to do.

#63 Capitol Building (0.2)
SETUP: Wallace in conference room
REVERSAL: If they try this case, they win
PAYOFF: We’ve lost before we’ve begun

#64 Judge’s Chambers (0.25)
SETUP: Black Attorney before white Jurist
REVERSAL: You’re asking me to overturn Governor’s mandate?
PAYOFF: You’ll need a proper proceeding

#65 Montgomery Airstrip (0.25)
SETUP: Catholic Nuns arrive
REVERSAL: News narrates they’re some of many
PAYOFF: White’s ridicule Nuns

#66 Judge’s Chambers (0.25)
SETUP: You’ll have day in court…
REVERSAL: On Thursday. No march Tuesday.
PAYOFF: Judge orders them to cancel tomorrow’s march.

#67 Jackson Residence (2.25)
SETUP: King and Co. challenge Asst. Attorney General
REVERSAL: Please work with me…
REVERSAL: For what? Your answer is not what we want.
REVERSAL: Martin, there are threats…
REVERSAL: President Johnson could stop this at any moment.
REVERSAL: This situation is more complex…
REVERSAL: You could urge police *against* violence
REVERSAL: Please, Martin, reconsider
PAYOFF: We won’t stop until the vote.

#68 Brown Chapel (0.25)
SETUP: White supporters talk to media
REVERSAL: I’m from Boston…
PAYOFF: This is wrong

#69 Brown Chapel Steps (0.25)
SETUP: Anything?
REVERSAL: No word.
PAYOFF: King tells media that Johnson is delaying. We must stand up.

ACT FOUR

#70 Pettus Bridge (1.75)
SETUP: Blacks AND Whites march together along bridge
REVERSAL: Attorney General tells King there’s a partial deal
REVERSAL: King refuses to stop.
REVERSAL: Police are confronting them…
REVERSAL: “Troopers, withdraw”
REVERSAL: King is worried - is this a trap?
REVERSAL: King takes a knee.
PAYOFF: King about-faces and walks away.

#71 Selma Woods (0.1)
SETUP: Whites are gathered
REVERSAL: Angry they didn’t see any action

#72 Selma Housing Project (0.1)
SETUP: Blacks are gathered
REVERSAL: Angry they didn’t make progress.

#73 Selma Diner (0.2)
SETUP: White Clergy are in diner
REVERSAL: Perplexed that they travelled
PAYOFF: And didn’t make progress

#74 Brown Chapel (0.25)
SETUP: King and Co. approach Church
REVERSAL: Protestors mock King
PAYOFF: Supporters shield King from crowd

#75 Brown Chapel Sanctuary (1.25)
SETUP: King under attack by collaborators
REVERSAL: They could have sealed us off. Ambushed us.
REVERSAL: They only did it because there were white supporters with us!
REVERSAL: It’s done.
REVERSAL: It was the wrong fucking call!
PAYOFF: King “I’d rather people angry at me, than dead”

#76 King/ Jackson Homes (0.75)
SETUP: King is on porch, writing Coretta a letter
REVERSAL: Tells Coretta how much he wants to be with her
PAYOFF: “I will try more than ever to make my life one you can be proud of”

#77 Selma Diner (1)
SETUP: Klansmen approach James Reeb and companions
REVERSAL: “We don’t want any trouble.”
REVERSAL: “You came here stirring trouble”
PAYOFF: Klansmen beat them and leave them for dead. “Now you know what being a nigger round these parts is like”

#78 Jackson Residence (1)
SETUP: Rush into house, to tell King that white Priest has been hurt.
REVERSAL: How hurt? Dead.
REVERSAL: Local whites got him.
PAYOFF: Phone, now!

ACT FIVE

#78 Jackson Residence/ White House (3)
SETUP: King on phone to Johnson. Can’t stop them.
REVERSAL: And if I could, I wouldn’t.
REVERSAL: You had protestors inside the White House! We’re getting close, but King is pushing too hard!
REVERSAL: You control your inaction, sir.
REVERSAL: Glad to hear you called Rev. Reeb - only wish you could have done the same for Jimmy.
REVERSAL: Don’t attack me with your guilt! You agitated this!
REVERSAL: Why has it taken so long for the bill to front Congress?
REVERSAL: Johnson claims it needs care - to pass first time through.
REVERSAL: King open to conceding, but needs guarantee safety.
REVERSAL: Which Johnson cannot.
REVERSAL: King takes a softer tact. I am but a preacher… You’re the President.
REVERSAL: You must act, sir.
PAYOFF: “I am an anguished man.” “I know how that feels Mr President”

#79 Selma Street (3.5)
SETUP: King drives privately with Lewis.
REVERSAL: King apologises for the rift in Lewis’ group.
REVERSAL: King tells Lewis he’s more ambitious than he was.
REVERSAL: King cancels the walk tomorrow. I can’t risk it.
REVERSAL: But… the people are ready.
REVERSAL: What are we walking towards? We want the vote, not a march. This cannot go on forever.
REVERSAL: Lewis recounts an earlier march, where they were physically attacked.
REVERSAL: But even beaten, Lewis was desperate to hear King speak. Needed it.
REVERSAL: What did I say?
PAYOFF: You said; “Fear not. We’ve come too far to turn back”

#80 Wallace’s Office (0.25)
SETUP: Wallace reads paper - exploding.
REVERSAL: Reads: BLOCK OF KING MARCH MAY BE OVERTURNED IN COURT.
PAYOFF: He’s desperate and furious

#81 White House/ Federal Courtroom (3.25)
SETUP: Wallace in Oval Office/ Federal Court Case underway.
REVERSAL: Johnson tells Wallace to talk
REVERSAL: Witnesses testify in court
REVERSAL: Johnson “You have to get to the cause of the fever”. This is your responsibility.
REVERSAL: I disagree… people want it to stay that way.
REVERSAL: “You spent your life working for the poor. Why this?”
REVERSAL: “You can never satisfy them”
REVERSAL: Johnson invites Wallace to tell White House protestors his beliefs, to their face
REVERSAL: Do you agree blacks have the right to vote?
REVERSAL: I do.
REVERSAL: Then why not?
REVERSAL: I don’t have the power… They debate finer points of policy.
REVERSAL: Johnson wants to talk about legacy
REVERSAL: Wallace argues that you shouldn’t care what they think.
PAYOFF: “I’ll be damned if history puts me in the same place with the likes of you.” 

#82 Federal Court (0.5)
SETUP: Coretta arrives
REVERSAL: King greets her
PAYOFF: They are united - it’s a first step.

#83 Federal Courtroom (2)
SETUP: King on the stand. Questioned about direct violation of order
REVERSAL: We new this court would agree.
REVERSAL: King felt that his absence from march would have exacerbated racial tensions in Selma.
REVERSAL: Judge acknowledges threats and intimidations present.
REVERSAL: Grants the right to demonstrate in march.
PAYOFF: All good to be allowed, but action must still occur.

#84 White House (0.5)
SETUP: Johnson reads news
REVERSAL: Even more are going to Selma to protest
PAYOFF: Johnson needs a good speech.

#85 Johnson Speech [intercut] (4.5)
SETUP: Johnson gives his big speech, on TV
REVERSAL: We see all the affected parties listening on, in various states of support or frustration.
PAYOFF: We… shall… overcome. 
PAYOFF: Coretta and King feel proud

#86 Edmund Pettus Bridge (1.5)
SETUP: Protestors getting ready for the march
REVERSAL: Police operations clear the bridge and route of bombs and threats
PAYOFF: Performers are bound for Selma.

#87 Brown Chapel (0.5)
SETUP: Doar warns King of verified threat. Please reconsider
REVERSAL: If Wallace accepts us, there’s no need for a speech
PAYOFF: I cannot hide from the fear.

#88 Edmud Pettus Bridge (1.5)
SETUP: Bridge is still. Tension remains.
REVERSAL: King, Coretta and followers all walk together across bridge.
PAYOFF: “Who is Edmud Pettus?” “Old Confederate General” 
PAYOFF: They cross the bridge.

#89 Open Field (0.5)
SETUP: Marchers are celebrating in an open field
REVERSAL: Performers entertain the marchers
PAYOFF: Coretta sings.

#90 Wallace’s Office (0.25)
SETUP: Wallace at window, upset.
REVERSAL: Looks like an army
PAYOFF: An army of voters

#91 Capitol Building (4)
SETUP: King prepares to speak
REVERSAL: Threats from white resistance abounds
REVERSAL: King nervous.
REVERSAL: Assured by Coretta.
PAYOFF: King gives speech - which is intercut with reactions and subtitles about individuals’ futures.

I was fortunate to interview director Kieran Darcy Smith for the inaugural issue of the Australian Directors Guild magazine Screen Director, where we spoke about his career, writing and directing his first film Wish You Were Here

You’ve previously mentioned that a lot of directing is in the writing.  How have you approached that and switched gears between the two?  Does it stop and how do you delineate between writing and directing is there a point where that happens?

It’s funny, because at the moment I’m attached to a couple of project I didn’t write but I’ve also got one that I did write.  And I also used to say that, and I particularly felt this with Wish You Were Here, that such a large element of the direction takes place in the screenplay.  Because you’re sort of really seeing it through as you’re writing it.  You’re sort of feeling the energy, to know exactly when to get in and out of a scene.  You know exactly what the transition’s going to be.  You can kind of picture camera, how it’s working, picture performance levels and so on and so forth.  And I guess it’s not that different from when you come onto a script that someone else has written.  Because you’ll invariably do a director’s pass on it anyway.  So you tend to lay into it all of those transitions and you sort of play it out orchestrally in your head and navigate that as you’re going.  So I still feel a lot of directing goes on, on the page.  In terms of moving between one stage and the next, you go into a different mode I guess, once you’ve  sort of seen it through on the page and you feel like it’s working.  And you’ve got to really feel confident, and you’ve got to see through every sequence.   And every transition and every scene, and picture the whole thing and know that it’s holding up in your head, and then you’ve got to trust that.  Because no one else will if you don’t.  You’ve really got to back yourself and go in there with utter confidence.  And if you have that confidence, you get into preproduction and you test it.  You get into conversations with all your various heads of department.  And I’d occasionally do little previs setups out in the carpark and just test a couple of things to make sure they’re working, but I only did that on three or four scenes.  And they were working, and I felt like I had a bit of a handle on it.  I have to admit I really loved preproduction, because you’re just surrounded by all these incredible people who are just giving so much, and they do trust you, and you’ve got a lot of responsibility then, to really think about the decisions that you’re making.  Cause you don’t want to let them down.  You also don’t want to waste the money, you want to make the film well.  You switch gears and it becomes a lot more visual and then it all becomes about communication because how do you get across what’s in your head really clearly to these people?  It’s like going to get a haircut, you know, you say to the guy or the girl I want this and she says ‘yeah great, I know exactly what you want’ and you walk out and it’s completely different, and a lot of that goes on.  It’s hard at first to convey exactly what you’re seeing and feeling, and I remember that with our production designer Alex Holmes; there was this massive pen drop moment - he’d been coming in with all this stuff and it wasn’t quite right and then it clicked for him one day and he went “fuck, I get it” and he came in with all this stuff and I said “man that’s it”.  It took him a while to figure out what I was getting at.

Because no one else will if you don’t.  You’ve really got to back yourself and go in there with utter confidence.  

Kieran with producer Angie Fielder on set in Cambodia

In the special features on the DVD you were talking about you and Jules’ (DP) relationship with each other and how he was challenging you and there was that back and forth.  Can you talk about a scene or moment that really challenged each other and you butted heads, but ultimately it benefitted the end product.

See in terms of specific scenes, I couldn’t really pull up an example, but in the early stages, I had a very clear idea of what I wanted the camera to do, and I wanted it to be very unobtrusive and very pretty.  I take a lot of photographs and I do love a pretty picture but I also love that fly on the wall sensibility and just capturing something real and being there with the people and not drawing attention to the camera.  And Jules had done six movies by then, and every DP loves their toys, and he’s always be saying “Well look, you know Kiz, you’re using so much handheld in here, and why can’t we put a really nice drift across that or whatever” and I’d say “Yeah, it just doesn’t feel right” and then I’d have to find ways of justifying and contextualising that within the scene and the drama and what was actually going down, and the mood and the feel, and the music of it.  We’d go backwards and forwards and if I’d made my point and it was clear and he got it, he was like “great, let’s do that, let’s lock that in!”  But if he wasn’t convinced, he’d keep arguing and he wasn’t arguing for the sake of it, he wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing.  And the good thing about that was it meant that by the time we were shooting, I remember  the first couple of days, the first couple of days are pretty freaky, you’ve never done it before and you’re just suddenly, you know, in the past, you might have made a short film that’s four minutes long and it took you three days to make and now you’re doing a four minute scene in two hours and you’re moving on and you’ve gotta forget about it and move onto the next thing and you’ve got a whole day ahead of you.  It’s pretty scary, but I remember the rushes came in on day three from the first two days and everything was working, everything was exactly the way I’d seen it.  And it was cutting like butter.  And from that moment on I just trusted myself and Jules, he was already trusting me by then, but I just knew it was gonna work.  And so that’s when you can make really bold choices.  And there were certain times when I really did want a specific move but it was very intentional, very deliberate, very subtle a lot of the time but that was the main thing in terms of camera style.

In terms of collaboration how was your relationship with the actors and what was that like?

I didn’t get on very well with the lead actress Felicity (laughs) - Nah I’m kidding, obviously she’s my wife and she’s just there.  Obviously it’s a very unique situation with Felicity and I, in that I’m working with my wife, and the great thing about that was, and I’ll have to admit, and she’ll probably clobber me, but she’s said this before, but because we cowrote the script, she was always attached to play that role which is great, I’d seen all of her work prior to that and she’s a terrific actress, but she’d never carried a feature film before, and that’s a very different thing.  I’ve worked for years as an actor myself and I’ve done plenty of supporting roles and lead guest roles and stuff like that, but it’s a very different thing to carrying a feature film.  Carrying a feature film is an art unto itself.  It’s not so much that it’s an art, it’s that it takes a particular kind of personality,and that’s why some people become movie stars and others who are just as great an actor will never carry the story they’ll always be second or third billed.  So I wasn’t sure, I didn’t know if she could cut that, but the great thing was, she knew that I was never gonna let anything go that I wouldn’t believe, because she knew me well enough and knew what I was after and all an actor wants is a director they can trust and feel safe, and all a director wants from their actor is trust, and she trusted me implicitly, and she was prepared to walk on fire, to jump off a cliff for me, and it meant that I had this gift, this incredible tool to work with because she is a really terrific actress and when the first couple days of rushes came in I saw that she was just nailing it, she was smoking the stuff and then we just got on with it.  There was never a harsh word between us, writing the script or anything, and Joel’s been my best friend for twenty years; we went to drama school together and we’ve lived together and we’ve got a company together and so he trusted me and I trusted him so there’s no worries there.  It was a love fest, it was a really blessed project.  Everything had aligned and no one got sick, we didn’t lose any days, we didn’t have bad weather, everything just lined up.  It was a pretty lucky shoot.

Speaking of Blue Tongue [Films], what was that like?  I think it’s a really special thing that Australia has the Blue Tongue school of filmmakers, in a similar way to the Mexicans having Alfonso Cuaron, Guillermo Del Toro and Alejandro Innaritu...

That’s good company you’re putting us in...

I really love the Blue Tongue stuff, there’s a real atmosphere that’s present, from The Square, to Animal Kingdom to this, that there’s a mood and sense of dread, that urban noir, and how do you find that collaboration throughout everyone who’s making these separate projects?

I think there’s a modicum of luck and happenstance there.  When it first started out it was me and Nash (Edgerton), Joel (Edgerton), and another friend of ours Tony Lynch and this was like 1995, and we all shared the same sensibility; none of us had ever done anything so we kind of learned how to do all that together on the street, it sort of developed its own voice I guess, but it was something we all happened to be drawn to.  The only parallel I could draw is that you find a rock band like U2, those guys happened to go to the same school together and they happened to start jamming and form a band and they’re completely cohesive and they’ve gone on to be U2 and there’s so many of those bands that have come together and clicked and they’ve found one another, but on the flip side there’s countless others together, but it just doesn’t work, because you’re of a different sensibility.  And I think we all viewed cinema similarly and we had a similar taste.  in the beginning and that drew people to us and us to them, and Spencer (Susser) and David Michod and Mirrah (Foulkes) and Luke Doolan, we all sort of found one another cause they were interested in what were doing and they were interested in us and we all became really good friends.  But they wouldn’t have been drawn if they didn’t like it, so there’s no mystery there.  But no one’s ever discussed a style, a technique or a way, no one’s ever discussed much at all except for the scripts and the cuts.  We all sort of collaborate in a sense if one of us is in town and the other one is shooting something we’ll  jump in and grab a camera or whatever, but I dunno, the majority of the collaboration comes to the script itself, we’re always running it by one another, or at the cutting stage, post production stage, getting people in.  But there’s never been a discussion about style, there’s not been many discussions about much really (laughs) we just sort of hang out together and make movies and fortunately we’ve been lucky so far.  

Kieran and wife, actress Felicity Price in Sundance

There’s a scene in Wish You Were Here where Joel Edgerton’s character is being watched and there’s this sense of voyerism that permeates through many of the Blue Tongue films.  How do you approach a scene or aesthetic like that?

I’ve always been interested in mystery and thrillers and a lot of my favourite films are some of the Australian films made in the 70s, you know all the sort of stuff Quentin Tarantino talks about loving as well.  I just love Long Weekend and Summerville that’s set down in Australia and even Picnic at Hanging Rock, there’s something about those movies, there’s kind of a dark scary, atmospheric thing that I’ve always been drawn to.  It’s tricky because at the end of the day I have a pretty short attention span and so I’m a massive reader but I have real trouble watching television; the only thing I ever really watch is cinema, we don’t even have a TV set and haven’t for years.  I find it hard to sit in one spot, but I read tons.  I’ve read just about everything but I do need story, and I need cause and effect and I need to have that constant thing of ‘what are they gonna do?’, ‘how’s he gonna get out of this?’.  And I think that came from when I was growing up, my dad had tons of great literature but he also had the world’s largest collection of airport novels, like Glenn Dayton, Alistair McClaine, Robert Ludlum and guys like that and I’d devour that stuff when I was like 12, 13, I was just ripping through this stuff.  And I think it developed in me a need to just keep the ball in the air, rather than just waffle on too much.  For example, with Crime and Punishment, I just can’t finish it, it’s my wife’s favourite book and I can’t finish it.  I’ve tried three times.  It just goes on and on and on and on, before getting to the next plot point.  Great characters and great psychology and great intrigue, but I just need story.  And when I’m developing any kind of idea I’ve got that thriller-esque tone in the back of my head.  And I like little drip fed bits of information that keep you wondering, but they’ve gotta pay off.  When we were writing this script, intitially it didn’t have much of that tension throughout the middle of it, it was more of a domestic psychological implosion, but as we developed it further and further and i had this kind of thriller-esque framework I wanted to hang it off, things like that would just pop up.  And you’d know where they tied in and how to make em play.  But I couldn’t have imagined the music of the film not having those little bits of tension and suspicion and fear and danger in them, and they’re really easy things to craft in and shoot too.  

It really does keep the momentum going forward.  Going a bit more broadly and theoretical here, how conscious of the portrayal of Asia and the idea of the ‘orient’ were you going into the film?  It almost seems like at the end of the film when Joel goes into the bar at the end of the film, it’s a bit Deer Hunter like.  It’s really dangerous and scary and it feels like another world.  How did you approach that and on the day, given that you are filming in a foreign country, was there relationship to that an issue, and how did you balance it?  

Oh man, we could spend two hours answering that question!  The first place I ever went overseas was Bangkok and I was 25 years of age, I got off a plane at 6:30 in the morning in Bangkok city in 1989 and it was fucking bedlam.  It just blew my mind and I was hooked from that second!  And then I fell into this mad love affair with South East Asia  and I travelled a lot through that area and prior to that I had always been drawn to these shocking Asia videos that were going round in video shops back in the 80s and there was something very mysterious and dangerous and evocative about South East Asia.  And you’d get off a plane and you’d smell it.  It just hits you.  There’s just so much history.  It’s just this fat, thick, smoky, wet air, full of stories and like I say it was like a love affair.  I was just into it.  So I spent years traveling around, well over the years, a month here, a month there, whatever, and ended up spending quite a lot of time in Cambodia.  And back in the day too, when the war was still on and it was crazy in those days and it had a really bad and violent history, these extraordinary people.  It really got me.  And I ended up writing another movie.  The first script I ever got any funding on, this was 1996 I think it was.  I got some money from the Film and TV Office to go and write a script and I went over there and wrote it.  So I spent about eight weeks in Cambodia then and I just kept going back.  I guess the thing about South East Asia back then, and I’m so glad you used the word ‘orient’, cause I always used to think of it as ‘the orient’, ‘the far east’ this other, dark mysterious voodoo-esque kind of world that was just like really on our doorstep.  And a kind of right of passage for Australian tourists too.  So when we started developing this story, we were originally talking about Bali and Thailand and all these different places and it just had to be Cambodia.  Michael Cody who ended up being our line producer for the Cambodian shoot is a very old dear friend of ours and he has spent years in the region working as a journalist and producer on TVCs and stuff, and he’s just shot a movie over there that he co-directed with Amiel Courtin-Wilson who did Hail.  Michael produced Hail.  And I think they’re actually there right now.  So he was our on the ground guy and he found a way of us pulling it off and it had to be Cambodia.  That whole opening  sequence where you see the snakes and the gun and the elephant and the pigs, that was all written in.  Every single shot you see was written in.  And we just went out and chased it down and found it.  But the reason it takes so long to answer is because the shoot itself that was down in the brothel, was the real deal.  We were down in a little place called chicken village, which was a little place down in a tiny place, a world unto itself, out the back of Seenookville Port and it’s where the poorest of the poor sailors and fishermen go to find prostitutes.  And it’s heavy duty.  It’s run by the Vietnamese mafia.  Everything we’d written into the film was based on reality and it was all true.  And that scene that Joel’s character ends up in, is a scene that I experienced in Thailand on the Burmese border many many years before.   And so I just tried to make it as real as I possibly could.   It was the hardest thing to shoot.  We shot that over two nights.  And it was madness.  It was bedlam.  And I had Cambodian cast who didn’t speak a word of English, Cambodian crew who didn’t speak English,  Vietnamese cast who didn’t speak English, three translators, it was crowded, hot and crazy.  There were guys with machine guns coming down the street with police bringing gangsters down the street and taking them to a lock up just round the corner and it was insane.  I could write a book on it, but I don’t know how to start explaining.  

What were the best and hardest parts of the film?

The part I enjoyed the most I guess was preproduction, I used to say, when I was in it I’d love to do this every day of my life.  And I could do pre production 365 days of the year for the rest of my life because it’s such a buzz.  Because you’re just being so creative and you’ve got all these great people coming to you bringing you ideas and I just love that sort of collaboration.  But then the pressure of shooting I really really enjoyed.  And it sort of took me by surprise because I’d always wondered if I’d go to water directing a movie.  Because I don’t know that everyone can do it.  That doesn’t mean that I or anyone who directs a movie is special, but you are under a lot of pressure, but what I liked about it, and I have to admit that I’m quite an anxious guy, I’ve had problems with anxiety since I was 17 and there’s all sorts of things I was worried about.  But at the end of the day I realised I’m the kind of guy that when the pressure’s real and it’s ramped up, I actually change and become more focused and calm than I’ve ever been in my life.  And more leader like than I’ve ever been too.  And so rather than going to water I actually became far more effective, articulate and clear, and just much more on top of things than  had I not been under pressure and so I really ended up just loving thriving on the pressure.  So I loved that element of the shoot.  Even when things were going crazy in Cambodia; we had locations being demolished in front of our eyes, and people not turning up; it was nuts, but even that, I just got off on it.  And even that I just have to say I really loved post.  I really loved the idea that the shoot’s finished and that you go in every day and just keep creating with all these various people.  You know the whole sound design, the music, the mix, the grade and the cut, it’s just so much fun!  And then releasing the thing.  It was so rewarding.  I remember our opening night at Sundance, Felicity and I after the screening, there was this massive party thrown and I remember I walked outside with Flick and we just stood there and this snow just pelting down, these massive flakes of snow and no wind and just snow all around us and we’d realised it was five years to the day since we’d first sat down to write the script.  And it was just beautiful.  We had this whole room of people a hundred meters away just kissing our arses, it was ridiculous, we’d never experienced anything like that before.  I’d always kind of been the guy who missed out when everyone else was getting the glory.  So that was a really special moment.  But there’s been so many.  We’ve got two little tiny kids and they were born whilst we were writing the script and they’ve gone right through the whole thing with us and they’re here with us now and all they’ve known is Wish You Were Here.  It’s brought us here, (to LA), our life is great.  

Gregor Jordan said “get a good pair of shoes”

What would you repeat or avoid in future?

Before we started shooting I tracked down a lot of my director friends who’d directed movies before and I said, “what’s the best bit of advice you can give me?  Give me something” and they all found it really hard to think of anything.  Gregor Jordan said “get a good pair of shoes” which was all he had to say which was better than most people said and I guess if someone asked me the same question now I dunno what I’d say to them except, be prepared and make sure you’ve tested all your choices and you’re confident with them.  To be honest, and I don’t know that I’ve ever heard anyone say this about their first movie, and I guess I’m really proud of it, is that I wouldn’t change a frame of the film.  It’s exactly what I wanted.  And the shoot went exactly the way I wanted it to, and the result has been more than I ever wanted.  So all it’s taught me is to kind of back myself and keep writing and just continue to try and do it.  But I don’t have any regrets and I don’t have any things that I wish I hadn’t have done, and I don’t think that there’s anything that I’d not repeat.  And I think I’d just do it all exactly the same way again.  

So what’s next in store for you?  You’re in LA now, what’s that writing and developing process like and what can we look forward to next?

There was a script that I wrote before Sundance and before Wish You Were Here that I’d been developing for quite a long time.  I remember over the years I was writing that and watching so many friends of mine make their first movies and end up going to a significant festival and films that i’d been in as an actor as well, I’d seen them go off to festivals and the very first thing they’d say to me when they’d got back was “everyone’s asking me what am I doing next, what have I got?” and most of them didn’t really have anything in their back pocket and so I just decided years and years ago whatever happened, if I was ever fortunate enough to get into an international film festival like that  with a movie, that I’d have something in my back pocket so I was kind of lucky that I had this one script good to go.  So we hit the ground running with that and Angie Fielder who produced Wish You Were Here is producing that with an American producer here and everyone wanted to read and talk about it, so it just kicked the ball off and that’s going really well and we’ve got two actors attached and it’s going to market now, but at the same time there’s two scripts I was really lucky to sign onto here, both with really significant companies and both in really good shape and they’re both going to market as well, so it’s funny I’ve got two scripts going to Cannes and to projects going with cast attached.  So I’ve been working really hard on all of those mostly with meeting with actors, doing rewrites, just getting them ready.  And I don’t know which one’s going to go first.  And no one does.  But it feels pretty good.  Something will happen.  I just don’t know what.  They’re all really good projects, they’re all really different. There’s one that’s really different to what I thought I would have done, but it’s such a great script and such a great story I just couldn’t say no.  I’m also starting to write a second draft of a script I was commissioned to write in Australia as a sequel to a movie and I’ve got to finish that off as well.  So there’s always something to do.