Rather than just talking about making films, Scott Ryan went out and did it. He is credited as writer, director, producer, and editor of his debut feature The Magician, as well as being its star. Aidan Beatty talked to Scott about his working methods, his influences, and his ideas on Australian cinema.

Aidan: The most immediate character you played was the quite frightening hit-man. Where did this character actually come from, and how much of it comes from your own personality?

Scott: Well I think I probably played it like ‘if I was a hit-man, what sort of hit man would I be?’ But also I did research, I read a lot of books about hit-men, biographies that they’d written themselves, and I tried to figure out what sort of people they were and how they could do what they did for a living. So it’s probably a bit of me and a bit of all these characters I had read about. So it’s like an amalgamation of a lot of different sort of people.

What attracted you to this particular story and character?

I think just the books that I’d read. These guys just were really interesting. The way they looked at life and all that sort of stuff, and also there’s this thing of having a guy who’s a documentary filmmaker, and he’s not a violent guy, making a documentary about someone who is violent and he’s involved in it. He’s complicit in what’s happening and he’s involved in what’s happening and how that affects him and the choices he makes. And then of course there’s the drug dealer who people end up liking, but then they start getting a bit worried, ‘oh is Ray gonna kill him or not’. And then the tension starts to build. And I think people are used to thinking that these people are all scumbags and they’re all evil and all this sort of stuff, and they watch the film and realise they’re not completely evil. They’re kinda likeable in some ways even though they kill people for a living.

Were there any films that influenced you?

Not exactly. Probably books were the influence for the film, rather than other films.

The other thing I really like about your film was that it is really Australian, in that there are lots of references to Australian places and sports and politics. Was that intentional?

Absolutely. I want to make Aussie films about Aussies. I don’t want to make things that are cosmopolitan. I like Australian films, where you know it’s an Aussie film. You watch it and it’s got that humour about it, it’s got that way about it. I love that about Australia and I don’t get to see enough of that in films.

But it’s also quite an accessible film. It’s not something only Australians could enjoy.

No and I mean this is the thing, every country has its culture, its sense of humour. Like there’s the Irish sense of humour and the Irish culture. It’s great when you see an Irish film or a Scottish film or whatever, where that comes across, but I don’t think there’s enough of it coming out of Australia.

How long did the actual shoot take?

It took about a year altogether to make, with about ten actual shooting days.
So it was pretty short.

With regards to your script, how much was improvised? And did much of that happened on the day or did you do rehearsals?

About 80/90%. But there were no rehearsals as such. We just shot the rehearsals.

And in terms of camera, sound, editing and such, what equipment did you use?

A mini-DV camera, which I had myself. Final Cut Pro on an iMac. I did a rough cut myself. Then we got some money from the government in Australia. Once the film was shot we got some money from them to reedit, to do a proper edit, to transfer it to film and do post-production sound and all that kinda stuff.

Did you expect such a positive reaction for your film?

It’s a funny thing. Whether you expect it or not, you want it to get a positive reaction. You hope it will, and you think it might, and that’s what keeps you going. Because if you start thinking ‘Jesus everybody’s gonna hate this film’ you wouldn’t even bother. You want it. You don’t expect it, but you want it.

And have all these good reactions been a good feeling?

Absolutely. Because for so many years I was ignored and nobody wanted to see it. Nobody cared. And now here I am. It’s fantastic...

And what advice would you give people who want to do something similar, who want to make a low budget or no budget-type film?

They should just do it. There are so many people who talk about wanting to be filmmakers. I mean, I went through film school with lots of people who wanted to be filmmakers. But you’ll find that very few are actually prepared to do what’s actually necessary to become a filmmaker. They don’t want to make the commitment. They don’t want to make the sacrifices. Because nowadays with just a few thousand dollars you can go out and you can make a feature film if that’s what you really want to do. But how many people are actually doing that? There’s not too many.

And what are you planning on doing next?

A zombie movie.

So it’ll be something totally different?

Actually not so different. A different genre but not so different. The same sense of humour and it’ll be character-driven. The lead character will hopefully be someone people can engage with and the other characters will be good. Basically the same sort of film. I think if you see it, you’ll know who made it. If you’ve seen The Magician, you’ll see it, you’ll go ‘Oh yeah, Scott Ryan made that film’. It’ll have similarities..

Will you act in it?

Absolutely.

The Magician is released on 5th May 2006.
See review here.