After years of watching movies and discussing how they could do it better, Luke McWilliams and Tim Stiles decided to put their money where their mouths were and make a movie. Just a year later, the pair have not one, but two short films set to screen at the Canberra Short Film Festival later this month.

While watching guilty-pleasure, low-grade horror movies on Shudder, Tim would say they could make what was on screen, then Luke would reply that they could make something better. Tired of having the same conversation, they decided to actually pull the pin, and start with something short. 

“A short film is anywhere between three minutes to half an hour, but a bad seven-minute short film can drag. I thought we’d just cut our teeth on short films first for festival entry to learn, and if it’s good, obviously it’s going to be seen, and if it’s not good, no one is ever going to see it,” says Luke.

Walking before running, the pair completed their first short film, Performance Review, in time for it to be entered into the CSFF, which was their original goal. The office comedy-horror encapsulates the feeling of being trapped in a bad environment at work.

“We’ve both been in really toxic workplaces and have tried to cope with that by making art. It starts off looking like it’s a performance review, but nothing is as it seems,” says Tim.

The next film, Fallen Stars, was made as part of the Smith’s Alternative portion of the film festival. It is three minutes long and made on a guerrilla budget. The short flick highlights the impact of bullying and the minimisation and normalisation of abuse.

“Basically, an old hero and his arch-nemesis bump into each other years later. It touches on meeting your high school bully and facing your bully, who may not even recognise he was a bully,” says Luke.

Although both men work in offices during the day, they are creatives at heart – Tim an award-winning comic book writer and Luke a popular film reviewer (you can read his reviews in CW each week).

They wanted to use that creativity to address topics that are important to them. While both films are removed from reality, the core elements are something everyone can relate to.

“We love our genre movies, so we are using these genres, like sci-fi or horror, and then the human condition, having that connective tissue with the audience. Entertainment but then trying to strike a bit of a chord because these types of things are meaningful to us,” says Luke.

The pair met at an acting class around 15 years ago, instantly hit it off and have remained friends and collaborators ever since. Both have previously made short films, which they say stemmed from the desire to be actors and, with little industry nearby, they had to create their own projects.

“It’s interesting to see our love of acting morphing into our love of storytelling; we still want to act, acting is probably my number one passion, but I’ve really enjoyed this process of writing, polishing up the script and making sure it’s really tight. Then the process of pre-production and production,” says Tim.

In this creative endeavour, they play the roles of writers, producers, actors and directors – Tim even wrote the theme tune. The filmmakers complement each other; Luke is a perfectionist while Tim says his approach is more punk rock, not waiting for anyone’s permission.

“It is a bit different when you have a stake in it, when you are contributing ideas and you’re developing the script and everything else. You want everything to be better, it’s almost like having a stock option in your company that you work for,” says Luke.  

Wanting to hold themselves accountable, the pair launched the Luke and Tim Make a Movie podcast to document the process of planning, writing, filming and then entering film festivals. They say it could also be constructive for other hopeful filmmakers who might be able to learn from their mistakes.

“One of the important things of making it into a podcast is we’re putting it out there. If we say we’re going to make a movie and we do four episodes of a podcast and then a movie is never made, then our necks and our reputations are on the line,” says Tim.

Performance Review debuted at Asylumfest in Beechworth, Victoria where it placed third in the Short Horror Film Competition which was judged by a panel of experts, including Deadpool director Tim Miller.

“It’s great to see these things getting into festivals, let alone winning them because it is so validating in a way that our hard work is of quality and having an audience,” says Luke.

Acknowledging they couldn’t have done it alone, the men say they are incredibly grateful for the mentorship of award-winning filmmaker Marisa Martin and the talents of their cast and crew.

“We really wanted to concentrate on paying our talents, obviously being actors and being a musical theatre actor, the importance of actually earning money from expertise and your talents. I’m amazed that Tim would do musical theatre with his broken body and everything, and the stars don’t get anything,” says Luke.

Watch this space. Tim and Luke plan to continue to work their way through the genre catalogue with their short films.

“There’s all these really genre movies that we love that we’d like to attack one by one,” says Luke.

Both films screen at Smith’s Alternative; watch Performance Review on Tuesday 14 November and Fallen Stars at Festival Finale + Smith’s Shorts Shorts Awards on Sunday 26 November.

Follow Luke & Tim’s movie-making journey; lukeandtimmakeamovie.substack.com

Another CW contributor, journalist Georgia Curry is debuting her first documentary in the CSFF. Ancient Waters – The legacy of Lake George premieres as part of the local mixtape at Dendy Cinema on Wednesday 15 November.

“I became fascinated by Lake George, Weereewa in Ngunnawal language, when I read a brief article about drilling taking place there by the Australian National University. I wondered what on earth was beneath the lake bed and what I discovered blew my mind. It is one of the oldest lakes in the world,” says Georgia.

Many have written about the fluctuating water levels and speculating about where the water goes. Contrary to urban myths, it isn’t absorbed by lakes on the other side of the world; Georgia says it just evaporates. However, not much has been written about the lake’s geological record of an incredible four million years. Thanks to Georgia’s mother’s love of fossils, she has always had a keen interest in geology and was just the right person to drill to the heart of the story of Lake George.

“Without giving too much of my documentary away, the ancient lake bed reveals an unbelievable picture of prehistoric, tropical flora and climate – a far cry from the dry, arid climate we have today.

“Lake George is also a natural rain gauge, no outflow, so it has the longest record of rainfall anywhere in the world. So next time you drive along the Federal Highway to Sydney, soak up the legacy of Lake George,” smiles Georgia.

Canberra Daily would love to hear from you about a story idea in the Canberra and surrounding region. Click here to submit a news tip.