A short film made in the Media Arts and Production program has won the Student Fiction prize at the 2022 Sony Catchlight Film Festival.
Tahlia Magistrale, Kristo Hakola-Perry and Christopher Wood with their Sony Catchlight Film Festival Student Fiction prize.
Written and directed by Tahlia Magistrale, Swings & Roundabouts is a coming-of-age story about Finn and Amber, who have been friends since childhood. Over one summer night Finn struggles with the true nature of his feelings for his best friend.
Starring Finn Rushton and Chelsea Yarad, the short was completed as part of the final year Capstone subject Media Arts Project, with a crew comprised almost entirely of UTS Media Arts and Production students. Magistrale wrote and directed, alongside producer Claire Cooper-Southam, cinematographer Christopher Wood, and editors Nathaniel Barlow and Kristo Hakola-Perry.
Shot over the 2021/2022 Summer session when COVID numbers in Sydney were at a peak, the project was delayed from the Spring session, where a number of students suspended their study until the end of the year to avoid the accompanying difficulties of Sydney’s lockdown restrictions. Though several of them persevered and produced some brilliant works made largely in isolation.
The resulting work is an intimate, quiet film about the nature of love in different forms. The performances are rich and developed, something Magistrale achieved through rehearsal and excellent casting.
We spoke to Tahlia to find out more about her work, study, and future.
Still from Swings & Roundabouts
How long were you working on Swings & Roundabouts for?
I spent about a month writing and drafting the script, and then roughly 10 months for the entire pre to post-production process, followed by festival submissions. After submitting to Uni I did 2 months of colour grading and sound design with crew outside of UTS.
How did you find your crew, were they all MAP students?
The majority were MAP students either from my year (doing the capstone subject) or from the year before me. It also helped that they were all good friends and happy to help! There were a couple who I found either through friends or just from desperate Facebook callouts. For the post-production work done after my submission, I was recommended the colourist by my producer and found the sound designer through Facebook.
What was it like making the project with COVID difficulties?
Incredibly anxiety inducing! There were several COVID scares before the shoot, one of them being with both lead actors right before Christmas. It also didn’t help that we were shooting a week after New Years, so the spreading was rife. Preparing and planning a film shoot is stressful enough without the fear of COVID shutting the entire thing down hanging above your head, but we persevere and find ways around it.
What's it like to win this award?
Very very cool, and a massive privilege. It can be so difficult to see the merit in something you’ve made after spending so much time working on it and critiquing every aspect, so it was gratifying to receive this sort of recognition. The event itself was also a fantastic experience and made me excited for the future ahead.
Do you want to keep directing? Do you think you'll continue to work with students from the course?
The biggest thing I’ve taken from this project is the burning desire to continue directing, it’s become this itch I can’t scratch. It’s difficult coming straight out of Uni and trying to break into this industry, especially with the aspiration to become a director, but I’m going to give it everything I’ve got and see where I land!
I will continue working with the friends I’ve made from my course. I’m actually crewing on a 3-minute short at the start of October with a majority UTS graduate crew. The best part about creating anything is getting to work with people you admire and love to be around, so that’s also a huge ambition of mine going forward in creative endeavours.
For more information on this course and similar: