By Sofia Ammoun
Perth-raised director Stephen McCallum has launched his feature film career with a fictional tale set in the underworld of an outlaw motorcycle gang.
The Australian bikie movie 1% was written by former rugby player Matthew Nable and filmed entirely in Perth.
It’s now hit cinemas nationwide.
McCallum was awarded $750,000 for the film by Screenwest’s Westcoast Visions initiative in 2016 – the largest grant of its kind available.
“The movie was very challenging to make on that budget,” said McCallum.
“We were forced to shoot almost entirely day for night, 9 hour shoot days and never went overtime.
“We also filmed the movie in 25 days which is a crazy amount of time for a 120 page script. We didn’t go over budget, we couldn’t afford to.”
The film premiered at the Toronto film festival in 2017 as well as the Sydney film festival, the CinefestOZ film festival, the BFI London film festival and Fantastic Fest Texas.
The Toronto International Film Festival described the film as: “With skilled ferocity, first-time feature director Stephen McCallum injects the viewer into this explosive drama of Shakespearean proportions.
McCallum, working off a script from Matt Nable, crafts a complex, classic story of power struggles within a motorcycle gang, exploring themes of fraternity, loyalty, and betrayal.”
Anthony Osbourne a member of a social motorcycle club in Perth was given the opportunity to act as an extra in 1% alongside the all-star cast which included Ryan Corr (The Water Diviner), Abbey Lee Kershaw (Mad Max: Fury Road) and the film’s writer, Matthew Nable (Underbelly).
“I was lucky enough to score a roll as an extra in 1% through a friend who passed me onto one of the film management team, I sent in a couple of pictures thinking well what have I got to lose and shortly after received feedback asking me to attend the shoot,” said Osbourne.
“The crew were always so helpful and worked tirelessly putting 100% into everything to make it an all Australian bad ass film.”
The highly anticipated film will be released in the US in February 2019 and worldwide soon after.
McCallum says he’s currently working on several other projects he’ll be able to announce soon.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJd18LN4txc&w=560&h=315]