Arts Graduate Films His Dream
Newcastle Herald
Thursday January 20, 2000
AS a young Melbourne film school graduate, Patrick Hughes could have taken one of the realistic job options: pulling beers, waiting tables, telemarketing and just possibly a runner on a film set.
Instead, at 21, a few months after completing his course at the Victorian College of the Arts, Hughes has been commissioned to direct a feature film with a budget of $5million.
Working with a new Australian-based production house, Gold Coast Productions, Hughes will direct a feature-length version of his award-winning short film The Director.
The Director won the most popular film award at this month's Flickerfest International Short Film festival in Sydney and the 1999 VCA best editing award.
`It's great to finally be working on a production where there is a budget involved and all my dreams can start to come true,' Hughes said. `At the moment I'm still letting it all sink in.'
The director plans to use as many of the original cast and crew as possible, including father Tim Hughes, who plays the lead.
`We put together a great cast and crew,' Hughes the younger said. `A lot of time and effort goes into helping you and it's not union, it's VCA, no-one gets paid.
`You pay them off by just showing them that the film's doing well. It feels really great to call all the crew and cast up and tell them it's been picked up (by a production house).'
The short version of The Director cost $20,000 to film, $6500 of which the VCA provided.
© 2000 Newcastle Herald