/Director Cameron March talks ‘And The Winner Is…’
And The Winner Is… is a compelling and tense short film from Director Cameron March, which recently premiered in LA at the Chinese Theatre as part of Screamfest. Set in a near future, the film follows a disgraced sports star named Stanley who seeks redemption. His forgiveness must be earned and what begins as a seemingly light-hearted game descends into a living nightmare. Stanley’s pushed beyond his limits and it will be society that decides if he will be granted immunity from his past transgressions.
The film’s post production was completed at Cutting Edge, and we sat with Cameron to discuss his film and the production process.
Tell us about the film. What’s it about and where did the story come from?
And The Winner Is… is a pulsing exploration of what happens when our society becomes the judge, jury and executioner of troubled public figures. Fast forward ten years, and it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine a reality TV show similar to the film’s premise.
There’s a grey area we step into collectively whenever a celebrity or public figure is thrown into the spotlight for the wrong reasons. With the frivolous, immediate and unrestrained nature of social media, anyone and everyone’s got a public forum for their opinions at their fingertips. Sports stars, actors, politicians – no one’s safe from ridicule or distain throughout the vast webs of online social media spaces, and there’s not a moment of pause before our towering figures are thrown into the lion’s den the moment a sniff of scandal hits.
With this film we wanted to explore how far celebrity immunity could be pushed. As a team, we spent many hours in discussion around current events where we were seeing the seeds of these ideas pushed and explored. We were able to explore those conversations in this short film format.
It’s a great concept and oddly it doesn’t feel that far from reality. Can you imagine a feature length version…or possibly a reality show?
Sadly, there’s many reality shows we referenced as we came up with this concept. Shows that, while they may not be as extreme as our fictionalised approach, feed on the same kind of public spectacle and obsession with the idea of fame. As a team we’re exploring this as a feature concept given the growing duality with real-world circumstances and events.
There’s an emotional energy that carries the story. It’s carried by some impressive performances and the tempo of the edit. Tell us about the editorial experience and how you arrived where you did.
This film found its story within the edit, with great credit given to Michelle McGilvray (editor). I’ve collaborated with Michelle before and because of that existing relationship, we were able to push the edit process further and further, exploring narrative options and looking to find the most potent version of this story. Michelle’s drive and commitment to the project ensured no stone was left unturned throughout the course of the edit.
Can you talk a little bit about the production?
The world we were looking to create was ambitious and pushed to the very edge of our production capacity and budget abilities. This meant we were constantly looking at every decision to find a way to creatively bring this visual scale to life. This birthed wonderful opportunities to work with creative partners across our crew and post teams. We saw an incredible calibre of people rally together to bring this story to life and our production experience was all the better for it.
Tell us a little about the experience of completing the post production.
Bringing the project to Cutting Edge was a no-brainer for us. As a production we knew the scale of the world we were trying to build meant we needed to do the job right. Our edit, colour and VFX elements all came together to ensure that world was cohesive and seamless. The overall experience was a pleasure and we can’t wait to return with our next project.
