Shot in 17 days for US$35,000 (even in Australia, about the catering budget of a low-budget film), Love and Other Catastrophes was bundled together on the run, with the vigour and energy of its young cast and crew abundantly in evidence. Not so much focused on a grand vision as made up on the hoof, it was rooted in real-life experiences of the team, all three writers having graduated within the previous three years. The university setting, with a straight narrative structure set over a single (if hectic) day, came naturally to the filmmakers.
Mia and Alice have just moved into a warehouse apartment but still need a housemate; Danni, Mia's girlfriend, is keen to move in, but Mia fears commitment. Alice falls for Ari, unaware that Michael has a crush on her.
Frustrated by the slowness of the Australian filmmaking process, and energised by the best contemporary American filmmaking, producer Stavros Andonis Efthymiou came up with the original concept and a six-week deadline to first day of shooting. 'We were looking to make something with real energy,' says Croghan, 'to make a fresh story in the independent manner of a Spike Lee or a Jim Jarmusch; something rough but also charming where you write the script which is just the blueprint and you end up with something with a sort of craziness about it.'
The 23-year-old director and the group of friends who made the film were cannibalised for characterisations, but it was the character of Mia that ended up driving the movie, says Croghan. Funds raised from friends and relatives paid outgoings, while every-one on the film took deferrals. After the shoot, the Australian Film Commission came in with a A$500,000 (US$390,000) investment to complete post, blow it up to 35 mm. and to help with marketing. Andrew L Urban
Prod: Stavros Andonis Efthymiou
Dir: Emma-Kate Croghan
Scr: Yale Bregman, and Emma-Kate Croghan with Helen Bandis
Ph: Justin Brickle
Ed: Ken Sallows
Mus: Oleh Witer, Daryl McKenzie
Cast: Frances O'Connor, Alice Garner, Rhada Mitchell, Matthew Dyktinski, Matt Day, Kim Gyngell
Running time: 82 mins
Int sales: Beyond Films
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