Occasional Coarse Language

Year : 1998

Category : Feature, Drama

Genre : Comedy

Running Time : 81 minutes

Official Release Date : 26th November 1998

Production Company : Very Chancy Material Pty Limited

Executive Producers : Michael Lake and Joel Pearlman

Producers : Brad Hayward and Trish Piper

Director : Brad Hayward

Writer : Brad Hayward

Cinematographer : Jonathan Biggins

Editor : Simon Martin

Music Supervision : Brett Oaten

Production Design : Rebecca Barry

Sales Contract : Beyond Films

Cast :

Min Sara Browne

Jaz Astrid Grant

David Radcliffe Nicholas Bishop

Stanley Michael Walker

Claire Lisa Denmeade

Alex Michelle Fillery

Soph Belinda Hoare

Monica Shannon Faith

Michael Scott Hailstone

and Nikki

Box Office Figures :

As far as I can gather Occasional Coarse Language ( OCL ) did well at the Box Office for six weeks. Urban Cinefile's Archive of Bums on Seats, http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/News_Bums_on_Seats.asp, shows that OCL began to make an impact at the Box Office on the weekend of November 12th ( although the official release date was Nov 26th )and continued to do so until the weekend of December 20th. During this time it grossed $ 845, 514. It was being shown on up to 79 screens across the country.

Interviews : I found this interview with Brad Hayward, it's quite interesting. Hope it can be of help.

Available in full at, www.netau.com.au/gregking/a033ocl.htm

CRASH COARSE! Greg King talks with Brad Hayward, the director of Occasional Coarse Language.

"The reality is that most of these things end up as expensive home movies," says Sydney born writer/director Brad Hayward of his ultra-low budget film debut, Occasional Coarse Language.

Without any formal training but armed with lots of confidence, this 31 year old self taught director has made an auspicious debut with his first feature film. Hayward and his co-producer financed the film using credit cards. The film was shot in and around Sydney, using borrowed equipment and a lot of good will - the car that features heavily was loaned to Hayward by the proprietor of the cafe where he had coffee, and even the editing facilities were also generously loaned. The whole enterprise was an enormous gamble that eventually paid off. Despite being rough around the edges, the film has attracted financial backing from Village Roadshow, one of the biggest players in the local industry. With its national distribution assured, Occasional Coarse Language is now anything but an expensive home movie!

Interview 2 : Urban Cinefile interview with Sara Browne

The interview can be found in full at, http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/home/view.asp?a=1781&s=Interviews

BROWNE,SARA : Occasional Coarse Language

OCCASIONAL MEDIA COURSE

The fresh-faced, energetic, funky - and until now unknown - Sara Browne, stars in the low budget Australian comedy, Occasional Coarse Language, and is now having to take a media course and get used to talking to journalists - like PAUL FISCHER.

Sara Browne has plenty to smile about. A former drama and uni student with lofty ambitions, her decision to check out a publicly advertised audition for a new flick by a group of unknown film makers really paid off. Now she's getting more attention than she ever expected from her energetic debut movie role, playing of confused post-adolescent Min, in Brad Hayward's first feature, Occasional Course Language. "I'm trying to get used to all of this", she says with typical effusiveness, 'this' referring to the round of media appointments for interviews about the film and her starring role.

Reviews: Reviews are all over the place and they basically all say the same thing. Here are a few of the better ones.

http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/scripts/cinefile/Reviews.idc?Article_ID=1780

http://www.sbs.com.au/movieshow/reviews.php3?id=385

Another by David Sratton here.

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1312/4_373/53461123/p2/article.jhtml?term=

A look at the excellent ( All Australian ) soundtrack is available at,

http://users.bigpond.net.au/nodette/AussieST/updates/CorLang.htm.

And if none of the above excites you try the AFC site,

www.afc.gov.au

Searching the Internet :

I basically searched the internet using ninemsn, which lead to me getting the same articles over and over again. This is not necessarily a bad thing as the articles I found were generally quite useful. I used Yahoo and only came up with one article which was about the AFC not OCL . So, I never thought I'd be saying this but for once ninemsn was the better search to use.

Searching the Library :

Not expecting to find much in the library because the film is so recent. Gary however suggested a great article in Cinema Papers. Its an interview with Hayward in which he talks about his influences and production details, quite useful. So if you can actually find where Cinema Papers is kept in the library have a look ( south wing, level two).

Paul Kalina, 'The Momentum Theory', Cinema Papers, 129, Jan 1999, pages 52 - 53'.

Thank Gary for that one.

Critical Review :

Twenty two year old Min Rogers is having one of those weeks that could be a recipe for disaster, Or it could be the recipe to making one of the best low budget Australian films in years.

Take one cheating boyfriend, stir vigorously with housemate ( in a Fiat Nikki preferably ), sprinkle with nicotine withdrawal add a dash of unemployment, a proctologists rubber glove and a good smearing of Patricia Thornton's face pack.

To this concoction add the essence of Boutros Boutros Ghali, bored Belgian backpackers, some malnutritioned one night stands, Wittgenstein For Beginners, a party, a vibrator, a good deal of flirting, fighting and a 60 minute dose of Melrose Place. Not forgetting some of Australia's best rock and pop. ( An Elvis Costello cover would not go amiss). Put on large screen for 81 minutes and enjoy.

Occasional Coarse Language is movie packed with drama. Poor Min is kicked out of her home by her boyfriend Michael and her flatmate Monica, who have been having an affair very indiscreetly. Making things worse her Dad is hospital and she has just had the realities of ëpro-active downsizing' made very clear to her. So she quits not smoking and gets on the phone to her best friend Jaz. Min now has to make 'alternative living arrangements'. Which is fantastic because 'the really cute' David Radcliffe is looking for some one to share with after Jessica Scofield called off there engagement. Terrific, Not. David turns out to be a Wittgenstein reading womaniser who cannot stand smokers, ' its interesting because it just shows that despite the gains women are still being forced to circumvent behavioural norms in favour of ,you know, this elitist consumer driven post modern aesthetic...' . So a quick stop to the book shop to help Min quit smoking and more importantly to find out who the hell Wittgenstein was. Min moves in with David with hilarious results. Whilst snooping around David's room, David comes home drunk with his latest conquest a very flexible blonde called Karri. Min's infatuation with David is quickly terminated, leaving her searching yet again for a soul mate or more importantly some regular sex .

The situation worsens when Jaz and Min start fighting. The cause of this fight is Jaz's boyfriend Stanely, who confides in Min about Jaz and her lack of prowess in the bedroom. Min has already heard the exact conversation from Jaz but with the roles reversed. Min confronts Jaz about the situation and things blow up and the two stop speaking to each other. Things get more complicated when Min realises she has feelings for Stanley.

Jaz and Min eventually make up. Jaz however is on her way to the airport to catch a flight to Europe, the pair 'hug the shit out of' each other and Jaz goes on her way. Min and Stanley do get together and eventually move on from a relationship based on gratuitous sexual pleasure to loving each other. They don't tell Jaz this in their letters.

Occasional Coarse Language is a ëreal disaster' movie it deals with a majority of the problems that your average twentysomething is likely to come up against, but unlike Min, they are not likely to happen all at once. Set in the suburbs of Sydney, in houses rented with dubious flatmates it is a scenario a lot of Australians can identify with. Wether it be a generation Min's age who are living in that scenario, or be it an older generation who have already 'been there done that'. This is one of the reasons I found the film so appealing. But regardless wether you can relate the movie to your own experiences its still a very funny film and I think that is why Village Roadshow picked it up for distribution, I'm glad they did otherwise I would probably never seen this great movie.

Critical Uptake :

The film was received very well around the country. Based on reviews of the film I have found reviewers generally all made the same type of comments about the film. These comments were generally about the quality of work by a first time Director, the quality of the performances of the relatively unknown cast, how they could relate to the characters. Some comments were made about the films editing which at some points is a less than smooth, but not to a degree that flaws the film in any way. Some reviewers did not like the use of explanatory graphics which pop up during the movie to make references to people understood for example Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Wittgenstein.

A factor in making the movie successful at the box office which may go largely unrecognised was the soundtrack. I know at the time of the movies release Triple J were playing/plugging the movie and soundtrack extensively. Everybody who listened to Triple J during that period will probably remember the song 'Pump it Up' an old Elvis Costello tune covered by Australian band, Automatic. The front sleeve for the single even promotes the movie, in a big blue star in the top right corner ' From the movie Occasional Coarse Language'. The single's B - side is called 'Occasional Morning' and samples Nicholas Bishop's voice introducing Min to the girls he has slept with.

Finding current information on the movie has been hard. All I was capable of finding were articles which were printed at the time of the films release, the film is not old enough to necessitate re-evaluating.

Circumstances of Production :

Main factor in the production of Occasional Coarse Language was time, this constraint was due to the films small budget Hayward and Piper maxing out credit cards and selling bits and pieces to muster the $35,000 required to shoot the film. Hayward wrote the script in three days, spent five weeks in pre-production, shot the film in seventeen days and it was edited together over four months. The editing facilities were kindly donated to Hayward on the agreement that if the film ever made a profit he would try and pay for the use of the editing facilities ( $40,000 - $50,000 worth ).

The cast were recruited through newspaper advertisements, none of which had any previous film experience. Nicholas Bishop was the most experienced having graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Arts ( NIDA ). Sara Browne was working as a children's drama teacher when she saw the newspaper advertisement and turned up to the audition for the experience, not expecting to get the role.

Village Roadshow picked up the film covering the distribution costs allowing the film to be screened all over the country. This wide spread distribution allowed the film to make a profit at the box office.

Director Brad Hayward had only made one short film. 'Hayward's first film was a short farce, entitled L'Araignee (The Spider), which he financed, wrote, produced, edited and scored. The film was accepted into the 1996 St Kilda Short Film Festival and was also acquired by SBS television.' Occasional Coarse Language is a dramatic improvement on this. Finding information on any projects Hayward has been involved with since OCL is nigh on impossible. He simply may not have done more film work since OCL. Hayward and Piper were given a three picture deal by Village Roadshow so hopefully we'll hear something from them soon. Sara Browne is also difficult to find information on, other than that to do with OCL. Editor Simon Martin was the only crew member with any experience in the making of a feature film he had previously worked on Children of the Revolution Nicholas Bishop has been busy acting in film, TV and the theatre including the New England Theatre Company's production of Macbeth, roles in the film The Sugar Factory and Wildside.

Occasional Coarse Language - Position of Australian film and its value.

Unfortunately Australian films still take the back seat at the box office behind their Hollywood counterparts. Occasional Coarse Language is another film which follows the late 90's trend of low budget, Australian, independently made films. Although a good movie OCL was not looked at in the same light as a Hollywood film and thus was not given the same exposure as its big budget competitors. Its as if when the general public talk about an Australian say ' thats a good film' what they really mean is 'thats a good film considering its Australian, been made with virtually no money and an unknown cast'. Australian films are simply not given the credit they are worth. This is not to say every Australian film is praiseworthy, far from it, most people will be able to think of some terrible Australian films, but there are those which do deserve better recognition. Occasional Coarse Languages was released only a year after The Castle, which gained recognition not only nationally but also in Europe and America. Part of The Castle's success was that a large proportion of the Australian public recognised both the actors in the movie and more importantly the production team who had made the popular ABC TV series Frontline. This initial recognition, allowed the public to assume the film would be of a similar quality to the Frontline series. Great audience response in Australia opened up the road for the film to be screened overseas.

Occasional Coarse Language was shown at Cannes in 1999 along with a string of other Australian movies including Siam Sunset, Two Hands, The Craic, Strange Planet and Fresh Air. So at least the international market thinks there is some worth in Australian cinema. 'Two Hands' inparticular, springboarding the Hollywood career of young Australian actor Heath Ledger.

Australian cinema is valuable. Try imagining a world where every movie's star is American, with perfect white teeth and bodies tortured with gym training into ëperfect' physiques. It would become even more tedious and withdrawn from reality than Hollywood at the minute. Movies which don't have these characteristics often fall into the 'feel good' category. Average looking girl with nice personality triumphs against adversity and gets average looking guy with a nice personality. Exactly the same as Hollywood except without the plastic surgery, orthodontistry and a multi - million dollar budget blown on special effects to compensate for a lack of witty dialogue and decent narrative. This is not to dismiss all Hollywood films. Its just frustrating consistently seeing weak movies that have huge budgets when movies of quality are overlooked because of the lack of funding they receive. This is the case for national cinema's worldwide not just Australia. A saddening fact is that a film's value is more often than not based on its production costs and who is starring in the lead role rather than the quality of the production on a whole.

Australian National Cinema as a medium sized English Language Cinema :

Australian Cinema is a medium sized English language cinema. Which roughly translates to the fact that it only plays a minor role in the world of cinema which is dominated by Hollywood. It has been described as an "antipodal cinema" (O'Regan 1996, p.106). Meaning that it compromises some if its influences/culture to fit into the dominant cinema ( Hollywood ). Australia's multi-culturalism and links with Europe allow it to be influenced by other medium sized cinema such as the UK and Continental Europe quite easily . This can be problematic for Australian cinema if techniques which are characteristics of other national cinema's are used 'comparisons will inevitably be made which disadvantages it' (O'Regan 1996, p.106. ). Australian cinema is forced to compromise in order to not draw criticism for unoriginality.

Occasional Coarse Language is uniquely Australian, but does this without the use of cliched settings and shots of kangaroos. The film was shot in the suburbs of Sydney an element the films Australian audience could more directly relate to rather than using Central Sydney, Sydney Harbour Bridge or the Opera House. The sprawling suburban setting could have been anywhere in Australia. If an American audience watched the film they too could probably relate to the sprawling green suburbs, Melrose Place references would also be understood more so than if Home and Away was used in the film.

Occasional Coarse Language is a good example of Australian directors blending conventions of other national cinema's to create a original and entertaining national cinema of our own, without succumbing completely to Hollywood.

References :

O'Regan, T. 1996, Australian National Cinema, Routledge, London.