Seven Years Bad Luck

ROLLPLAY PRODUCTIONS // 2004

 

Film Synopsis

This twenty-five minute film explores how alcohol affects people's lives both directly and indirectly. It was screened with a collection of other youth short films at the 2004 Monash Youth Film Festival. ‘Seven Years Bad Luck' was later selected for screening at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival in 2005.

 

Filmmaker Notes

As co-creator of RollPLAY PRODUCTIONS, I can tell you that the first movie project was the beginning of something big. Over thirty young people took part in the project, which was the first of its kind in the area, and it broke new ground as a youth group for Monash Council, being an artistic and creative outlet like never before for the youth of the City of Monash.

It was mid 2002, and I was attending another youth social group and had only been to MYFS a couple of times. But when I met Bill Kendall, my involvement at MYFS would change forever, and I'd never look back. Bill and I had both been interested in cinema and filmmaking, and in a short discussion about the topic, the idea to form a filmmaking project at MYFS was born. Bill applied for some funding, and the two of us set out to find ourselves a camera!

Fast-forward to April 2003, and the first movie project for RollPLAY PRODUCTIONS called ‘SHADES OF MY SHADOW' screened to 170 people. The success of ‘ SHADES ' was enough to establish the project into a group , and now, I am so very proud to say that RollPLAY PRODUCTIONS joins the various programs run at Monash Youth & Family Services, and will continue to run in the future.

In the early development of ‘ SEVEN YEARS BAD LUCK ' we decided that this time, we would pace ourselves and spend a lot more time managing our progress. ‘ SHADES' runs for 70 minutes, almost feature length, and we were under constant pressure to get the project completed on time for Youth Week 2003. After the first screening, there were still some finishing touches that the movie needed, and we set off one last time to shoot some new scenes, promote the project further, and screen it again.

•  Briony Davis, Bill Kendall & John Hristodoulou just days before the first screening of ‘SHADES OF MY SHADOW'.

•  Josh King-Smith, Ben Kavan & Josh King-Smith working together to master ‘SEVEN YEARS BAD LUCK'.

In October 2003, the first production meeting for the second film project was held, and the writing process began. We developed an idea, wrote a script, cast actors, shot, edited and promoted the movie. We started out with a camera, a standard editing program and a handful of young, creative people. We are a low/no budget filmmaking youth group. We always make the best of what we have and think with our brains, not our budget.

RollPLAY is so valuable to the youth of today, not only because there are many people out there aspiring to be filmmakers, but also because it allows young people to express themselves creatively, and raise a number of issues they may have experienced or see in their daily lives, and want society to hear about.

I would like to thank every single person who's been involved in the project in any way what so ever, and for all the enthusiasm, interest, effort and support you've all given to the group to constantly raise the bar, and keep the hype alive. It's

thanks to your efforts that RollPLAY PRODUCTIONS is the group it is today, and it will continue to grow from strength to strength.

•  The newspaper article that started it all. This was the first media release about the film group and the project that would be ‘SHADES OF MY SHADOW'.

•  Ben smile for the camera as memories are made during the making of ‘SHADES'.

•  at RRR studios for the ‘Film Buff's forecast' with radio host Paul Harris (in the background).

Ben Kavan,

Co-creator of RollPLAY PRODUCTIONS.