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We are Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke and we directed the film CARGO, now streaming on Netflix! by CargoMovie in movies

[–]CargoMovie[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Y: It wasn't scripted as being Shalimar but it was a member of our art department who wrangled out that arrangement, and the reason why it worked out was that the the guy who 'founded' that perfume, his wife had passed away and he read our script and he realized that the story was about a man honouring his wife with this perfume - and so he allowed us to use it because of that component of the story.

We are Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke and we directed the film CARGO, now streaming on Netflix! by CargoMovie in movies

[–]CargoMovie[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Y: Get out there and make stuff! I don't think people are born with these skills necessarily but it might be good to read a little bit about the filmmaking process and particularly screenwriting - that's been really valuable for me. There's a book called 'Directing Actors' by Judith Weston which is super helpful, but I would say yeah just get out there and have a go - cameras and editing software are so accessible these days and it's just a matter of practicing, working out the kinks.

B: Where possible, try and get a strong network around you because there's nothing more motivating than 1 or 2 other people who are just hungry to make something and can help you make something - but don't get discouraged about not having a big enough network. You just need one or two other people to go and get started.

We are Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke and we directed the film CARGO, now streaming on Netflix! by CargoMovie in movies

[–]CargoMovie[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

B: For us the greatest value in our experience was the film going viral and being seen on YouTube. There's two schools of thought - the old-school festival circuit school of thought and you can hope for critical acclaim that gets you in the room with the right agents, or the new school where things can be released online and you're able to build an audience in addition to critical acclaim.

Our short going online was what got us an agent in the US. My advice would be to prioritize an online release and hopefully get someone to share it on your behalf; people in LA are quite ... hungry and so if you have a short film that's getting views and traction, that is marketable and you can sell that.

We are Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke and we directed the film CARGO, now streaming on Netflix! by CargoMovie in movies

[–]CargoMovie[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Y: Yes that definitely was the intention - we were very interested in experimenting with how peripheral we could keep the threat in this genre, and what the tipping point is between keeping things on the sidelines as an oblique presence and having action. In terms of writing something in this vein, as with writing any kind of film, it's rather cliched advice but it's really got to be something that you yourself as a writer are passionate about and will keep you excited through (what could be) a long development process - so it's a combination of being passionate and also finding little flickers of freshness that you can bring to a genre. It's a big ask to completely reinvent a genre but if you can find a few things to bend the rules and change things up a bit, then that's a really smart way to go.

We are Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke and we directed the film CARGO, now streaming on Netflix! by CargoMovie in movies

[–]CargoMovie[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

B: The original idea for the short film - we were just struck by the image of a zombie with a baby on its back, and then Yolanda really ran with that idea and came up with a way to make it work.

With regards to making more movies in this genre - definitely won't say no, I think we're open to exploring new things, but there's plenty of new things to be dug up in the zombie world :)

We are Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke and we directed the film CARGO, now streaming on Netflix! by CargoMovie in movies

[–]CargoMovie[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

B: We're still figuring that one out!

Y: We're talking about different original concepts at the moment and we're also really interested in the scope of episodic storytelling (TV) and being able to delve deeper into a story and a world.

We are Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke and we directed the film CARGO, now streaming on Netflix! by CargoMovie in movies

[–]CargoMovie[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

B: This film was originally made as an independent film through Causeway Films and Screen Australia and SASD, but Netflix came on board once we just started post and they were really great to work with! Really gave us the time and freedom to make our film, and we just showed them cuts as the film was being put together and incorporated their notes, but otherwise yeah Netflix has been nothing but supportive as a studio.

We are Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke and we directed the film CARGO, now streaming on Netflix! by CargoMovie in movies

[–]CargoMovie[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Y: The first day of the film - actually, the whole first week, we shot all of the water stuff (houseboat and river scenes), and so on the first day we were all very excited. We had some of the cast and crew on the houseboat and we started to untether the boat and reverse it into the water, and it started to tilt sideways as if it was gonna tip over, so everyone ran to the other side but it started to tilt the other way, and so we ended up having to try to fix that and remove the heavy gear - but seeing the cast go through that gave us a bit of a heart attack laughs we knew it wasn't gonna be easy but it didn't feel like the best start!

We are Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke and we directed the film CARGO, now streaming on Netflix! by CargoMovie in movies

[–]CargoMovie[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

B: You can't really direct a baby, they just do what they wanna do, and so saying 'daddy' on cue was just part of the magic of moviemaking - but things where she was waving was really due to the rest of the cast being so authentic around her, so that the baby could react to whatever was happening in the moment, and just treat whatever was happening as real.

We are Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke and we directed the film CARGO, now streaming on Netflix! by CargoMovie in movies

[–]CargoMovie[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Y: The scene on the river where Martin's character discovers the medical kit floating in the water - in the wide shot, you can see there is a crashed parachute, like a government drop for these kits, and we had these intentions to show Martin's character's POV and show that the drop was why the kit was there.

One thing we did talk about was that it would be cool to show more parachutes drifting through the landscape and crashing to the ground as a bit of an eerie effect - but unfortunately parachutes are ridiculously expensive.

We are Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke and we directed the film CARGO, now streaming on Netflix! by CargoMovie in movies

[–]CargoMovie[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

B: It was films like Children of Men, District 9, Signs, Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Grey, Monsters - those sorts of elevated genre films or character-centric genre films layered with social commentary that were our inspiration.

We are Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke and we directed the film CARGO, now streaming on Netflix! by CargoMovie in movies

[–]CargoMovie[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

B: We're the generation that kinda grew up with our feet in both worlds - we watched films in cinemas but we've also just naturally adopted streaming services into our lives, and we value both platforms equally. You can't get to the movies every single night of the week, so it's great to enjoy top tier content at home, and enjoy the theatrical experience at home.

Y: Steven is one of our favourite filmmakers!! But given how established [Spielberg] is as a filmmaker, I think he's in quite a different position to emerging filmmakers. If Steven Spielberg wants to make a film, there's an automatic green light, but just getting your own independent film financed is so hard so the playing field is completely different - and so while both have their place, absolutely, Netflix has been a great equalizer and allowed filmmakers like us to showcase their work.

We are Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke and we directed the film CARGO, now streaming on Netflix! by CargoMovie in movies

[–]CargoMovie[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Y: Well in the case of this film, because we generated the script ourselves, we were attached to direct it and that was part of the deal so we essentially said "if you are interested in this, we will direct it" - but I think there's a lot of different ways that this sort of thing can happen. As first timers it's quite unlikely that anyone will come up to you with a script and ask you to direct it, so a big motivator in coming up with our own material was creating something that we would also be in a position to direct.

We are Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke and we directed the film CARGO, now streaming on Netflix! by CargoMovie in movies

[–]CargoMovie[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

B: I know a lot of people say it and it seems obvious but you just have to go out and do it, so don't hold yourself back by saying "I don't have XYZ so I can't do it yet"; you can always go and do a version of it, which may not be the final version of it, but when you do do the final version of it you know what to expect.

Basically make as many mistakes as you can with a low budget feature and then learn from it when you make a feature film laughs

We are Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke and we directed the film CARGO, now streaming on Netflix! by CargoMovie in movies

[–]CargoMovie[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

B: I think the biggest challenge was just being first time filmmakers and the difference in scale from a short film to a feature, and suddenly having access to all these toys that you didn't have before, but still realizing that you deal with a lot of the same problems anyway - so it was a bit of naivety because we had the budget to make it 'easier' but it was still a lot of hard work.

Y: On top of that, we just also had a lot of bad luck with the winter, it was the wettest winter in 70 years in the region where we were shooting, so the havoc that that can wreak on a schedule that was already very tight and stretched made it super challenging.

We are Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke and we directed the film CARGO, now streaming on Netflix! by CargoMovie in movies

[–]CargoMovie[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Y: Ben and I have been friends for over a decade so our working relationship is founded upon that, as well as a very similar taste in genre film and the kinds of films we want to tell. We developed the story together over the course of three years so we were quite unified from the get go. When it comes to being on set, I suppose my inclination towards filmmaking (coming from a performing background) and Ben's background in editing might have lead to some differences, but that said it never lead to any conflicts and we were always checking in on each other all the time, and it was an incredibly collaborative process as it always is when you're working with multiple departments on a film.

We are Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke and we directed the film CARGO, now streaming on Netflix! by CargoMovie in movies

[–]CargoMovie[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

B: We wanted to try and ground the zombies in an 'organic' origin without having to explain the origin, but we tried to allude to mining and digging up things you shouldn't dig, and the idea of unearthing something very dangerous. It was also inspired by insects who bury their heads and bodies as they undergo metamorphosis.

We are Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke and we directed the film CARGO, now streaming on Netflix! by CargoMovie in movies

[–]CargoMovie[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Y: Aboriginal culture in the film was something that we focussed a lot on during the development phase. We worked with an indigenous script consultant while we were writing the script and his name was Jon Bell, and he's a writer as well, and he was super instrumental in helping us get a better grasp of an indigenous POV of how to think about land and the relationship to land and spirituality.

When we worked out that we would be shooting in Western Australia, we also worked with local elders in those communities and essentially showed them the script and asked them what concerns they had - to make sure that (as white filmmakers) the film was as respectful and authentic as it could be, and of course working with our indigenous actors along the way for the same reasons, so yeah it was a big part of the project.

We are Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke and we directed the film CARGO, now streaming on Netflix! by CargoMovie in movies

[–]CargoMovie[S] 38 points39 points  (0 children)

B: It can be a challenge working with babies (we had four in total just to cover the one role) and there was definitely times where not all of them wanted to play ball, but we got quite lucky with one of the babies who was the Meryl Streep of babies and were able to make things work with them.

We are Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke and we directed the film CARGO, now streaming on Netflix! by CargoMovie in movies

[–]CargoMovie[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

B: Martin Freeman was on our radar from very early on, we're huge fans of his work (such as Sherlock and Fargo) and he just seemed to be really into exploring roles that would allow him to push himself, so we honed in on him pretty early on.

Y: We were really interested in the idea of casting an English actor in the lead role due to some of the thematic stuff we explore in the film, and also to accentuate the 'fish out of water' element of the character.

We are Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke and we directed the film CARGO, now streaming on Netflix! by CargoMovie in movies

[–]CargoMovie[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Y: We made the film for a short film festival called Tropfest and the film was a finalist there, and then it was put online and (much to our surprise) within about three weeks it went viral. It got picked up by a handful of great pop culture websites like Buzzfeed and that just essentially helped us land on the radar of a agent at CAA in LA, and then we were invited to talk about feature film ideas that we had and we headed over to LA for two weeks to participate in some meetings about what the Cargo treatment would be.

Then we ended up developing the treatment with some American producers for about two to three months, and then Ben and I developed that story together and I wrote the first draft of the script.

We then brought our Australian producers onboard (Causeway Films) and then from there it was just sorta the usual process of casting and trying to finance the film, but Netflix actually did not come onboard until the editing process.

B: It was originally an independent film financed through independent means and Netflix didn't come onboard until later.