After about 3 years of production, our latest short film, Burley!, is finally finished. 

Burley! was directed by Dave Edwardz and Gareth Cowen, who also wrote, designed and animated most of it. Having finished my film Love Tricycle in 2003, I was keen to support some more local animation filmmaking. The guys came to me for production advice after doing a few script drafts and a pile of concept art. I liked the idea and knew they were all passionate and well skilled, so I agreed to take on this project as producer. A few months later, we won some funding from the Australian Film Commission and production started in 2004.

There were a few hitches during production, but I never doubted that the guys would eventually deliver a really slick film. The first problem was that production went about a year over schedule, not because of laziness but rather fastidiousness. This put a strain on finances and relationships, but while I was always pushing for efficiency, I didn’t want to deliver a film that didn’t satisfy us all. Luckily, the AFC was also very supportive as they were seeing the benefits of the extra time spent. The second problem was an ongoing feud between the directors and a third member of the team who never seemed to see eye-to-eye with them. He was with the production from the very beginning up to about 6 months before the end, then decided he no longer wanted any part of it and broke away. While that created extra work for Dave and Gareth over the final months, it did finally ease the tension, and now that production is over, we’re all very happy with the result.

We’re all back doing commercial work to replenish the coffers, but I’ll be sending Burley! to festivals around the world over the next couple of years and will be interested to see how it’s received.

Watch Burley! at Short Film Central

The Burley! website has more information:
burleyfilm.com