Unfinished Business 
| Directed by: | Jason Kempnich |
|---|---|
| Written by: | Jason Kempnich |
| Starring: | Kazuya Wright, Peita McCulloch, Darren Taylor |
| Country: | Australia |
| Created: | 2006 |
| Runtime: | 8 min. |
| Member: | yarnmaker |
|
Average rating: 5 by 2 users
Synopsis
Stewart (Kazuya Wright) and Hannah (Peita McCulloch) were your typical young couple searching for their dream home until a freak encounter at an old house saw a long expired life flash before Stewart’s eyes, as if it were his own. Violent, unpredictable memories and a hauntingly familiar face (Darren Taylor) drive Stewart to solve this mystery for the sake of his own sanity. Set simultaneously in 2006 and 1945 in suburban Australia, “Unfinished Business” explores the consequences of a returning soldier's life, ruined by the actions of a once trusted friend, in what was to become a common scenario for all too many returning soldiers: life had moved on without them. Starring Kazuya Wright, Peita McCulloch, Darren Taylor and Barbara Baugh.
Forms: Short
Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Surreal, War/Peace, Period/Historical, Supernatural
Screenings & Events
Redfest
Film Festival
Brisbane, Australia
March 2006
Victoria Festival of Motion Image
Film Festival
Victoria, Australia
July 2006
12th Annual Brainwash Movie Festival
Film Festival
Oakland, U S A
July 2006
Rome International Film Festival
Film Festival
Rome, Georgia, U S A
September 2006
The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival
Film Festival
Hollywood Theatre, Portland, OR, U S A
October 2006
Shockerfest International Film Festival
Film Festival
Awards: Best Fantasy Picture
Galaxy 12 Theatres, Riverbank CA, U S A
October 2006
Berks County Film Festival
Film Festival
Awards: Best International Film
Reading, PA, U S A
November 2006
Horror Fest UK
Film Festival
United Kingdom
November 2006
Cast & Crew
Jason Kempnich (Producer (1st Project), Director (1st Project), Executive Producer (1st Project))
WritingJason Kempnich (Writer (1st Project))
PerformanceBarbara Baugh (Supporting Actor), Darren Taylor (Lead Actor), Kazuya Wright (Lead Actor), Peita McCulloch (Lead Actor)
CameraJason Kempnich (Cinematographer/DP)
Art DepartmentShevaun Lee Steffens (Production Designer)
Post ProductionJason Kempnich (Picture Editor), Jason Kempnich (Sound Editor)
MusicRaymond M. Lawrence (Original Music/Composer)
RepresentationJason Kempnich (Agent, Manager, Publicist)
In the final few months, we won a couple of awards and had a few more screenings. The most recent was a Silver from the Australian Cinematographer's Society (ACS) for the catagory of Cinematography in a Short Film. This meant a lot to me, being from Australia's peak cinematography body, as cinematography is my passion. I also picked up the AFTRS Incentive award, for people who have not had the chance for a formal grounding in cinematography. It was a great night, and the ACS put on a great dinner and show.
In the most recent months I've been on a rather long (almost 6 month?) screen writing course and I've learnt a lot! I'm now looking at choosing my next short project. Whatever it is, it'll be distributed to festivals via withoutabox.com - what a great site!
Bye for now.
The Official Unfinished Business webpage (includes a list of future and past screenings).
Wow Wow WOW! It's been an amazing last couple of weeks. I think someone needs to scrape me off the ceiling!
Firstly, the big news. Our film Unfinished Business took out the Filmmaker's Peer Review Award at the Portable Film Festival. We were up against over 60 films from all over the world, some of which are excellent. Favourites of mine from the festival included Maestro (a great animation) and N For Nelly. I also had a soft spot for Freddie's Story, as well as Airport.
I just can't believe that we won. It's even more meaningful because it was voted by my peers (thanks everyone!). I'm completely excited about the prizes too - $6000 worth of editing software from Autodesk, and gear hire from Panavision. That's probably one of the most practical prizes I have ever seen! Congratulations too, to Emmanuel Marshall for his win with "Behind the Facade". He won the Viewer's Choice award.
In other news, we have been nominated for "Best Editing" at the Queensland Short Film Festival. The Queensland Short Film Festival screening is coming up on the 5 November 2006 and the tickets are free, so I'd love to see the locals there if you can make it!
In all this is a very exciting time. It's great to see light at the end of the long production tunnel! And I am also please for our cast and crew.
We took out:
Best Fantasy Picture (Short) ... check out the winner's list here!
This is our second award, and is only a few days after receiving the Best International Film award at Berk's County Film Fest (see blog just below). To say the least, it's been a very good week!
I'm completely ecstatic about the Shockerfest win, as I feel the film is more focused on a horror style audience than a more traditional one. So to get a nod from that audience, it means a lot to me! I'm also very happy that our hard working cast and crew are getting some positive feedback.
Later gang!
Jason.
It's a credit to our cast and crew! You guys should be proud!
Check out the list of films at the Berk's County Film Festival.
In other news, we were also accepted to:
- The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival
- Hell's Half Mile Film & Music Festival
- Underexposed Film Festival 2007
Shockerfest runs from 7 to 8 October 2006. Unfinished Business will screen on the "Fantasy/Animation" screen at the Galaxy 12 Theatre, Riverbank, California, USA, on Saturday 7 Oct at 4:15pm. At the time of posting, Shockerfest were still setting up their website, however most of the 2006 schedule is already up. www.shockerfest.com
The Calgary Fringe Film Festival is a film fest within a greater theatre and performance festival. It will be screening at the midday "Drama Only" session, Saturday 12th August 2006. For more information including location and tickets, go to the session's page at the Calgary Fringe Film Festival site.
Unfinished Business will also find a horror audience with it's European premiere at the Horror Fest UK, which will run later in the year. No specific screening details are available at the moment, so keep an eye on the Horror Fest UK website. We're excited that the film will play to horror fans, as it does have a traditional horror subtext to it.
Unfinished Business has been accepted into two more festivals. The Victoria Festival of Motion Image will kick off the Enigma screening session with Unfinished Business at 10am, Saturday 22 July 2006, at Greystanes Manor, Bendigo (Victoria, Australia). Please see the VFMI’s screening page for more information.
The Rome International Film Festival (RIFF) in Georgia, USA will also screen the film in their 2006 festival. At the time of writing this blog, a screening time had not been set. However, it will eventually be displayed on the RIFF website. RIFF will run in historic downtown Rome from September 7 to September 10, 2006.
All the cast and crew are pleased and excited to see the film being played to audiences both in Australia (the film’s home) and abroad. A film is made to be seen, after all!
For more information, see the Brainwash website.
A 55 second clip from Yarnmaker's short film "Unfinished Business". Click the Play button to start!
In November 2004, I decided I wanted to get back into filmmaking, and in a big way. I’d previously co-produced a few shorts, and was Director of Photography of few things. But I wanted to do something more – something that I could call “mine”, and if I could help others achieve their goals along the way, then all the better.
Ghost stories and mysteries in general greatly interested me, so I settled on the supernatural as a theme, whilst carrying a message that we should all try to be a little kinder to one another. The story soon took solid form, exploring a now almost forgotten phenomenon in the mid 1940’s – soldiers on lengthy tours of duty in World War II sometimes returned home not to the expected fanfare and celebration, but to find that life had moved on without them. Over the coming ten months, I refined the script, found its title (Unfinished Business) collected a dedicated and hard working crew, and rehearsed an ensemble of fine actors.
The shoot was not going to be easy – it would be my first time directing, and I’d also be performing the roles of Producer and Director of Photography. As we were going to be shooting on film, this was even more difficult and time consuming. And then of course, there’s the budget – we only had enough money to shoot it in a couple of days.
With alarming suddenness, pre-production ended and the preordained production period was upon us. As a lot of the budget went into hiring needed equipment, we didn’t have a lot of film to waste – so the pressure was on for camera, sound and cast to get it right the first and second take. It was three nights and two days of very hard, high pressure work carried out by our wonderfully supportive cast and crew.
And then it was over. The camera negative was dropped at the lab, and the equipment returned to its rightful owners. Time now to relax and organise the wrap party … and then it happened.
Chickenpox! At 33 years of age, I’d never had it. But all that changed a few days after wrapping. By the end of the week I was covered in spots. Confined to my home for up to two weeks, I researched the contagious period and with relief I realised I’d narrowly avoided infecting the cast and crew by a mere day.
The 'pox meant I couldn’t sit in and direct the telecine grade. I nervously awaited the phone call from the colourist to tell me how it all looked (remember, unlike video, you don’t truly know what happened until you see it projected in the telecine suite). The two hour session took over three hours before I couldn’t wait any longer and called. There had been a technical fault with the telecine suite and they were running late, but the good news was everything was looking crisp and beautiful, as only film can. Phew!
And so began the post production process that would take almost three [part time] months before I was satisfied with the results enough to release it. By the time we had our closed premiere, almost 30 people had worked on the project, from our CG artist, to our classical composer, musicians, lab technicians, makeup artists and so on.
That was at the end of February 2006. They say art is never truly finished, only abandoned. Well, fast forward three more months and the film has evolved. The in-house digital post process has been an enormous benefit to the film, as I can continually tweak and improve the edit, brining it closer and closer, inch by inch, to my original vision. We’ve lost a whole scene, removed the beginning of the first scene, shortened wordy dialogue, and implemented a whole host of minor editing, colouring and sound improvements. The film is looking trim, taught and terrific. I wonder how it will evolve over the next three months?
I was absolutely knocked out when I received news it had been accepted into its first Film Festival – Redfest in Queensland, Australia. www.redfest.com.au
I am not after fame and fortune – like most filmmakers, I just want the film to be seen.
And so here I sit on withoutabox.com, spying out film festivals that may be interested in a little Australian ghost story set in 1945 and 2006, with a subtle moral message behind it. Do you know any?
Check out our official homepage at www.yarnmaker.com.au/unfinishedbusiness/
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Unfinished Business - 55 second clip
A 55 second clip from the short film "Unfinished Business".
11 Comments about Unfinished Business
Mar 01, 2007 03:13AM
Hi there the Renderyard Festival is now open for the new film submissions for 2007 and this year we also have two new categories for Screen Writers and Film Composers to send your work to the festival. You can now join Renderyard and receave your own page that contains one of your short films and your film bio and cv with four film stills. You will also receive a monthly newsletter to keep you updated with the other users and inform you of the Renderyard meetings and screenings in London. Come and watch some great short experimental films and animations from the best in new film making talent from around the world. Take care and have fun. Mark Reid - Renderyard Director www.renderyard.com
Oct 13, 2006 01:17PM
congratulations- a second time- on the fresh new win!
Oct 10, 2006 05:44AM
Thanks for the kind words guys. Saskia, unfortunately you just missed a screening in CA this weekend past at the Shockerfest horror/sci-fi/fantasy film festival. What are the odds!?
Oct 09, 2006 05:43PM
Congratulaions. Best International Film Award is quite an honor, indeed.
Oct 09, 2006 05:41PM
oh... and congratulations on the award!
Oct 09, 2006 05:40PM
wow i really want to see this movie- the clip looks amazing! when is it coming to los angeles?
Aug 28, 2006 07:49PM
Thanks everyone! Hope you all get a chance to see it some time. Audience is a great tool - I want to see and support both Elevate and Crooked Mick, films that I may not have gotten the chance to hear about otherwise. (Great work Sara and team!)
Aug 28, 2006 10:26AM
Clip looks great! I hope I can catch your film at Shockerfest, congratulations on the acceptance!
Aug 23, 2006 03:39AM
Good luck on the circuit Jason. Hope to catch your film soon - looks terrific mate.
Jun 01, 2006 12:27AM
Hey there!
Great to see another Aussie on WAB Audience. Let us know when your film is screening in Melbourne, we'd love to check it out! Best of luck with everything:)
'eleVATE' - A Ben Shackleford Film
'Finalist' - Moondance International Film Festival 06
'Official Selection' - The Australian International Film Festival 06 (Australian premiere Oct 06!)
www.elevatemovie.com
May 29, 2006 09:03PM
A cool little film. Production quality/skill is high - there's even some unexpectedly good visual effects. Its story seems more at home with the Twilight Zone than in film festivals. An interesting choice.
Let us know when we can see it on the big screen!
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