An Interview with Filmmaker Matt Drummond
Australian filmmaker Matt Drummond, an award-winning filmmaker who burst onto the scene with Dinosaur Island a couple of years ago, returns with another dino-centric yarn, My Pet Dinosaur – in theaters this April. We got the chance to speak to this multi-talented filmmaker who can not only hold his own behind the camera, he is also a whizz when it comes to animation and visual effects.
Hi Matt, thanks for chatting to us.
Where are from, sir?
I am Australian and grew up in the Blue Mountains region of Australia.
Is that where you shot the movie?
Yes, the Blue Mountains region is renowned as a creative hub. Apart from its world heritage listing, we have incredibly film production friendly Councils and a vast array of well known talent. We specifically shot in the Lithgow region as it had a very small town American look.
There couldn’t have been a better placeto shoot a movie about dinosaurs.
Is My Pet Dinosaur the sort of movie you would’ve liked to have seen made as a kid?
Absolutely, I loved the buddy films that came out in the 80’s. The stories were highly creative and able to be watched over and over again. The era of the blockbuster really began in the 70’s and 80’s with notable films such as Jaws and Star Wars.
We are with you there, the 80’s rocked!
Did you grow up watching similar films?
Sure did, some of my favourites were Labyrinth, Back to the Future and Goonies. These are all iconic standouts that still hold up with an audience today!
Definitely, they are just as popular today as they were when they were first released.
Where’s the dinosaur interest come from? Because this is your second dino-related project, right?
My career has been in creature visual effects, and I had been creating prehistoric creatures in the documentary space for around 20 years so it was a natural progression for me when I moved into feature film production. Dinosaurs will never lose their allure for the general public and cultural depictions of dinosaurs have been numerous since the term was coined in 1842. Dinosaurs are terrifying but are safely extinct. They are nostalgic and appeal to the child in all of us.
And is the dinosaur in the film based on any particular type of dinosaur?
I looked at Magnus (the dinosaur) from an evolutionary point of view. He doesn’t look like anything we’ve seen before. I studied taxonomic classification and evolutionary processes, hence Magnus beginning as an almost amphibious form. He then evolves into a Styrachasoaur and beyond. He goes from being a tetrapod like creature to a dinosaur in a matter of days.
It sounds like you have put a lot of research into this.
Did you have your actors read up on prehistoric creatures?
In the pre-production phase we gave all of the actors very specific research in which to examine such as walk cycles, behaviours and sketches of what the creatures were going to look like.
How did your actors go? were they acting opposite a tennis ball on a string?
The actors did a fantastic job, most of our actors had previous experience working with green screen production as it is quite common these days. It can be very challenging to work with something that is not physically there to see and touch however there are always environmental cues and physical objects to work with. There is a large amount of pre planning that goes into these shots with pre-visualisation and storyboards which help the actors tell the story.
You seem to have gathered an excellent team together for the project.
In an ideal world, would you have had a major studio make the movie or are you happy you got to do it independently?
No, the studios definitely give you the budgets, access and support during a release that is second to none, but I think we have a level of flexibility we would never have if we were not producing independently. We are very fortunate that we have been able to create an amazing pipeline to market which allows us total control of the process from development right through to delivery.
Being independent definitely gives you the freedom to make the film you want. It has been great chatting with you. Good luck with ‘My Pet Dinosaur’ it sounds like a fantastic project and we are sure it will do very well!
