FILM SYNOPSIS

Dusty is a noisy miner bird - one of Australia’s least favourite birds - who acts like a local bogan. Dusty keeps pestering a Wollongong-resident: a guy who can no longer leave his house without being attacked. When the guy has a date 'round, things go horribly wrong. Meanwhile, the guy's wealthier friends are able to enjoy the company of pretty, calm, beachside birds.

DIRECTOR BIO

Holly Trenaman is a writer/director from Wollongong, south of Sydney, with a Bachelor of Production from the Australian national film school AFTRS and Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Technology, Sydney. Holly is known for her web series SISTAS, her short surf film Dating Violet, and her short documentary Grandma’s House. She has won and been nominated for many awards, including 'Best Director' at Far South Film Festival and ‘Young Australian Filmmaker of the Year’ at the Byron Bay International Film Festival. She strives to continue making scripted comedy under her new production company 'Holly Would', and is now based in London.
IMDB: https://m.imdb.com/name/nm10005569/

Tyrone McCrystal is a regional Wollongong-local filmmaker/animator with a Diploma and Advanced Diploma in Screen and Media from TAFE. He has animated music videos for numerous local bands, which have aired on TV, on popular channels such as RAGE, and landed him on the front cover of local news publications. He also edited the documentary film Grandma's House with Holly Trenaman. He now works as a Screen and Media trainer at ITEC in Wollongong, and is the founder of the Wollongong Music Archive, where he records and archives the local regional music scene to preserve, support, and promote it.

DIRECTOR STATEMENT

With this film, Tyrone and I (Holly) wanted to throw all caution in the wind and have fun. I actually thought it was only possible as an animation, but my Co-Director/Animator Tyrone came up with the idea to shoot it live action x animation. At first this sounded like too much work. For him it sounded like much less.

We then went down the creative route of discussing how to cinematically explore the spiralling of a man through natural elements out of his control: such as chaotic camera angles and cartoonish actions. This script idea started simple. It grew from that, while retaining and never straying from its simple premise and story.

Like many "bogan"s in Australian culture, they have had it tough, have many traumas, and therefore continue to be misunderstood and rejected by others. 'Hurt people, hurt people', as they say. Turns out 'hurt birds, hurt people' too.