While committing himself to a new life in the arts, Matt got some amazing roles opposite leading Australian and international actors including: Gregory Peck, Patrick Stewart, Ted Levine, Hugo Weaving, Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Cage, Anthony Lapaglia, David Wenham, Sigrid Thornton, Peter Phelps, Rebecca Gibney and many others. It was working with these actors that gave Norman the want to tell his own stories. One of Norman’s first film roles was on Robert Connolly’s The Bank. "Watching Connolly work it gave me a want to see it from the other side of the camera. I’d watched how things were done a million times, but never studied every move. Connolly had the perfect technique working with actors and it was something I wanted to do.."
Matt says "I have studied enough movies in my life to give it a red hot go and had been on hundreds of sets to know what everyone does, so going to film school wasn’t even a factor for me. I did it the hard way but I believe the best way, I just went out and made films".
Matt’s first Directing job was on a play called August Rain. Matt says "I put my hand up to direct it so that I could spend weeks practicing the art of communicating with actors. The play had a sold out season and was the real turning point for what I really wanted to do. Now it was time to give it my all behind a camera".
Matt’s first film was an ambitious project that required very focused actors. The film was a 27 minute short feature called All the kings horses starring John Brumpton and John Flaus. The film got selected for many film festivals both here in Australia and also overseas. It also won several awards and gave Matt his first credits as writer, director, producer and editor.
Matt’s next film in the same year (2004) was Shank. A short film for Tropfest starring Rob Carlton and himself. It got selected as part of the "Best of the Rest" in Tropfest and went on to win other awards nationally and internationally.
Matt says "I had made two films that both did well… I didn’t want to be one of the directors that did hundreds of short films so that they could be the popular one standing by the bar at film festivals… I wanted to shoot higher and I wanted it now!!!"
Matt Norman then wrote The Writer. A psychological thriller. He wrote the film FOR Kim Gyngell in the lead role. "I always saw Kim as an underrated actor. Why on earth weren’t people using his skill in drama instead of constantly giving him comedy. If you ever saw Kim Gyngell in an MTC play you’d know that he has an incredible range, and I wanted me some of that".
The Writer – starring Kim Gyngell, Mel Butel, Rob Carlton, Krista Vendy and John Flaus was a 37 minute Short feature. It picked up some great awards for Matt and also cast and crew. Kim Gyngell won "best actor" at the St Kilda Film Festival on its release in 2005 which was a great moment for all of us. Apart from "best film" awards, it also won Marty Smith the Gold Award at ACS as well as an APRA Nomination for composer Ricky Edwards. Finally it ended up being bootlegged and screened in cinema’s in Japan and then on TV in Paris.
Two weeks after shooting The Writer Matt decided to quickly throw together one last short film called The Umbrella Men starring Underbelly’s Damian Walshe-Howling and Benji McNair. A short war film that certainly got a lot of attention for its beautiful look and exceptional acting from both Damian and Benji. "The pair of them were riverting" Matt said. "What made this film so special was I wrote it one night after a dream (most of my films are written that way), called the actors the following day, called the crew at the same time, shot it in one day and had it fully edited ready for festivals two days later. I’ve learnt a lot about keeping budgets low and quality high. It was a great experience.
In 2002, I began researching my uncle Peter Norman who was involved in the Black Power Salute of the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. He was the WHITE GUY in the photo!! I was amazed that no Australians knew his story. I started out wanting to research him properly and on the way obviously make a "MAKING OF" for the DVD release. The film I wanted to do as a first feature was called 1968. Because of the extraordinary footage of all people involved both here in Australia as well as in the United States it became obvious that I had the perfect Documentary feature.
I continued making the film, called Salute, from 2002 through to 2008. Tragically my uncle Peter died during the making of the film in 2006 with affected me greatly. It was at that stage that I received funding from the FFC and also the first time I got to see the reality of working with the greedy dogs of our industry. From my uncle’s death and the fact that his name was World news especially in the U.S I got offers from different people to help get it to the big screen. These people wanted only one thing and that was opportunity and money.
My first feature film about my best friend and uncle and I got nothing but greif from people I thought would do the right thing. The funding bodies treated me like garbage and my then producing partner was a fraud looking after himself and his company. To this day he has walked away with hundreds of thousands of dollars while I have lost everything including my family home. Great lesson but unfortunately at my own cost.
Paramount Pictures distributed the film across Australia and it became the 2008 number one Aussie Doco at the Australian Box office. It has also won several international awards at festivals and is about to be released across the United States and Europe. It is amazing to note that even though audiences loved it and it actually got a release, it didn’t get nominated for any industry awards (probably due to the fact that the industry awards are sponsored by the Government funding bodies). It did win "Best Aussie Doco" (Audience Choice) at Sydney Film Festival, was nominated as "Best Documentary" by the Australian film critics circle association and obviously out did most Australian films at the box office when it came in at number 10 for any Australian film at the Aus box office. So I was happy.
Matt Norman is now looking forward to an international release of the film which is now in the hands of people who actually want the film to work. Releasing the film in Australia on only 14 screens, the film is expected to release in the U.S on an outstanding 450 screens.
Next on the cards for Norman is the drama version of Salute called 1968. Heath Ledger had been in discussions with Norman to play his uncle. His death really stopped our World. He was an incredible actor and will be sadly missed.
Matt is currently in different stages of production on several projects both here in Australia and also the United States.
Matt is the founder and CEO of The Actors Café Pty Ltd Film Production Company, a self reliant production and post production facility. |
