Matthew Rooke

Matthew Rooke
b. October 18, 1965, Melbourne, Australia.

BIOGRAPHY: Super 8 works Coming to film making through a love of music, Matthew first bought a Super 8 camera in the late '80s and proceeded to shoot what he liked and stripe it up against his favourite music tracks on cassette. Consequently each screening had a different soundtrack and a different effect. These films were usually three reels long and landing around the 8-9min mark. Realising the medium’s potential he started to develop loose visual narratives and a knack for editing. Enrolling in La Trobe’s Cinema department not only exposed him to film history and theory but also gave him access to equipment and most importantly video where he could lock his soundtrack to the visuals and thus rhythmic editing and dialogue became a thing.

VCA/Swinburne

After La Trobe, a stint at the VCA again saw an upgrading of equipment, resources and skilled crews allowing him to further experiment with his filmmaking under the guidance of the illustrious Peter Tammer.

Assistant Director

Upon completion of his tertiary studies Matthew focused on working in the film and television industry, initially as a runner and progressing through the ranks as an assistant director. He worked on all types of formats but mainly television drama, feature films and sketch comedy. This work allowed him to self fund many projects, taught him some invaluable skills and also made him incredibly time poor.


	Festivals and going off

Documentary

In between shows he would direct and produce music clips and corporate video. The corporate world allowed him to develop his taste for documentaries. Covering events in an observational manner he went on to win awards in Australia and overseas for his innovative way of presenting possibly quite boring subject matters. He shot and edited a couple of broadcast documentaries for SBS and the ABC and edited a couple more.

Teaching

Attempting to break free of the freelance world but wanting to utilise his skillset he started to teach filmmaking at tertiary level. This allowed him to inspire and be inspired and also gain access to equipment. He continued to create short projects and documentaries around his lecture duties and also 1^st Assist on short films, mainly in Tasmania. Academically his focus honed in on Filipino Independent filmmaking and the Korean Film Industry and both of these interests influenced his work majorly.

South Korea

Matthew has visited South Korea at least eight times, the longest stint being for six months. He has viewed many examples of their cinema both mainstream and independent, met producers, directors and other industry people and is still trying to distill the how, what and why their industry is what it is. The last decade has seen this influence effect all his short work either making films about or in Korea and Korean.


	Best Driver

CRITICAL OVERVIEW: Music, Image, Language and Factual Stories The marriage of image + sound is greater than the sum of the two. This is essentially what kick-started my filmmaking. An intrigue with sound and a fascination with light. Exploring the relationship of sound and image in regards to emotion and rhythm (editing and camera movement) has always been a high priority. An aesthetically pleasing shot is something to be well sought after whilst shooting and then used in the edit, sometimes at the expense of all other concerns.

A desire to present stories that are stranger than fiction or that are in some way off beat or outside the mainstream has always been a driving force in my short films, experimental works, and documentaries.

A play on language. Post synced dialogue, foreign dialogue or characters that speak in strange ways are present in a lot of the films, especially the most recent.

- Matthew Rooke, February 2019.