INTERVIEW with Sally McLean
An award-winning multi-hyphenate creative, Sally McLean began her work in the entertainment biz as an actor in her mid-teens and has since performed lead, guest and supporting roles in numerous Australian, US and UK film, theatre and television productions. Sally created her own boutique production business, Incognita Enterprises, under the Honorary Patronage of Oscar® nominated actor, Sir Nigel Hawthorne KB, CBE in 1997 – an association that continued until his passing in 2001.
INTERVIEW WITH SALLY McLEAN
How long have you been doing movies? How did you decide to start making movies?
I have been an actor in Australia (and the UK) for 30+ years, working in mainstream film, TV and theatre, so I have been involved in screen projects since I was a teenager. After attending drama school in London, we were encouraged to create our own work to keep our acting skills sharp, and so I moved into writing screenplays and producing short films. In 2015, I discovered the world of web series and decided to create “Shakespeare Republic”, my first full web series, which I also directed. So, I’ve been involved in film and TV for a long time now!
Why did you do this project?
“Dark Arcadia” is an extension of my web series “Shakespeare Republic”. I wanted to play with Shakespeare’s works a bit more in my adaptation of his text and mix up his characters and plays to tell a new story, but still using his original words. And so, “Dark Arcadia” was born.
Was it self-funded or did you get budget/producers/investors?
The series was partially self-funded, with additional grants from Creative Victoria, the City of Melbourne, Creative Australia and the British Shakespeare Association. We also crowdfunded for the project through the Australian Cultural Fund.
How long did it take from the initial idea to being able to release?
I had the initial idea for “Dark Arcadia” back in 2019, and wrote the first draft of the script as well, but circumstances at the time caused it to be put away and I never really thought it would get made. Then in 2023, I had another look at it and decided to go for funding grants in one last effort to see if there was any interest. To my surprise, we got all the grants we applied for and were filming a few months later.
Are you happy with the result?
I’m really proud of everyone’s work on “Dark Arcadia”. We shot the whole thing in 3 days, and only had 12 hours on set each day, due to limitations at the location and limits in the budget, which is crazy. The series runs just over 27 minutes in total, which means we were shooting 9 minutes of screen time a day, on location, which is a lot! The cast and crew were absolute troopers and did such beautiful work in front of and behind the camera. Special shoutout to all my fellow cast who were a delight to direct and to my fellow producers: Billy Smedley, Sass Pinci and Phoebe Anne Taylor (who were also acting in the series) and Christopher Kirby. I couldn’t have done it without their hard work and exceptional support. The series has won several craft awards and nominations as well as acting awards, including Best Costumes (for Jill Johanson) and Best Composer (for Sass Pinci) and I’m just so glad that so many of the team have been recognized for their excellent work on the festival circuit.
What phase is this project in right now? Are you in the initial phase of sending it to festivals, middle phase or finishing the circuit?
Dark Arcadia is finishing its festival run at the moment.
How has your experience been with the festivals so far? Where do you think they should improve?
We have had an incredible run with festivals, having won 30 awards for the work to date, which is amazing. As “Dark Arcadia” is a web series, most of the festivals we submitted to were web festivals, which were all brilliant to deal with and run so professionally and with so much support for the filmmakers. I am so grateful to all the web fests for the work they do and how involved they make the filmmakers feel, even if you can’t attend the festival in person.
The thing that surprises me with some standard film festivals is that they don’t announce nominees for their awards on socials, just the winners. It’s such a missed opportunity for the festivals to promote themselves. Filmmakers value nominations as much as wins, in my experience, and tend to share that news to their own social media, tagging the festivals, which, in turn promotes the festivals to new people. So that would be a suggestion I’d make to film festivals that don’t do that.
Could you tell us which platforms you use to submit your entries to festivals?
I predominately use FilmFreeway to submit my projects to festivals. But I have also submitted directly to festivals through their own websites.
Normally, filmmakers use many references, favorite directors, favorite movies, etc. Were you inspired by any director or film? If so, tell us your references.
I don’t consciously use film references or favourite directors, movies, etc as inspiration for my work. I think if you watch a lot of film and television (which I have), your own work will naturally be influenced by others. I find the trick is to work out what the story of your film or series is and then create your own aesthetic and storytelling style to support that. It will naturally be influenced by what you have watched and enjoyed as an audience member anyway, but as it’s now being expressed through you as a director, it will have it’s own unique flavour without you thinking too much about it.
Your favorite movie?
Too many to choose from and it changes all the time! If I had to choose from movies that were released this year, it would be Project Hail Mary.
Favorite series?
Again, this changes all the time. My current favourite is Ted Lasso.
Do you see yourself making movies in 5 years? Where do you see yourself?
I would love to be just focusing on my acting in 5 years’ time, but I do have a TV project that I’m developing as a writer, that would also include me acting in it, so hopefully I’m shooting a season of that in 5 years.
Do you have any other project in mind?
Many! I have too many ideas! But I’m working on developing a TV series, as I mentioned before, and re-drafting a film script that I have had on the shelf for a while as my main focus at the moment. I also have a podcast, “Musing on the Bard: a podcast for the Shakespeare curious”, which is about Shakespeare and acting, which I may do a second season of in the future.
What do you ask for the future? (cinematographically speaking)
I hope that human creativity will continue to be valued and supported in this world of growing AI. There is something about the spark of human creativity, in front of and behind the camera, that AI just can’t replicate which makes human made film and television so compelling. Human creativity is messy, unexpected and unpredictable and therefore, so alive and engaging. It’s why theatre still persists. So, I hope for a future where financial and practical investment is increasingly made in many, varied screen-based stories, created and made by human beings.