After winning international acclaim for his short film, Newcastle film-maker Jye Currie has wrapped up filming on his first full-length feature, which he plans to take to audiences across Australia.
Beat follows Currie’s lauded short film Victim, which won 11 international awards.
“We finished production about nine days ago and will now be in the edit suite for the next five to six months,” said Currie, who wrote, directed and produced the film.
“It feels like a dream come true; it’s just phenomenal.
“Everyone who worked with me on the short film was stoked the full-length film dream came through into reality. To work on a feature film in your hometown alongside some of Australia’s best actors is a complete dream come true.”
Like his short film, Beat was filmed entirely in Newcastle with actors from all over Australia, including Alexandra Jensen, Rachael Carpani, John Wood, Alexis Lane, Ben Hall, Sebastian Szeszeran and Cleo Massey.
“The whole production took place here. We had actors come to Newcastle from across Australia. There were four from Victoria, two from Queensland, and around 15 actors from Sydney,” Currie said.
“So, it’s a proper Australian film all shot here in the Hunter, which is just phenomenal.”
Currie said he got lucky with the shooting schedule as filming had just finished before the COVID-19 outbreak began to worsen in Greater Sydney.
Portraying societal issues through creative film is something that Currie is passionate about, and like his last film, which explored themes of domestic violence, Beat delves into a plethora of different themes.
Currie said the film was a psychological drama that touched on the themes of self-suffering and suicide.
“It touches on the themes of homelessness and fame with the story driven by classical music,” he said.
“We follow a homeless man who plays and performs classical music on the street. We jump between his life and a young woman who plays and performs at theatres but gets a rise through fame.
“So, the film explores the contrasts between the two lives, where both characters go through very similar emotions, but some talent goes unnoticed because of social status and opportunity.”
Currie said this film was also a complete contrast to his first short film, where budget and access to resources played a big part in production quality.
“It was very different with the filming and production of this feature film. We had hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gear when the whole short film only cost us a couple of grand,” he said.
“We worked with some amazing professional actors, some who have over 30 to 40 years’ experience.
“We also had over 100 people working on this film, all contributing across multiple departments. So those factors all added to the overall production quality of the film.”
Victim was pushed through the film festival circuit last year and wasn’t released for public viewing until recently. Currie said the distribution of his full-length feature film would be approached differently.
“We aren’t pushing it through the film festival circuit as hard as the short film. There will be a few bigger festivals that we enter, but we are mainly focusing on cinemas and streaming services like Netflix,” he said.
“With this film, as soon as it’s ready to go, people can start watching it, and it’s just so exciting to be able to tell Australia this story.”
Currie said the film would take around 12 months to complete, from start to finish. The release date is expected to be around December this year.
While the community and Australia await Beat’s anticipated release, viewers can now watch Victim on the Green Frog Productions website.
Hayley McMahon
Congratulations on making a totally Australian movie, I can’t wait to see it.