The Christie Brothers
February 20 1673 - The firts recorded wine auction was held in London 1952 - African Queen film directed by John Huston, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn (pictured above) is released in the United States
W
hen you hear the acceptance speeches at the Oscars or simply take the time to watch just how many names appear when the credits roll on any movie, it became apparent how many people it takes to put together a feature film. And while they are not quite at that level yet, Hamilton film making brothers Haavard and Edvard Christie are a formidable team that have based their movie making business in their home town of Hamilton, showcasing local landmarks and utilising local talent.
“It’s very much the two of us working on everything,” Haavard said. “You compare that to the thousands and thousands of people that work on big films.” Last year, the brothers premiered their first feature film – a crime drama that had three sold out shows at the Hamilton Cinema, where people had to be turned away, and also had a showing at Port Fairy’s Reardon Theatre. It has also been sent to other venues across Australia on request. Hang On To Your Hanger-Ons followed a series of short films and the brothers revelled in working on the feature length project. Older brother Haavard is the ideas man who takes the lead in the writing and directing and also does the sums, while Edvard brings the technical expertise, having worked in almost
every area of film making over his young career, which was kickstarted into action during Year 12 at Monivae College, where he completed a media course. Both have also had their time
Filming to shine in front of the camera. “So far, we are pretty much always on the same page, so in the end, we basically have 50-50 say but it does seem for the most part, we know what we don’t like and know what we like and we don’t really argue where that’s concerned,” Edvard said. Edvard then spent 18 months in Melbourne gaining a wealth of experience across the film industry including cinematography, sound, visual effects and producing, while Haavard completed a 12 month Diploma of Screen & Media but the brothers, since setting up their production company Hei Mary Productions, swear by learning on the job. “When I moved back to Hamilton we basically decided to invest in ourselves and that’s why we set up our own production company,” Edvard said. “We are lucky we have a really good set up at home with an office to work out of.” “The traditional way is to work your way up the ladder working on other people’s films but for us it has been better starting as writers and directors,” Haavard said. “We both believe we have learnt far more from hands on experience, experimenting ourselves and there is so much you can learn off the internet. We have also been fortunate that people we met in Melbourne have been happy to help us as much as we ask them.” And while they have had those helping hands, their work has had a strong local flavour in terms of locations and on screen talent. “Shooting the film in Hamilton and the surrounding areas was both familiar and chaotic,” Haavard said.
“It was quite a different experience and while we knew all the locations we were using really well, getting from point A to point B was sometimes tricky.” Using local talent also added to the challenge of streamlining shooting. “They were mostly people with regular day jobs so we had to work around that,” Haavard said. But what they do know was having shot the film locally and using local talent added to the buzz around the film and the sense of anticipation
is generated among the South West Victorian community. “I think people were really excited by the fact we could make a full length feature film on this scale in regional Victoria,” Haavard said. “We knew we could make it happen if we were willing to put in enough time and effort,” Edvard said. And that is basically their mantra going forward which is why they have committed 100 per cent to making a success of this foray into film production. The initial script for Hang On To Your Hanger-Ons was put to paper in 2017 and what started as a 60 minute film after script re-working ended up a 93 minute feature film that took around three months to film before post
1962 - John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth, aboard Friendship 7 - he orbited the Earth three times on that mission.
production and the eventual October 2019 release. The duo are the sons of renowned conductor Angus Christie and so music and creativity have always been a part of their lives. “The music in our films is really important to us,” Edvard said. “We have managed to find some amazing bands with great music that are not that well known and they have been absolutely thrilled to be utilised in our film.” And in the instance of the The Swingin’ Hi-Tones, who were featured in Hang On To Your Hanger-Ons, Hei Mary Productions has also garnered future work and has now produced a music video for the group. Film making looks set to take up at least the nest few chapters of the Norwegian born brothers’ story but they also had a successful basketball chapter as juniors. “We were both really crazy about basketball,” Haavard, who graduated from the Australian College of Basketball in Melbourne, said. “But it didn’t seem to matter how hard you worked, you didn’t always get the reward – with film making that has been different – we really see reward for effort.”
NEVER LOOKED OR FELT BETTER - THE VALUE OF WEIGHT TRAINING “Engaging our muscles and challenging them allows us to burn more fat and sculpt the body. Strength training has made me the leanest I’ve ever been, and then you combine that with getting your steps in and the results start manifesting very quickly.” Olympia Valance (Australian Women’s Health)
IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE - IT PROBABLY IS...!! Be very wary of trades with prices that are too good to be true. If you get at least three quotes for every aspect of the works you will get a good cross section of pricing and skill. Film on screen at full Hamilton Theatre lifestyle1.net | 10