Change Your Image
screenplays-5
He�s produced, written and directed highly successful television programs on environmental and social issues and has made ratings winning television specials such as DOWN TO EARTH (89),
David has freelanced in film, television and multimedia since the early eighties.
He�s currently working on three features for FILM BUFF PRODUCTIONS. They are INTO HEARTLAND (A comedy/thriller road movie in the outback, based on the novel TRANSPLANTED by Melbourne author Sarah Myles) LETTERS TO NOWHERE (a mix of documentary and fiction with animated stories set inside Woomera Detention Centre in 2001/2) and has recently taken over the writing of a New Zealand project AROHA (formerly known as CAPESONG about a girl seeking her identity in Maori culture). David is developing his own feature HELL TO PAY and has a number of short film projects in development.
As a script editor, David analyses and assesses feature film scripts.
He�s made a study of writing for film and his workshops and seminars over the past decade are popular at Universities (Sydney, NSW and Macquarie); Community Colleges (Eastern Suburbs and City).
He�s toured major Australian cities running workshops in storytelling and writing for the screen. In 2003 he was invited by the Education Department�s Arts Unit to tour New South Wales with workshops for HSC and primary school teachers in storytelling and writing for short film.
His weekend workshop for the Drama Teachers� Association was highly regarded (see feedback).
His courses are attended by a range of participants from the film industry to HSC students to people who want to know how a script comes together.
As writer of the $4.2 million dollar FFC feature film �SHOTGUN WEDDING; he�s been guest speaker for workshops at the Film And Television School. His short film SWAT was voted best film and best screenplay at Brekfest at NSW Art Gallery in 1999.
In 1998, he was Writer in residence at Wollongong University with his three-act black comedy/satire on media USUALLY WELL INFORMED SOURCES.
The play was performed by graduate drama students at the university theatre and in a two-week season at Bondi Pavillion.
Trained as a reporter in newspapers, he spent two decades as a television reporter, chief of reporting staff, film story producer and documentary producer for the commercial networks NINE and TEN.
He�s written and directed over a dozen prime time documentaries and many hundreds of short form corporate and educational films.
He can be contacted at his e-mail address. All negotiations are done through his agent TIM CURNOW
Reviews
Så ock på jorden (2015)
why making sequels is a minefield
Kay Pollack's AS IT IS IN HEAVEN (in 2004) was an honest tribute to the redemptive power of music. Audiences responded and the film did strong box office. But HEAVEN ON EARTH is more like HELL IN THE CINEMA. It is endless emotional slapstick, the worst kind of manipulative soapy from a director so insecure and in need of a follow- up that he shovels story on top of story and revives characters to drain them of credibility and purpose until you want to shout at the screen. The structure is a mess, the ending is a sad attempt to force a bucket of syrupy feelgood and every emotional scene is milked until it is close to happy-happy porn. If you got enjoyment from AS IT IS stay well clear of H on E. The closing moments are sheer farce . .even Christ can't stay nailed to the cross for this film.
Shotgun Wedding (1993)
A comedy of errors, a nudge at authority, a bizarre piece of Aussie history, an urban larrikin legend
If you care about film, you need to ask what happened to a film like SHOTGUN WEDDING. There's plenty of bad films and Australia has made its share. One of the worst was called Australia. But Shotgun is not one of those films. It may not be a classic and there are holes to be picked but it is entertaining and dramatic and often very funny in poking fun at the police, the media and society in general. It disappeared without a trace, a bit like an embarrassing relative. It cost the Australian taxpayer $4.2 million and had a line-up of the best acting talent in the country. Aden Young and Zoe Carides are touching as the couple at the center of a ridiculous siege. The film is beautifully shot by Kim Batterham and the story is loosely based on the Glenfield siege in the mid sixties when a man held his girlfriend hostage (there was no baby involved in the original). The principal characters are strong and vulnerable as they face the ludicrous and inappropriate weight of authority on their doorstep. Its theme is of the frightened larrikin who accidentally takes on the full and corrupt weight of Aussie society in the Sixties. Where did the film go? To a distributor in Brazil, to a couple of festivals and to be shown once or twice on television. Then it was forever, buried. It went on to videotape but never made it to DVD. Its little wonder the Australian film industry struggles for recognition. Seek it out, take a look, its a film worth your time. Who says so? Its writer!