Only a week or so ago student filmmaker Josiah Mioni, a former Lancaster Primary School student, was whacking snags into a folded piece of buttered bread and offering condiments to those who took up the offer of supporting his cause.
Nineteen-year-old Josiah is in the final year of studying a Bachelor of Screen and Media, Cinematography and Film/Video Production at COLLARTS (Australian College of the Arts).
In order to complete the filmmaking component of his studies he was required to write a script.
That script, titled Garage Sale, was among three chosen by industry professionals to be produced.
A seven-minute-long film Garage Sale is loosely based on events that happened to Josiah, based on the relationship between the film’s star — Patrick — and his father, Wayne.
“There will be three speaking characters, the father and son, along with the guy running the garage sale.
“We will also cast a few extras in the background,” Josiah said.
He said he couldn’t remember all the specifics from the garage sale which inspired the work, but it was about 10 years ago.
The film is expected to be finished by January and will be released mid to late 2023, in time for the festival season.
In the meantime Josiah is working part-time at Vietnamese franchise Roll’d, returns home every couple of months and, on a part-time basis, plays guitar with a church band in Melbourne.
Three of his four siblings still live in Kyabram.
There are high hopes from some good judges that the film could feature at some of the world’s best-known short film festivals, includes Cannes, Sundance and Clermont-Ferrand.
Stars Wars’ creator George Lucas famously made a sci-fi short film in 1967 named Electric Labrynth as a University of Southern California student that launched him to fame, as did Tim Burton (behind two of the Batman franchise films) in 1984, with Frankenweenie.
Patrick is dragged along to a Saturday morning garage sale and the film explores the refuge he finds behind a gardening face shield.
Josiah is planning to take the short film on the festival circuit, not domestically and abroad, to raise awareness on the consequence of silence and how it affects relationships.
As part of the process he is also required to find backers for the film, to the tune of $7000. Those funds will offset the cost of actors, short film festival entry costs, props, set and costumes, along with the onset catering to keep the stars of the show in the manner to which they are accustomed.
Josiah is following in the footsteps of some famous Australian, and international, actors who have either attended, or worked, at the college.
Among those are ARIA Music award winners Jesse and Ella Hooper, of Killing Heidi and Violet Town fame, along with animated filmmaker Simon Ashford (The Silver Brumby and Balto) and Chrissie Vincent, behind some of the work by The Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Pete Murray.
The college was formerly known as AusMusic and now boasts a student body of 1200.
Josiah last year earned the support of Kyabram Community Bank, through its scholarship program, offsetting the cost of his tuition by $4000.
It was a fitting scenario that his sausage sizzling escapades were conducted just down the road from the iconic Plaza Theatre where many of the epic creations of his heroes have graced the big screen.
