WORDS JAMES JENNINGSDominic West lends his acting
skills to a short fi lm competition
that pairs amateur fi lmmakers
with seasoned Hollywood talent
THERE’S CERTAINLY NO shortage of
short fi lm competitions in the world, but few offer
the prize spoils that come with Jameson First Shot.
Since its inception in 1998, the competition has
been open to aspiring fi lmmakers from several
countries (Australia included), offering the chance
to have their short script produced by Hollywood
player Dana Brunetti (Captain Phillips, The Social
Network) and cast with a bona fi de star to fi ll lead
role duties (previous years have seen the likes of
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Adrien Brody and Uma
Thurman take part).
This year Dominic West (The Affair, The Wire)
was in the hot seat, playing roles in the short fi lms
of the winners: Sydney’s Alice Cogin (The Finish
Line), London’s Ollie Wolf (Five Star Faoud) and
Ontario’s Jason Manella (A Funny Thing Happened
To Kelly And Ted). After a lavish premiere of the
shorts at Paramount Studios in Hollywood in
November, Empire sat down with West and the
winners to talk fi lmmaking on the fl y...
The winners were in LA shooting mere days after
fi nding out they’d won. How long did the shoots
run for?
Dominic West: Two days each, so it was fast.
And I really like fast, but Jesus this was fast. I’ve
done a lot of episodic telly, which is about as fast
as things get where things become a well-oiled
machine. And to come in and just have a
complete bunch of strangers nail a short fi lm,
it’s quite an achievement. So It was bloody fast
and they were really sink or swim.
Ollie Wolf: Sank. We all sank [laughs].Dominic, what was the appeal of taking something
like this on?
DW: If you’ve done a lot of episodic telly it
becomes a bit automatic and you lose sight of
why you enjoy it. And then working with these
guys and there being an obligation to serve them,
rather than serve one’s self, which is normally my
obligation. It’s a really much more dynamic
environment creatively. It’s a real shot in the arm.
It’s an exciting environment because everyone is
trying to make it as good as possible and these
guys are coming up with something very fresh,
and very singular that they want to express, and
we’re trying to facilitate that.Do you think short fi lms are a viable way for
creatives to break into the industry?
DW: I’m a bit out of the loop, but it always
certainly used to be and I think if you look at
whoever won the short fi lm Oscar in the last fi ve,
10 years, it’s probably been a very good way in. It
was always traditionally the way to do it. I don’t
know what you do now with all your social
media things going on that I don’t understand!Filmmakers — how was it having to create
something under such intense pressure?
Alice Cogin: It’s both good and bad that it
happened so fast. If you had longer to stress
about it, you’d have longer to stress about it.
Whereas you had less time to stress about it and
you just had to do it. So it was an awesome
experience. It was very short and probably there
will be no other time that it will be so short, but I
think at the same time you learn so much in such
a short period of time.
OW: It was just great. I think that sometimes you
can have too long to overthink something and I
think it was just enough time. I was very lucky, I
shot last so I had more time than the other two. I
really felt for Jason [who shot fi rst]. I couldn’t
have done what he did.
AC: We had like fi ve more days than Jason.
Jason Manella: It was great because I got to, like
these guys said, I didn’t have a chance to think.
So it really was a test for me in decision making.
I had to make really clear, really quick decisions.
I had to compromise some things, but fi ght for
others and I think just with the time constraint
I was able to collaboratively make something that
I had originally thought was going to be “my
fi lm”, and it’s turned out for the better.What’s next for you three?
JM: I love doing it all because I direct, I write, I
act. Going forward and creating my own content
from a writing, directing point of view is the way
that I’d like my career to go.
OW: I’d love to make a feature fi lm. I think that’s
the goal, to sort of explore a longer form story,
but I think TV is really exciting as well.
AC: I want to just keep learning to direct. I think