Bringing Color Into a Black-and-White World With the Filmmakers of 'Pickpockets'

NFS: Tell us a bit about both of your filmmaking backgrounds. How did you both start working together?

Lucy Green: D.C. and I met when he was at film school, and I was an actor who happened to be in roughly 15 short films that year at his school. On one project, he was lighting assisting and stepped in for the actor opposite me, who had to leave early. D C. completely blew me away with his acting ability!

I couldn't believe he was hiding behind the camera. We struck up a friendship and had a consistent collaborative dynamic where, if we weren't writing/filming together, we'd be brainstorming and sharing our ideas for feedback and inspiration. It became the cornerstone of our friendship.

NFS: Tell us a bit about Pickpockets and how this film came to be.

LG: When D.C. finished filming his first film, Reaching Distance, he came to me with a short film project that was black and white, super sharp, and kind of mean-spirited, and asked me to act in and produce it with him. I told him I'd do it, but only if he played the other protagonist. We shot the film in a weekend for not much money, and the film went on to do really well around festivals.

The rom-com short feels like it should end on a kiss, but instead it ends on a betrayal... and yet, we found that audiences still rooted for these characters to get together. The feedback we consistently got was "So what happens next? Do they end up together?" We discovered that these characters clearly had a world around them that audiences were intrigued by and wanted to see through. So we started writing the feature film, using the slightly modified short film script as the first ten minutes of the feature.

D.C. Fairhurst: The hybrid B&W/Color aesthetic was informed by the story first and foremost. The pickpocketing sequences are all about Objective and Obstacle, and the colour pop gave us an instant tool to direct the audience to the object they intend to steal. And once we experimented further, we discovered it could be used to highlight Robin and Jesse’s relationship dynamic as well.

B&W also allowed us to depict a grungier, backstreets perspective on Sydney that isn’t typically shown in our film and TV (that can sometimes feel like a tourism commercial).

NFS: To expand on the above, what camera did y'all shoot on and why? Also, what was your editing and coloring workflow?

DF: We had an all Blackmagic workflow. We shot on an URSA with Canon cine lenses. Knowing how intense the hybrid grade would be, we cut the whole film inside DaVinci Resolve as well, so we could run grade tests as we edited and avoid any issues transferring between software.

The film was graded by Kali Bateman (Elvis), and she took things to a whole new level. The skills she has to emulate a film look were the cherry on top to make the movie feel like a true screwball comedy.

NFS: How have you found the Austin Film Festival and its focus on screenwriting?

LG: Being among all the incredibly talented writers here at Austin Film Festival has been such a joy - discussing story, plot, characters, and the writing process has been a huge gift at this point in our journey. Wearing as many hats as we do, we can get a bit lost in the weeds... but this trip has allowed us to revisit the year we spent writing this film. Agonising over Jesse and Robin: their desires, their obstacles, and the way they were written to both torment and complete each other.

NFS: If you could give any advice to up-and-coming filmmakers, what would you share?

LG: Make the film. Make mistakes. Fix what you can, accept what you can't. Get a self-care routine. Find your "why" so you can see it through to the end (even when it gets hard). Back yourself. And try to enjoy the moments as they're happening.

DF: It’s a cliché, but just go out and make movies with your friends as often as you can. We shot the short that kicked off the whole journey for $500 over a single weekend, and now we’re here accepting awards at AFF. You never know what project is going to snowball into something more, so use whatever you have on hand to make stuff and stay sharp in your craft.