David Black interviews Nick Koniuszko for the Australian Short Film Network Journal
The last time I saw Nick was in between the current lockdowns at the cast and crew screening of his film “Incident Report” at the Lido Cinema. I first met Nick way back at one of the Boogie Nights short film nights when I was blown away by his short film, “Rose”. He’d produced it in his final year of study on his Screen Production course at Holmesglen Tafe.
I’m lucky enough to be chatting to Nick today for The Australian Short Film Network Journal.
DB – Hi Nick. Thanks for taking the time to chat to me today. I’d like to start off with what got you interested in filmmaking? Also, how did you follow that up that interest with study?
NK – You’re welcome, David. I’ve always loved movies as far back as I can remember. I grew up renting VHS films maniacally as a kid in the 90's. Stuff from Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis, George Lucas and in particular James Cameron. Pretty much anybody connected to the FX house Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) co-incidentally was something that I just gobbled up.
I loved storytelling and enjoyed creative writing when I was in school. When it was time to consider University in 2004 I wanted to bounce between scriptwriting, novel writing and filmmaking. And after a slight miss-turn of doing a year of Architecture, I knew that storytelling professionally was the path for me.
After I got my diploma in Professional Writing and bachelor in Screen Production from Holmesglen, I founded my production company, Ballistic Ink Productions. My first project was one that was the recently screened zombie short called Incident Report.
DB – In 2017, you start to get quite active in making films. You made a couple with very interesting titles, “Getting Laid” and “Hungry, Cole?” Can you tell us a bit about those?
NK – When Incident Report was in post - we were editing at the time - I got involved on a few other shorts in various roles for experience. Getting Laid was straight after I wrapped on Incident Report and it was a comedy that my friend Matt Bolin was making for his final year film at JMC Academy. My favourite part of that production was having the pleasure of working with Australian comedy actor Mark Mitchell who everyone knew as Con the Fruiterer. That was really fun!
Hungry, Cole? Was the project where everyone forgets to add the comma and the question mark in the title and it was a little idea that tied into another zombie short that I was working on called Little Miseries. It was shorter than a short and was a little prequel idea to Little Miseries that I wrote the script for in an hour. I’m happy with the camera work that I co-directed on, especially the last shot that I directed where actor Callum Gault was gurgling on his blood in a POV shot.
DB – Let’s cover a couple more now … in 2018, you did “The Devil You Know” and “A Frayed Knot”, amongst others. Let’s just zoom in on those two. Please enlighten us with some details.
NK – Those two shorts were projects that were being filmed simultaneously during the 2018 48 Hour film competition. There was an idea between the two teams that knew each other to film a scene of their shorts in the same location like a criss-cross effect between the two stories. So our characters would appear in their scene and they would appear in ours. Not sure if it helped our chances of winning but it was a fun idea. The benefit was I got a second film credit on two shorts instead of one!
DB - I’m going to skip ahead from 2019 – 2021, despite there being a nice little collection of films there because I’d like to cover “Incident Report”. It was quite some time in the making and you had some amazing props in that. It must have felt great to finally have this film out and to see it on the big screen at Lido!
NK – It was quite a time! Six years from start to finish! When it was finally shown on the big screen it was a huge relief. Seeing all that work finally come full circle after many years and showing the cast and crew what they had worked so hard for was really something.
I had a bit of an idea of what the props were going to be in the short. I always had a strong appreciation for production design being a left-handed visualist so I did a few rough sketches that I’m glad everything almost matched what I was looking for. There was always questions of ‘What do the characters carry that tell us about their job?’ and ‘If zombies are a threat to a functioning town, how are people warned?’ and that’s where the zombie warning sign - inspired by bushfire signs - come from.
A lot of stuff was sourced all over. Places online like eBay gave us obscure items like meat hooks and injection guns used on livestock. A tactical store called LEGear in Clayton got us the tactical gear like pouches and webbing for the characters. Character clothes came from Kmart and the pouches came from an American custom emblem store. And then something rare like zombie heads was done by the talented people at Sharp FX in Springvale who also did our zombie makeup.
And lot of that stuff is still in my garage!
DB – OK Nick …. You have come a long way since I first met you, so now I want to know where you are going? What are your future plans?
NK- Moving forward I want to focus mainly on directing. I’ve done a lot of producing, assistant directing and being in the art department, and I want to set my sights on being in the helm. I have a few projects lined up. Coming up is an action short that I’m writing and directing and without giving details away, it’s got a unique hook that I’m excited about. It’s not as complex to make like Incident Report but it’ll have its challenges.
I’m still writing as well. I’m working on an anthology of short stories from horror, science fiction and thriller. Stephen King , H.P Lovecraft and manga artist Junji Ito have been massive influences on the works.
DB – Where can our readers follow your work?
NK - People can follow my work through my production company Ballistic Ink. I have an Instagram, a Twitter, a Youtube channel and on Facebook. Simply type ‘Ballistic Ink Productions’ into Facebook and you’ll be right there.