Director Statement

‘CLOWN STORY’ is a film loosely based upon an event I noticed as I was shopping in a mall. Two Clowns, rivals, began fist fighting in broad daylight. To the passing crowd this appeared humorous, even choreographed… up until the blood and clown noses began flying. 

I carried this incident in the back of my mind for a number of years, always wanting to base a drama upon this incident. I got the chance to realize my ambition and tell this story with producer and collaborator, Brendan Guerin. The film however had to have more substance than merely the incident I’d witnessed. It needed to sit within a story. I wrote several drafts, which progressively developed into the script that went into production. 

‘Clown Story’ is the time old tale of the circle of life, of young replacing old. With this subtext, I devised a story of an ageing clown, Noel, who gets confronted by a younger rival, who also happens to be his biggest admirer.

 In many ways, this story relates to all of us because at one point or another in our lives we all have felt threatened by a rival or even a close friend. With this universal quality I wish, I hope, ‘Clown Story’ attracts audiences from various countries and cultural backgrounds.        

Given my background in TV commercials and corporate films, "CLOWN STORY" (super 16mm, 18 mins) represented a more ambitious film project that would stretch me as a producer.

It provided an opportunity to form a new team and collaborate with a young filmmaker, Michael Adante, who showed considerable potential as a script writer.

I felt that my project management experience, coupled with Michael’s creativity and lofty film-making aspirations, would make for a great partnership.

For me, there are two story themes that emerged during script development and these were accentuated in the filming and editing stages.

 There is the theme that life is cyclical. Clown Story is a dark comedy about the changing of the guard as seen through the world of clowns. This theme is explored via the relationship between the young clown, Danny, and the older clown, Noel, who has long been a mentor for Danny. In the film’s closing scene we find that, with the passage of time, Danny essentially becomes Noel.

 The film also explores the theme that things aren’t always as they appear. In many ways, the clown is the perfect character to explore the deeper, sometimes darker issues that lie beneath the thick make-up, colourful costumes and superficial happiness of the classical clown. This underlying theme becomes more obvious when Noel falsely offers to help Danny with his puppet show and later in the fight scene when the crowd completely misinterpret the physical clash of the clowns.

Clown Story, with its multi-layered narrative, humour, flamboyance, paranoia, darkness and drama, has all the elements for a rich cinematic experience. 

As we were able to secure professional actors for the principal roles, we chose to shoot Clown Story on super 16mm film. We felt that digital video had a limited capacity to achieve the visual lushness needed to do this colourful story justice.  

The colour grading was done at Complete Post in South Melbourne and Mnemonic Audio in St Kilda created a score and final sound mix that really accentuates and embellishes the strong performances and striking imagery of the film.

To date, Clown Story has been accepted into the 2005 Snowy International Film Festival in Thredbo, New South Wales, and the 2005 Westgarth Film Festival in Northcote, Victoria and this year, the Bayside Film Festival in Brighton, Victoria.

 Given its universal themes, we hope that Clown Story might yet strike a chord with an overseas audience, perhaps in Europe where the classic whiteface clown is something of a cultural icon.