MEET THE FILMMAKERS: MARK TOIA

Part 11 of The Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival IN CONVERSATION Series, hosted by Festival Director and Screen-Space Managing Editor, Simon Foster.

MONSTERS OF MAN (Australia, 130 mins) WORLD PREMIERE A robotics company and a corrupt CIA agent position themselves to win a lucrative military contract, illegally dropping four prototype androids into the infamous Golden Triangle to perform a live field test on unsuspecting drug lords . But volunteer doctors providing aid to locals witness the murder of a village and become the targets.

Screening as the OPENING NIGHT film of the SYDNEY SCIENCE FICTION FILM FESTIVAL.

Full ticketing information and session details available here. 

SSFFF: What have been the science-fiction works – books, films, art of any kind – that have inspired your work and forged your love for the genre?

MARK: I don't really read science fiction books but I do watch a lot of science fiction movies. I’m a big fan of the way Ridley Scott does sci-fi. His production values, world building and epic storytelling is always inspirational. A really well done sci-fi film is when a director goes for current day realism, rather than over the top Hollywood gloss. The more real the movie is, the more believable it is and the more immersed in it I become. Films like Sunshine, Ex Machina, Arrival, The Martian and District 9 really caught my attention. With Monsters Of Man I wanted to try and establish a reality; if this did happen, how would our heroes react in this situation?  It's something I asked each of the actors, and all of them said they would just run and scream or freeze and be killed. So that's sort of what we did, because it's a real life human reaction. Also, if a human is thrown across the jungle and they are wrapped around a rock, 99.9% of the time that person in real life would be dead or terribly injured. In a lot of movies they get up, dust themselves off and keep on swinging. So that's something I didn't really want to get into. I didn't want to get into this fake world where everyone was very tough and ‘Hollywood invincible’.

SSFFF: How did the original concept for your film take shape? What aspects of your film’s narrative and your protagonist’s journey were most important to you? 

MARK: The original concept took shape in the back of a van in the middle of Vietnam. I was just playing around with a friend, thinking of movie ideas, and I decided to head down the robot route because I like sci-fi. I enjoyed movies like Predator and Terminator as a kid and even though they were big giant Hollywood blockbusters, I always thought it would be nice to do a bit of a real-world version of those. Our story is completely different [but] the genre is the same - an alien or a monster chasing a whole bunch of people around trying to kill them.  People in a panic trying to survive through a merit of different scenarios; that always makes for great edge-of-the-seat storytelling.

SSFFF: Were the resources, facilities and talent pool required to bring your film to life easily sourced?

MARK: It was easy to cast our film. Obviously there are thousands of aspiring actors out there, ready to throw their life on the line to get a great role in a movie to build their body work up to prove to the world how awesome they are (laughs) I was pretty much doing the same thing. I didn't want to just cast in Australia, so I spread our casting net out into America as well. I wanted to dig deep into the talent pool around the world because our movie was technically full of international doctors and I so I wanted to have a more international cast, French, German, American, Aussie, etc. We had well over 2000 people self tape / cast for the film, and we broke it down to the group that put everything into their characters. I was so blessed, so lucky to have actors that were so talented, they made my life so easy. Everyone knew their  lines; there was no dicking around, no bullshit, no egos, everyone got on. I was very fortunate. (Pictured, below; Jessica Blackmore, in Monsters of Man)

SSFFF: Describe for us the very best day you had in the life cycle of your film…

MARK: We were quite fortunate because every day was like the best day. It was like a holiday for me. Wrapping the shoot was probably the most disappointing day because I didn't want it to end (laughs). Starting and finishing the edit, great day. Selling the film, [dealing with] sales agents and distribution companies, not so good days. Deciding to self distribute my own film was a good day. I think finally releasing the film will be a good day. When you fund your own film, you can dictate a lot of the rules, which makes life a whole tonne easier. I think if there are lots of fingers in the pie, a lot of producers telling you how to suck eggs, and a lot of executives telling you how to direct a movie…[that] would probably drive me nuts. But doing it the way we did it was a complete and utter holiday, very enjoyable, lots of fun. And I think that fun and excitement translates on the big screen. 

SSFFF: Having guided your film from idea to completion, what lessons and advice would you offer a young science-fiction filmmaker about to embark on a similar journey?

MARK: It's great to think big, to be ambitious. But my advice is when you haven't got much money, only attempt what you know you can execute well. The modern audience is very well versed and spoiled with amazing content with great production value. If you do a substandard job it will be pointed out very quickly and it will reflect in obviously bad sales and online chitchat.  Movies can be small and simple, but they still have to be well executed.  Making a sci-fi film is quite tough because there's lots of visual effects that need to be completed and if you can't do those well, then don't do it. That's my only advice. Funding the film, producing a film, executing a film and selling a film are all very tough and tedious things to do. So any person that is able to make a good solid film is a winner in my book.