Albany director Adam Morris starts shooting second feature film Frank and Frank in the Great Southern

George Corke’s sculpture-filled Mt Barker home and woodworking studio was transformed into a movie set on Tuesday, as award-winning Albany writer-director Adam Morris started shooting his second feature film, Frank and Frank. A crew of five huddled under umbrellas beneath a relentlessly drizzly Great Southern winter sky to capture scenes for the new “platonic love story” starring acclaimed WA-born actors Trevor Jamieson and Myles Pollard. Despite the stars only meeting for the first time on Saturday, they have become fast friends, with Morris likening their dynamic to an “an old married couple”. Frank and Frank follows faith and finance guru Frank Solomon during a visit to the region to speak at a convention. Amid a relationship breakdown, he meets Frank — an artist, womaniser and philosopher living in a rundown caravan on the back of the property. “The film is all about art and healthy masculinity, all set down here in the Great Southern in Mt Barker and Albany,” Morris said. “It is basically a platonic love story set inside a comedy.” Morris, an Albany-based author and musician-turned-director, said it was “unbelievable” to have Jamieson and Pollard on board. “To have two world-class actors is incredible — a dream come true,” he said. Dunsborough-based Pollard — best known for his roles on McLeod’s Daughters and Home and Away — joined the project on the back of two recent homegrown films, How to Please a Woman and war epic Before Dawn, filmed near Esperance. Esperance-born Jamieson is a playwright, singer, dancer and actor with more than 25 years of experience on stage and screen including roles in Rabbit-Proof Fence, Storm Boy and Bran Nue Day. Morris said ideas for Frank and Frank had been “percolating” for about two years before he sat down to write the script over three months. It follows his debut film Edward and Isabella, which made waves last year, winning the top prize at the WA Screen Culture Awards and winning several international awards including best feature film at the Prague International Film Festival, the Naples International Film Awards and the Swedish International Film Festival. It also earned Morris the award for best director at the Tokyo Film Festival. The independent romance was shot across 18 days in the Great Southern on a self-funded budget of $15,000 starring Chloe Hurst and Daniel Barwick. Morris said it was his goal to make a film in the region every year, using local talent in front of and behind the lens, and quintessential Great Southern landscapes as the backdrop to his writing. “You can write as if you are not in Albany but Albany always has a way of photobombing the whole movie,” he said. “It just has a way of imposing itself on the film so you just surrender to it and no matter where you pick, you are somewhere incredible. “We have got the talent in front of the camera and behind the camera in Western Australia. “We can do everything right here in our own backyard, so why not use it?” After meeting Mt Barker carpenter-turned fine woodwork artist Corke in 2019, Morris said he knew he needed to find a way to incorporate his Corkescrew Gallery into his films. Corke gave the actors a crash course on woodworking in his workshop before they filmed scenes amid the sawdust on Tuesday. “George is like the Da Vinci of the Great Southern region — his artwork is just incredible,” Morris said. “It’s great to be able to celebrate a male artist who makes incredible work.” Frank and Frank’s intensive three-week filming schedule started on Monday, and Morris said he hoped to have the edit complete by February 2023 ahead of a mid-year release. The small crew includes sound and lighting technicians Lauchlan Gillet and Kin Lofts, editor Talarah Pedrocchi Roelofs, and Morris’ son Finn. “We only usually have a couple of people in front of the camera and a couple of people behind the camera — it’s nice and cosy,” Morris said. “All we have to concentrate on is the performance, and it is a real gift in that sense.” Morris said the community had come together to make the film happen, raising more than $50,000, and volunteering resources and locations, while the Hilton Garden Inn Albany was putting up the actors for the project’s duration. “It wouldn’t have been able to happen without the community support that we have got here,” he said. Despite having to brave filming on a chilly 5C Mt Barker day in just a T-shirt, Pollard said the “WA boys” were raring to “put in the elbow grease” and bring Morris’ unique style of writing to life. “We are both playing Frank — Frank 1 and Frank 2 — a couple of knockabout lads who meet each other and they formulate a bit of a bromance,” he said. “I suppose (Trevor), helps my character through a bit of a personal crisis. “It’s a bit of a friendship film, really. “It’s black comedy, it’s really philosophical, really witty dialogue as well — it’s psychological. “It is a pretty brutal schedule, it is independent filmmaking, so it is low-budget. “So it is all driven by essentially performance and story, and lucky enough Adam Morris’ story is pretty amazing. It’s beautiful — I suppose almost Woody Allen-esque. A lot of dialogue, exposition. “So there is nowhere to hide when you are doing this sort of filmmaking, it is all performance and all story — which we are really excited to be a part of.” For Jamieson, the journey back to WA’s south has been a homecoming, jumping straight off the plane to visit relatives in Albany. He said he was eager to sharpen his skills and produce something that celebrated WA. “I have a lot of relatives in Albany and I grew up in Esperance . . . so it is pretty much like home for me,” he said. “There’s a sense of belonging because I have got a lot of rellies around the place.” Jamieson said apart from flexing his comedic muscles in the quirky leading role alongside Pollard, he was excited to taste, see and experience everything the region had to offer. “Albany is my favourite place — the food, the atmosphere — it is all about what the community has to offer,” he said. “We get to experience and help to bring out those resources through what is being filmed and the storylines Albany writers or film directors have got to offer. “I get to have an inside look at what is happening, especially after the pandemic, and see a lot of great new works come out of these communities. “I am just really, really happy to be here. It is more like a working holiday. A big shout-out to the community of Albany. “I can’t wait to see you out on the streets somewhere.”