We thought you should meet Penny Vozniak, the unsigned new director who has been making documentaries in Afghanistan and India and has now shot a stunning music video for fellow Australian singer Appleonia. Bigger budgets would of course help but with imagination and lots of grit Vozniak has created magic.
We heard you shot an unplanned documentary on David Lynch’s daughter Jenny in India. How did that come about?
My friend, Govind Menon, is a Bollywood producer/director. I was passing through Mumbai on my way to Kabul where I have a project in development and he asked me to baby-sit the daughter of an American director who he’d just signed to a film. The director was Jennifer Lynch (Boxing Helena, Surveillance). We hit it off so well that I decided to stay and shoot some DVD extras footage for their movie Hisss.
After a few weeks I knew there was a bigger story there. Little did I realise what was about to unfold. I was planted right at the epicentre of what can only be described as a Bollywood Hollywood Odyssey. It was just a case of being in the right place at the right time and having the freedom to say ‘HELL YES!’
Jenny Lynch in Despite the Gods
At what stage are you with the film?
I have just begun the process of post-production on Despite the Gods. It’s a film for the international market and I have a producer in Europe currently working on funding opportunities.
When did you first realise you wanted to direct?
To be honest, I never actually set out to direct. I just found myself doing it on my own projects out of sheer necessity. The things I wanted to make necessitated that I could camera operate, sound record and edit. My skills as a director evolved along the way. I’m still evolving as a director, with every project I’m put through the wringer, but in a good way!
I did not consider myself a director until about a year into the shoot of my first documentary, when I realised that by default, I was the director. I was absolutely desperate to make this film, so it made perfect sense for me to quit my job, grab a camera, and jump on a plane.
As you do… what was driving you?
I visited Kabul a few years ago on a research grant from Documentary Australia, and I fell in love with the people and the country. My project there is a documentary-musical, best described to a Western audience as ‘Footloose’ in Kabul. It’s a modern-day story about young Afghans in love, rebellious rock and roll, and how music binds us to each other and our worlds.
After visiting Afghanistan in 2007 and living with local filmmakers and their families, I really wanted to make a film about Kabul that didn’t focus upon Taliban, burkas, or bombs. A film that is heart-warming and (gasp!) entertaining in its documentation of the unseen daily lives of people living in war-torn capitals like Kabul.
And now this terrific music video. We have to ‘fess, we did wonder during the first frames of Appleonia’s It’s Not So Precious whether it was going to be a benign, girly beauty spot and then we were captivated. How did you talk the singer into it?
The whole process was very symbiotic. Jessica Chapnik Kahn (Appleonia) and I have been friends for a while and she suggested that we make a clip together to cheer me up! I was feeling down on my craft and between documentary shoots. I jumped at the chance to try something I’d never done before. I love her musical style, it’s unique.
The single-take, one-shot music video or short film is a lovely risk-taker and I was already a fan of this style. You get happy accidents that could never be staged.
The concept hinged upon Jessy’s performance. But after a few tests I learned not to worry that the clip would drag or that we would need more happening in the frame. Her beauty is simply captivating; once she’s in the frame you can’t look away.
We experimented for weeks, some great ideas were born, while others were best forgotten! You can see the evolution on You Tube:
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Are those real darts you’re chucking at her and, no, not potting soil?
Yes, real darts! Jessy pulled apart a feather duster and made these beautiful darts to look like arrows. Every re-set took around nine hours (cleaning up flowers, glitter, soil, plus Jessy had to shower and dry her hair etc), so I was under great pressure to land these darts within the frame and not hit her beautiful face!
Potting soil, yes it is. I was lucky to work with an artist who was so willing to get messy.
And what sort of kit and rigging did you use?
We shot the clip on a Canon 7D because we needed to shoot at 50 frames, and because you get a great look without breaking the budget. We used a Zeiss prime lens.
The smoke and mirrors type of effects are what interest me as opposed to CGI and effects that are added in post. So playing with perspective, gravity, time, illusion etc, that’s what we wanted to explore.
Appelonia was a truly indie production. It was all shot in a tiny lounge room, which always blows my mind. During the two weeks of production we had glitter in our hair, clothes and in our food.Twelve months after I can still see glitter on the driveway to their apartment.
Jessy’s husband (Nadav Kahn) was the entire crew and together we threw everything at Jessy in double time. We’d drive around the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney at night, sneaking into people’s front gardens to pick flowers. Because we only bought one box of apples, I had to hand-wash the glitter off each apple after every take.
I didn’t look at the frame for the entire clip…I kid you not. It was high up on a tripod accessible only by a stool. It was a ‘set and forget’. So when we’d sit and watch the result on the computer, it was like we were all seeing it for the first time together.
It’s easy to get stuck in ‘the waiting place’ as filmmakers, as Dr Seuss warns. I see the value now of using what you have at your disposal, putting your skills to the test and just forging ahead. No one was more surprised than we were that it turned out so well.
Did you attend film school or are you self taught?
Primarily I’m self-taught. I have done a few short courses to sharpen my technical skills over the years, but by far the majority of my knowledge has come through trial and error on my own projects. I find it more rewarding.
What’s your five-year plan?
This year I’ll make at least two more music videos for Appleonia, and complete a couple of the documentaries on my slate: Despite the Gods and Extra Ordinary: This is Not a Superhero Movie.
For me, the sanest approach to creative work is to pencil in plans but be 100 percent willing to jump tracks and adapt at any point along the way.
That being said, in five years I’d like to be making the music videos for Appleonia’s second album, and have a base, with room for a piano, somewhere in Northern Europe closer to the creative projects I have on that side of the world.
I can just hope for some happy accidents between now and then.