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Filmmaker Josh Sambono: From note-taking to writing on Firebite and NCIS: Sydney
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We’re joined by filmmaker Josh Sambono, a Jingili man who is known for his expertise in the action and horror genres, who talks about how his early training in sound recording influenced him as filmmaker, working as a director's attachment with Taika Waititi on Thor: Love and Thunder, and how the years of effort, note-taking, small steps and seeming dead-ends all came together when he pitched to write his first episode of television on AMC+ series Firebite.
Josh has worked in writers’ rooms with companies including Bunya Productions, Blackfella Films and See-Saw Films. His First Nations horror short Suspect premiered at BIFAN 2020, and won Best Australian Short at Sydney’s A Night of Horror. He made his TV writing debut on the 2021 AMC+ vampire hunter series Firebite and was one of the six writers selected for the NCIS: SYDNEY S1 Script Department Program - he has since been working on season 2.
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Transcript
Introduction and Acknowledgement
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to Breaking Screen, a podcast about the Australian screen industry and the creative people within it. I'm your host, Karis Buzaka, and I'm recording this podcast from the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, where I'm very grateful to be a visitor and be able to work on these lands.
00:00:19
Speaker
Always was, always will be.
Guest Introduction and Industry News
00:00:22
Speaker
Today's episode will feature filmmaker Josh Sambono, but before we get to that chat, here's some news from the Australian screen industry. Tropfest is back after a six-year hiatus.
00:00:33
Speaker
Entries for the Short Film Festival will open December 1 to January 7 and need to be new seven minutes or less and feature the Tropfest signature item hourglass. The 16 finalists will have their films screened at Sydney's Centennial Parklands next February and stream live on YouTube globally with $100,000 prize pool on offer.
00:00:54
Speaker
Speaking of awards, Featured Documentary Songs Inside won the Cinefest Oz $100,000 Film Prize, while Australian production company Northern Pictures has won two Creative Arts Emmys for Season 3 of Love on the Spectrum US.
00:01:09
Speaker
And in some screen industry movements, production company Aquarius Films is closing after 18 years with co-founders Angie Fielder and Polly Staniford looking at individual creative pursuits.
00:01:21
Speaker
And Netflix has announced its new ANZ content director as Amanda Duthie, who has been head of originals at rival streamer Stan for the past four years. Also, a quick shout out that the animated feature Lesbian Space Princess is in cinemas this week.
00:01:37
Speaker
The writer-directors were meant to be on this week's episode, but I had to postpone the interview, so hopefully we'll get them on the pod soon. But in the meantime, you can check out the feature in cinemas from Thursday, 11th of September.
00:01:49
Speaker
And that's your news wrap up for now. Remember to head over to any of the Australian trade publications for more. Now to the chat with today's guest.
Josh Sambono's Filmmaking Journey
00:01:57
Speaker
We're joined on breaking screen by filmmaker Josh Sambono, a jingly man who is known for his expertise in the action and horror genres and has worked in writers rooms with companies including Bunya Productions, Blackfella Films and Seesaw Films, which is where we first met.
00:02:13
Speaker
His First Nations horror short, Suspect, premiered at Biffen 2020 and won Best Australian Short at Sydney's A Night of Horror. He made his TV writing debut on the 2021 AMC Plus Vampire Hunter series, Firebite, was director's attachment with Taika Waititi on Thor Love and Thunder, and he was one of the six writers selected for the NCIS Sydney Season 1 Script Department program and has since been working on Season 2.
00:02:43
Speaker
Throughout the episode, Josh talks about how his early training in sound has influenced him as a director, his takeaways as a working screenwriter, and how the years of effort, no taking, small steps, and seeming dead ends all came together when he pitched to write his first episode of television on Firebite.
00:03:02
Speaker
Here's that chat.
00:03:07
Speaker
ah So the question that we start off all of these interviews with, it's just about your inciting incident. As you know, we talk about inciting incidents a lot ah in screenplays. So if you were thinking about your career as a filmmaker, what would be your inciting incident?
00:03:25
Speaker
Yeah. So my earliest memory of childhood is going to see two movies. um One of them is Bambi and the other one is Batman, 1989, Tim burton Batman.
00:03:37
Speaker
which I think I was way too young to watch it. I would have been like five, but I fell in love with movies and what movies can do and how I felt coming home from that movie.
00:03:48
Speaker
And then every single Tim Burton movie that sort of came out after Batman, I was obsessed with. So, yeah know, Edward Scissorhands, all of those films, which is about these weird kind of outcast characters. And then Batman Returns was just sort of like a really hardcore,
00:04:04
Speaker
strange superhero movie, but turns out to be an endearing one that everyone still loves after all these years, no matter how weird it was. But yeah, so that time period from like 89 to, want to say 93, really shaped how I viewed the world.
00:04:22
Speaker
And so things that i watched over and over again were like Neverending Story and Gremlins and, you know, Goonies, is those kinds of films that,
00:04:33
Speaker
Around that same time, i used to watch The Young Ones a lot. don't that's too old a reference. Classic punk rock comedy. So from that moment onwards, seeing Batman and just these sort of swathe of, like, interesting films that were having an effect on me, i was feeling seen because they were weird and wonderful.
00:04:52
Speaker
And so from that point onwards, I don't know if I verbalised it yet, but I was always acting out movies with my soft toys, like really dramatic movies in there.
00:05:03
Speaker
Right. Really creative creative special effects. Like I have a doll's head explode and like water would shoot out and I pretend it was blood.
00:05:12
Speaker
these were these epic things that I would play with, but I couldn't film because I didn't have a phone or any camera at all. So I just assumed that, you know, filmmaking was for rich people.
00:05:23
Speaker
And then I was, I was like, okay, I'll just be a writer. So there's that there's that earliest memory. And then. I tried to become a writer. i went to do all the different writing courses and stuff.
00:05:35
Speaker
And then on my first day of Flinders University, we're running a creative writing degree. And they were like, well, you can't really make a career out of creative writing. And I was like, oh, I need a career.
00:05:47
Speaker
And then I changed to journalism. And my first day of journalism at UQ, and they were like, you're not here to tell stories. You're here to sell newspapers. That tells you how old my course was.
00:06:02
Speaker
And I was like, well, don't want to sell newspapers. I want to tell stories. um i was like, I don't know what I'm to do. So I was a teacher. ah did an English degree and then ah education degree.
00:06:13
Speaker
While I was ah working, i was very unfulfilled, very sad, struggling, loved kids, loved teaching, hate administrators. I hate the system.
00:06:24
Speaker
And... and I met another teacher who felt the same way. He was talking about how he wanted to make films and then that reawoke something inside of me that was like, yes, I want to do that too.
00:06:38
Speaker
and then I just, you know, it went part-time, got into Sydney Film School and then that kind of changed everything because it was all about, ah they were really kind of avant-garde about everything.
00:06:49
Speaker
ah learned how to edit using a Steam Beck, you know, touching the film. um I love that so much. So when you were at Sydney Film School, is that when it really cemented for you writing and directing? Oh, no, I wanted to be a director. I absolutely wanted to make films.
00:07:07
Speaker
But when I went to Sydney Film School, they were like, well, we don't have a directing course or a writing course. It's like everyone who comes here picks a trade and everyone learns how to write and direct through your trade.
00:07:21
Speaker
So I started off in editing was my trade. And, you know, I really enjoyed that. And then in order to stay on in the advanced diploma, after I finished my diploma, I had to pick something else.
00:07:34
Speaker
So you had to specialize in it in either production design, cinematography, or sound design. And so I was like, I picked sound design. So I did an advanced diploma in sound design and sound recording.
00:07:49
Speaker
in my second year at ah at film school. Because a lot of your early credits are in sound department. So I was wondering, working in sound, did that give you any takeaways that have helped with writing and directing?
00:08:04
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I'd always felt it, but it was verbalized in the course that sound is 50% of the film. And being on set,
00:08:14
Speaker
where your sound guys are being outright ignored and just me standing there with a boom, waiting eight hours for them to light it. And then I go to put a boom in like, you can't do that. I'm like, well, it's going to sound bad. All those things that indie filmmakers don't often think about or first time filmmakers or student filmmakers is, is your lighting going to help your mic placement?
00:08:36
Speaker
Is the frame going to help your mic placement? And checking with your sound guy so you know call cut check with your actors how they feel about it and then check the sound guy and that sound all right and you know the best sound guys are quite forthcoming and going no we're gonna they call cut and they'll say i hear a truck we're gonna cut now those guys are awesome um they get it they get it but i was not that guy and you know a lot of young sound guys aren't that guy either so yeah check with sound make sure that it's okay And also do a lot of watching.
00:09:08
Speaker
And so being on set as a recorder, you're watching everything. You're watching the actors. You're watching how the set is being put together because you've got a lot of time. I'm taking notes in my brain.
00:09:19
Speaker
And then working in the studio as a, not quite an engineer, but ah as an editor, sound editor, just cutting up and doing foley. i did a lot of foley on the first,
00:09:32
Speaker
horror movie that I wrote or was a writer of, The Quarantine Haunting, which is really interesting. And I learned how, you know, different sound projects are done. I'm so roundabout.
00:09:44
Speaker
A long story short, sound drives your horror. Absolutely. Like it's so important to give space for your sound and your sound design because it's what's going to drive the emotion that you want. So one of the things we learned early days of sound design is the psycho shower scene and why it's so effective.
00:10:10
Speaker
So you have a constant sound, which is a constant frequency, the sound of the shower. It actually mentally draws you into a false sense of security. But then you see the shadow of the guy coming and you're like, ee and your body's starting to have a reaction And then you hear as the shower curtain is pulled across, it's this stab of like high frequency sound, which cuts through your low frequency or shower scene.
00:10:41
Speaker
It takes you out of that security, like that high shriek of the curtain. And then it comes in with the stab of the music, which is at the same height, if that makes sense. It's the same kind and but all those things working together combined with your shots really create that drama and that real horror.
00:11:02
Speaker
And why that Shao Zin is still so good today, you know, it's quite, you know, really well done. yeah And another thing that my tutor once taught me is that what you hear and what you see equals what you think you saw, which changed my perspective as a filmmaker so that when you're putting in a sound effect in a scene that looks one way, it changes everything.
00:11:29
Speaker
So i I shot like an early days web series called Amy Denzig, which was kind of like a terrible sci-fi thriller action. and It was fun though.
00:11:40
Speaker
So there's a scene where she's holding this plastic gun, which has no moving parts, and she's kind of just sort of put pointing it at someone. But she did this little flick of her hand, just a little flick.
00:11:54
Speaker
And I added like a sound to her flicking the gun. And your brain sees the chamber move backwards, but it doesn't because it's a plastic gun with no moving parts, like a solid mass.
00:12:08
Speaker
But when you add that sound, and I'm sitting there in the editing room, sitting there on Pro Tools, putting that sound in. And watching it and um and seeing something that wasn't there before. It it literally wasn't there because it's impossible.
00:12:21
Speaker
So the the power of sound can make you see things that aren't there, which is fascinating to me. Jaws is a great example. The shark's broken.
00:12:32
Speaker
They can't make it work. So they just add that classic dun-dun-dun sound. plus your POV camera and you don't need your shark for, you know, 40% of the movie. fifty Yeah.
00:12:44
Speaker
Yeah. So I, so studying sound, I think but really paved the way for me to become a horror filmmaker. Like, cause it just really, yeah, really got me thinking about how it's going to affect the audience.
00:12:58
Speaker
And a lot of my early shorts in early edits, I practiced with a lot of different sounds and things and, how how it hurts people, like high-pitched sounds, and and and just making note of, like, reactions and going, I'm not going to do that again because it didn't work and it made people sad in, like, an angry way. Like, they're just like, I hate this movie.
00:13:20
Speaker
Yeah, yeah,
Transition from Teaching to Filmmaking
00:13:21
Speaker
yeah. it It made them so uncomfortable. Well, I suppose, yeah, we're talking about Sydney Film School and I do want to get to talk about, you know,
00:13:32
Speaker
Firebite and Thor, Love and Thunder and NCIS Sydney. But I feel like before we get there, it's just like how you got to that point, which is that yeah um the way that we met, for anyone listening, is – I was note taking in a writer's room that you were in with Seesaw Films and we kind of got talking a lot about, you know, note taking, things like that.
00:14:04
Speaker
And that was something that you said you also did for a while, note taking? Yes. um Was that kind of the step, you know, while you were making shorts and trying to get into writing and directing, was note taking part of the pathway there?
00:14:19
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I didn't know anything about the pathway. um It was just I was coming to the end of my advanced diploma and, you know, I ah was making this web series on the side, writing this horror film, like all that's done and dusted and it all felt good. And then I'm coming to the end and I'm like, I don't know what I'm going to do.
00:14:42
Speaker
And luckily, John Resk at the Sound Brewery was like, um work with me. Like I won like an internship. And so I worked there for six months as part of the part of the internship and then stayed on for another six, just um working on projects there.
00:15:02
Speaker
Also, as I was coming to a close, I kept having meters with my screenwriting tutor. And just like, I don't know how to get a job.
00:15:13
Speaker
don't know what that process is. And she's like, I'm going to introduce you to my friend, introduce me to, guess you'd call a script producer who was running a writer's room for Werner Productions and Blackfella Films teen drama series ready for this season. Oh, yeah. Which, yes, so that was my first experience as a note taker.
00:15:40
Speaker
That was my first introduction to a writer's room. I got to meet some really wonderful black writers. Got to be in a room with Leah Purcell, who had just come off making Clever Man.
00:15:52
Speaker
was also my introduction that not every series that is planned gets made because season two never happened. It sort of ended on season one, which is really sad. But the the nature of the industry, you're lucky to get a season, let alone And to be honest, I didn't know what to do next.
00:16:12
Speaker
I didn't know how to get more jobs. And so I just kind of went back into sound, was picking up sound jobs on student gigs, web series, all through contacts that I'd made at film school.
00:16:27
Speaker
Web series was the thing at the time. And so I was, there was lots of work in web. It wasn't a lot of money, but it also meant I didn't have to have the most expensive gear. I bought like, you know, a Zoom F8 because I couldn't afford a um sound designs, but I bought a sound design pre-air.
00:16:47
Speaker
So really clean signals into and then just record it through the zoom. Sounded really nice, pretty clean. Bought a secondhand 416 Sennheiser microphone and a really crappy road boom. And just that was my gear. And I'd go around just offering myself the shorts, anything I could get.
00:17:06
Speaker
i ended up putting myself on a crewing website, which got me more jobs as a sound recordist and it got me a job on Dr. Doctor as a boomy.
00:17:21
Speaker
yeah. Now I'd never done, like I've done indie jobs. I'd done web series. I hadn't done a TV show before. So. Is this season one?
00:17:34
Speaker
Of Dr. Doctor? Yeah. It was like season three or something. Okay, yeah. Possibly season two. It was, the fact was that, All the boomies that everyone loved and the backup boomies that everyone loves were sick.
00:17:46
Speaker
And I happened to be on a crewing website. So they called me and I was like, great. The first day was easy. Day two, it's a bigger day. The guy's still sick. So they're like, Josh, can you come back another day? I'm like, sure.
00:17:59
Speaker
And so this time i actually have to do something big i on a big scene. You know, I'd prep the gear and I'm ready. And I go out there and I put the call action. I put the boom in position.
00:18:10
Speaker
And like the battery like falls out of the boom at the feet of like Ryan core or something. And I'm like, Oh no. And every, you know, they've wait everyone's been waiting for hours. It costs dollars a day. Everyone's looking, it turns and looks at me.
00:18:26
Speaker
and in that moment I was like, you know, don't know, but this is what i want. Yeah. It's not that I wasn't good at it. It's just that I wasn't committed to it.
00:18:39
Speaker
And In that moment where I just had a huge muck up, I just didn't think that wanted, I didn't want that to be my job. oh If that makes sense. Yeah.
00:18:50
Speaker
And you know, they were really kind. My boomy mate and the sound recorders were just like, Hey, we wait eight hours for them to light a scene. They can wait 30 seconds to us to change a battery. All right. Yeah. um So they were really kind and they made it really helpful to me. And then,
00:19:04
Speaker
It's more just like one of those moments where you, I suppose, like reassess, reevaluate but because you just kind of like going along and then a battery drops out and everyone looks at you and you're kind of like, is, is this what I'm meant to be doing? Yeah. A hundred percent.
00:19:23
Speaker
It was, it was that, it was, it was a reevaluation of, is this what I'm meant to be doing? I love how you put that. And I, realize it's not because the sound recordist was just like, Hey, is this really what you want to do?
00:19:35
Speaker
and I said, well, no, I'm just doing this for work. I want to write and i want to direct. And he's like, he said, if I'm going to pay ah boomy X amount a day, i need that person that needs to be their life.
00:19:47
Speaker
that Makes sense. He's like, I need them to be, that's all they're going to do. he's like, no disrespect to you. He's like that that's the job. And you know, it meant that I didn't get another job on Dr. Doctor, but it also meant now I had a fire under my ass. And I was like, I need to really think about this and and be a bit more proactive about what I want.
00:20:09
Speaker
um So i called up my tutor again, she got me in touch with the friend again, and I went full time into note taking. From that first job, I think 18 months, two years had passed.
00:20:22
Speaker
I hadn't done a single note taking job, I to start a bunch of things, apply for things and nothing happened. But then I went, yeah, full-time note taker.
00:20:33
Speaker
Yep. And worked on, ah cannot even tell you how many projects I worked on as just in a room note taking, but it's a real masterclass seeing how things are made, seeing not necessarily hierarchy in a room,
00:20:49
Speaker
but hierarchy in a room, like, you know, who's got the most sway and like what is the story and like who's, who are we trying to
Project Development and Opportunities
00:20:58
Speaker
service here? Like which person in this room is the person whose ideas are going to make it through?
00:21:03
Speaker
Yeah. That makes sense? And it's kind of like, well, when it really works, when you have like, you know, a magic group of people together, like that's pretty cool to witness, I suppose. Yeah.
00:21:18
Speaker
ah Yes, absolutely. Yeah, a room that works is gold. like You see how a story is literally built from nothing and that's fascinating.
00:21:29
Speaker
How long did you do the note-taking full-time for? I think it was another two years. And then during COVID as well. So it's almost four, but it's two.
00:21:41
Speaker
ah Yeah. But during COVID I did quite a few note-taking jobs just for money. But by that point, I'd already made a suspect, um which was a funded short through Metro Screen Fellowship Fund.
00:21:57
Speaker
So it already made that and it had you know screened at festivals. But basically on the side of note taking, I wanted to make my own stuff. So the web series that I made, Amy Danzig, I was trying to expand into a longer web series, a branded web series, and then a TV show and then into ah feature film.
00:22:16
Speaker
So I was trying all these different angles to try and get it made and get it sold. And I got early development funding from Screen New South Wales. And I was calling everyone.
00:22:28
Speaker
And I was taking the advice of people, take a show that you like and call the people who made it. So I really liked the show Danger 5. yeah. So I was like, who made this show? And I couldn't get any of the the main writer directors. I couldn't get the details. But I could find.
00:22:46
Speaker
the producer's details. So Kate Crozer, who now runs SA Film, you know, she's like, I happened to find her phone number on an old website and i just cold called her And she was like, how did you get this number? And I'm like, it was on an old website. She probably took it straight afterwards. But I was picking her brain about the Danger 5 and all the films that she had made and introducing me to things like the interesting stuff that Nick Verso is doing and Vicky Cox, who made Wastelander Panda at the time, which I was like, man, this nuts.
00:23:21
Speaker
Which, well, Wastelander Panda was a YouTube sort of short that they made that then got a whole web series made through ABC iview. yeah And i was like, oh, that's what I need to do.
00:23:34
Speaker
I'm going to do that. And Kate Crozer was like, obviously moved on to bigger embedded things. Same with Vicky Cox. And they sort of gave me like a ah circle of producers who might be able to help me.
00:23:46
Speaker
One of those producers was Michaela Persky. um And that got me to Persky Productions and Michaela and Kiki Dillon. We went through a whole gamut of development and going through the process of constantly applying for stuff and not from the funding bodies.
00:24:07
Speaker
Yeah. From funding, but great Australia from screen Australia, first nations from ABC, ABC indigenous, like just SBS and ITV, just really just pitching and trying to get stuff happening because I wasn't doing any of that and I didn't know how to.
00:24:22
Speaker
And so they were sort of coaching me how to do it. And, you know, we've got development funding for Amy Danzig as a web, iView show but it never sort of became anything which is fine but just the process i hadn't learned like this is how you write yeah on top of note taking and writing my own stuff i was developing those things and pitching with a company yeah and learning how to apply for grants and yeah things like that and um that sort of started my whole career because mikaela amy dancing fell through and i was like ah i felt really sad and
00:25:00
Speaker
Michaela sent me through this thing I'd never seen. it was through iView and it was through Screen Australia. were doing this weird thing called shock treatment where it's like taking... Was that the First Nations Horror Initiative? Yes. yeah So there was a call out for, you know, First Nation horror makers and that kind of was the catalyst for everything I've done since and every job that I've got was this...
00:25:28
Speaker
moment because i found out that there are other, there was a ah community of black fellow filmmakers who are interested in genre.
00:25:39
Speaker
That's where I met Cody Bedford. That's where I met Bjorn Stewart. That's where I met Rob Braslin. That's where I met Perrin Bonza. That's where I met um Michael Hudson.
00:25:50
Speaker
But, you know, all these people that were all interested in the same things were all on the same boat. And it was, That experience was cool. And we met the DOP of Get Out and we met the editor of, this a really great. It's so cool. Little incubator that they yeah put together. And we met the editor of the Babadook and Colin and Cameron Cairns. Yeah. went Mentoring us through it. And we developed ideas in this kind of incubator.
00:26:18
Speaker
um And I developed my Drop Bears idea, and which eventually became Suspect. um which wasn't made through because the all the shock treatment shorts became Dark Place, which was ah really good anthology.
00:26:33
Speaker
Yeah, a really good anthology of things. But my script wasn't, it was a bit too wild, i think. And they already had a wild film, Bjorn's film, which was Killer Native, which is, if you've never seen it's so good.
00:26:47
Speaker
And it didn't quite fit the anthology mix, which is fine, because then I went and refined my idea and that eventually became Suspect and then ended up becoming the short film that kind of won awards. It premiered in Byfan, the premier Korea horror film festival. Obviously COVID was on, so I couldn't fly out to Korea to go see it, but they sent me this like amazing kit of things, even though I couldn't be there and it made me feel really happy.
00:27:17
Speaker
um Like just this really nice gift bag of things. Yeah. It also won best Australian short at Sydney's A Night of Horror International Film Festival. It did. Congrats.
00:27:29
Speaker
And it was cool to watch with an audience. Yeah. Well, so I'm wondering then from suspect to Firebite, how does that happen?
00:27:40
Speaker
Because Firebite's your first TV writing credit. Is that right? Yep. yeah Yes. Yes. And for anyone that doesn't know, and they should probably go watch it, it's an AMC plus Vampire Hunter series and it's Warwick Thornton.
00:27:58
Speaker
So, yeah, how did Firebite come about? So I'd made Suspect. So I went around doing note-taking some more, worked on three sort of ABC slash SBS shows, screen shows,
00:28:17
Speaker
Oz First Nations were involved with, you know, one of them being Total Control. I was there from like the brainstorm of what that show was to planning season two. So that was a long haul note-taking job.
00:28:31
Speaker
hey Seeing a show from Inception to on television to we're going to a season two. Like, so that was a really big job and it was really cool to see that happen.
00:28:43
Speaker
And I got to spend a little bit of time with everyone. And so everyone got to see my face and know who I am. i'd already known Steven McGregor, but we got to know each other a bit more and, and Cody was in the room as well. So in ah every room there'd be Cody and there would be Steven McGregor or one of the other or both.
00:29:07
Speaker
So it would just sort of happen that I would keep running into them. And also Penny Smallcomb who was running And I kept showing all of them my films for another show, which was eventually called True Colors, the SBS. The SBS show.
00:29:24
Speaker
Yeah, really. They flew me out to Alice Springs. And I kept showing people Suspect. And Stephen McGregor, I remember him specifically saying, so this is it. This is the kind of thing you do. This is what you want to make. I'm like, yeah.
00:29:35
Speaker
and He's like, all right. And Penny as well was like, this is so this is you. This is what you want. and I'm like, yeah, this is what I want to do. And so they all knew that I was a young writer, young black writer trying to make stuff, but suspect,
00:29:50
Speaker
was kind of the the the nail that said, this is who I am and what I'm pursuing. Yeah, it's like your calling card. Yeah. Yeah. and And so that was really great because it meant that anything that was kind of like that, I would be called in as a note taker.
00:30:06
Speaker
And Penny kept putting my name up for stuff. And the two big things that Penny put my name up for were... Was Penny at Bunya at this point? ah No, Penny was it still at Screen Australia.
00:30:18
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. um Head of First Nations at Screen Australia. she talked me up as like, you know, top U-beaut note taker, like to everyone. She's like, you weren't the deadliest note taker. It's Josh.
00:30:31
Speaker
um So that's how I got lots of like the two big interesting jobs. So one of them was Firebite as a note taker with Cody Bedford, of course, as script producer and Warwick Thornton, Brendan Fletcher and Debbie Telfer.
00:30:49
Speaker
So I was a note taker. It was my favourite room. The vibe was really cool. And I was learning more than I've learned in my life. On top of that, Penny had also put my name up for a job at Marvel.
00:31:04
Speaker
as a note taker, weirdly enough. And I got a call and it was a job interview with Marvel producer Brian Chapek talking about being a on on-set note taker.
00:31:17
Speaker
I did the job interview, didn't get the job, never heard back from them. Very sad. um But then they did a call out for interns like a director's attachment for love and thunder and then i applied for that made this video with just me being a total nerd for everything and the reason i say this is that all these things converge at the same time so i was doing the note-taking and in my two to four years of note-taking
00:31:53
Speaker
Cody Bedford had constantly told me, if you ever feel like a show is is, you know, something that you like and that you think you could write an episode of that show, she's like, put your hand up. Just, you know, you shoot your shot. You don't know they're to say yes or no or if they've got another project in the mix.
00:32:15
Speaker
So I did. I said, Cody, what do you reckon? This is the one I'm going to ask. It's Blackfellas, it's vampires. isn't isn' this not It's not anything else. So I asked the producer, I asked Cody, the producer at the time being Billy Bowring and Rachel Gardner.
00:32:31
Speaker
And, you know, they wanted to see samples. So I sent them the Amy Dantzig script that we had developed with ABC, Ideal Indigenous.
00:32:41
Speaker
It was a very developed script. I was very happy with it. I sent them Suspect and... Also at that exact moment, I had just gotten the director's attachment.
00:32:53
Speaker
So what I had told them was, I've got a director's attachment with Taika Waititi. I've got, here's a developed script, an action horror script that I had made that's been funded through ABC.
00:33:06
Speaker
And here's my short suspect. So that package won over the producers. They sent it to America. ah AMC, because, you know, um haven't written anything for TV.
00:33:20
Speaker
I've got no credits. And they saw that and they're like, yeah, this is a really good script, my Emmy Danzig one. And they were like, but they were still a bit worried until my first draft came in and they were no longer worried.
00:33:32
Speaker
But basically, like I said, from the battery falling out of the boom mic to calling up Kate Crozer all led to shock treatment, which led to working with Persky, developing these projects that got funding but never got made.
00:33:50
Speaker
That became a package that when I was shooting my shot with AMC+, Warwick Thornton, Vampire series, it happened to just work.
00:34:02
Speaker
I had the body that that would help and gained the trust to write that episode. Amazing. But again, that led to more stuff.
00:34:13
Speaker
It led to season two, writer's room as a writer this time, not as a, as a note taker. And I met more people. Steven McGregor's back. I met Maria Lewis, which would be the one of the most important people to meet in my life.
00:34:30
Speaker
Other than Cody and, and Debbie and others, it was just a really cool melting pot of talent and people. But also in that room, I caught the attention of one of the seesaw producers who said, hey, we think you'd be good for another show.
00:34:49
Speaker
And so while I was on a break, they took me on straight after that room. I went to the Preppers season two room. Oh, yep. Which was full of like, you know, like for like comedy royalty. Like it was really intimidating. But at the same time, it was really wonderful. Everyone was so supportive. But that That's kind of how it went is like I wrote my first ep. As soon as I got that credit before the show aired, lots of buzz around it and you get lots of emails, lots of phone calls. Like I just, they were coming from everywhere.
00:35:22
Speaker
and Most of them were note-taking jobs. None of them were script jobs, but it was just so funny. Like i was just getting lots and lots of calls that I wasn't getting before. And then um is Thor Love and Thunder happening? Oh, sorry, yeah.
00:35:37
Speaker
Thor Love and Thunder happened while I was writing episode my episode of Firebite. Wow. Yeah, so it was a whole week on set, which, I mean, as intimidating as that whole experience was of big production, big money, i got to sit and read the script under supervision, of course, but I got to sit and read the entire script.
00:35:56
Speaker
I got to sit next to Taika, ask him questions, watch how he thinks. got to watch a huge film crew and the experience of standing in the volume, which is that big LED panel screen which takes up an entire warehouse, being on that set sort of solidified that this is what I want.
00:36:22
Speaker
It was the opposite of the boom mic. It's the opposite of the boom mic. you Karis, you're a storyteller. Yeah, it truly was. I stood in there, um look at these huge LED panels and I was in space.
00:36:38
Speaker
Like, i was like, this where I want to be. this is where I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. And I'm going to work to get here.
00:36:49
Speaker
Yeah. With my production. And that, yeah, it was huge. Life
Industry Reflections and Personal Wellbeing
00:36:56
Speaker
changing. And it was worth all the struggle and pain to get there. Yeah.
00:37:01
Speaker
o And so in terms of like final questions around your career and things like that, since that time of Thor, Love and Thunder and Firebite, you also applied for another writing program initiative, which was with Endemol, I believe.
00:37:22
Speaker
Yes. i Yeah. So applied for two things in one day. I had just filmed a directed a web series comedy with Gabe Willey called No Offense.
00:37:35
Speaker
Yeah. And I was exhausted, but I was coming home. I was at my sister's place in Brisbane and I checked my emails and I had two applications that were due that day that I had to fill out.
00:37:46
Speaker
One of them was for Endermol Shine, working on NCIS Sydney as an emerging writers program. And the other one was for ah Netflix Grow.
00:37:56
Speaker
So Penny had left Green Australia and was now working at Netflix Grow, at the time was working at Netflix Grow. And so I filled out all the forms and did the things. And, yeah, so I got the Netflix one, which met so many wonderful young writers and met Catherine Smythe McMullen, genre writer,
00:38:20
Speaker
which she eventually became my mentor two years later. um But that was the time that I met her. And while I was there, I was shortlisted for the Endermol Shine Emerging Writers Program with and NCIS Sydney.
00:38:34
Speaker
And I was going to get an interview. um And while I was at the Netflix thing, the head of Australians in Film was there. Peter Ritchie? Yes, Peter Ritchie. Yes. So Peter Ritchie was there and i was like, hey, man, could you give me some advice? I'm going to have this call today.
00:38:48
Speaker
in like an hour, like I'm going to miss time here, but I have an interview with NCIS and, you know, he gave me some advice and that advice was just honest, being honest and have doing a follow-up email, um which is like Americans do it all the time. Australians don't do it, do the follow-up b email.
00:39:07
Speaker
And yeah, I was just honest in my NCIS phone call about where I am and what I've written what my kind of vibe of what the show was, which is fun cop family kind of thing.
00:39:24
Speaker
And next thing I know, i was accepted and ah was in North Sydney sitting with writers and being a part of the biggest show on Australian television.
00:39:40
Speaker
Huge. Do you want to learn more about what what we did there or? yeah Okay. ah um yeah, so it was full-time with some really great writers, and our job was sort of split over three parts.
00:39:53
Speaker
Note-taking, research, because ah but a big part of procedural shows, particularly NCIS, is in-depth research of technology, of death.
00:40:07
Speaker
I'm pretty sure I'm on a watch watch list from all the things that I was Googling, so... you how suffocate a person and how long how much oxygen do you have in the room and hot room so research and the other one was uh cold open ideation so we pitched cold opens like because part of the staples of the show is is the cold open we also teamed up with a ah writer of an episode i teamed up with um they are an incredible writer what else have they done oh yes it's so
00:40:42
Speaker
So I was ah the writer's assistant for Kim in that episode. So everything i was researching was for Kim. I really enjoyed that experience, especially on a show like NCIS because it's very specific about you know, the beats of the show and when you go to an ad break and the poof. There are lots of rules.
00:41:02
Speaker
Lots of rules, but rules can be broken and should be. And they create some fun areas to play in. Yeah, absolutely. Restrictions breed creativity. It's so good.
00:41:15
Speaker
Then after that we wrote our ah spec episode for Season 2 and then myself and Siobhan, got on like a job on the show afterwards. Like we were in the script department, just sort of punching up dialogue and cleaning it a bit and putting in our two cents, which was great, really fun.
00:41:37
Speaker
I mean, there were other people working there as well from the programs. NCIS, because it's such a big show and a lot of hype, I got phone calls from different people, got into lots more rooms, wrote a lot of episodes of TV shows,
00:41:53
Speaker
Talking with Kim, I would always talk about horror because it's me. And Kim happened to be, got funding for a horror project that they flew me down to Melbourne for, which is really, really fun.
00:42:04
Speaker
But unfortunately it didn't get made, but it was a great time. um But also reminded me that wherever I'm at, keep talking about the thing that I love. yeah people will just, without you asking, will call you and say, hey man, you know that thing that you love?
00:42:22
Speaker
we're doing we've got something yeah yeah for what i've learned as a writer no one teaches you well they should is that you can be a note taker in a room in a show that never gets made you can be a writer in a room of a show that never gets made you can be a writer in a room that goes to the next phase and you write an episode and you're like yes and then it doesn't get made like that's i mean i'm pretty sure you can even make a show and it never get aired like it's Um, there's just things that they don't Yeah.
00:42:52
Speaker
And it's kind of wild because then none of those, if you look up someone's IMDB, you're actually not seeing the full breadth of experience that they have because, you know, you didn't see that they were doing note-taking for two to four years or whatever.
00:43:10
Speaker
yeah Or you didn't see that they were in development on those three shows and wrote episodes. No. and And like, I mean, none of those things equal credits. oh But all of those things are important. That's the job of a writer because you're not always going to be writing episodes of TV being made. You're going to be developing. You're going to be.
00:43:33
Speaker
sitting in writers rooms contributing you're going to be writing episodes that never get seen you're going to be writing beat sheets and things that and now it's all sort of full circle and i'm back at ncis writing an episode now so it's really cool that it's um the progression and the cycle of things yeah And so that then brings us to our final segment and it's called pay it forward.
00:44:00
Speaker
And I feel like this question, which was from a previous guest, Monica Zanetti is actually quite fitting as a way to kind of round off our discussion because you've obviously been really busy and you've been juggling a lot over the years and things like that.
00:44:18
Speaker
Anyway, this is what Monica asked. I would want to know what do you, what are your um techniques or methods that you use to avoid burnout?
00:44:31
Speaker
Like what's your sweet spot? treat that you give yourself? What's your, you know, boundaries that you put up? Whatever that is. I would love to know. how how do you do it ah Well, working on NCIS yeah with a lot of long hours and travel is fantastic.
00:44:51
Speaker
two hours each way so i'm traveling four hours a day to get to you know botany or North Sydney or whatever and it's I was burning out and then when I was I did a director's attachment on season one with Kriv Stenders and Catherine Miller and I was coming home at the latest hours I was rushing to make the last bus home kind of thing And i was I was dead to the world. i just couldn't figure out what to do. And in that time it was um it's lame, but find a hobby that you're able to put your emotions into. That hobby for me is guitar. I bought an electric guitar that I always wanted.
00:45:35
Speaker
You know, the Batwing ones from ACDC, I bought one of those. A cheap one, not the $10,000 then a little... and then for a little treat for myself I bought a little tiny electric guitar that I could carry on the bus with me so when I'm traveling two hours or whatever i would just plug in my headphones and this little tiny electric guitar and just play while I'm on the bus that's so cool and just I was able to put into my emotions into it i was able to just sort of decompress because if you're always on
00:46:12
Speaker
because you know, you you wake up thinking about that plot point, or you you go to sleep thinking that it wasn't resolved, or whatever solve you put into the script, it's not going to fly or whatever, and you're going to have to spend another day thinking about it.
00:46:25
Speaker
You're having the breaks, decompression, you need that moment to decompress. And whether that's a guitar or or whatever, but if you can find moments of decompression, i so hear meditation works, I don't know how to do it.
00:46:40
Speaker
I've tried it, but my brain is my brain. So guitar is a way to to sort of shut off for a bit. Yeah. Well, on that note, I'll leave it there.
00:46:54
Speaker
But um thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. I really appreciate your time and hearing the full journey of how you got here. Thank you for your patience.
00:47:05
Speaker
Thank you for listening and thanks for having me. It's been a real pleasure. Thank you.
00:47:13
Speaker
That was filmmaker Josh Sambono. Thanks so much to Josh for joining me on the podcast. This episode was produced and edited by myself with logo designed by Shara Parsons and music by Seb Sabotaj-Gavrilovic.
00:47:25
Speaker
If you enjoyed listening, please hit that subscribe button and leave us a review. See you in a fortnight.