Spider is a short film written by Nash Edgerton & David Michôd, and directed by Nash Edgerton. It has a darkly dreaming plot: Jack and Jill are always hurting each others’ feelings. But – like Mum said – “It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye”.

Nash Edgerton cheat sheet: If you don’t yet know, Nash has got some very high profie stunt work and stunt co-ordination credits to his name. The Matrix, The Quiet American, I am Number Four, Knight & Day, Ewan McGregor’s stunt double in Star Wars Episode III… the list goes on.

Nash Edgerton is also a founding member of Blue-Tongue films. This fabulous collective of Australian film-makers has a host of critically acclaimed shorts and features to its name – most notably, it produced Animal Kingdom, the seminal gangster drama starring Guy Pearce (which got 4.5 stars on Best For Film. And we are bloody stingy with our stars).

Short film director Nash Edgerton in his own words

You’ve done a huge amount of high-profile stunt work. Has this experience given you fresh insight into the film-making process?

Definitely. Working on films as a stuntman has been my film school. (So there you have it, folks – if you can’t afford to get behind the camera, muscle up and get in front of the camera. Just don’t break your back.)

What inspired you to make Spider?

Spider came from a few things. My mum saying “it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye”. An incident in a car with my brother and a spider on the highway. And me constantly pranking my mum with a toy spider in the kitchen when I was a kid.

What were the joys and pitfalls of creating Spider?

It was a total joy to make (shot on Super 16, if anyone wants to know). It always feels good to get an idea out of your head and onto the screen. It’s like a release and makes room for new ideas. The only tricky thing was I forgot to block some of the shots before I had the needle in my eye (Nice – sorry for the spoiler, folks, but he gets a needle in his eye) and so I was trying to set up a couple of shots half blind.

Bear, the follow-up to Spider, is being premiered at Cannes. Good stuff. Tell us more!

Bear follows Jack (from Spider ) and his new girlfriend Emelie. Yep, Jack has a new girlfriend… but he hasn’t quite learned his lesson. David and I figured Jill wouldn’t have stayed with him after what he did…

Any projects in the pipeline?

Yes – I’m writing a new film with my brother (Joel Edgerton from Legend of the Guardians, Animal Kingdom and The Thing)

If we wanted to stalk you, how would we go about it?

You can check out these sites to see more of my stuff, and also stuff from the other guys from Blue-Tongue Films.

www.bluetonguefilms.com
www.youtube.com/bluetonguefilms
www.twitter.com/bluetonguefilms
www.facebook.com/bluetonguefilms

Is there anything we should have asked you but were too selfish to do so?

Ha! No… You guys were just the right amount of selfish 🙂

Are you a short film maker?

If you have a short film on YouTube, get in touch at [email protected] or nominate it below. We’d love to hear from you – maybe your film short could become our next Short Film of the Week!

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