Hunter Leech: Daydreaming in Surreal Frames

Welcome Hunter, we are very excited to have you today with us to discuss about your work.

Who is Hunter Leech and how did the passion for creating begin?

Hardest question I’ve ever had to answer. I’m a young filmmaker who grew up on the east coast of Australia in a small tourist beach town who has always had a passion for creating. I don’t think it necessarily “began” - it’s always just been there. I remember coming across some of my old schoolbooks from when I was about seven years old and reading some short stories I’d written.

They were some of the most creative and wild things I’d read in a while and they were written before I was even a teenager. My parents, as well, have always tried to encourage my creativity and have told me I had an incredible imagination from a young age. I guess that just translated to cinema since movies remain the most immersive artistic medium of sight and sound.

Can you tell us about your previous work ?
There’s really not a whole lot to say, I feel like every time I do something it’s the beginning of something new in my life. I’ve acted in a few university film productions and written a small handful of screenplays and two unpublished novels but I don’t ever really see it as work, and I know that sounds very cliché but it’s a cliché for a reason. It always just feels like the next natural step toward something whether that be a film, a novel or any kind of performance. These things end up making me appreciate my little life and all of its moments as well as teaching me even more about myself that I never knew. The work always has to teach us something or else it’s just work.

You’ve said the inspiration for ‘A Woman in Trouble’ came from a deeply personal moment with friends. How did that single spark evolve into a fully realised screenplay?

I’m a big believer in the stream of consciousness and so the more I found myself thinking about that moment with those people, the more I explored the potential scenarios that could come from it. That’s where the surrealist element came in, I think surrealism is an attractive aesthetic because it doesn’t follow logic and reason much like real life.

In reality, that moment with those friends was a few sentences exchanged but in the dreamy world of surrealism, you can really explore every angle of a moment and idea. That’s the thing, everything we do begins with an idea, a spark, that when you sit and daydream on it for long enough it leads you somewhere in your thoughts. It’s just about following those thoughts and instinctively knowing which ones are worthwhile. Ideas are the catalyst for action.

This all sounds so complicated but in essence, I just did a lot of daydreaming about that moment and what those words meant to that person and where they were coming from. The screenplay was just using the language of cinema to explore it through a surrealist lens.

CONVERSATION ABOUT: "A Woman in Trouble"

You mentioned how the creative team shaped the film significantly. How did you collaborate with your cinematographer, sound designer, and others to create the film’s surreal, eerie atmosphere?

My cinematographer, Mitchell Treharne, has such a unique and creative eye when it comes to his shots. He was hugely influential in the aesthetic of the film, it was him who suggested those high angle wide shots of the bedroom that look so beautiful. It helps that we happen to be good friends outside of our work together but we have a mutual love of experimentation and trying new things to see what fits the overall purpose of a film. I think we have a very similar style of working.

Nathan Winslow, our sound designer, was also just as important especially during postproduction. I met him through my producer and I was so lucky to have him on board, the sound design was such an important aspect of this film whether it was a surreal voice, a crying child or a very specific ambient industrial noise. He really knew exactly what I was after with very little micromanagement and that just speaks to his talent and his creative voice.

The production design was just as integral and I met Connor Beveridge through my producer again. He is so unbelievably gifted when it comes to his design work and his set dressing. The mask worn by The Shadow in the film was entirely his design along with the pale makeup accompanying it. Connor also did all the lighting for the film and we settled on this low warm white colour that just created and set the whole mood of the film.

How did it feel to step into the director’s chair for the first time? Were there any surprises about the role?

Well it helps that my producer/assistant director/editor triple threat Harriet Townsend is also a director who has made some amazing films of her own so I learnt a lot from talking and listening to her. She has always been so supportive and really walked me through the process and then all of a sudden somewhere along the way, I had it.

Any nerves just seemed to disappear and it helps that I was working with some very talented people. So it felt intimidating stepping into the director’s chair for the first time however it ignited some kind of passion in me and now I can’t imagine that feeling, directing just seems to come naturally to me ever since. I really enjoy it because of how involved in every single department a director needs to be.

Being a writer-director it’s so exciting to see the words of my script being brought to life in front of me and I adore working with actors to create that. As Greta Gerwig said: “It’s time to jump, kid. You got to do it. Even though it’s scary, you have to give yourself the chance.”

The film prioritises mood over plot. Do you think creating an emotional experience is more impactful than telling a linear story? Why?

I don’t necessarily believe one is more impactful than another and I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive. I’ve just always found it easier, especially in short films, to explore ideas in a nonlinear form. When we daydream and think about things, past, present, or in the future, we never think about them in a linear sense, we always seem to think about them in an emotional way so maybe that just feels more natural and human to me. I think there’s also some outside influence here. I’m a huge fan of David Lynch and watching his films just made me think about the way a filmmaker can express ideas in a totally different way that I hadn’t been exposed to.

I would certainly like to explore the same kind of emotional impact within a linear story some day but for this film it felt important for me to prioritise the psychology of the main character and her emotional experiences throughout the film.

I’m certainly guilty of being more of an aesthetic filmmaker who prioritises the mood and composition of a scene more so than traditional plot conventions.

What reactions do you hope to elicit from audiences watching your project?

It’s funny because I don’t honestly know. I like the idea of my work being interpretive and everyone having their own thoughts about it. I have my ideas of what the film is about but that might be totally different from one viewer who might have totally different ideas from any other viewer.

Even when writing the script, people who read it each came up with their own unique take on what they believed it was about and they each chose a different detail to focus on that they believed was important when watching the finished film. I just think that’s so beautiful, so in answer to the question, I just want to make audiences feel something.

I want the film to connect to each person in their own way and to hear what they think of it. Any reaction is a valid reaction.

In future projects, do you plan to explore similar genre intersections, or are there other genres you're eager to explore ?

I’d love to explore lots of different genres, pretty much all of them. I’m a huge horror fan so that might be fun to mess around with and I’ve been very in love with noir since I was a teenager which would probably feature a lot in my future work. I’d also like to create a musical some day, I think they’re such an abstract and euphoric way to tell a story, it’d be an awesome joy to work on.

I do think though that all my future work will still have that trace of the uncanny, the eccentric and even the surreal to it that this film has. It’s just something that comes to me very easily along with feelings of nostalgia which I’ve been toying around with lately for some new projects. It would just be combining those qualities with other genres and experimenting with different ideas along the way. I honestly can’t wait because it’s going to be so much fun to do.

I had such a sense of euphoria making this film and I’d like to bring that feeling to more genres across many films while staying true to the voice that created my first film.

Can you tease any upcoming projects or themes you’re excited to explore in your future works?

Well I’ve already made a second film this year that follows similar themes to this film, and I’ve written a third film that would explore these themes in a really experimental way. The three films would form a kind of trilogy that explores similar themes and ideas in different ways.

I also want to teach myself cinematography by making a series of very short films whose only rules are originality, creative freedom and focusing on human experiences. I’m a big believer in “learning by doing” so this is a good method to get some hands on experience operating a camera on my own which should help my directing later.

I of course dream of making a feature film as well. I have loads of ideas for longer form content and have already played around with writing some scenes that are part of much larger stories. I like to keep it mysterious since I’ve learnt that the future is always uncertain and forever surprising me in the most incredible ways.

Let’s just say I have a hell of a lot more films to make and I’m not letting anything or anyone stand in my way of bringing them to life.

This marks the conclusion of the interview featuring our esteemed artist, Hunter Leech. Our community is growing steadily, with a continuous influx of skilled filmmakers and screenwriters joining us. Explore our other interviews, and consider scheduling one for yourself to showcase your creative endeavors.