Rock n Roll Nerd Director Rhian Skirving
Australian Filmmaker Discusses Comedian Tim Minchin and Her New Doc
Nov 26, 2008
Review in hand, an elated Tim Minchin turns to the camera and reads: “Take out a second mortgage, sell the car and put the money on this, the surest bet you’ll ever make in this uncertain world: that Tim Minchin will be the next best thing in musical comedy.” London’s Time Out magazine has given the Australian comedian’s debut at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival a full page rave review and in response Tim shoots a happy smile left of screen to his friend Rhian Skirving - his confidant, camera operator and the director of his new documentary Rock n Roll Nerd.
The Making of A Star:
Smiling supportively, the diminutive blonde keeps the camera rolling to capture just one of many moments in the film which confirms her decision, to raid her savings and dip into her mortgage to make this film was the right one.
Simply because says Skirving, hers was a story that would never have been funded.
“There’s no way a funding body would give you enough money if you said: ‘I want to make a film about an out of work musician who happens to be a mate of mine – but he’s really good’,” she laughs.
“It just wouldn’t have happened.”
Although the Perth born writer/director hadn’t picked up a camera since she was a Curtin university student in1995 she determined to be the film’s sole camera operator. Skirving said she went out on a limb and bought an $8,000 Sony HD camera because she knew her friend was talented.
Even if, his small cabaret show in Melbourne sometimes only played to an audience of three or four people.
“As a friend watching someone so talented perform to that many people is kind of heartbreaking, you know?,” she said.
“And then other times more people would come and we would always generate enough crowd for Tim to keep going.”
“People would come and just have the most intense response to his shows and would be blown away and, as friends, we were so frustrated that more people weren’t having this experience and that he couldn’t seem to break though.
Although Tim couldn’t get any journalists or even his agent to come and see his show, Skirving managed to talk him into letting her make a film about him.
“He humoured me,” she laughs.
And the result? An 89 minute documentary charting Minchin’s reinvention as he plans to shed obscurity and strategise his way out of tiny Melbourne comedy venues into celebrity.
The Early Daze:
“The project was not so much a risk than an adventure really,” muses the Melbourne based film maker who confesses the conflicted Minchin was very close to giving up when she started shooting the documentary.
“It was crunch time for him, he was nearly 30,” she recalls.
“Tim and his wife Sarah wanted a family at some time and he felt at least that he needed to support a family and he knew that he couldn’t do that with the lifestyle that he was pursuing, and the level of income he was generating, so for him the pressure was so intense at that period.”
It is perhaps unsurprising then that pressure is a visible force through out the film orbiting Minchin as his star begins to rise cleverly disguised as ‘financial worries’, ‘second album syndrome’ and ‘fear of the unknown’. Skirving’s use of close camera shots, silent reflective moments and Minchin’s high-energy creative outbursts piece together a story that juxtaposes incredible highs with an angst that is often palpable.
Pausing a moment to reflect on the whole filming process, Skirving says she has no doubt it was their strong friendship that produced the films intimate portrayal.
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