The Celluloid Suburbs - Interview with Matt Reeder, producer of West
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At 31, Media, Arts and Production graduate and producer Matt Reeder is in a good place. Earlier this year, his debut feature film West had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival and although his entry into the world of film began at acting, Matt has since acquired a smart sack of award-winning short films under his belt (such as New Skin and Sweet Dreams). Currently toiling on two feature film scripts - one a love story and the other a political thriller - Matt has excelled with flying colours at something, he says, he simply 'fell into'.
HSS: What year did you graduate from UTS and how did the Communications course Media, Arts and Production help you develop a knowledge of film?
Matt: I graduated in 2001. MAP (Media, Arts and Production) was the practical thing of being able to get your hands on the technology which gave me a greater understanding of actual film-making. Also being around people that were interested in the same kind of thing certainly helps and it certainly gave me a basic knowledge of producing.
Matt Reeder (left) and his mentor, producer Robert Connelly
HSS: Is producing the sort of job that can't be taught?
Matt: Yeah, I mean I've never done a producing course as such, so I don't know what it would entail, but I really have done on-the-job learning and also been mentored. I was lucky enough to come into contact quite early in my career with a producer by the name of Robert Connelly who produced The Boys and currently Romulus, My Father. He's also directed films like Three Dollars and he's an extremely intelligent and very generous man and was kind enough to let me ask him endless questions at various times. So my film school was really sitting in a rustic cafe in Surry Hills with a hot chocolate with you know, two or three pages worth of questions that I needed answers to.
HSS: What does a producer do, exactly?
Matt: It's a big question because it's not simply answered - you can easily say an editor edits the film, a DOP (Director Of Photography) shoots the film and I guess there are different types of producers. I like to see myself as a creative producer, which means that I like to be involved in all the creative aspects of film-making as well. I like to be involved in the script development, in the casting, I like to be on set and see what's been shot, I like to be in the editing room and be in the sound mix and kind of act as a sounding board and another pair of eyes and ears on the bigger picture.
But really, ultimately the producer is responsible for delivering the film, which means that people will hopefully give you money to make it because they want to see something at the end of it, and it's the producer's responsibility to make sure that what you're supposed to deliver in the contract, finally gets delivered. Like I said, that can entail overseeing all sorts of different areas...I guess it's sort of like being the CEO of a company, you've got to have a broad overview of every area, but you also have to know specifically what's going on in each area because it all can affect the end.