FEATURE- Making Movies

Little did Phil Warner know that when a film crew visited his family’s property in his early teens, it would provide the spark that would propel him onto the cutting edge of Australia’s fledgling film industry in the 1970s.

by Judy Fredriksen

Living in an 1832 homestead imbued with colonial charm had its advantages for the young amateur photographer. Located just outside Warwick, the property – North Toolburra – had once been ‘squatted’ by Patrick Leslie, one of the earliest pioneers of the

Darling Downs. Sometime in the 1960s, the character of the property drew the attention of a film crew wanting to recreate Leslie’s story.

“It just so happened that my grandfather had what they call a 16ml keystone camera, which you wound up like a clock then shot the film. 

“Because I had been fascinated by what they (the film crew) were doing on our property, I actually got a hold of that camera, and a roll of film, and went to the Warwick Rodeo … in about ’68 I think it was … and was introduced by chance to a guy from the ABC who was shooting film for the news.” 

Being a local lad, Phil was able to wangle his way into the rodeo chutes where he had an unrestricted view of the action. With a few tips from the ABC cameraman, Phil was able to capture some footage which aired on the ABC News soon after. 

“I loved it! We’d only just got black and white TV into Warwick,” says Phil. 

Incredibly, that little bit of real-life experience saw Phil secure a cadetship at Channel 9 studios in Sydney in 1970 when he left school. 

While at Channel 9, his duties varied and could be mundane, but he did acquire good technical skills by handling the audio for dramas and shows like Bandstand and New Faces.  

One of the standout moments from this time saw Phil recording the antics of an unsophisticated looking bloke on New Faces. 

“He was playing the ‘garba-phone’ – which was a garbage bin with a hose that went into it. He was making these funny noises,” explains Phil. When Mike Willesee lamented that he needed a unique performer to satirise the weekly political scene at the end of A Current Affair, Phil showed him the footage of that contestant. 

Willesee’s response was: “‘Get that guy in! I want to talk to him!” 

The contestant was one Paul Hogan who got the gig and became Australia’s best loved larrikin. Hogan has since attributed his start in TV and career success to Willesee. 

When Phil left Channel 9 to work for the ABC, he found that the ABC produced many more dramas than Channel 9, so he had more opportunities to expand his skills. He recalls working on shows like Aunty Jack and Over There where he became good friends with actor John Meillon. 

This was Phil’s springboard into movies when in 1975, he worked on his first feature film – Inn of the Damned – reputed to be Australia's first ‘Horror Western’.

His love of telling good stories ensured his continued involvement in a string of other notable Australian movies like Sunday too Far Away with Jack Thompson; the haunting Picnic at Hanging Rock; and Storm Boy. These Australian movies garnered world-wide attention, finally putting the Australian film industry under a global spotlight. 

Phil would sometimes drive actors to film locations before helping to assemble and operate camera and lighting equipment. The filming techniques on location were very different from those inside a studio, and Phil became proficient at ‘the whole shebang’.

Phil says they were all good cutting-edge dramas and has happy memories of Jack Thomspon.  

“Jack and I would get up to all sorts of mischief. He was just that sort of guy … he sort of took me under his wing for a while.”

However, Queensland was behind the southern states when it came to making films, so yearning for adventure, Phil set off overseas to try his luck in the UK, Germany and USA. But in the UK, work was heavily unionised and hard to get. 

After returning to Australia around 1980, Phil continued to work on movies and do TV ads, becoming an accomplished artistic director, set builder, production designer, and finally a producer. 

When Movie World opened on the Gold Coast in 1991, Phil was there, delighted that Queensland now had the chance to prove itself as a reputable player in the film industry. 

“You wouldn’t get a production manager in Sydney that would even offer a job to a Queenslander. It was very hard. Queenslanders had to always go interstate, then they’d be sucked up down there.”

After 20 years being in the film and TV industries, he became disenchanted with the ‘wheeling and dealing of the financial side of the film industry’ noting that it overrode creativity, detracting from the realism of good stories. Phil eventually shifted his business focus elsewhere in the mid-1990s.

Now a Maleny resident for 15 years, he still loves a good story but longs for more authentic films. 

“Australia has so many good, intriguing and iconic stories, we just have to get them written by creative people who understand the romance and the reality. And the directors who know how to depict that in a way that is true to itself. Not making it just a type-cast fantasy.” 

Good call Phil! Popcorn anyone?