“The whole shoot was challenging,” Hartley admits. Shot in under three weeks during the pandemic in Melbourne, COVID restrictions put a strain on the filmmakers.

“They take more time to get a beautiful shot. But eventually, the excitement of “learning to carry a team” eased the TV actress’s nerves and she was able to bask in the creativity of filmmaking. This being the young former Neighbours star’s first feature film and leading role, Newton admits she felt the pressure. Grinning, Newton adds: “Mark always found it hard when we were together because we had too much fun.” “And I was nervous about it going in because I was used to being the baby of set with all these adults around.” But she found a friend in her on-screen schoolmate (Oka). “I hadn't been on many productions – on any, really – where I'd had people my age around,” Ella Newton tells Popcorn Podcast. In fact, not anticipating the level of chemistry between Newton and breakout actress Karis Kailani Oka (Lian), he regrets not shooting more scenes with them together. He attributes his funny and likeable teenage girls to co-writer Nicolette Minster. The 2017 black comedy slasher film Happy Death Day showed Hartley what authentic female dialogue sounds like. “It's certainly paying tribute to a lot of stuff that we loved when we were teenagers” – Mark Hartley “A Steven Spielberg-style Amblin movie, but directed by Tobe Hooper ( Texas Chainsaw Massacre) – that was our blueprint for the sensibility of the film,” Hartley says. For the production design and horror aesthetics, the crew looked to Dario Argento ( Suspiria). Flavours of Richard Franklin ( Roadgames, Psycho II) went into the plotting and scene staging. Split diopter shots are borrowed from Robert Weiss ( The Blues Brothers) and Brian De Palma ( Scarface).

“And I think Girl at the Window is more us settling down and finding our own style.”įrom the old-school, mainstream Hollywood lighting to not shooting anything handheld, the pair’s anti-naturalism is what makes their feature “unlike most Australian films”, according to Hartley. “There's an element of lots of voices in Patrick that was stolen from other filmmakers,” Hartley says of drawing inspiration from revered filmmakers to fuel his artistic style.

Ella newton bio