"THE OFFICE PICNIC", a film by my friend Tom Cowan
“THE OFFICE PICNIC” … REMEMBERED A few days ago my friend Tom Cowan posted a remastered version of “The Office Picnic” on his Vimeo site. Here you can see a short trailer Tom has compiled: I asked Tom to send me some notes about the pre-production, leading to the final release of the film. From Tom: The original budget was $4000. It was intended for a script called 'Sexes' for which I applied to the Experimental Film Fund. The assessors of the fund called 'Sexes' unacceptable - possibly too experimental. They advised me to put in any other script. So the $4000 grant was applied to a 13 page script I called THE OFFICE PICNIC . Here's how that turned into a 75min 35mm feature film: When I went to sign the contract, Bruce Beresford was the project officer. He said $4000 was a bit slim so he applied an extra $400 as a 'contingency'. Then I set about producing what was intended to be a 25 minute drama with that $4,400. I went to Ilford as they ...
