"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.

I asked Tom to send me some notes about the pre-production, leading to the final release of the film.

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 had a lot of 35mm monochrome negative at a good price. I then arranged a deal with with Colorfilm Labs to process the Ilford stock. Ross Wood agreed to lend me a 35mm Arriflex. Prior to all this, Peter had introduced me to Byron Kennedy and Byron came along with me while I did these deals. So I was teaching Byron about producing!

My own experience and inspiration about producing came from ‘Samskara’, an Indian feature I helped with - another even more unlikely venture. It was the most amazing adventure I have had, as I was the only non-Indian on this production in a remote location in South India. I co-wrote the shooting script with Pattabhi Rama Reddy and was DOP. The movie was banned initially but eventually was very successful and won the President’s award as best Indian feature of the year, beating a Satyajit Ray movie.

I learnt about production from Pattabhi, a wonderful man. I also had the experience of shooting several features prior to The Office Picnic. Still, it was a wild ride directing it.

ACTORS: 

Kate Fitzpatrick was acting in “Hamlet on Ice”  in King's Cross, playing the part of Hamlet. I was introduced to her and she suggested John Wood who was also in the play. He was perfect to play Clyde, the office loudmouth.

John and Kate

Byron was perfect for the villain and I cast him.

Byron and Su Doring

Hilary Lindstead casted the rest of the actors. 

Max Cullen was terrific!

Max Cullen

This was 1971 when actors had almost no movie experience. The Office Picnic was one of only three movies made in 1971/72, the others being Barry McKenzie and Stork. 

People heard about the movie and the crew grew. 

Brian Bansgrove offered to do the lighting. Brilliant!

Mike Edols did cinematography. In the mid 60s, Mike had been my assistant at the Commonwealth Film Unit. He was an amazing talent. We 'borrowed' the Mitchell 35mm camera and lights from the unit.

The office location was at the University of Sydney where I had done some work. We shot over the Easter weekend and another weekend or two. It was free. So the $4400 went a long way -   70% was shot but I ran out of budget for the picnic scenes.

I applied to the new AFDC for completion funds and got - not even a sausage! So I took on a few cinematography jobs to fund the rest of the shoot.

The Ilford negative we bought required a special processing bath. Luckily, or not, a processing error at Colorfilm Lab ruined a large batch of rushes and then they undertook to do all the rest of the processing free. I was able to use the affected footage anyway. 

For the picnic scenes, Richard Brennan had recently returned from production managing Barry Mackenzie in London. He not only helped  me organize things but also acted in the movie. He arranged a deal to hire a Moviola at Sound Film in Paddington for the initial editing.

Kit Guyatt edited the movie. He was another old mate from the Commonwealth Film Unit. We laid the tracks after hours at the CFU.

Another big contributor was Bill Mori who created the music and sound effects.

The sound mix was done in a few hours at a commercials company in North Sydney in about 4 hours, costing about $200. 

BUDGET

The overall budget for the film was $11,500 comprising the original $4400 and the rest coming from me. COLORFILM produced beautiful 35 mm prints from Mike Edol's superb images. Kit did a fine edit.

How did those 13 pages end up as a 35mm movie feature? - a lot of improvisation. I had a lot of fun with the actors. 

Eddie Alison had the film accepted for the Moscow International Film Festival. I went there with Kate and David Stratton. The Russian audiences were right into the story of stultifying bureaucracy and it was a real success. We met some wonderful creatives from the Soviet bloc: Poland, Czechoslovakia, etc.

In Australia, I distributed the movie with a lot of help from Greater Union. It was shown in every state capital. The positive reviews were a big factor in its success and I would say I received more than the total budget of the movie from royalties ($11,500) a much better percentage return than most AFDC funded movies.

The National Sound and Film Sound Archive created the current digital copy from a clean 35mm print produced in 1972.  

I did some further re-grading on Premiere Pro and a little work with Topaz. 

Bloomsbury in London distributes the film and I get some dollars every 6 months. 

What an adventure it was!

Tom Cowan 

7.09.2025 

FOOTNOTES:

Tom also sent me a number of clippings from newspaper reviews at the time of the first release of his film. I'm including them unedited here as footnotes and we may select quotations from them later, as this really is only a draft of the item for this blog.