A beam of light from a good guy!

David Black chats with Glen Cook.

Glen Cook is one of the most prolific gaffers in the Melbourne indie movie scene. I first met him on the set of “The Resurgence.” I was just a background extra, still fairly new to the indie movie industry and feeling very nervous. Glen was a veteran, having worked on epics like “The Legend of Ben Hall” and he helped make me feel at ease. It’s the good guys in this industry, like Glen, that help shine a warm beam of light into what can sometimes be a cold dark place.

DB — Hi Glen, it’s been awhile since we last caught up and I want to thank you for making time to speak to me today. You’ve been in the movie industry for the last 7 years, having decided to change careers from having been a fireman. What motivated you to throw in a stable career to jumping into one that can be a real challenge to make a living in?

GC — Nice to talk to you again Dave, and thank you very much, it’s my pleasure. Basically, I have always wanted to be involved in film ever since I saw this little sci-fi film in the 70’s called Star Wars. The love of cinema started earlier when I saw “Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger”. I just loved the adventure and the stop motion that was in that film, but it was Star Wars that cemented it for me and I knew that is what I wanted to do.

Unfortunately, life had other ideas for me, and I found myself in a paying, but fairly unsatisfactory life in the Royal Australian Air Force, and as a Fire Fighter. I did this job for the best part of 20 years, where I regularly found myself in trouble for making Power Point presentations too interesting, but at this stage I thought my film aspirations were dead.

Along comes this amazing little bloke from New Zealand who started making some damn funny, and very entertaining films. Eventually he made The Lord of the Rings, and I was swept away in the whole magic of film and the possibilities. I left the fire service with the RAAF as it was just way too restrictive and uncreative for me, and the fire had been restored big time!

I took a chance and stepped into a film course, and found it was my calling, this is what I wanted to do and it felt right to do it. Stable jobs and money are all good and well, but if you don’t feel like a complete person because you are doing something you hate, then really you’re not honouring yourself and you aren’t living the life you want to live. I have had to work pretty damn hard for the past 7 years, but I am a lot happier now than where I was.

Certainly it is a very very hard industry to make a living in, probably the hardest in this country, but if it is what you want to do, the fire will keep you at it till it starts to pay off.

DB — So Glen, you left the fire brigade to pursue your dream to be in the movie industry? Can you tell us a bit about where you studied and what subjects you chose?

GC — I moved to Melbourne after I left the fire service, and I really didn’t know where to start. I looked up a few places on where to study, places like Deakin, RMIT etc. then did a ten week introduction course with CAE that really tested if I wanted to be in this industry. I certainly did, and the passion was there and cemented in place for good.

I decided on a TAFE course at Holmesglen, doing a 2 year Advanced Diploma, mainly because it was closer to where I lived in Melbourne, and also it was cheap. Probably not the best reasoning, but I learnt a lot in terms of digital technology, as well as Directing, writing and Camera work which also involved lighting. My graduating film had me literally do every role in the production process, which was valuable experience, but also a lesson in not to try do it all yourself. There is just way too much to do for one person.

DB — You have 14 IMDB credits as a Gaffer, whereas there are just a handful here and there for acting, directing, producing and writing. I’m guessing that of all the jobs you are capable of doing, it’s being a gaffer that’s your main passion Glen?

GC- Have I got that many credits? To be honest I haven’t really looked, but the interesting thing is, I am quite passionate about writing and directing, but the opportunities for paid work in those areas are far and few between. This isn’t a hobby, it’s a career change, and of course that means it has to pay its way and allow me to live in some form or another.

I ended up doing a few films as 1st AD, or in some cases Producer, but these were very small productions. I did sound occasionally. And if there is a chance I will always have a cameo somewhere, because it’s a good lot of fun, but writing and directing is where it is at for me, and I suppose like most in this industry, we have wanted to Direct or be on Camera Dept, but really in this country the competition is so fierce and being an older new entry into the industry, it puts you on the back foot from the word go.

One of the jobs I did, was come onto a very small shoot as Gaffer. I had some understanding for what the DoP wanted, and found I had a knack for it. I ended up on a few films doing Gaffer, and because it is hard work, and less glamorous, found the competition wasn’t as bad either.

I found myself on the feature film The Legend of Ben Hall, where I met veteran Gaffer Colin Williams, who had been involved in most major film shoots for the past 45 years, and from there we formed a friendship and his support has been invaluable to me climbing the ladder in this industry. Lighting is a very interesting position to be in, and it has me amazed that more aren’t interested in doing it. You need to know lighting if you want to be a Cinematographer, and good lighting makes all the difference to a film, but for some reason, its viewed as a fairly lowly position. I guess the position doesn’t get the glamour that other positions do, I’m not sure.

But anyway, Lighting pays the bills and keeps me in the game basically and when I can I work on my scripts and meet the right people that I need to help make them in the future.

DB — Is there one particular project, out of all the movies that you’ve worked on, that you enjoyed the most?

GC — Oh I wish I could say there was just one, but there are many and all for totally different reasons. Ben Hall, was a long hard shoot, and the shared efforts and suffering etc that went in to making that film was shared by all who were involved in it, and there are always so many tales to share from that film, then there is a beautiful little short that was a VCA student film called “The Sound of Love” that had some gorgeous lighting while we had the very worst weather, and the catering was sensational.

Every film has its memorable moments and it would be impossible to name one, without listing them all. I know that probably sounds like a cop out, but in truth there are so many enjoyable moments on set, even on the worst of films.

DB — Is there any particular direction that you would like to steer your career in Glen? Where do you see yourself in say, 5 years?

GC — Well, as I said earlier, I really look at myself as a writer/ director, and for the moment I am doing lighting and bringing the bacon home. In five years I would like to have the lighting game expanded further, and I have some really great guys working with me, such as John Gilmore and Lewis Revell that make expanding to bigger things possible. Both these guys are great film makers in their own right and are worth watching in the future, but also in the next few years I hope to have produced a few more films with another film maker Dia Taylor, which will have “producer” added to my list of titles and also a few more of my films made too.

Expansion isn’t a fast thing in this game and you have to have a plan of what you want to do and how you want to do it. Lighting which I enjoy pays the bills, and I can hone my craft as a writer and director as I go. So all being well in 5 years time I will have made a couple of good short films and working on a feature film. That would be the ideal

DB — I wish you all the best in your career Glen. I know that I’ll see you on a set soon, mainly because we’ve been on a few together already and have one or two more coming up. For everyone else though, do you have any links so that they can follow your career?

GC — Thank you Dave it’s been a pleasure. I really need to get to work on my web page more and get on the PR band wagon as well, but if you want to see what I am doing, people can look me up on www.lone-viking.com, or on my Lone Viking facebook page, and I guess they can keep an eye on what I have done on IMDB as well.

Glen’s IMDB

David Black regularly writes for Oz Indie Cinema and is the lead singer/ bass player for Darkness Visible