An Introduction
The purpose of ALONE is two fold. The first is the opportunity to tell a simple story about a guy whose car breaks down on a country highway where he is suddenly propelled into a desperate plight of not knowing what to do. In reality, there is nothing worse than being in a situation where all of your normal avenues to resolve problems are inexplicably removed - such is the experience that Mannix Foster discovers - although in his case an extra dimension had been added to his predicament. Circumstances of this nature are made even worse when you have to face these trials by yourself with no outside assistance or support, which is often considered the greatest test of character. Ironically some elements of the story are based on a real life experience I had coming back from Geelong one night and having my car break down on the highway. Fortunately I wasn't alone at that particular time and everything sorted itself out in the end, however, it did reemphasise to me just how stressful it is suddenly being thrown into a position that you simply aren't prepared for whilst wondering "now what do I do?"
The second purpose for ALONE is more closer to home. It is an opportunity for myself and my two PCMUUA compatriots (Shane Mengaziol - Director of Photography, and Peter Sims - Production Designer) to create a short film based on our own copyright material. ALONE provides the perfect test bed for us to see if we have what it takes to work as a team to create short films that will hopefully lead onto more substantial Projects. Between the three of us, we believe we have all the necessary talents and experience required to create films that we ourselves want to make. In this regard, ALONE will work well as it has a small cast, minimal lighting requirements and should only require two weekends to shoot.
If ALONE ends up being the success we hope it to be, then you should see a lot more coming from the stables of DMFilms and PCMUUA Productions in the future. Cross ya fingers.
Darren Maxwell - Writer/Director