《臥底》(JACKS) 導演喬・史蒂芬・弗萊明Joel Fleming Stephen
----- 拾取生活趣事，改編成短片劇本
The Australian comedy director Joel Fleming Stephen released a short comedy JACKS last year. The short film tells a story of undercover police officers carrying out as gangsters on a drug-busting mission. However, things happened unexpectedly during the mission.
Director Stephen said that he didn't think he chose to create comedy, but rather, the comedy chose him. Stephen and his partner Sian Laycock, who is also a comedy writer, are both inherently quirky and funny. They enjoy bantering each other in their daily life, hence the interesting aspects of life become the inspirations for their comedy creations.
Director Stephen said, “the Rebel Whopper”, which appeared several times in JACKS is Tristan Barr’s (Spud in JACKS) favourite meal from Hungry Jacks. While Barr was participating in the Sanctuary Cove International Film Festival, he repeatedly praised the scrumptiousness of The Rebel Whopper. Stephen considered the obsession with a burger as an appealing and entertaining element for a comedy, he purposefully included it in the short film and unexpectedly turned out to be a remarkable highlight in JACKS.
Stephen said the most captivating component of comedy is enjoying every production process. While creating JACKS, Stephen engages with other comedy writers by sharing ideas, and the positive feedback of an idea will be included in the production. He believes comedy is a form of art of intuition and truthfulness. When the audience considers performance as humorous, their unreserved laughter is a sign of positive feedback.
Comedy also can be used to engage in discussions of important social issues without reducing the effects of entertainment. Stephen’s JACKS has the potential to criticize the incompetence of the government and the excessive use of violence by the police force. At the same time, it works as a satirical form of entertainment.
When it comes to cultural diversity in JACK's cast, Director Stephen said “Diversity in cast and crew is something that's super important to us. At 13th Street films we are always looking to have a varied cast as well as searching for diverse stories, we also aim to reflect modern multicultural Australia in all our characters and stories.”
“For JACKS, we wanted a powerful Asian female who could silence the 'alpha' men in the room and hold court with her dominant nature. Newcomer JOANNA FUNK excelled in that role as GANGLAND BOSS - YANG, and SEN SHAO, a seasoned and talented actor, was the perfect foil for her, as the cold-blooded assassin ZHI.”
JACKS will be streaming on demand at Taiwan Film Festival in Australia from 16-30 September.
「我覺得不是自己選擇了喜劇，而是喜劇選擇了我。我跟我伴侶Sian Laycock 都是喜劇作家，天生古怪滑稽的料。」
澳洲導演喬・史蒂芬・弗萊明的短片作品《臥底》描述了一名條子在毒品交易中臥底假扮黑道小弟，卻發生了讓人跌破眼鏡的意外。史蒂芬享受日常生活中彼此逗樂的感覺，自然而然將這些有趣的芝麻小事，作為他們發想喜劇的濫觴。
像是《臥底》片中多次提到素食的叛逆華堡 (The Rebel Whopper) ，是劇中飾演臥底SPUD的演員Tristan Barr最愛的漢堡王餐點。導演史蒂芬說：「有次Tristan和他同行參加神仙灣國際影展(Sanctuary Cove International Film Festival)時，Tristan不斷稱讚叛逆華堡有多好吃，覺得Tristan的漢堡癮很有趣，因此決定把這個元素加進劇本，最後意外成為《臥底》的一大亮點。」對史蒂芬而言，喜劇最讓人不可自拔的地方，是能完全享受每一個製作環節，不論是從寫作到拍攝，或是到最後讓大家哄堂大笑的放映。
「喜劇是很直覺且真實的，當觀眾覺得點子很好笑的時候，他們會毫無保留地放聲大笑，給予最熱烈的回饋。喜劇是既可用來嘲諷沉重議題，又饒富趣味。同時，喜劇可以帶出嘲諷，像是《臥底》暗示執政者的無能和過度使用暴力等議題。」
提到片中的亞裔角色，導演史蒂芬說：「演員和工作人員的多樣性對我們來說非常重要。在《第 13 街電影》製作公司裡，我們一直希望擁有多樣化的演員陣容並尋找不一樣的故事，來反映呈現多元文化的當代澳洲社會。」
「我們想要塑造一個強悍的亞洲女性角色，好讓她壓過房間裡的其他『高價值』男人，主導整個場面。我們找到的新演員JOANNA FUNK在女頭目GANGLAND BOSS-YANG這個角色上表現得可圈可點；扮演殺手的SEN SHAO則是經驗與才華橫溢，也和BOSS-YANG相輔相成。」
陰謀蠢蠢欲動的《臥底》將於 9 月 16 日至 30 日在線上放映，敬請戴好眼鏡。
