Toby Morris is a film makers on a mission. His was selected as a finalists of the 2012 Tropfest short film festival for the film “My Constellation” (Embedded bellow) and has achieved many other accolades with his films in several festivals around the world. He is motivated, determined and very skilled. Recently Toby began production on “Joga Bonito” an action comedy full of stunts and intense gun fights.

Making Things Happen

Toby is currently traveling around Australia making several micro documentaries for Qantas focusing on the people who supply the products and services that Qantas uses to make their air service what it is.

In between commercials and Corporate Videos shows the he makes his own projects. The newest project: “Joga Bonito”, which we were lucky enough to be apart of. Having completed the first few days of production that included a busy hospital and a dark and dangerous oyster farm at night, production has taken a break so Toby can complete the Qantas jobs as well as take the time to wait for one of their leading actors to grow his hair back.

We took the opportunity to corner Toby and talk to him about making Joga Bonito, take a look:

The More the Merrier

The people behind Toby and “Jogo Bonito” include Stunt men, Steadicam operators, Make up people, Armorers and many more. These are positions that are often missing from low/no budget short films. It’s a testament to Toby’s ability to motivate people and organize a complex shoot, making the most of the resources available to him and achieving a great, positive shooting environment.

Creating an enjoyable environment is very important when you are asking people to work for free. The way this is achieved is simply by not taking on too much work. Often people making low/no budget short films will direct as well as operate the camera and try to be the producer as well. This is a sure-fire way to get stress and confused. Toby’s choice to take the reins by directing, and to leave the gear specifics and lighting to his DOP Aaron McLisky and the producer’s role to Cassie Collin, frees him up to focus on what needs to be done. It also frees up the production up to move along in a calm, purposeful manner. This makes for a far more enjoyable place to be as well as a more efficient shoot.

What are you doing on Friday bro?

When people have day jobs, other projects and busy lives it can be hard to get every one on task at the right time to make projects like this move forward. It helps to be as motivated as Toby Morris it also helps to know a lot of people, the key to achieving the second point according to Toby is to simply keep making films. That way you will keep meeting and working with people, as well as both building your skill set and expanding your network. That said it does help if you can show off some of your previous work which is of the caliber of their film, “My Constellation” shown bellow:

Whats Next?

“Joga Bonito” is currently on hold as one of the lead actors is getting married and has just had his hair cut for the wedding. So once he is back from his honeymoon and his hair has grown back Toby will return to bringing the team together to complete the film. When that happens you can bet we will be in there helping out and showing more behind the scenes stuff as well as pining DOP Aaron McLisky down for a chat about how he goes about shooting the films he makes and what he thinks is important for a DOP to look out for.

Toby’s tips for Film Makers

Let us know if you have any questions for Toby Morris and we will pass them on.

If you want to see more of Toby work check out Toby’s Vimeo page here