Feature: London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
10 April 2002

Take the subject of voyeurism; add some elements of truth and fiction, then rework into a documentary and finish off with a season of guerrilla filmmaking and you've got the strange recipe for Crazy Richard; a film, which has stirred the imagination of those who have been lucky enough to see the film at the LLGFF. This film was introduced at the NFT as a powerful and intelligent film, a lament on the way in which reality is being assaulted in the media, part fact part fiction.

The film came about as filmmaker Dean Francis was producing the sitcom 'I Can't Even Think Straight' and was considering a behind the scenes film about the show. Working with fellow filmmaker Katrina Mathers the premise for the film started to crystallise.

"We started to talk about fictitious backstage persona's, the original stuff we shot was going to be a short promo for the sitcom, from the outset the performers were involved in the conceptualisation of the characters," commented an enthusiastic Francis. The original sitcom the film is based around was itself a send up of US sitcoms. He added, "We thought what if we all had fictional backgrounds to play with, not just Richard, we could play with the reality of being on set, following the pressures and the ego's."

The film's drama comes from the dramas of real life, of making the show. Like the reality TV shows of Pop Idol, Soapstars, or films like the Truman Show, Crazy Richard raises issues of voyeurism. Katrina sees her character as playing with voyeurism, while Richard's character was about exhibitionism. Different characters had different reactions as they played off of each other, "Richard's drive to be on camera feeds into Katrina's." The evolution of DV technology also aids voyeurism. The film used the realities and problems of shooting as food for the story itself. Richard's death comes about as a result of the actor actually going away, and telling the makers 2 weeks before his departure. The shooting practice was also determined by the premise of the film. Mathers explained, "We did few second takes, once you tried to redo stuff it was no longer reality cinema, that was a huge challenge to us."

The performers themselves started to live their characters to a certain degree. "All the dialogue is improvised, the situations were set up," she concluded. The film for Francis also sees reality TV as if it is a new cinematic format. "We noticed the trend of people sticking a camera in people's faces" While Richard's character in the film is gay, the makers do not see this as being a gay film necessarily, however the film has found an audience amongst gay and lesbian viewers and the film deals with how celebrity is made out of tragedy something we all have to question. It really is something to see and hopefully those fortunate enough to get a ticket at the festival screening will not be the only ones who will experience the crazy world of Crazy Richard.

http://www.outuk.com/cgi-bin/llgff/review_page.pl?key=12

Melbourne Community Voice
By Andrew Shaw
21 Febuary 2002

Documentaries were fake from the start. In 1922, when Nanook of the North, a feature length doco about an Inuit hunter was released, it stunned the world with its "reality". Later, the truth came out. Besieged by rotten conditions and an apathetic star, filmmaker Robert Flaherty made Nook perform the same tasks over and over to get the shots he wanted. When footage was lost in a tent fire, Flaherty made his victim do it all again. Nanook (not his real name) eventually died of starvation on a dear hunt.

More recently, "Man Bites Dog" and the ABC screened series "People Like Us" toyed with documentary conventions, and now Melbourne filmmakers Dean Francis and Katrina Mathers add their own pisstake with Crazy Richard.

Richard Veed was a child soapy star who kind of grew up, took too many drugs, and is clawing his way back to the middle.

Katrina Matters, ambitious documentarist, feeds on Richard's need for exposure, his "I'm On, therefore I Am" small screen obsession. She thinks she's making a documentary about Richard's comeback vehicle, a gay sitcom titled "I Can't Even Think Straight!", but she's recording the trajectory of a furiously falling star.

When should you stop shooting? Never. "Even if he tells you to turn the camera off" Katrina tells her cameraman, "just keep filming".

And there's plenty to film. Richard is an egotistical bitch: "I won't appear in some dumpy, working class mall", he tells his promoters. Cackling over the fate of other child stars - "Macaulay Culkin!"- his eye fucks the camera at every turn. Whether he's doing a line of coke with trannie trade or demanding multiple takes for a sex scene with his pretty make co-star, Veed is a real find. It's impossible not to watch his mascara-caked eyes, that world devouring smile. Along with Katrina, he embodies the film's theme that there are people who like to be watched - even if it kills them.

Stand out scenes in Crazy Richard include the workshop during which Francis (who plays the sitcom director) asks Richard to deliver his lines as a frog, triggering a hissy walk out. Later, when Richard plays the gay card for publicity, the journalist reports: "Richard Veed has come out as gay. Well duh!" Dominic McDonald's performance as "Think Starlight's!" German producer is textbook character development. From New Age Teutonic enthusiast to litigating Hollywood Nazi and back, the gear changes are imperceptible.

Apart from Veed, Crazy Richard's strength lies in Francis' editing. He's worked wonders with material shot on different formats from two different projects ("Think Straight!" was originally a sitcom pilot first screened in 2000). He keeps the eye and mind engaged, cutting in dialogue and vision to hard you feel like slamming on the brakes.

Crazy Richard has been accepted into the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, which will delay its release here. But keep an eye out for it - it's camp, its queer, it's nasty. Damn it, it's even a little bit poetic.

Review: London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
13 April 2002

This tremendously witty and charming film plays on the current craze of watching everything that anyone does in life - all delivered up on television, making stars of us all. The film owes something to films like Ed-TV and The Truman Show but also tips its hat at the reality television shows such as 'Pop Idol' and does this all in the grandest tradition of 'fly-on-the-wall' documentaries. However if that's all you expect of a film you'll be surprised and delighted as this serves up much, much more.

It's a film that has its tongue firmly placed in its cheek and as such allows for some serious themes to come through as the pastiches and the issues of media and voyeurism and celebrity come thick and fast. We have the cult of the celebrity and the power and corruption of people via the media and finally the idea of a voyeuristic society to deal with and then to round things off we're hit with the theme of whether ultimately we wouldn't be better off doing something with our lives rather than watching someone else's!

The look and feel of this film is perfectly suited to the subject matter and the DV guerrilla style cinematography, like the improvised script is sharp and incisive. It is very funny and has moments of mystery and confusion that hold the attention but its also a very humanistic film and the desperation and despair of the characters is well captured.The film's stars [and subjects and filmmakers!] are all extremely well cast and the writing is spot on as they all play out a storyline that centres on the warped and dark sense of the ridiculous. The filmmakers have really captured the essence of a modern phenomenon very well and even give the audience something to think about with a deliciously ambiguous ending.Is Richard Viede dead? The story continues…

http://www.outuk.com/cgi-bin/llgff/review_page.pl?key=12

Write-up: London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
9 April 2002

If you love Pop Idol or have ever read Heat, this utterly compelling pastiche of Reality TV is for you! From an early age Richard Viede led a charmed life - a household-name starring in a top Australian soap. Then his life took a darker turn when a drugs overdose saw him vanish from the nation's screens. Crazy Richard is a 'fly-on-the-wall' mockumentary following Viede as he attempts to resurrect his illustrious career by taking a part in gay soap I Can't Even Think Straight!. However, this wicked and warped moc-doc also addresses more serious issues of our time: celebrity/media/ voyeurism and how being famous can really screw you up! Brilliantly written, beautifully observed, Crazy Richard will leave you wondering: was that fact or fiction?

Crazy is as Crazy Does
by Chloe Flynn (from State of the Arts)
Febuary 12, 2003

At eight years old, Richard Veed was the highest paid and most popular star on television. Five years later, he suffered a near-fatal drug overdose and was instantly forgotten. Now, aged 21, Richard attempts to recapture the spotlight as a promiscuous gay teenager in a late-night sitcom. A young filmmaker, Katrina Matters, is hired to shoot behind the scenes of Richard's new show and becomes entwined in the drama of his real life. It is her work that will truly expose Richard to the public, in graphic and shocking detail.As the cameras roll, the pressure builds, and Katrina's voyeurism pushes the fallen angel too far.

Told in a documentary-style, Crazy Richard is a bittersweet satire about celebrity and a culture of voyeuristic tendencies.

Dean Francis explains, "Around the time the project was conceived The Blair Witch Project had just come out. I remember being astounded by the number of my friends who actually believed that the scenario described in the film's publicity was real. It showed that the 'digital video' revolution (and the subsequent reality TV explosion) had given filmmakers new powers to blur the distinction between fiction and reality, thus heightening viewers' experiences by continually engaging them in a process of evaluation.

"Of course, this was not a new idea, I had also been influenced strongly by the French independent film Man Bites Dog which is a harrowing mockumentary following a serial killer around the streets of Paris."

From celebrities with no makeup to Joe Bloggs in his underwear, the 21st century seems to be the era of voyeurism. So, what is the reason behind our obsession with watching?

"It's a natural human instinct to watch each other. We define our identities by comparing ourselves to other people. Staring into the cinema or television screen is merely an elaborate mirror for our own thoughts, actions and emotions. Voyeurism has always existed, only now we have the tools to take it to absurd levels."

In Crazy Richard, Katrina Matters' fascination with watching - and Richard's obsession with being watched - comes to a dark and extreme conclusion. Are we as a culture destined to end up like Katrina and Richard?

"I believe our voyeuristic tendencies could in theory be purely entertaining, but there are too many Gollums around for that to be the case," postulates Dean.

"Subjects of mass voyeurism often become moths to the flame as they begin to construct their lives around the need to provide entertainment… when you're thinking more about how other people perceive your choices than about why you're making them, then something is bound to go wrong eventually."

"In the case of poor old Richard (and others throughout history), this cost him his life. Being the subject of mass voyeurism is seen to raise someone's status to an absolute level - fame is the closest someone in our society can get to becoming a god - consequently some people sacrifice everything to attain and hold on to it."

Richard's exhibitionism is similarly portrayed as being addictive and destructive. Yet as a filmmaker, it is your job to disseminate your ideas and creative vision to an audience, which you evidently take certain pleasure in. Do you think that exhibitionism is therefore somehow a necessary evil? An artistic characteristic? Or perhaps just another part of human nature?

"Yes - it is a necessary evil especially if you're a filmmaker - we thrive on both the real and the fictitious Richard's need to be adored and his deep love of the camera. In any relationship, if you feel that somebody has a deep need and that you are able to satisfy that need while also having something within you satisfied, such as a need to watch perhaps in this case, then it's symbiotic and productive and hopefully interesting.

"The filmmaking process is inherently riddled with exhibitionism. The most exhibitionist / voyeuristic experiences are those where an actor impresses their own trajectory upon a project thus expressing very intimately a part of who they are - it may be evil but we're thankful for it!"Crazy Richard is also unique in taking a spontaneous, unplanned approach to filming.

"When Katrina arrived on the set of the internet sitcom I Can't Even Think Straight! she saw a real life drama unfolding in front of her. There are real-life dramas everywhere in life, but in this case the people involved were so eager to create drama for drama's sake that she instantly had all the elements of a great story. "What we shot during improvisation was all based on our own thoughts, fears, personas, emotions etc and therefore very much half-documentary. If we scripted the film it would have been impossible to sit down and imagine situations as spontaneously hilarious yet tragic as what was shot. It was a priority to maintain a 'realistic' documentary approach which meant not rehearsing at all before shooting and only shooting everything once. It meant that actors had to be constantly inventing new elements of their characters and the story, often having no time for rational thought and consequently exposing their own vulnerabilities to the camera."

Crazy Richard is appearing as part of the Mardi Gras Film Festival. While the film itself only deals with the issue of sexuality in passing, Dean Francis maintains that the Festival is something that should be supported.

He explains, "The public gets to see films which they would never normally get the chance to see. Often because these films don't have the pressure of reaching a mass market audience, they allow themselves to be much more challenging and experimental.

"On one level sure, it's about a character who faces issues relating to sexual identity; it is set behind the scenes of a queer sitcom so it has had immediate appeal amongst queer audiences. But Crazy Richard does not attempt to 'say' anything about sexuality or promote an agenda of separatism or acceptance or whatever of gay people. If anything its about disrupting homogeneous ideas of sexuality which exist perhaps more within the gay community than in wider society. But regardless, none of this was on anybody's mind when we were making the film! "Crazy Richard, as a very multi-layered piece, is about much more than sexuality. It's about human nature and the destruction of the self by the ego."

http://www.stateart.com.au/sota/music-film/default.asp?fid=1802

In Bed with Crazy Richard
Queerplanet
Febuary 15, 2003

What do you get when you mix a former, gay child star with reality TV? Crazy Richard!

CRAZY RICHARD, an Australian "mockumentary" about a gay sitcom star tells the not-so-true story of Richard Veed who was once the highest paid and most popular child star on television. Co-directed by Dean Francis, who spoke with queerplanet this weekend about his movie, it can best be described as The Blair Witch Project without the tent scenes.

CRAZY RICHARD started out as a real documentary - a behind the scenes look at co-director Dean Francis' mock sitcom, I CAN'T EVEN THINK STRAIGHT! Francis produced several episodes of the sitcom, which deliberately turned the heterosexual morality of TV shows such as FAMILY TIES upside down. It was once filming the documentary began that Francis and Katrina Mathers decided to adopt personas and start pushing the boundaries of reality a little.

So Richard Veed, child star, trying to came a glorious come back was born with all the tantrums and drug abuse that goes along with ex child stars. Francis even went to the extreme of taking his "celebrity" to Melbourne's The Market Hotel, to shoot some of the documentary scenes.

"It was amazing how everyone thought that Richard was a real celebrity visiting from the US." Francis told queerplanet "We had people coming up for autographs and wanting to kiss Richard, we even got offered free drinks!"

So the drama unfolds with rehearsals and tantrums and grabs from the sitcom and tantrums and parties and tantrums. Crazy Richard has all the elements of a great cult movie and should not be missed. You're left wondering how much of this film is real and how much is contrived and isn't that the sign of great entertainment?

http://www.queerplanet.com.au/mardigras-filmreviews.htm

Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
By Gary Kramer
July 11, 2002

Better than an episode of "E! True Hollywood Story" - and not just because it is completely uncensored - Crazy Richard is a deadpan mockumentary that takes a warts-and-all peek at a former child actor trying to stage a comeback.

Richard Veed (Richard Viede) was once the "Golden Boy of sitcom magic," but a drug overdose at the age of 13 nearly killed him along with his career. Now starring as a gay teen in a late-night TV program called "I Can't Even Think Straight," Richard is determined to achieve greater heights of fame than ever before.

Allowing determined filmmaker Katrina Mathers to record everything he does on film - from his hissy fits about his trailer, to his nude exploits on a beach - Richard will do anything to recapture the public's attention. And these efforts include some achingly funny moments such as scanning the tabloids for a hot gossip item, or Richard's refusal to perform his role as a frog.

However, despite all the wackiness, things get way out of hand - you'll just have to watch and see how. Filled with over-the-top characters such as Bonnie, a teen singer/actress, and a ruthless producer named Dominic, this wicked pastiche of Reality TV is not just a shrewd character study about the price of fame; it also skillfully addresses issues of media manipulation and "why people watch."

http://www.phillyfests.com/piglff/templates/film_details.cfm?c=60&id=1136

Sydney Mardi Gras Film Festival
Febuary 2, 2003

Did Growing Pains grate? Did Diff'rent Strokes drive you to distraction? Did you secretly hope that at least one of the Huxtables would turn out to be a crack-addict cross-dresser?

While most ex-child stars settle into a comfortable existence of talk shows and robbing convenience stores, Richard Veed is trying to recapture the limelight he enjoyed as the most popular and highest-paid kiddie actor on TV. Abandoned by his public after a near-fatal drug overdose, the older but not necessarily wiser Richard, accompanied by a tenacious documentary team anticipates a return to former glory via his role as a promiscuous gay teen on a late night sitcom.

But is the world ready for it? Does the world care? As our anti-hero finds out, there may be only one way for a has-been to become truly immortalised…

Funny, harrowing and completely entertaining, this Australian mockumentary offers a satirical and pointed look at the contemporary star-making machine, as well as the public voyeurism that feeds it. What do you do when your fifteen minutes are up?

Shadows on the Wall
By Rich Cline
10 April 2002

It's impossible to describe this film, which blends and bends genres faster than you can define it. It begins as a documentary about former child star Richard (Viede), who went through a drug overdose and now years later is trying to resurrect his career on the saucy soap I Can't Even Think Straight.

As the doc crew gets closer to him, we realise that this is actually a doc within a doc--because the crew itself gets into the story, examining and manipulating celebrity to get a sensational scoop. Soon one of the filmmakers (Mathers) is so intricately involved in the story that she doesn't know where to turn. Because of the outrageous style of filmmaking, we quickly realise that most of this is fiction--a mock-doc wrapped in a documentary submerged in a comedy spoof.

Most of the people are eerily believable; some (most notably McDonald's TV producer) are comedy sketch characters, while others dip into Spinal Tap-like moments of inspired improvisational silliness. The layers of meaning are more darkly clever than they are humorous, looking at voyeurism and the whole concept of reality television.

Viede is a terrific centrepiece--magnetic and hilariously camp. While Mathers' descent into virtual madness is both compelling and blackly funny. It looks terrific, copying the visual textures and kinetic editing of tabloid TV to bring us the real story in all its scandalous glory. And as it starts to dip into themes of privacy and addiction, it gets a little more scary than funny. [themes, language, violence]

http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/rcline/swfes02c.htm

IF Magazine
By Ross Jacobs
November 2000

Modelled on eighties classics like Growing Pains and Saved by the Bell, and combining grotesque humour with boundary-pushing subject matter, I Can't Even Think Straight! is a self -proclaimed "anti-sitcom", a kind of next generation Southpark, which is slowley but surely building a cult following, writes Ross Jacobs.

Deconstructing notions of identity and sexuality has been a long term project of creator Dean Francis, whose folio of often controversial short films has won him international acclaim as 'the bad boy of queer cinema'. "It's not a conscious thing" Dean insists, "I just want to tell stories that interest me."

Adopting a "do it anyway" approach, Francis and his production team, jj splice, set out to shoot independently and self-distribute on the internet. "The internet has been integral to every stage of this project's development" says Francis, whose website (jjsplice.com.au) attracts 60,000 visitors a month. The screenplays were published on the website, and expressions of interest were invited. jj splice was inundated by emails from actors and crew anxious to be involved, willing to work for free to realise this fresh vision.

The screenplays also sparked interest from a huge number of sponsors eager to support the production through in-kind donations. "It was overwhelming. What I thought I'd have to virtually shoot in my living room suddenly just swelled into this gigantic production".

After two months, jj splice had enough funds for a four-day multi-cam studio shoot. For Francis, a self-taught filmmaker, the shoot was a four-day intensive course in how to create TV. "It was terrifying. Everyone felt like they were going to die by the end", he remembers "the sets crew had been working these huge days, lugging sets across town and up four floors to the studio".

But obsessive dedication of the youthful cast and crew resulted in a slick and stylish dramatisation of the concept. Production designer Yolande Robertson's vibrantly kitsch 70s sitcom household and A funky Jetsons-style animated opening sequence by Mark Sehler set the mood for an exacting piss-take of all our sitcom favourites rolled into one.

It was now time to test the project out once again on the internet, with a trial launch of the first rough-cut on jj splice's website. "We saw a very impressive increase in traffic to the site" says Jacinta Plusinski, the jj splice webmaster. "What was also clear was that a lot of people kept coming back each week as we updated the site and added new content". Despite the conventional difficulties associated with streaming video through analogue telephone lines, the launch delivered positive feedback and sparked a lengthy debate on Internet journal FilmNet about digital self-distribution. Most importantly the launch gave the jj splice team a sense of where to head next. Says Francis, "it's like, what do you do with this un-commissioned, totally in your face sitcom that had just evolved from nowhere?"

Four sell-out preview screenings in Melbourne confirmed the creators instincts about the project and its target audience. Says co-producer Dominic McDonald, "the screenings at Unis or to a predominately young audience went really, really well. When it screened to a more general audience, we found that older people didn't feel comfortable with the all of the humour. We had a few people who just thought it was the most offensive thing ever made".

Offensive or not, Francis has negotiated a deal with US broadband company TV.TV to stream I Can't Even Think Straight! at DVD quality on a global pay-per-view network. He has also began working with local production company Ztudio, (responsible for such theatrical spectacles as The Hobbit) to re-develop I Can't Even Think Straight! as a live-to-air performance event. "No one's done live-to-air sitcom anywhere for ages - it's a genre unto its own and we feel there's lots of potential there" says an excited Francis, sipping coffee in his Fitzroy studio.

But what he really wants to talk about is his latest project. "It's called My Penis Will Explode" he beams. And why not? In keeping with the 'organic' approach of the jj splice team, this new project evolved from a camera crew recording footage for the electronic press kit of I Can't Even Think Straight. At the helm was filmmaker and performer Katrina Mathers, who encouraged the sitcom's key cast to adopt fictional off-screen personas. When Francis saw her footage, he knew there was a film just waiting to be made.

Six months and 40 Mini DV tapes later, the work in progress version of My Penis Will Explode screens at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival. It is arresting and hysterical, seamlessly blending fiction with reality and thrusting its audience between different levels storytelling and perception. A jj splice camera crew is present at the screening to capture a shocked audience reaction when Mathers suffers a nervous breakdown while trying to introduce the film. Mathers is hauled away from the podium screaming, as the opening credits play.

"It keeps us off the streets, I guess" chuckles Mathers, whose sketch comedy series was recently picked up by the ABC.

So where to from here for I Can't Even Think Straight and it's dynamic production team, jj splice? The two pilot episodes shot so far will be released on the if Mag website - (point your browser to www.if.com.au for fortnightly instalments commencing November), while jj splice completes post-production on My Penis Will Explode and then "gets back to its roots" for the final in a trilogy of short films commenced in 1998, titled Dupion. "I guess it's a pretty busy period," says 20-year old Dean Francis. "It's nice to have a sitcom. I think more filmmakers should do sitcoms. Yeah, I think it's nice."