Cast: Michelle Barnett, Jake Kuzma, Frances Hannaway, Matthew Overberg
Cinematographer: Kevin Holloway
Director: Piia Wirsu/ Claire Marshall
Edit: Claire Marshall
Score: Jason Chin
Lighting: Simon Cool and Daniel Endicott
Architecturally, Vault was inspired by ‘progressive eclecticism’ of the Old Museum Building. Vault also drew inspiration from Patricia Mather’s “A Time for a Museum: The History of the Queensland Museum 1862 – 1886”, specifically some of the people/ characters who worked there. The cast themselves become relics of the space, passing by each other, sharing memories of the space they inhabit.
In 1983, I remember my Dad dropping me off at the Old Museum after a ballet exam to catch up with my primary school class excursion. I got lost finding my class, and the sense of exploring the building is layered into the abstract narrative of Vault.
In 1983, I remember being fascinated by a painting of a dinosaur on a wall. It wasn’t a graffiti job, but rather looked like a painting by a child. I wondered why it was on the wall of the museum. Filming Vault in 2012, I was keen to see if the dinosaur painting was still there. It was!! Furthermore, I noticed that it was signed by M. Oakden. The name Margaret Oakden appeared in Mather’s “A Time for a Museum”. I was able to get in touch with Margaret Oakden and ask her about the painting. Margaret Oakden worked at the museum from 1972 to 1980 as a staff artist who would prepare prints for marketing by the museum. Margaret informed me that her son had won a drawing competition and was invited to do the dinosaur mural. Mystery solved.
Some behind the scene images of the Vault shoot by Gemma Blake and Frances Hannaway:
Vault was my second dance that I had edited. I learnt that transitioning from scene to scene did not need to be linear and that editing could shape the story arc, in this case a journey of old souls or memories through a building where they once belonged.
Also, while editing, I found it interesting how differently dance reads on film in two different edits of the same duet. Here is an example:
Some stills from frame:
Vault took me longer than I expected to complete. This was due to the scale of the project being larger than Pulse (more footage and a longer film), as well as learning to navigate various frame rates. I also commenced pre-production on my third dance film, Ward of State, so Vault was shelved for a few years. It was eventually screened in 2019 and won a few awards following this. Here is the trailer.
