Palm Beach (1980) Online

Palm Beach (1980) Online

This movie was shot in only fifteen days.

First dramatic movie role for Australian surfer and former surfing world champion Nat Young. Young had previously appeared in a number of documentaries and surf movies but always had appeared as himself and never as a fictional character.

This movie was shot by a crew of only seven people.

Debut film as an actor for surfing manager and surfing commentator Kenneth Brown.

Writer-producer-director-editor Albie Thoms once said of this film's small crew and short shoot: "It's a matter of knowing what you want and how best to achieve it...Large units necessitate that you become a general. With a small unit, everyone's attention is directed to that moment you are capturing on film...Shooting quickly concentrates attention, keeps everyone on their toes. You switch into gear and stay there until the last shot's in the cans. There's no time for bullshit, and everyone is forced to give their best".

The finance for this movie took five years to raise.

The Creative Development Fund of the Australian Film Commission provided the funds in order for this film to be able to be completed.

Every single scene in this film was contained within a single camera shot.

Director Albie Thoms once said of the single shot per scene approach: "In a way it's harking back to primitive cinema, where the eye reads the meaning of the scene without the intervention of of close-ups or cutaways to force attention to detail." Moreover, Thoms "...didn't hold a fixed frame, and instead allowed the camera to move with the actions of the characters, choreographing its movement to add meaning to the activity within the scene without having to resort to a cut-in to emphasize important details".

Editor Albie Thoms once said of this film's cutting: "The scenes just fell into place. I could see the edits as i was shooting. That left me free to experiment in cutting the sound".

This movie was filmed in 16mm and then blown-up to 35mm for its theatrical release.

This was the first non-experimental feature film for Albie Thoms though it can be argued that elements of it are experimental.

The meaning and relevance of this movie's 'Palm Beach' title is, according to David Stratton in his 1980 book 'The Last New Wave', that the "...title refers to a beach at the tip of Sydney's northern peninsula where the population is a mixture of the affluent, the artistic (several filmmakers live in the area) and what used to be called the beach bums".

This film is notable for its use of overlapping sound where dialogue from one scene overlaps into the next. The film was edited with two concurrent soundtracks running simultaneously next to each other. This allowed for the interpenetration and overlapping of sound.

The 'Palm Beach' of the film's title is a real place. It is situated in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia where it is one of this city's northern beach-side suburbs. It lies just over 40 kilometers from Sydney's central business district. The Sydney northern beach suburb is known for its beach culture and portrays the fictional town of Summer Bay in the Australian soap drama Home and Away (1988).

This movie is the only ever feature film ever made by Albie Thoms.

This movie, called 'Palm Beach', was actually filmed in the place of its title, Palm Beach, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Director Albie Thoms asked the actors to improvise much of the dialogue in this movie.

Australian film critic, curator and historian Paul Byrnes has said of this film's sound design and sound editing: Director Albie "Thoms uses multiple layers of dialogue, often three streams at once, continuing the sounds from one scene through the images of a different scene, using a continuous drone of commercial radio and television..."

One of the reasons that this film had difficulty acquiring funding was the lack of a concrete script due to director Albie Thoms insistence on utilizing an improvisation technique.

Funding from the Australian government film body to blow up the film from 16mm to 35mm was only made when director Albie Thoms could show that he had a film that makes sense.

Development of this film started in 1973, about seven years before it was finally made and released.

This movie had a particularly low budget even for an independent low-budget feature film, costing at around only $100,000 (Australian).

The film opens with no production crew credits at all. They merely state: "PALM BEACH by Albie Thoms".

This movie starring Bryan Brown forms part of Brown's early career period in the Australian Cinema of the mid to late 1970s. Interestingly, Brown would five years later star in the similarly titled film The Empty Beach (1985), a film also set around Sydney beach-side suburbs and also with a detective theme.

Albie Thoms performed a number of different duties on this film. Thoms was this film's director, producer, editor and writer.

This film's opening preamble states: "Once upon a time . . . ". The title card appears via a left to right wipe and then disappears via a wipe in the reverse direction.

This movie was filmed during October 1978 on the Northern Sydney New South Wales Coast between Palm Beach and Manly.

Bryan Brown received fourth billing, Nat Young received top / first billing, Kenneth Brown received second billing, Amanda Berry received third billing, Julie McGregor received fifth billing.

Julie McGregor and Bryan Brown are seen wearing curly blond Harpo Marx wigs in this movie.

Bryan Brown is seen doing virtually near full frontal nudity in one sequence in this movie.

This is the only ever film featuring actress Amanda Berry.

This movie was one of two 1980 Australian films that starred both John Flaus and Bryan Brown. The other was Blood Money (1980). The two actors also both appeared in Newsfront (1978).

This movie features only 115 camera shots for the entire film.

This film was produced with the assistance of the Creative Development Branch of the Australian Film Commission.

This picture was one of fifty Australian films selected for preservation as part of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia's Kodak / Atlab Cinema Collection Restoration Project.

The locals' nick-name for Palm Beach located north of Sydney in New South Wales in Australia is "Palmy".

Palm Beach runs along the New South Wales coast north of Sydney, Australia from Little Head to Barrenjoey Head which is a distance of about 2.3 kilometers (= approximately 1.43 miles).

Palm Beach, which is situated north of Sydney in New South Wales in Australia, is well-known to Australian television audiences as a major filming location in the later Australian soap drama 'Home and Away'.

Some Australian press advertisements for this picture declared it was the first Australian film to be released in 1980.

This movie won the Best Film award at the 20th annual Adelaide International Film Festival but shared the prize with another production.

The film was re-issued in cinemas in Australia in a double bill with Nat Young's 'Fall Line' (1977).

David Elfick: The Australian film producer as a cinema projectionist.