Filmmaker mates turn Balwyn North garage into a spaceship
HOLLYWOOD sci-fi history was recreated in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs when two mates got together to build a Kubrickesque spaceship under a Balwyn North house. This is why they did it.
Inner East
Don't miss out on the headlines from Inner East. Followed categories will be added to My News.
HOLLYWOOD sci-fi movie magic reached Melbourne’s eastern suburbs when two mates got together to build a 2001: A Space Odyssey-style spaceship set under a Balwyn North house.
Lifelong friends and amateur filmmakers Andrew Jaksch and Scott Robson channelled Stanley Kubrick’s iconic outer space set while hand-building the set for their short film Thalamos.
The set, complete with cosmic walkway and pod bay, took six months and $6000 to build, and is now a permanent fixture of Jaksch’s basement garage.
THIS POD HOME IS SOMETHING ELSE
THE MELBOURNE MUM MAKING MILLIONS
Jaksch, who is also a full-time builder, pointed out that while 2001 was an obvious inspiration the spaceship was mainly influenced by Duncan Jones’ cult 2009 sci-fi film, Moon.
“The project could be best described as schoolboys on their lunch break building a cubby house but on steroids,” he said.
The pair sourced as much unwanted material as they could to keep costs down, including fridge packing, an old bed base found on the side of the road, leftover toilet s-bends and stove top packaging.
An old fax machine found a use as one of the ship’s control panels, glazier glass suckers are the ship’s door handles and an old vacuum was transformed into an astronaut jet pack.
“We’re pretty good at making something out of nothing,” Jaksch said.
“My wife (Caroline) brought a lot of stuff home as did other friends and we’re like, we’ll find a use for it.”
With production on Thalamos done, the two friends, who met at Box Hill TAFE 32 years ago, are figuring out what to do with the set next.
“There have been a few ideas thrown around such as using it for a mobile vodka bar or hiring it out for events, maybe even a Trekkie wedding,” Jaksch said.
But for now, the two film buffs are just happy to hang around in their own private spaceship planning their next film.
“Filmmaking is a hobby at the moment and although we’d love to do it full-time neither of us are quitting our day jobs yet,” Jacksh said.
The film will have its Australian premier at the Sydney SciFi Film Festival in October after already screening at the 43rd Boston Sci Fi Film Festival, Manchester’s Starburst Media City Film Fest and the Zone Sci Fan Film Fest in London.
MORE NEWS
Disgust as neo-Nazi group hatches plan to run for parliament
A neo-Nazi group that wants to “expel all Jews from Australia” is trying to become a political party so it can contest the federal election in a move labelled a “nightmare come to life”.
Restaurateur wins $95K defamation case over jail claims
An Indian businessman has won a defamation case against an Australian Punjabi-Hindi radio station for falsely claiming he was jailed for 10 years and fined $1m for wage theft.