Andrew Gramsh & Petar Zabic

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Shakespeare brought them together and nothing will tear apart two young actors from the Gold Coast.
The pair met while auditioning for a production of Shakespeare's Hamlet and instantly became good friends who connected creatively from a common interest in classic films and cinema The friendship grew as they shared the same vision to inspire and entertain audiences by being in movies.
After suffering some of the pitfalls that many young performers deal with, including being ripped off by a scam, Andrew and Petar knew it was time to make the next move and decided to go it alone.
The decision to become freelance actors was made and the uncharted territory lay ahead. Producing thier own show reels was the main priority at the time. 'We needed to cut through the red tape and get our names out into the void and into the eyes of the people who mattered within the industry,' says Petar. 'We took matters in our own hands and decided to make our own opportunities happen by doing it our way.'
(yes these photos were taken in the ladies toilets at the Event Cinemas, Robina
- no pee-ing ladies were alarmed in the taking of these pix)

 

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Petar Zabic was born on the Gold Coast in the year the early 80s and he always knew he was destined for a creative life.'Basically I was never one who thought I would be an academic achiever. I didn’t enjoy hitting books all the time, I was always a creative outspoken individual.  I’ve always enjoyed expressing myself through playing music and theatre, I was good at it and I loved it.
'I studied acting in high school and at university and read books about Hollywood greats and their acting methods.  I was always enthused by Hollywood and rock 'n' roll history and I knew that was what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to be confined to allocated time or space.'
Andrew is also an eighties baby born in Sydney who moved to country Queensland in '92 and then moved to Gold Coast in 2000. From the age of about five I always wanted to be in the movies. Watching film stars on TV and at the movies gave me the biggest thrill. Did drama and theatre in school and at every chance I could.'
(continued below)


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Andrew Gramsh & Petar Zabic cont.


After the long arduous task of deciding how and what scenes we were going to showcase, the wonder of the household handy-cam came into play and it became the core 'third' member of our team.

So not only being aspiring actors we had to undertake the roles of director, producer, editor, writer, costume designer and location scout. We were well over our heads some might say!

Amongst all this Andrew was working two jobs to pay for his mortgage and organising his 'big wedding day'. Petar was at a cross-roads, suffering financial strains from being in between jobs while studying at University.

'Implementing the D.I.Y method and relying on heart and soul in our show reels, we found that we made a great team not only as actors but as mates, learning a lot from and about each other. We were very fortunate to have a meeting with renowned Casting Director Tom Mc Sweeney at Village Road Show Studios on the Gold Coast as a result of him receiving our finished reels in our 'global' mail out.

'The experience at first was daunting and nerve racking as we thought we were going to be humiliated and laughed at and be out of his office in less than 5 minutes. To our surprise we had 2hrs filled of inspirational and insightful conversation and advice. It felt good to finally have some positive feedback and encouragement from someone so prominent in the industry.

'This was a great stepping stone in the right direction. Tom gave us useful constructive criticism, and noticed our talent, passion and dedication, our drive and creative flair for filmmaking as well. He had confidence in our capabilities suggesting we produce and star in our own short film. His exact words. "shoot the puppy". that we kept in mind. International Entertainment Correspondent and Author, Nelson Aspen, was another recipient of our global show reel mail out. Nelson conducts the entertainment broadcast on the Channel 7's Sunrise Morning Show. He replied via email within about a week and a half reassuring us that we had what it took, to never give up and to be tenacious.

'Giving us more motivation then ever before, we had a friend cheering for us from the sidelines in moviemaking motherland, Tinseltown. The three of us became really great online pen pals. For just over a year Nelson was always there with advice and support and he was on our side applauding our efforts.

'Apart from this we had so many other things going on in our day to day lives, more than you can imagine. Andrew got married and had a new born on the way while Petar was still in between jobs and contemplating dropping out of university. At this stage the acting was on brief hiatus but never on the backburner.

'Out of the blue an email came through from Nelson telling us he was coming Down Under for the launch of his new book, Hollywood Insider. Personally inviting us to one of his tour dates in Brisbane, he wanted to meet us finally face to face. We were absolutely thrilled, a spark ignited, we were back in business. Part of the journey as aspiring actors is to attend as many industry functions as possible to make your connections and network. Fortunately for us we received a little 'red carpet' treatment at Nelson Aspen's book launch event.

'It was great to meet our mentor who has believed in us every step of the way, not to mention from half way around the world. We patiently waited for Nelson to greet all of his adoring fans and supporters first so that we wouldn't be disturbed when it was our time to catch up as mates. He was thrilled to see us and we had a great time talking about movies, celebrities and the next chapter in our adventure in cracking our way into showbiz. We even had a little photo shoot and in one of the pictures taken Nelson described that we the three of us looked like members of some cool band - so from then on he dubbed us as his 'Gossip Guys'. It was a great inspirational night and one we won't forget. It was time to get to work.'

'Using Petar's knowledge gained from his almost completed degree in marketing we produced a promo advert to capture the essence of our journey thus far as aspiring actors and to show what it takes to achieve our big break. So after a few days of conceptualising and organising we did an early Sunday morning shoot and came up with our promotional advertisement called 'Tinseltown Big Break'. Done by the skin of our own teeth we knew this was our best work so far. It led us to making a great connection, by the recommendation from Nelson Aspen, with successful Los Angeles based Indie Casting Director and Producer Bonnie Gillespie.

'We knew we had created something special, cinematic and all done by two regular fellas with a simple house hold handy cam. It was evident that a few open doors had now welcomed us with this one. It was like whatever life threw at us we answered back with a vengeance. The fact of settling for a life of being trapped in doing a job or something we regretted and despised wasn't in our mindset. We had guts, we had balls, and our only way was to live our dream . Success was the bottom-line. We wanted to do whatever it took. We've always talked about producing our own film.

'Since You Tube was such a convenient tool at the time we thought it would be cool to upload the movie when it was done and see what happens as far as promoting and marketing ourselves was concerned. Andrew, being a great visionary had already written fragments of a screenplay entitled "The Crusader Condition", just waiting for it to evolve and made into a feature. But with his director like intellect he wanted it to be made properly and professionally.

'At the time we by no means had any means of achieving such a task of ourselves! So we started exploring another possible idea that fitted in with our demographic. We wanted this project to have some dark elements to it, especially Petar as he wanted the concept to coincide with his musical preferences and capture an unsettling environment for the characters. Andrew mentioned having a real dark horse character headlining it using two naïve victims as scapegoats. It was a great idea and we stuck with it. This wasn't the first idea but it sounded the most appealing. So as the conceptualisation began the ideas were flowing out like water and we both agreed in order for this concept to work we had to cut it back and make it simple as this was a huge responsibility to uphold. Our goal was to simply have our characters, a beginning, middle and a climatic ending, as well as a title for the film.

'Judging from the malevolent nature of the film's plot so far, Petar suggested we name the film Buzzard. The music and the inspiration for the film's title came from one of Petar's favourite bands, 'Alice in Chains', which lyrically and wickedly pronounced the word Buzzard in one of their songs. The phrase set a murky sinister texture to the images Petar was getting from his imagination while he was bored out of his mind during a lecture at Uni. Through his enlightenment he did some research on the terminology of the word and it meant exactly what the movie was all about and it wasn't predictable - it made people think. After pitching the name and meaning to Andrew, he was all for it. It was time to finish the script.

'We lived our lives working hard to make ends meet while working on this project. Andrew was now a father, husband and providing for his family and Petar was making sure that he was eligible to graduate from university come examination time. This all coincided with the downward spiral of the world's economy making things financially demanding for both of us. But we didn't let this get in the way of what we set out to do; after all, we didn't a have a budget to start with! We really didn't know what we were getting ourselves into when production commenced. Again, we were just two actors undertaking the roles of producer, director, writers, editor, location scout, camera man and whatever else it took to make the movie. While filming Buzzard we encountered all sorts of opposing factors.

'First and foremost the only people that were on set and on location were the two of us and there was nobody else except the ordinary home handy cam and tripod. We had no production crew, we had no financial backing, we used only natural lighting and we were on our own.'

Approaching the end of production on the film came the first sign of relief and belief. Miraculously as though fate had intervened Petar met Chris O'hearn from Nascent Productions. They crossed paths at Petar's workplace and during their conversation they clicked straight away and a collaborative chemistry began. Chris expressed great interest with what we were attempting with Buzzard as actors and he wanted to help us with of the project in any way possible.

'At our first meeting, which became a regular weekend morning event in Mermaids at Burleigh Heads, both of us were amazed of Chris's industry network and beyond. At the time it seemed as if he was from a parallel universe and on a mission to help us achieve our goal.

'Through the whole process he became a valued and trusted pal of ours and we are grateful for his involvement and kindness, and for introducing us to his lovely family and other industry professionals. Chris and his wife Ilona's expertise with photography and hi-res cameras, their professionalism and continual support for us and the entertainment industry is astonishing. We are proud to be associated with Nascent Productions.'

In the final stages of production on Buzzard other creative minds were attracted to the project willing to lend their talent to the film. These people came from areas of expertise such as sound engineering, music, SFX makeup, graphic design and photography.

'We finally had a little post-production crew at last. Thank you Christian Clifford, Paul Bermingham, Alex Seretis, Steven 'Mars' Mortimer and Brooke Fritz for your time, skill and support. In our minds Buzzard, when finished, was not going to be another random piece of footage uploaded on You Tube. It needed its unveiling and to be seen by the people who mattered.

Buzzard had its premiere on the 22nd of August 2009 at the new Event Cinemas at Robina Town Centre on the Gold Coast. In collaboration with Chris O'Hearn from Nascent Productions, David Gould Studios and the Managing Sales Director for Event cinemas Sophie Forsythe.

'We managed to host our very own the first non profit cinema screening of 3 locally made films. The event was called Local Film Focus and Buzzard being the first film to screen on the night was extremely well received by our audience who couldn't believe that it was entirely filmed entirely by two guys on a simple handy cam with no budget.

'The future is unpredictable but looks promising and we just will by no means slow down. We believe impossibilities can be made possible. it's up to you'.