6,000 Miles from Hollywood

In "6,000 Miles from Hollywood", Dave Elder is an unemployed actor in LA with a lame job who's going nowhere. His mate, Spy Holden, is a wannabe movie producer in Sydney who has convinced himself that by making a Robert Rodriguez-inspired action film (with an American lead), he can "take Hollywood by storm". When Spy offers Dave the lead in his "million dollar movie", Dave sells everything he owns and moves to Australia.

Once he arrives, though, everything he was promised turns out to be a lie, and it's all part of the image of success Spy's trying to project. In truth, Spy's making a B-grade action film with outdated equipment in his garage.

But when Dave falls for Kylie, Spy's lead actress, he decides to stay and help Spy get his film made, using lies and deceit, and maintaining the illusion that he's a big movie star from Hollywood. As the lies begin to unravel, the duo is forced to face themselves, their true motives, and the nature of fame and movie-making.

"6,000 Miles from Hollywood" is a simple, self-deprecating low-budget movie about two wannabe filmmakers trying to make a low-budget movie. As more and more would-be filmmakers around the world attempt to "take Hollywood by storm", the fun of this movie is that it looks at the ones who don't. Intentionally tongue-in-cheek, and shot on a shoestring to highlight the point it was making, the film ultimately fell victim to its own lack of budget.

The film was never completed, and thus, never had any "private screenings", as one "reviewer" has implied. I know this because I know the filmmakers, and was fortunate enough to attend one of the two work-in-progress screenings they offered halfway through post-production, seeking objective feedback.

It raises an interesting question, though: Is it fair to judge a work-in-progress (e.g., a scratchy work print with missing dialog, music and effects) as if it were a polished film? Possibly. But to hide that context in a review demonstrates either a lack of understanding of the process of film-making, or a hidden personal agenda (or both).

Ironically, that is exactly the message of "6,000 Miles from Hollywood", and why I enjoyed even the work-in-progress. Because whether you make it or not, or whether "they" like it or not, if you're true to yourself, that's all that really matters.