By Nicholas McCarvel
The young boy has a look of dejection on his face, his arm weary from a day of hitting tennis balls at a single orange cone. But then the lights flicker on above the courts, and so too does his determination to be the tennis star he’d always dreamed of being.
It’s not an actual story being played out at this year’s Australian Open, but rather the winning entry in the third annual ‘Changing Ends’ film festival that accompanies the first Grand Slam of the year.
“We wanted something for people who liked tennis and who liked films and created this film festival centred around 90 seconds, which is the length of time of a change in ends in tennis,” explained Kim Trengove, who helped establish the festival in 2010.
Film-makers submitted their entries on the festival’s site and a panel of judges, including tournament director Craig Tiley, wheelchair star Daniela Di Toro and Face to Face actor Vince Colosimo, that reviewed them and chose ten finalists, with films ranging from gut busting to tear jerking and heart warming.
“I wish I would have entered a film,” Colosimo told a crowd on Australia Day on the grounds at Melbourne Park. “These people are really talented.”
Colosimo was on hand to share four of the films – “Tennis Lessons,” “Courting,” “Power Serve” and “Rally” – at Grand Slam Oval before the winner, “Tennis Lessons”, was announced.
Each of the films entered followed the theme of “Tennis Essence” to “serve up and distil” different stories in the 90-second time limit.
“Tennis lends itself to a lot of quirky story lines, it’s goofy sport,” Trengove said. “You’ve had Match Point and Wimbledon and The Royal Tennenbaums that have all been mainstream successes.”
Scott Holgate, a freelance cinematographer, was the director of the first-place winning “Tennis Lessons” entry that featured the young boy coming of age.
“We wanted to tell a positive story about determination and not giving up,” Holgate said. “We wanted the film to be something that promoted tennis as a sport that everyone could enjoy. Not just having to be a world-beater.”
Holgate will enjoy a $5,000 first-prize reward for his winning film. Five runner-ups received a $500 prize each.
Among the ten finalists, seven claimed cash prizes. “Power Serve,” a creative film that showed a tennis racquet and balls being churned up into a video game claimed third place. “The Book of Essence,” featuring two young kids hitting thousands of practice shots as “ingredients” was second.
“This is another form of entertainment for the Australian Open,” Trengove said. “We’re able to show the films year-round on YouTube and on our website. This is another opportunity for our fans to engage with the Grand Slam, which we try to cover a whole lot of different ways on our web site. This is taking tennis as an entertainment over into the arts community.”
Holgate’s film was just artsy enough: he filmed it in Canberra at the Turner Tennis Club with his brother in a shoot that took an entire day.
“Combining tennis and film-making was a no brainer,” Holgate said. “[Everyone around us] was encouraging towards the project.”
And how will he spend that $5,000?
“We have another short film that we’ve written that we’ll put the prize money toward that. It’s still in it’s early stages.”
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