Marco Solo
Marco Solo is an Australian comedic short film made by Adrian Bosich.

Synopsis
Poor Marco. Accidentally born into an overcrowded Australian-Italian household, he is relegated to his parents' bedroom. Nine years later, armed with a vivid imagination, an obsession with Dame Edna Everage, and a warped sense of Catholicism, Marco fights for a space of his own.

Genre
Comedy

Awards Received

- 2004 Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films
(Best Student Live Action under 15 minutes)

- 2004 Australian National ATOM Award -
(Best Film School Production)

- 2004 Australian National Student Film & Video Festival,
(Best Narrative Film)

- 2004 Kodak Emerging Filmmaker Award
(Cannes)

- 2005 Flickerfest Film Festival
(Best Cinematography)

- Australian Cinema Nova
(Best Potential for Theatrical Release)

- 2004 Australian In The Bin Film Festival
(Best Comedy Award)

- 2004 Fitz Awards
(Best Achievement in Sound)

- 2004 Australian In The Bin Film Festival
( Best Male Actor Award - Joseph Sollena)

- 2004 Australian In The Bin Film Festival
(Production Value Award)

- 2005 Falls Creek Film Festival
(Best Film - Highly commended)

- Victorian College of the Arts
(Brian Robinson Best Script Award)

- Victorian College of the Arts, Mike Reed Post Production and Partners
(Best Visual Effects Film Award)

Festival Screenings

Upcoming screenings

- Outfest 2005 - Los Angeles, USA
Sat Jul 16, 11:30 am

- Salento International Film Festival, Italy
10-18 Settembre, 2005


Previous Screenings

- 2004 Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films (USA)

- 2004 48th BFI London Film Festival (UK)

- 2005 Tribeca Film Festival (USA)

- 2005 Seattle Film Festival (USA)

- 40th Chicago International Film Festival 2004 (USA)

- 2004 21st St. Kilda Film Festival Opening Night Selection (Australia)

- 2005 Flickerfest Film Festival (Australia)

- 2005 Rosemount Australian Film and Style Festival - Australia Week 2005 (USA)

- 2005 Worldwide Short Film Festival (Canada)

- 2005 Maui Film Festival (USA)

- 2005 Showroom Film Festival (UK)

- 2005 Smogdance Film Festival (USA)

- 2005 Falls Creek Film Festival (Australia)

- 2005 Showcomotion: The Film Festival For Children & Young People (UK)

- 2005 Sydney Travelling Film Festival (Australia)

- 2004 Darwin Downunder International Film Festival (Australia)

- 2004 International Student Film Festival - Hollywood (USA)

- 13th Brisbane International Film Festival 2004 (Australia)

- 2004 Interfilm Berlin Film Festival (Germany)

- Rencontres internationales du cinema des anitipodes 2004 (France)

- 2005 World of Comedy International Film Festival (Canada)

- 2005 Bayside Film Festival (Australia)

- 2004 Fitzroy Shorts Film Festival (Australia)

- 2005 The Weird Mob Film Festival (Australia)

- 2005 Over the Fence Comedy Film Festival (Australia)

- 2004 Darwin Festival - Aussie Shorts (Australia)

- 2004 St. Kilda Film Festival National Tour (Australia)

- 2005 Ballarat Film Festival (Australia)

- 2005 Warburton Film Festival (Australia)

- 2004 Cinema Nova Novadose Short Film Festival (Australia)

- 2004 Australian National Student Film & Video Festival (Australia)

- 2004 Belo Horizonte International Short Film Festival (Brazil)

- 2004 In The Bin Film Film Festival (Australia)

- 2004 Fitzroy Shorts Film Festival (Australia)

Originating format
Super 35mm

Screening formats
35mm (w Dolby Digital & Dolby SR)
Digital Betacam (PAL)
Betacam SP (PAL)
DVD (PAL & NTSC)

35mm Technical Information
Ratio - 1.85:1
1 reel
870 feet
Running time at 24fps - 9 min 7 sec
Sound – Dolby Digital DTS & Dolby SR

Video Technical Information
Ratio – Full Screen Letterboxed and 16:9 Full Height Anamorphic available
Running time at 25fps - 8 min 45 sec

Key Cast

Key Crew

Director's Statement

The story of Marco Solo is derived from my own personal experiences growing up in Moonee Ponds - an overcrowded, very Italian suburb in Melbourne, Australia. I’ve always been fascinated by the way people have reacted to tales I have told them from my youth; reactions ranging from astonishment to sympathy, but to me, this environment was extremely fun, and in retrospect, quite interesting.

The migration of these Italians resulted in a freezing of culture; isolated from Italy’s social progression, this Australian contingent existed in a bubble of 1950s Italian culture. My film hopes to capture this dichotomy; it is not only a film contrasting Australian and Italian cultures, but rather 1950s Italy vs. 1980s Australia.

Marco Solo is an attempt to take the issues of poor post-war migrants, religious rituals and iconography, and Italian family politicking, and wrap them up in comedy. But by taking these issues, and finding the underlying comedy, I hoped to make an entertaining film that an audience wanted to watch, which had truth at its core.

The story is told by a nine year-old narrator, and I wanted the pace of the film to take on this youthful, fantastical, short-attention-span feel. Quick cuts and visual effects are used throughout, to convey this spectacle and enthusiasm. Rather than gratuitously dropping in effects shots, as a visual effects artist, I tried to use the technology to support the film’s theme - its magical realism.

Marco’s innocent outlook, contrasting with the adult world, is where I felt the comedy lay. This interplay of experience and naiveté culminates in the final scene; a moment only a child could get away with!

Adrian Bosich

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