In the Trenches Director Benjamin Scotford on Documenting the Muddy Battlefields of Esperance

The Curb

With his feature documentary debut In the Trenches: The Making of Before Dawn, Benjamin Scotford has made a rare achievement within the Australian film industry: a behind the scenes documentary which follows the muddy and tough production of Before Dawn, Jordan Prince Wright's equally rare achievement, an indie war flick shot in the remote West Aussie landscape. Benjamin dives into the ditches of this WW1 epic, taking audiences behind the scenes for the highs, the lows, and the difficulties that the production faces with pulling off the impossible on a micro-budget.

Benjamin is given unparalleled access to the production, capturing honest and open discussions from cast and crew that shows off the strength that it took to bring Before Dawn to life. From freezing cold rain to escaping sheep to earthquake level explosions, In the Trenches captures it all.

In the following discussion, Benjamin talks about his entry point into documentary filmmaking, how working as a wedding videographer and on corporate gigs with local legends like Tony Galati aka the Spud King informed his guerilla style filmmaking, and the kinds of behind the scenes docos that inspired his work.

In the Trenches is currently available on Bluray and DVD via CaptureBehindTheScenes.com.au.

For those who are also keen to check out Before Dawn, head over to Umbrella Entertainment where you can buy it on physical media, or to Netflix where it's available to stream. Before Dawn recently took home the award for Best Sound at the WA Screen Culture Awards, where the film also received nominations for Narrative Feature Film with budget over $1m, Best Cinematography or Visualisation, Best Performance for Myles Pollard, and Best Original Music.

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