Low-budget filmmaking can be demanding at the best of times, but the director of a new movie at Auckland's Rialto Cinemas this week Hidden literally had to put his body on the line to get his movie made. A thriller about sinister goings-on at an isolated camp, Hidden was filmed in 2001 as a project to help Unitec Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts acting students learn their craft.
Low-budget filmmaking can be demanding at the best of times, but the director of a new movie at Auckland's Rialto Cinemas this week Hidden literally had to put his body on the line to get his movie made. A thriller about sinister goings-on at an isolated camp, Hidden was filmed in 2001 as a project to help Unitec Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts acting students learn their craft.
But when the original $7000 budget ran out, writer/director Tim McLachlin funded the five-year post-production process himself, risking life and limb as a movie stuntperson.

Tim, who studied acting at Unitec in the late nineties, says that stunt work was his first love but it eventually became a means to fund his filmmaking. "I worked as a stunt performer on the Lord of the Rings movies, River Queen andKing Kong, but it's a tough business and I take jobs now mainly for the money so I can make my own films."

Tim performed stunts for Hidden as well, but he says the movie's thrills are more psychological than physical. "It has horror and thriller elements but with art-house sensibilities, so it's well-suited to the Rialto audience."

Hidden has been a labour of love, he says, with his mentor, Murray Hutchinson - who was the head of acting in the Unitec degree and passed away late last year - giving him the opportunity, and his brother co-producing the film. "Murray gave me the initial budget and the only restrictions I had was that I needed to write parts for all the actors from the third-year class."

The film was shot over three wintry months, mainly in the Waitakere Ranges, and edited at Unitec's School of Performing and Screen Arts, followed by the long postproduction using home computers whenever there was time and money.

The hard work has paid off, with Hidden being shown at film festivals in North America and winning awards at the Rebelfest International Film Festival in Toronto, the Harlem International Film Festival in New York and the FAIF International Film Festival in Hollywood.

The movie has a guaranteed two-week run in Auckland, and Tim is already planning his next projects with a group of collaborators he met while studying at Unitec. But, he says, he is hoping the next film will make it to the screen a bit faster.

"We're looking at some ideas for TV and I'm planning to write another feature film this year, but no more low-budget filmmaking - I'm sick of being poor."

Hidden opens at Rialto in Auckland on Thursday.

For more information go to www.hiddenthemovie.co.nz

Award winning New Zealand feature film Hidden is set for its New Zealand Premiere and cinema run during February and March in Auckland and Wellington. The 'art house thriller' will Premier at Wellingtons Reading
Cinemas on Thursday the 16th February at 8pm - the screening will be open to the public. The film will then be screened daily from the 17th February at Reading Cinemas in Wellington and from the 23rd of February at Auckland's
recently refurbished Rialto cinemas in Newmarket.

Hidden was the brainchild of Murray Hutchinson who passed away last year and was the former 'Head of Acting' at the School of Performing and Screen Arts at Unitec in Auckland. The school provided the initial funding with Murray serving as Executive Producer and consultant. Shot in the cold winter months of 2001 with virtually no crew, the majority of the cast was made up from the graduating students of that
year. The film was edited soon after with the remainder of post production taking a further three years. Hidden was finally completed in May 2005.

The film was then entered into overseas film festivals. Invites from several festivals followed shortly thereafter.

Hidden has screened at 7 international film festivals to date which include: