When Stuart McDonald was rising up in Queensland, he used to stroll alongside the cliffs of the Numinbah Valley within the Gold Coast hinterland and hope to have the ability to seize the surroundings as a director when he was older.
That want grew to become a actuality when he filmed Netflix rom-com A Excellent Pairing within the space final 12 months.
The director mentioned the recollections from his childhood weren’t misplaced on him as he returned to the placement for the movie.
“It was so unusual as an grownup, actually being on the foot of these hills trying again up and getting an opportunity to really direct a movie there.”
Written by Elizabeth Hackett and Hilary Galanoy, A Excellent Pairing stars Victoria Justice as Lola, an LA wine-company govt who travels to an Australian sheep station in an try and land a serious shopper (Samantha Tolj).
Whereas working as a ranch hand, she types a reference to a rugged native Max (Adam Demos). As they speak in confidence to each other, Lola discovers that Australia has launched her to way more than only a love for entrepreneurship. The solid additionally contains Nicholas Brown, Natalie Abbott, Lucy Durack, Luca Sardelis and Emily Havea.
The movie was produced by Hoodlum Leisure’s Deborah Glover and Tracey Vieira, alongside Robyn Snyder and Deborah Evans.
Hackett and Galanoy additionally govt produced with Hoodlum’s Tracey Robertson Nathan Mayfield, and Fernando Szew.
Shot throughout 5 and a half weeks in winter, a lot of the manufacturing befell outdoor, with McDonald admitting they had been “actually lucky” with the climate, whereas additionally paying tribute to cinematographer Ben Nott and manufacturing designer Helen O’Mortgage for his or her work.
“The cinematographer Ben Nott has such a stupendous eye and is so energetically engaged within the filmmaking course of and Helen O’Mortgage, our manufacturing designer, was stunningly good,” he mentioned.
“They made the movie so lovely and created issues that didn’t exist.”
McDonald additionally singled out first assistant director Damien Grant for reward for serving to to determine “each location the place the solar was at each single time within the day”, in order that they had been all the time capturing “within the good mild”.
“There’s loads of math in that Rubik’s Dice of determining the proper course at proper time of day,” he mentioned.
“It was loads of work, but it surely actually paid off.”
A Excellent Pairing is McDonald’s first characteristic movie since 2015’s household journey Oddball, having since helmed episodes of sequence, corresponding to Loopy Ex-Girlfriend, American Housewife, and Wrecked.
Having spent an honest chunk of time working overseas, he mentioned he was happy to spotlight part of his house nation that worldwide audiences might not be conscious of.
“In some methods, there’s that picture of Australia because the dry outback, which is after all nonetheless a part of the nation, but it surely isn’t solely that,” he mentioned.
“I used to be actually happy that I might make Oddball in Warrnambool as a result of it has such a particular look to it.
“Once we made A Excellent Pairing in Numinbah Valley, I used to be actually joyful as a result of [the location] was additionally very particular, in the best way there are these big rocky cliffs topped with rainforests that roll down these huge hills.
“It’s nice when Australian filmmakers get to have a good time elements of the nation which can be fairly distinctive.”
The director is ready to proceed his relationship with Netflix for his subsequent mission, Select Love, which is at the moment capturing in Auckland.
Additionally a rom-com, the interactive characteristic follows Cami, a younger lady who seemingly has all of it however nonetheless feels one thing is lacking, a sense that begins to develop when she meets Rex and an outdated love returns to her life.
McDonald counseled the streamer for its religion within the rom-coms, noting some studios didn’t pursue movies inside the style as vigorously as they as soon as did.
“I believe there’ll all the time be an viewers for that style as a result of how we really feel about one another and the way we negotiate our love lives isnt one thing that’s going to go away,” he mentioned.
A Excellent Pairing is out there to stream on Netflix.