THE BISCUIT EFFECT
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Production
‘The Biscuit Effect’ is an experimental comedy. Frustrated by the time and constraints of traditional filmmaking, director Matthew Holmes devised a way to potentially shoot a feature film in one day. Assembling a team of actors who displayed strong improvisation skills, Matthew Holmes and Anna Cheney developed a simple story that could be shot in one day - a bunch of idiotic theives pull off a heist and have bought cameras along to film the event. When Adam Willson and Paul Bellman we’re cast as the leads, they also helped devise the structure for the filming day, as it would be their characters that drive the story forward.
To give the acting\ natural responses and surprises, none of the cast members we’re told what was going to happen. Only the two leads and the camera crew knew the events of the day. Each cast member had to fully create their own character and arrive on set, in costume, and just go with the flow. The action was covered by two DVCAM cameras, rolling constantly - no setups, no second takes.
The results we’re both fantastic and chaotic. The loose structure made things difficult at times, but through the editing process the gems we’re kept and the loose clutter was discarded. Seperate character interviews we’re also shot to help the story along and build character. These we’re filmed the following weekend, so in the end, the whole film was shot in approximately 2 days.
‘The Biscuit Effect’ was premiered in Adelaide at the Mercury Cinema in January 2005 and was very well received. The larger-than-life characters we’re memorable, funny and original. Since then, it has been aired across Australia on the C31 Network and has been slowly gathering a cult following ever since.
‘The Biscuit Effect’ team decided to reprise their characters again in a 6-part spin-off television series entitled CROOKED, which began filming in 2006.
> 'THE BISCUIT EFFECT' FANSITE
Credits
Director/Editor: MATTHEW HOLMES
Writers/Producers: MATTHEW HOLMES, ANNA CHENEY
ADAM WILLSON, PAUL BELLMAN
Music: THE HAMOND EGGS TRIO
and WITNESS RELOCATION PROGRAMME
Sound Mixed by: MARTYN ZUB
CAST:
Dale Duggans.....................ADAM WILLSON
Blake Eastwood..................PAUL BELLMAN
Joshua Jaeger....................JOSHUA JAEGER
Spam....................................ROHAN HARRY
Kylie Duggans....................ANNA CHENEY
Fingers.................................TRISTAN HUDSON
MJ.........................................STEWART LINDSAY
Hamish................................DAVID ANDERSON
Warren.................................DARREN HOLMES
Lynette.................................ALI GORDON
Gertie...................................LEONA HERMANN
Terry.....................................ADRIAN CRAWFORD
Vince....................................GEORGE GARCIA JR.
Samuel................................DAVID BROXHOLME
Yvette...................................ROBYN DWYER
UNRATED
(This film contains coarse language and sexual references.)
DISTRIBUTOR: Two Tone Pictures
FORMAT: DVCAM
RUNNING TIME:
65 min Standard Edition
75 min Director’s Cut
90 min Extended Edition


