Efisia Fele

Danielle – Efisia’s character in Death Walks the Streets as portrayed by..well…Efisia

“Efisia Fele was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and moved to Italy with her family when she was very young. Her family then moved to Melbourne, Australia in 1989 and has lived there since. Efisia has directed and acted in many plays and theater productions in Melbourne since 1997 and is a qualified Stage Manager. She credits her high school drama teacher and her playwright/screenwriter mentor, Ray Mooney as her biggest influences in beginning her career in theater and consequently film.”

To read Efisia’s entire Biography – visit her home page

DNW: You started in theater at a very young age.  Can you pinpoint the moment you knew it was a big part of what you wanted to do with your life, and can you elaborate on what it is about acting that draws you?

EFISIA: Since I was able to speak I was into performance. Every kid has dreams or aspirations of what they’ll be when they grow up, and mine were to be an actor/singer/dancer/performer like the old school Hollywood stars, be an archaeologist or an astronomer. I didn’t get the grades in school to do the latter two, but I think I managed to not stray too far from the former over the years! I don’t know if it was a case of waking up one day and deciding that’s what I wanted to do, rather, I just always *knew*. In high school, I was determined to “make it” as an actor, and my drama teachers always had a lot of faith in me, even suggesting I audition for Australia’s top Performing Arts university, NIDA (Cate Blanchett, Mel Gibson, Geoffrey Rush are some of the most successful alumni) but after I finished high school, I realized I was intrigued by directing. Nowadays it seems I do more acting than directing but that’s more circumstantial than anything. I love acting, I love transforming into someone or something else, but at the end of the day my passion is in directing, working with actors and making my vision come to fruition.

DNW: You’ve ventured into almost every technical aspect of theater, and have taken the plunge into screenwriting as well.  What can you tell me about Lost, Not Found – what was the process of creating it like – did you learn anything about film, yourself, your work that will stick with you?  What is the status of the project?

EFISIA:  When my co-writer, Phoebe Meyer and I started Lost Not Found (LNF from now on) we had no idea what we were doing. Neither one of us had ever written a screenplay before, or had any experience in film. I remember we found the blank page very intimidating and we put off starting for several weeks. Luckily Ray Mooney wasn’t too far away! (Ray is a well-known Melbourne writer, playwright, screenwriter whose novels have been published, stage plays performed and films made). I had worked with Ray a few times directing his plays, so we had a strong rapport. I remember writing him an email asking “how does one start a screenplay?” and his answer was “at the beginning.” Creatively it wasn’t difficult, though I won’t say it wasn’t a challenge. We had the entire film in our heads, and it was just a matter of sitting down and getting it out. We locked ourselves up in my apartment in Melbourne for about six weeks and wrote the first draft. We had our moments in which we just couldn’t be productive no matter how hard we tried, so we’d let off a bit of steam; have a couple of beers, watch our favourite movies etc. It was one of the most surreal times of my life, but also one of the most challenging and fun times too. When we got on a roll, it would have looked to a fly on the wall like we were mediums doing automatic writing. I would freak myself out because I’d have these weird ‘blackouts’, touch-typing with my eyes closed like a machine. Then I’d “wake up” to find a very graphic and complete scene on the screen in front of me. Often if we couldn’t figure out the logistics of a certain instance, we would workshop it, acting it out. We spent a lot of time trying to empathize with the characters, and asking ourselves what would we REALLY do if we were in a certain situation. Our friends were also subject to our observation, we often found ourselves studying people at gatherings, and comparing mental notes after.

It wasn’t until we shot and edited the investment trailer though that I started learning about the construction of a story in film. It was due in part to the fact that we didn’t get all the footage we needed thanks to our hasty Producer. Our wonderful Cinematographer/Editor Stu Van Eysden had to do a lot of troubleshooting in editing, and I learned a hell of a lot more about how to visually construct a story then. I just didn’t have the experience and knowledge prior to shooting the trailer that I do now.

LNF’s status is “pending”. A lot of things have happened and changed since Phoebe and I first put pen to paper, it’s difficult because we have both grown so much since, and can see the potential in re-working LNF, but it would become something completely different. My bets are on LNF becoming a reality, just maybe not as we know it. In re-reading the script or watching the trailer, I can see mistakes and faux-pas that I wouldn’t make now, and I’m confident LNF’s reincarnation will reflect a more grown-up, ambitious, scary, gritty, realistic vision.

DNW:  Death Walks the Streets is an upcoming genre-crossing juggernaut, and you will be their Danielle.  I’ve watched the accompanying video blog (which is embedded in this interview) and found the character compelling.  What more can you tell us about your part in DWTS – any idea when people can expect to see more clips, more Danielle?  Can you explain that character as far as how she fits into the vampires, werewolves, the mob reality of DWTS and how you find “that girl” when you play the part?

EFISIA:  What I can tell you about Danielle is that she’s a tough “take no crap from no one” kind of woman, who knows how to have fun, and is loyal to her mates. She also has very good taste in movies and music ;)

Danielle’s video blogs go hand-in-hand with the comics. The video that has recently been released takes place just before Issue #0. The people who have seen it and read it will have a few more pieces to the puzzle.
I guess you could say that Danielle is being workshopped via the video blogs, which there will be more of. I’ve been exploring what Danielle would be like as a “real person”, but I think she’ll be quite different on the big screen as I’ll have a chance to explore her physicality and how she behaves and interacts with her friends and the world’s environments etc.
So far, there are some elements that Danielle and I have in common, which make things a little weird and uncanny to a degree, and the challenge so far has been to try and distinguish where I stop and Danielle begins, and to be honest in that dividing line. As for Danielle’s place among the vampires, demons, zombies, werewolves and the mob, let’s just say she’s loyal to her friends… the DWTS world is amazingly intricate. James and Ben Brezinski (co-writer) have created a very detailed world, which although it contains all these fantastical elements, is very real. The short answer to where Danielle fits is – life is never that simple!

DNW:  You play guitar, sing, and write music, on top of your other creative pursuits.  Is this something you see yourself continuing, and if so…where, when, and are there downloads / files / clips?  What draws you to music, and what do you try to say/ present with yours?

EFISIA:  I have always been in love with music. I have played guitar since I was 12, and have been singing since I could speak. Although my time and creativity has been somewhat funneled into other pursuits in recent years, it’s not something I could ever stop enjoying or doing. Music is very much a part of me. That said, I haven’t been in a band in many many years, and although I’d very much love to get that part of my life back up and running, it takes a lot of time and commitment and I just can’t do that right now. In all the bands I’ve had, amazingly, there is only one track that I wrote that was recorded in a studio. And it was never mastered or anything! Also, sadly, I had a bad case of laryngitis on the day so my voice sounds terrible! I have loads of tapes of rehearsals, a few videos of some gigs, but barely any proof aside from that, that I was ever in any bands unfortunately. That is definitely one of my big regrets.

EFISIA:  Ah jeez, this is not an easy question to answer. I was immediately flooded by so many ideas… I’ll just pour them all out into one nonsensical blob for you.

It would DEFINITELY be filmed in the Australian Outback. It would be something like an Outback thriller like LNF or Wake In Fright (aka Outback), with zombies, sadistic madmen who on the outside seem perfectly normal, and maybe a splash of Duel meets Death Proof suspenseful car chase/action sequences, with a warning for humanity thrown in. There would also be some David Lynch “WTF??” moments. The zombies would be inspired by the crawlers in The Descent crossed with the zombies in [REC]. Visually, it would be Mad Max 2 “desert punk” visual feast crossed with a highly polished, highly saturated, gorgeous looking tourist propaganda video for the Outback, but there would be some gritty realism and clever editing inspired by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It would be shot by Dean Semler, FX would be done by my friend and FX GENIUS Justin Dix, and it would probably have Eliza Dushku, Tom Waits and a lot of my friends in it. The soundtrack would be done by Trent Reznor and Spinnerette with some ‘Roots Bloody Roots’ style Sepultura added to the mix, and the score would be done by Ennio Morricone. Okay I admit, I would definitely need more than 24 hours to hone this project, and a bloody good Producer to keep me (and the budget) in check! But, these are some of my most favourite elements, and though the film probably wouldn’t make a lot of sense, I certainly would enjoy making and watching it!

EFISIA:  You’re right, Phreadz was created entirely by Kosso. Every single line of code, all the data, the design, everything. Phreadz is a multimedia conversation platform that intergrates what Kosso calls ‘V.I.T.A.L.’ – that is, Video, Images, Audio, Links. Members can record video direct from their desktop, import video from other platforms such as YouTube, Seesmic, Blip.tv, Qik etc using their API; or they can upload their own content such as mp3s, photos. Most of the content is desktop video at the moment, although members with fancy phones often send in video or audio clips or photos from their adventures. Phreadz has channels specific to certain conversational topics like movies, music, fine art, cooking etc but private and ‘white label’ channels are also in the works. We have a fantastic community comprised of pretty amazing, talented, interesting, inspiring people who, as Alpha and Beta testers have contributed much of their time and energy in making Phreadz what it is today with their content.

Kosso works solidly on constantly developing new features and improving the platform, so far out of his own pocket and members’ donations. There has been an overwhelming sense of support from the members who I think, want to see Phreadz succeed almost as much as Kosso and I. If people are inclined to help, the best thing they can do is donate money via the Chip In widget at http://phreadz.com (that generally gets you a Phreadz invite faster than just emailing and requesting one). Phreadz is invite only at the moment, simply because we need money for servers etc, so naturally it can’t be open to the public just yet.

More on Efisia?

LINKS: http://www.deathwalksthestreets.com

http://www.merchdirect.com/deathwalksthestreets

http://myspace.com/deathwalksthestreets

http://twitter.com/dwts http://twitter.com/danielledante

http://efisia.com

http://phreadz.com

AND WE’RE CLEAR~!