The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 45

nudies no Green Thursday 1986 The Eltham College year five students prepare for a "take" during filming of Snow White And The Dreadful Dwarves for the Australian Children's Television Foundation. School is in for the budding young actors of Eltham By PAMELA BONE ONE of the dreadful dwarves has german measles, and the wicked queen, who is inclined to giggle at the best of times, has laryngitis. Apart from these minor problems, the 22 10-year-old children taking part in the filming of Snow White And The Dreadful Dwarves are doing a terrific job. The children, from year five at Eltham College, are being directed by their former teacher, Jan Sardi, who is now a freelance film and television writer. Sardi, who taught most of the children when they were in prep grade, says they are spontaneous and energetic, bringing their own personalities to the roles in a way that trained child actors often do not.

Sardi wrote Snow White And The Dreadful Dwarves when he was at Eltham, and it is now being filmed as part of the Australian Children's Television Foundation new series boodle, which will be shown on the ABC about the middle of next year. It is, Sardi says, "a fractured a post-modern, punk version of Snow White And The Seven Dwarves that "bends" the original. It was written for the children of today, and they love it. In Sardi's version of the fairytale, Snow White, instead of taking after her mother, the beautiful and good queen, takes after her aunt, the wicked queen, and the two vie for the position of public enemy number one. The seven dwarves are a bikie gang.

and Snow White becomes their leader. The wicked queen poses as a pie vendor at a Collingwood football match and sells Snow White a sausage roll covered in poisoned tomato sauce, turning her into a nice girl. Snow White becomes her old self only when she is kissed by the prancing prince, who later sues her for breach of promise when she refuses to marry him. While this Snow White is a pretty tough, mean character who goes around threatening to bash people, the story is far less violent than traditional fairytales and, unlike most, has a lot of fun and humor. It does have the traditional fairytale's happy ending, Sardi says.

The play uses only one professional actor, Kim Gyngell, who plays the sardonic magic mirror. All the other actors are children, who are making the film as part of. their school curriculumn. The children stand in a brilliant, totally bite room, in their Imaginative costumes. A special technique called Newsmatte is being used, whereby a miniature background of a gothic castle is superimposed on the television screen, giving a very realistic effect.

They are thoroughly enjoying themselves. When, during a break in filming I asked them how many of them wanted to be actors when GET YOUR INSURANCE CALL DON'T PAY IT! Phone 62 6768 NEATER INSURANCE BROKERS. 520 Collins Melbourne, CHEAP SPEAKERS BUY DIRECT FROM FACTORY LARGE COMPONENTS Only pair. Twin from $148. Twis from $120 pair.

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"They used to hang on to my leg then," he says. Now they say, "Mr Sardi, Mr Sardi, I can't remember my. "That was terific acting," he tells them. "The only reason we are doing this frame again is because a couple of you were a bit out of frame, not because you weren't good." Sardi began writing his own children's plays because, he said, he "couldn't find anything decent for his drama students to act They were either made for only a few players or the humor was dated. So he wrote his own, chapter by chapter, as they were needed.

He was persuaded by other teachers to send some of his plays to the publisher Thomas Nelson, which resulted in five of them, includind Snow White, being published last year under the title A Cast Of Thousands. Since he left teaching to become a professional scriptwriter three years ago, Sardi has written scripts for Street Hero, Moving Out, Ground Zero, and for one of the Children's Television Foundation highly acclaimed Winners series, Just Friends. Jeff Peck, of the Foundation, saw Sardi rehearsing Snow White at Eltham College when he was researching methods of drama teaching and thought it would make a good subject for children's television. Peck is now supervising producer for Snow White. Kaboodle is a series of 13 half-hour programs for six to nine-year-old children that combines segments of animation, live action and puppetry.

Penny Roberts, producer of Snow White, says that as well as using established film directors and producers, Kaboodle gives an opportunity to small independent producing companies and young, up and-coming film makers. Among other Kaboodle series in or about begin production are The Secret Life. of a fairy tale written and directed by Paul Cox, The: Steam Train Crew, by Tim White and Rob Marchand (which features an authentic steam train stationed at Queenscliff), The Great. Sandwich Swap (starring eight children and a dog) and The Birthday Present (starring Pat Bishop, Davies and four dogs). 1 Kaboodle will be shown on the.

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