We caught up with the cast and crew of ‘Book Week’, as well as some Lithgow extras, using Lithgow High School as the backdrop of the filming of ‘Book Week’ on Saturday, February 3.
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‘Book Week’ is a new feature film by Glenbrook director Heath Davis, who also made ‘Broke’. The film involves well-known Australian actors Rhys Muldoon, Tiriel Mora and Susan Prior.
During a break in the filming we were able to chat with lead actor Alan Dukes, who plays the lead role of ‘Nick Cuttler’, a jaded English teacher confronting his least favourite week of the school year.
“He is a bit jaded he doesn’t want to be high school teacher anymore so he’s desperate for the week to finish, and it’s also the week the whole world conspires against him,” Mr Dukes said.
Alan Dukes who has appeared in feature films ‘Last Cab to Darwin’, ‘Beneath Hill 60’, and ‘The Little Death’ said he was excited to be in a film with such a focus on community.
“It’s a credit to Heath’s tenacity to be able to get it up, it is a micro-budget film but the crew is fantastic and the cast he has got together is really top notch,” he said.
“It’s good to be able to tell an Australian story and do it in a location which is not used as much apart from sweeping landscapes, we’ve been in Katoomba High School and pubs around there, Blackheath, Wentworth Falls and now in Lithgow.
“The community gets behind it and gives their time to be extras. People are really keen to help and it kind of feeds into the film itself. It’s an area we can do somethings on a budget and the production values are going to be great.”
Mr Dukes two daughters were on set as extras, pretending to be students at the high school.
Also on set were actual Lithgow High School students Justice Dulay and Kyle Sheather.
They were at school out of hours to work on their robotics project but were roped into filming.
“We’ve been doing robotics stuff and and we’ve been pulled in just to be extras,” Kyle said.
Justice said it was strange being at his school with a completely different cast of ‘students’.
“It’s very unusual,” he said.
Sean O’ Keefe Lithgow High School’s film teacher has been involved in creating a ‘making of’ film about the production of ‘Book Week’.
Alan Dukes said he was enjoying the opportunity to play a lead role in a feature-length film.
“It’s not often you get offered lead in a feature film. I was really interested in the challenge of trying to carry a film.”
He said his English teacher was certainly not based on any from his schooling years.
“All my English teachers were women and they were fantastic, I don’t have any rogue English teachers in my background. I’ve had to make Nick up with Heath who has got some anecdotes of his time as an English teacher.”
Mr Dukes said he hadn’t visited Lithgow since he was was a teenager.
“Which was a long time ago. It’s beautiful out here, it’s lovely.”
