A big thank you to Ben C. Lucas for taking to answer some questions about the up coming Fighting Season, a six-part event drama that will premiere Sunday, October 28 at 8.30pm on Fox Showcase or streamed On Demand.
Ben is an award-winning director and writer with a formal education in history and a career background in game design. After years of designing games for US companies such as Palladium, Pinnacle and Warner Bros. Ben’s foray into screenwriting saw him win the prestigious What IF? Award for his screenplay All Flesh Must be Eaten.
Ben’s debut feature film Wasted on the Young, starring Alex Russell and Adelaide Clemens, premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and went to screen at festivals such as Busan, SxSW, Torino and the Sydney Film Festival where it received an Honorable Mention in competition. Wasted was released by Paramount Pictures in Australia, Momentum Pictures in the UK and Indomina in the US before being acquired by Netflix. Ben’s second feature OtherLife, starring Jessica de Gouw, premiered at Sydney Film Festival in 2017 and acquired by Netflix worldwide. In 2017 Ben directed for television alongside Kate Woods on the Foxtel original series Fighting Season starring Jay Ryan, Ewen Leslie and Kate Mulvany, released October 2018.
Ben is currently attached to direct several feature projects with partners in the US, UK and Australia.
Fighting Season Episodes 1 & 2 Review
– What can you tell us about fighting season?
It’s an honest look at the home life of military families that manages to strike a clever balance between uncompromising honesty and respect for it’s subject. It’s also a solid binge-able show with a genuine mystery driving the story.
– What made you want to hunt Fighting Season down?
It was the subject matter. I’ve been developing military stories for a long time and looking for a way into the genre. It’s hard to be original in this space but Fighting Season had that along with real substance so I knew I needed to be involved. Plus I was able to throw my hat in the ring before seeing a script because it was Kate, Blake and Goalpost, it’s hard to ask for more.
– Have you worked with anybody involved with the production of Fighting Season before?
Absolutely every person in the cast and crew was new to me, I only knew people by reputation. One of the great privileges of the job is being able to meet new people and collaborate with creatives on every level. It’s nice to walk away from a project with new friends.
– Has the approach to authenticity changed the wartime is portrayed on Australian
Screens?
There’s a line of dialogue in the first episode where Jarrod (one of the soldiers) is talking about his deployment and the response he gets is a dismissive laugh as someone says “I didn’t even know we were still in Afghanistan.” This speaks to someone in our relationship, as Australians, to our military. It’s quite different to other countries. Typically there is so much pride and identity wrapped up in the strength of a nation’s military; it’s almost too easy to use America as an example but the same can be said for a lot of nations, particularly in Asia. Australians have a much milder relationship to the armed forces. It might be because our military heritage is one of joining “other people’s wars”, the ANZAC tradition of sending our soldiers away to support a conflict which does not directly impact our home-front. But this doesn’t change the job our soldiers have to do, they’re just as much in then thick of it regardless of the politics back home. So if nothing else I hope Fighting Season goes a little way toward representing this, hopefully inviting audiences to lean a little closer.
– What was the most memorable scene in Fighting Season that you filmed?
Some of my favourite moments were the most intimate. Our schedule was incredibly tight so we were always looking for ways to slip a few more shots under the door; peel away a camera, a few crew, a cast member or two, try to get more material where and when we could. I did a lot of splinter work, shot on weekends, picked up aerials and exteriors and time lapses and anything else that would expand the scale of the series. Sometimes when this was with main cast, when it was just four crew and Jay Ryan filming a montage in a bedroom or two of the younger actors filming a driving lesson, that’s when film making is about a personal connection between creatives.
– What have you learnt from making Fighting Season?
That I love working on event TV, for one thing, I hope to do a lot more. Really the most profound lessons came during early prep; working with the military advisors offered some life-changing insights I’ll never forget. Real cone-of-silence stuff.
– What are you working on at the moment?
I’m spinning a few plates as always; I’m working on a military feature script of my own, I’ve put series bibles together for two TV series, one a crime story and the other an espionage thriller adapted from an Australian novel, I’m also in the research phase on another TV series which is a bit of a personal indulgence — an untapped Australian historical story I’m very exited about. Outside of that I’m working on a couple of other feature projects, including a Korean crime story which is pretty unique.
– What can you tell us about it?
Watch this space!
– Now, the question I usually ask everybody What is your favorite movie?
I can’t imagine anyone you’ve asked has ever been able to give a straight answer to this question. It changes by the day and the material you’re working on. If you work in film you cannot have a favourite, I’m suspicious of anyone who says they do. I keep getting those annoying Facebook challenges where people tag you and ask you to submit “10 movies that changed you” or whatever and I always ignore it. It’s too huge! This year I’ve been reconnecting with my roots and getting back into all the cyberpunk scifi that made me love movies in the first place. They’re mostly terrible but I have so much sentiment wrapped up in them. Also, I grew up without TV which means my early media diet comprised much older films on video. So, my tastes are broad, I could just as easily pick Robocop as The Court Jester as Shotgun Stories.