On The Warpath with Aron Giagu

Episode 10 with Aron Giagu. Aron is an Adelaide based writer and Director of independent productions, specifically his feature debut 'Are We Heroes' and up coming fantasy series 'Warpath Chronicle'. Aron is also a fight choreographer and teachers other actors how to fight for stage and screen both personally and also for local talent training school Type Talent.

It his episode, we talk about the actor/director relationship and and how important both are in the collaboration of story telling, especially for independent productions.

Aron is a self trained Director, having grown up making stories and then taking on the role of film making, initially putting together a small scene to showcase some fight choreography which then turned into an immense battle scene and story arc for his initial feature production, Are We Heroes which has then followed up with a fantastic fantasy series called Warpath.

Aron has a special announcement to make during this episode, so for all avid followers of Warpath Chronicle, whether that be crew, actors or fans, this is certainly not an episode to miss.

If you wish to find out what all the excitement is about, follow Warpath Chronicle on Facebook and Instagram. 

Castability 
Castability is a new game changing app that is a must have for every actor.

Transcript

David John Clark 00:01:16

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Late Bloomer Actor podcast. Thanks for joining us today. I'm very excited by our guest on Today. It's Aron Giagu. He is a director and writer of the indie film Are We Heroes? With the follow up series Warpath Chronicle. He's an actor and fight choreographer, training actors in fighting and stunts for screen with Type Talent here in Adelaide. He's also a father. In this episode, it's my first with a director. We talk about the actor director relationship and how important both are in the collaboration of storytelling, especially for independent productions. Aron is a self trained director, having grown up making stories and then taking on the role of filmmaking. Initially putting together a small scene to showcase some fight choreography, which then turned into an immense battle scene and story arc for his initial feature production, Are We  Heroes, which is then followed up with a fantastic fantasy series called Warpath Chronicle. We talk a lot about Warpath in this episode, naturally. And I have to say you need to listen right through the whole episode for some exciting news on the project. There's been lots of Adelaide crew and actors involved in this project and a lot of people following it and been looking forward to the end result. And I have to say, you're going to be very excited by the way we announced this. I love how we've delivered it, so I hope you do too. So thank you for joining me again. And here we go.

David John Clark 00:02:39

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to podcast. We're on episode number ten, double digits. Aron is a writer, director, filmmaker, actor, fight choreographer.

Aron Giagu 00:02:57

Yes, correct.

David John Clark 00:02:58

Awesome. And I'm very excited to have you today because we've done a few things together. We met on the set of one of your first productions. 

Aron Giagu 00:02:58

It was the first one. 

David John Clark 00:02:58

Are We Heroes, which is your first production, which was a feature length fantasy film. And I was fortunate to work as one of the Warpath .... Soldiers?

Aron Giagu 00:03:29

Yes, you're a warrior. One of the Knights.

David John Clark 00:03:32

Along with Rohan, my eldest son. 

Aron Giagu 00:03:34

Yes. I remember that, he was a kid.

David John Clark 00:03:35

The six foot tall kid in the background with the black eyeline.

Aron Giagu 00:03:40

Tim Hawkins was there, had no shirt on.

David John Clark 00:03:43

That's right. And a bunch of people that I've now got to know even better and better.

Aron Giagu 00:03:47

Yeah, that was a pretty good project.

David John Clark 00:03:50

So you're my first director on the podcast, which is fantastic. And as I said, it's how we met. Tell us a little bit about yourself, where you grew up. How did the world of filmmaking become something for you and what you do for a living now to work in with your filmmaking and how did fantasy become a part of your life? Okay.

Aron Giagu 00:04:13

Yeah. All right, we'll go from the start then. So I grew up in Adelaide, in a Greek home with strong, Greek cultures and lots of great food, and I just grew up loving everything to do with Greek mythology. My Dad used to like, pretty much. Yeah. So that kind of influenced my fantasy appreciation and larger than life stories. So, yeah, just small town Adelaide boy who had a dream to make a film, which was that Are We Heroes, and then realised a lot of people wanted to get on board making that kind of genre. And that's how making everything else that I've done since then fell into my lap kind of thing.

David John Clark 00:04:56

Did you do anything as a kid film making at school?

Aron Giagu 00:04:58

No, not really. I was sports. I was always into my like, I played basketball for the school, basketball for a club, West Adelaide Bear Cats. And I then just played footy. Always sports. I was so sports driven, I think, because I came from a Greek family and there was a massive amount of influence, like, got to play sport, do something like physical. You'll play sport with nothing else, you know what I mean? So when I got older, I was like, you know what? Sport is cool. I was good at it, but I thought, you know, I'm going to actually start doing some of the other things that I like doing. Storytelling.

David John Clark 00:05:39

Cool. When did you sort of start with that and how did you start?

Aron Giagu 00:05:43

I just started writing, like, small stories, like fiction, and then started getting into screenwriting because other people were reading my fiction, going, oh, this is way beyond your age. Some of my teachers at school, like, Aron, I want to read more. So that kind of pushed me to pursue that a little bit more, and then I didn't realise the process. So you write the story, then you look at the screenplays, and then you look at how scripts are all done. And all that, and you're like, okay, it's a bit of a process here.

David John Clark 00:06:15

So Are We Heroes was your first one?

Aron Giagu 00:06:20

Yeah.

David John Clark 00:06:21

When did you start developing that? And was it something that just worked on? Did you have a full script before you went on? Is it one of those things that sort of just felt like a ......

Aron Giagu 00:06:32

We had a script, but we weren't meant to do a battle. So basically the reason I fell into Are We Heroes is because my younger brother Pav, who is also in some other things, we've done. You've met him, obviously. He wanted to be an actor.

David John Clark 00:06:48

Okay.

Aron Giagu 00:06:48

And I was good at writing, and I was like, look, man, do you want me to write something that you can be in and be quite heavily involved in acting wise, so you can at least have something go towards your first ever showreel,  set experience? And that's what I did Are We Heroes mainly for. But then we did a battle, so there was never meant to be this big battling. It was meant to be like a survival battle, character driven stuff. And then I had everyone barking in my ear, ARon, you should do a battle? You're good at directing that stuff. I've never directed anything in my life. I'm just good at pretending to be Jean Claude Van Damme. You know what I mean? I just wanted to have fun. So anyway, I went and did the battle, and the rest is history.

David John Clark 00:07:30

Awesome. And so the filmmaking style from there. Have you made anything? 

Aron Giagu 00:07:30

Not really. 

David John Clark 00:07:30

Because I know I've seen lots of YouTube stuff, but I think most of that was after. That was your first.

Aron Giagu 00:07:43

But I had a DOP on that that knew how to use a camera. I had no idea about any of that sort of stuff at that point. So he was pretty good at, like he lives in Perth now, but he was good at coming together and just wanting to do it, too.

David John Clark 00:07:58

So when you knew you wanted to make this, you just didn't go and make it. You started reaching out and did a bit of research.

Aron Giagu 00:08:03

100%, yeah, a little bit before. I should have done more, but I did what I thought was enough.

David John Clark 00:08:09

So did you think yourself when you first started filming? How did you look at yourself? Did you say, I'm a filmmaker, I'm a director, a writer? Did you have any head, I am a person, or I'm just making a movie.

Aron Giagu 00:08:21

I just said, I'm making a movie. I'm an idiot making a movie that doesn't know what the limits are and what I'm supposed to be doing. I think from a professional point, I think I was professional, but I didn't know what to expect. I talked to a lot of filmmakers after I did it, and they just laughed, they were like, laughing at me, like, what did you do? How? Why? You know, what I mean? I had all those questions thrown at me, just like, because I had no experience. And that was like jumping into the deep end with not knowing how to swim.

David John Clark 00:08:57

So that big scene that I came up with Rohan, was that the first filming day or were you already filming?

Aron Giagu 00:09:01

That was the first, the big filming day. 

David John Clark 00:09:05

Because I've been around. I've been as an actor for a little while, so I've been on proper professional sets and independent sets and student films. l I walked up there. I think we've met before. I can't remember how we got to meet, but ended up on your set. Either way, that's how we got to know each other. But from my standpoint, day one up there, what was the suburb?.

Aron Giagu 00:09:33

Mount Crawford. Beautiful location?

David John Clark 00:09:36

Everything was professional other than not having a row of movie trucks and catering vans and stuff like that. I did not know that we were on the set of someone that had never made a film before. So that's kudos to you. 

Aron Giagu 00:09:49

Thank you. I appreciate it. I'll thank my parents because they're very Greek people. When you go to their house, they make sure you look after they look after you. So it was very much like that. I just want to make sure everyone's comfortable. I mean, that's what it was. And not expect anything, like, ridiculous from people. Like, if they were too tired and didn't want to do the scene, then they're too tired and they can sit out. You know what I mean? I didn't want to have that.

David John Clark 00:10:12

And that's one thing that I wanted to talk to you about is your collaboration with people both as other filmmakers, your crew and your DOP and everyone that helped you as well as the actors. I think that's just your personality. If you're great with people, how did you develop that working set with everyone? Because everyone loves working with you and no one walks away going, Jeez, Aron was a prick today, or whatever.. now, there may have been moments you were really stressed.

Aron Giagu 00:10:40

You must have talked to the wrong people.

David John Clark 00:10:46

A lot of it's about your collaboration and your culture and working with other people. It's the way I see it?

Aron Giagu 00:10:53

I think, because I try to put myself in everyone's shoes before I make any decisions. So I always try to look at it from the other person's lens. So even if there's money involved or not, you have to have that consideration. Because then when it comes to directing people, you don't want to get directed by someone who they don't care about you. You kinda lose the soul from what you're supposed to be doing. You lose the feeling of it.

David John Clark 00:11:22

It becomes a job.

Aron Giagu 00:11:24

Yeah. I mean, it is a job, but at the same time, it's like you want to like your job. You want to give that story a little bit more, I think, energy. And if you're getting orders barked at you, I think you get less of a result than if you're collaborating with a director.

David John Clark 00:11:38

Fair enough.

Aron Giagu 00:11:38

Yeah.

David John Clark 00:11:39

And so that's your style then. As you said, you never really planned to be a director and you haven't really called yourself director, but that makes you a director?

Aron Giagu 00:11:46

I guess so now.

David John Clark 00:11:48

So your future going forward, you've made a few more short films and some messing around. You're working with Blood City to help you know that. And we'll talk about your big production, which is in South Australia, which I'll mention is Warpath Chronicle, which we will talk about later. I believe you've got some exciting stuff to discuss there. But what's your plans as a future filmmaker and director? Where would you like to take it? Is it going to become a career?

Aron Giagu 00:12:19

I'm not sure. I just like to take everything as an experience, like, yeah, I'd love to direct films and I'd love to write films as a career. But at the same time, I also like to keep my feet on the ground and live day to day family life in a reality. Two kids, married with two kids. And that takes you away from that a lot.

David John Clark 00:12:46

Long days on set. Especially when you're running everything.

Aron Giagu 00:12:49

Yeah, exactly. So I think definitely from a career point, I think if you want to go for a directing role, there are things you can do to obviously fast pace all that. But I just enjoy creating things, whether it's for money or for free. Directly, yes, but I love just creating. I will always choose projects over the creation process. Then all those amazing actors are on it. But I'm not sure if I like that story or where that writing is going. I'm all about the creation process.

David John Clark 00:13:24

I got a question later on, but it goes in now that you're very big on supporting South Australia, both crew actors and whatever comes from it. Now, I know that when you're reaching out, looking for support for Warpath or any of your projects, that you've had influences outside that have tried to take that away from you to bring in other states, and you've been reluctant to take the money and run so to speak. Is that the right way to look at it?

Aron Giagu 00:13:53

There was some opportunity at the start, definitely to sell the product, like the idea or the script, whatever you want to call it. There was multiple opportunities. But then again, I'm not part of the creation process. I've just created this story and give handed it away for some money, which is a good thing if you want to just do that. I knew a lot of people that wanted to get on board already and I was like, I would rather be loyal to those people than take the money and just be like, yeah. So I think there's a lot of actors here that are so good, but when do you ever get a fantasy film or show get made in Australia? It's like so rare. So I'd rather give that opportunity and collaborate with people and meet people and have fun, and not just fun, but create this amazing story with people who are dying to play a cool character like any of the characters I guess that was in my story Warpath, but especially in some of the things I've done.

David John Clark 00:14:49

Yes. And the big thing I want to talk to you about being fantasy, and you've already explained it to me. Where that's come from? Your Greek mythology. Again, Rohan would love this because he's studying archaeology at the moment and he loves the mythology of stuff and shit that he knows. 

Aron Giagu 00:14:49

Yeah, that very interesting. 

David John Clark 00:14:49

We're watching Jeopardy on TV and they got a section on there for mythology we'd bang on his door and he comes out. And bang, bang, bang. He knows the question. So bringing fantasy to Australia, bringing fantasy to South Australia. Like you said, it hasn't been done before. But what really surprised me, and I don't know whether you just found this out by accident, how great the locations are here in South Australia for scenes, for fantasy. How did you find that?

Aron Giagu 00:15:35

Well, how did I find the locations.

David John Clark 00:15:39

And how did you find that they were so good when you did find them?

Aron Giagu 00:15:42

I remember just the first place I ever drove to that was outside of, like, suburbia. I drove to Gumeracha once and I just drove past that big reserve with, the water reserve. I think it's called the Warren Reserve or something. It's like a dam, basically. And there were rolling hills and I just had a look and I was like, man, we could film something cool here. And that's it. That's where the blessing and the problem started. And then to find those locations, I must take my hat off to my scouting partner, Nick Berry-Smith. Nick is the DOP for Warpath. But he's also we spent countless days driving around just to places that might have been fenced off. And then we had to call that place and go, hey, can we just go for a walk in here? We're just doing this. They're usually pretty good. I love to get those green lights to go in there. But he didn't have to do any of that as a DOP. But he did. So he and I definitely spent a lot of time looking and found and found some of really ripper spots.

David John Clark 00:16:47

Because he's got being cinematography, the way he captures things on camera, he obviously sees it in his head. My first lead role was on one of his productions. It was What Remains.

Aron Giagu 00:17:06

Yes, What Remains. You were shooting zombies. Long hair.

David John Clark 00:17:12

Long hair, beard. I remember sitting in my car driving from one location to another. And I remember, I grabbed my phone out, and said: no water, no food, world ending. Put that on YouTube.

Aron Giagu 00:17:30

So good.

David John Clark 00:17:31

But that's where I learnt, and I can see from what he did on that, you can see the same way. Just to be able to take a location and capture it in such this is my lack of artistic words, but being able to see, just have the light right and the depth and the colours of the landscape and the right angles. And then when you bring the characters in absolutely brilliant scenes, to be able to capture that in the background, where you've got so much happening from the house sort of thing, is just brilliant.

Aron Giagu 00:18:04

That's when the collaboration happens. So that's when his art, the eyes, making sure the shots are right and the colours are right and the placement of the shot and my fight choreography all came into place. We just bound together and made epic things.

David John Clark 00:18:20

Things just a bit further on location. Some of the scenes you've got, I remember seeing one with Mark Clement's character. He was like an old wall. Remember, it looked like an old rundown wall and it's all moss covered and it was almost jungleish. And it's straight, straight out of Game of Thrones. Europe.

Aron Giagu 00:18:43

I know. That's something really funny. What we used to do when we used to go on set is we used to post the photos of where we work and we would say, we're in, like, Finland and Sweden. It worked for a while. He used to be like, oh, wow, they must have got funding. They've gone heaps far, that does look like Sweden. Really, we were in Adelaide. Some of the comments were just great.

David John Clark 00:19:10

Absolutely love it.

Aron Giagu 00:19:11

Yeah. That bridge now, that wall that you saw there's now a property on that. Someone lives there.

David John Clark 00:19:17

Okay.

Aron Giagu 00:19:17

So you can't get there anymore. So we're so lucky we got to own it because there wasn't a property development there.

David John Clark 00:19:23

And he filmed a couple of scenes down south, past Noarlunga on the cliffs and everything along there as well.

Aron Giagu 00:19:30

Second valley. Port Willunga. Port Adelaide. Surprising. Out on the wharf. Near the wharf there. I could list, like, probably about 30 locations. People would be like, you didn't film Warpath there. Yes we did. We were just were very smart with how we took the shots. St Kilda in the mangroves, that area, making it seem like one of our characters was like, sailing across the seas through that area. So, yeah, there's just so many tricks you do with film.

David John Clark 00:20:03

Okay, that's awesome.

Aron Giagu 00:20:05

It's all about being smart with your money and with your eyes.

David John Clark 00:20:13

As a filmmaker and self funded, would you say you're pretty much self funded for it?

Aron Giagu 00:20:18

We pretty much funded ourselves with Warpath, yeah. And then just the collaboration of, like, between myself, Mark Clement, Stephanie Rossi, Nick Berry-Smith, Tom Parker, my brother Pav, we all kind of cut, chipped in in our own way to make it work. So money might have been coming from myself and Pav, but the gear was coming from Nick. Then the people were coming from Mark and Steph because they knew the right actors and the right people to get involved. Call sheets were coming from Steph. 02:00 in the morning. Make sure to get the right. You got so much collaboration, this amazing group of people, that you never take credit yourself. It wouldn't have happened.

David John Clark 00:20:58

Yeah, definitely. And your costuming? 

Aron Giagu 00:21:02

That was me, probably. Yeah, that was me and Pav just up to crazy hours of the morning, trying to make sure it works.

David John Clark 00:21:05

Without any background in costuming, without any background in filmmaking, formal schooling in that. You've pulled some costumes that are straight off the set of Game Of Thrones or any major production like that on screen, they look fantastic. And even wearing them, I went, well, this feels real. It's not like I mean, I've been on sets where student films out where you knew you're wearing something cheap. And then when you saw the end result, well, it works for the film. Yours, it looked like it was professionally made by a professional costume designer. So how did you get that all done? Is it just assed it or you just got something going on?

Aron Giagu 00:21:46

Look, you're right, but it depends on what costumes you're talking about. If we had a great group of people from Ironclad Academy of the Sword that were part of our production. So those guys that were beating you up, that was their gear. They had real armour, real swords. They were happy to bring it out because they wanted to obviously showcase it as well. But I'm very blessed that those guys had that gear. But your costume we made, which was a pretty substantial costume. You had a gambersome on, you had a black cut off vest. Yeah, you're pretty done up. But that was our making. We did most of the main characters, and then people who had gear would bring it. If not, we would make the gear for people. But the influence just comes from probably like your son. He said he loves archaeology. I love mythology, I love fantasy. I've watched those fantasy films my whole life. If I didn't learn anything for the last 30 years watching those films you know what I mean? Conan the Barbarian was one of my biggest influences of that film. Schwarzenegger. Yeah. You know, he had barely any lines in that film. It was mainly very well scored musically. But the costumes in that, they didn't have the money to do special effects. That's what makes everything just looks so brutal and well done. So you look at that and you go, okay, well, they did that back then. Surely we can come up with something. And then you just make sure you put the face for the costume and the costume for the face.

David John Clark 00:23:13

Awesome. I want to talk a little bit about your media coverage that you got for that. But we might leave that to when we really bring that up for a chat. What I want to talk about is obviously the focus of my podcast is late bloomers old guys like myself. Now that you've worked with a variety of actors on set, both young and old, what have you learned that actors need to build their foundation to start later in life or just in general? Because I know a variety of actors, both from people who have never been on set to some really strong actors that have had some training and background. Being on some sets, what do you see in a great actor that you want to work with?

Aron Giagu 00:24:00

The first thing that I personally think that I think: this is going to sound dumb, learn your lines. So the first thing I'd always say is just make sure you've got those lines down pat, because then you can do whatever you want with those lines. So I did find that if I had an actor on set that was really experienced but really hadn't learnt their lines, they would get in their own head and they would overthink everything they were saying. Or if I had an actor who was fresh, who knew their lines, they would just say their lines. It might not be the greatest delivery, but that's what you're there for as a director or as a creator, you can help that person reach that capability. So I think learning your lines would be the first thing I would say is very important. And then you just go from there and then ability to be able to, I guess, be a chameleon or not a chameleon. Yeah, I guess so. Like, evolve to the scene. Like, if you've got a scene that you're doing with an actor and it sounded better on paper, and the director's like, okay, guys, look, this isn't working the way we want to be able to just go from, okay, what are we going to do next? And not let it be this whole day process of what you're going to do. And obviously be considerate of your fellow actor.

David John Clark 00:25:16

That's a big one all the time not to have an ego.

Aron Giagu 00:25:19

Absolutely.

David John Clark 00:25:19

There's nothing worse than having an actor on set that's got an ego, whether you're a fellow actor working with them or heavan forbid adirector who's got so much to go with. And I don't think at the time I worked with you, I think you've had a great crew of actors, but the experience there as well. So it's great that you've been able to work with actors who probably a lot of them the first time being on set, either as background or delivering lines. But you've worked with them and they've walked away with a strength of knowledge that would take months at film school, so to speak.

Aron Giagu 00:25:54

Yeah, I'll have to agree with you because some of the actors that I had, had never even been on a set before, but they were striving to get onto one, and the commitment from them was just extraordinary. Like, the acting was something you would see, you would expect from something that you've seen on a pretty big budgeted, but then you have the opposite effect. Most of the experienced people good. But then you'd get that occasional that cold feet, not know the lines. And then you would yeah, I think it all depends on the director's job. Should be just inspiring the actor to run with what they've learned. So not tell them how to say things, not tell them how to do things. You learn your lines, it's all yours, baby. Go and do it. David John Clark. You know what I mean?

David John Clark 00:26:40

Yes.

Aron Giagu 00:26:41

Do you know what I'm trying to say? I think if you try to tell the actor how to say things, and you really, well! Oh my God!

David John Clark 00:26:47

Is that something that you've learned? As of now, lets call, we'll call you a director.

Aron Giagu 00:26:54

Okay, we'll go over with that for now.

David John Clark 00:26:57

There's so many different directors that they work differently. Some directors will completely direct an actor and tell them from day one, this is how others will work. You show me what you got and then we'll run with it. Now, can you do it this way? That's what I like to see in a director, is that ability to work collaboratively with an actor, so to speak.

Aron Giagu 00:27:17

I think that makes sense. If there was heaps of money involved and the actor just wasn't getting it, then I feel like that's when the director and the producer kind of they step in, or an assistant director steps in and goes, okay, we need to move this on. But I think if you're in the independent film industry and you're a dictator, director might not be the right place for you.

David John Clark 00:27:38

With some of your roles. You've done you've done auditions as well, haven't you?

Aron Giagu 00:27:44

Warpath had them. Some people got the green light just because I was friends with them or because they came to Are We Heroes and I felt like I wanted to give something back because I don't forget anyone. I don't just go, oh, yeah, I got something out of that person, then move on, then. I always try to be as best as I can to people with the time I have in a day.

David John Clark 00:28:03

And so that's the thing. That's a good thing with an audition, is that you can see what they're delivering without that direction. I think most of the auditions were self taped that they sent you, didn't they? Did you do any in person?

Aron Giagu 00:28:18

Yeah, we did everyone that was there. But I remember Kate Bonnie did hers in person. She was amazing. That was so good to see one in person because I was just getting self tapes the whole time. Mark and Steff says, let's go and do one somewhere so you can actually meet some of the actors. And I just remember there was a few people that day, I'm trying to remember who there was. I know Ella Fenwick was there as well. There were a couple of others. But yeah, I remember seeing Kate and be like, oh, wow, I know who she's going to be straight away. That's that character. And she did it. She's great.

David John Clark 00:28:55

So Covid's changed all that. Now, most auditions are pretty much self tapes sent in, so there's pros and cons of that for casting directors and directors. They can now see a lot more actors initially to make that decision. Can you see the pros of that? I think you mentioned it before that you looked at Kate Bonney in person and you've gone, I know who that actor is for. So the more actors you could see, I suppose, in self taping, the more chance that you're going to go, there's my so and so, or there's my lead actress.

Aron Giagu 00:29:28

Look, I don't think so, because I think if an actors that good, they're going to reflect that way anyway onto the character. I just think when I was there and she started to deliver her lines for that character, I was like, yeah, I could have just said, Stop, you got it. Because it was that much of what I had written had been was standing in front of me delivering these lines to the character. So she reflected that character so much, I was just like, okay, well, I'll let her finish, but it's a pretty easy decision to make, do you know what I mean? To be honest with you, if I can quickly touch on it, I sent out audition pieces before I had Mark and Steph involved, to specific individuals that I already eyed out for certain parts of the show. And Hjalmar Marteinsson, who's a professional wrestler in Adelaide, also professional actor, he's very good. I sent him a script of three characters in it and I said, just read for them all because I want you to you read them and you tell me which character you feel close to and just read for them all. This guy pulled a rabbit out of the hat. He read for them all, but he read them all as if he was each character during the scene. So he would switch from one character to the other to the other, all just talking to each other. And then I basically said to him, man, I'll go, unfortunately, you're going to have to go this guy, even if you like those other two, because you just absolutely nailed this one. But that's an impressive thing you get from self tapes that you probably couldn't necessarily get in person. I guess he didn't really have too many rules to go by when reading. I just said, read for the characters and then he just sent it in and I was like, Whoa. Actually, I called my wife and I'm like, check, this guy out. Oh, wow, he's awesome. Yeah, he is. He's fierce.

David John Clark 00:31:25

I think he was using one in one of your promo photos once wasn't he? 

Aron Giagu 00:31:31

We did an interview with him and it's on YouTube and you get to see, like, 20 seconds of a scene from Warpath  at the end of that. And 20 seconds is enough to realise.

David John Clark 00:32:32

As a writer director too, how is it you said you wrote a lot of stuff at school and coming up, so then seeing something comes into fruition. How is it to see your stuff that you put on paper, then be acted out by actors in an audition? Or whether it's a self tape or in room to then actually be on set directing the actors and making the scene comes alive? How does that make you feel as a writer and director?

Aron Giagu 00:32:56

That's the best part of it, by far. That's that whole creation process. I love writing a character down, starting with their name, their purpose. And then you get to see an actor bring into life. That's the best part.

David John Clark 00:33:12

Fantastic.

Aron Giagu 00:33:13

There's nothing better than that.

David John Clark 00:33:14

And see the storyline and the storyline. It's kudos to people that can do that, because I like to be on the side of the camera, because I prefer to just bring a character to life. I struggle sometimes with my selftapes because I'll just deliver what I deliver. But if I have a director or someone, if I'm on set, that's where my best work comes out, because I'll deliver something. Oh, how about we do this? Only takes one take and then bang, I can do it. So that's why I like when I do audition training with Greg Apps or something like that, so I can I'll have it, do it this way. I didn't even think about that. Sometimes my self tapes for auditions can be lacking, and I think it's great to know someone like yourself to be involved and to see that whole project of this process come to an end and to be a part of it.

Aron Giagu 00:34:06

Fair enough.

David John Clark 00:34:07

And like I said, it's such hard work being an independent filmmaker to make something get from a to b. 

Aron Giagu 00:34:15

Yeah, 100%. I agree.

David John Clark 00:34:17

And you havent got grey hair yet?

Aron Giagu 00:34:17

A little bit on the side. That's since I had children, though. I stressed too much for them.

David John Clark 00:34:23

Cool. I really want to get on and you've got something to talk about, Warpath. I just want to step one quick step back. You've talked about memorization of lines before, and I like to ask people this. Do you have any tricks or treats for actors out there that you think to make the lines work. Well, you've done a bit of acting yourself.

Aron Giagu 00:34:44

I have. And I'm not going to lie, I'm not the best at remembering lines. But what I will say is, don't worry about how you're going to say the lines until you've learnt those lines 100%. So even if you sound like a robot when you're remembering those lines and there's no gutso in it yet, don't worry about it. Just get those lines in here and then start working on what you're going to do with them.

David John Clark 00:35:12

Beautiful.

Aron Giagu 00:35:12

Okay. Don't worry about like...... 

David John Clark 00:35:12

Even if that's on set? 

Aron Giagu 00:35:12

You should know them before then.

David John Clark 00:35:16

No, as in how you deliver it so you know your lines on it.

Aron Giagu 00:35:20

But yeah, and then go in. And then you should be collaborating the big post production with the director sitting down, talking about, oh, what should we do here with this one? Oh, this sounds cool. Sounds cool. Like in your post, not post production. My bad. Pre production. You should be talking about that when you do your script reads and stuff like that.

David John Clark 00:35:38

And you would do your fight choreography. Would that sort of be the same process? How does an actor learn those scenes? How do you teach that? Because you teach it now, don't you, through Type Talent?

Aron Giagu 00:35:52

Through Type ... Mark Cherrett got me doing that. He's a great dude, very welcoming person to his school. So he was really well touch base with me about, oh, man, no one's doing this. Do you want to give it a crack? And I actually've known him for years. I didn't realise he was doing anything in the acting world. So, yeah, he just touched base and said, some of the students sound are interested in this, but I suppose a different process. But I teach it to suit the camera. I don't teach people how to be like Bruce Lee and really kill people. I teach them how to fight, to be able to fight correctly within the camera, the framing of whatever the frame is. So if it's a close up, the wide, a dirty whatever the shot is, that's what I teach them to fight for. But it's actually very easy. It's so much easier. I think people just doubt themselves. As soon as you create some inspiration in someone for them to back themselves, it's a whole different they just change straight away. And all they need to do is see themselves on camera once doing a good job, and then it actually doesn't look that bad. Then you see them step up.

David John Clark 00:36:59

Especially because you think you're doing the old face away from a mile away, but then you see it on camera. Because I've done one bit with you on that weekend when you had the open house, Type Talent, did all the different secdtions, that was the first time I've ever done it.  And then I remember being up in Alice Springs. We were there with my family and we had the camera out and I was just messing with Connor.

Aron Giagu 00:37:22

I saw that. Yeah.

David John Clark 00:37:27

It doesn't take much to make the thing work. Absolutely. What's your background for choreography? Let's speak English.

Aron Giagu 00:37:35

That's okay. I can speak Greek if you want. So basically, I did like, a kickboxing for years. That's how it starts. Like, Jean Claude Van Damme was my hero growing up, I'm not going to lie, for every one of his films. Got it. And it was like watching the coolest thing ever, from his jumping split kicks, to his splits on the kitchen bench, to his I cannot do that. There would have been a time where I could, but just as a kid, you see these cool moves and you grow up learning them. And then that was my inspiration. And then I just taught myself how to do that through kickboxing again, for about ten years. But again, you don't do real kickboxing in fight choreography. You just utilise the move to suit the screen.

David John Clark 00:38:31

What's that big movie that they made here in Adelaide? 

Aron Giagu 00:38:36

Fantastic.

David John Clark 00:38:38

Okay. I was on set for Mortal Kombat, and the fighters, there were proper fighters. I remember talking to them. I remember them listening to switch from real fighting to movie fighting was such a big problem because they used to actually connecting, and all of a sudden, they were apparently not allowed to connect.

Aron Giagu 00:38:57

Man, this is about as far as probably this is the closest you would get to someones face.

David John Clark 00:39:04

And they did, and it's absolutely brilliant. You could actually see how much training they've done previously, like Matrix, that was weeks and months that they actually learned to fight. But you've got to learn to fight for movie fighting. That's where you can't teach them, because then you've just got to reteach them, don't you?

Aron Giagu 00:39:21

Well, a real fight boring. It wouldn't last very long. A few good hits and it's over. 

David John Clark 00:39:27

That's interesting. So that's something that you're going to keep running with.

Aron Giagu 00:39:32

I think people like it. Like, in the last two years, I've discovered by their own talents, their own hidden talents, and they have some amazing people that have some skills that they need to showcase. So Daisy Fryer and I never knew each other before Are We Heroes. But she's an amazing stunt woman. I can't believe how good she is. Yeah, and then there's some other people that I met through the stunt world. See, I'm not a stunt person, so I can't claim anything like that. But then teaching them fight choreography, and it's men and women. There's so many women out there that are so good at it, too. I think people underestimate how cool, tough chicks actually are and how cool they fight. And you'll probably see a lot of that in Warpath as well. I won't get into that too much. We'll talk about it when you're ready.

David John Clark 00:40:24

I reckon we're ready.

Aron Giagu 00:40:25

We can spiral into that all right. The rabbit hole.

David John Clark 00:40:30

We've talked a lot about Warpath, and that's the big thing. That's where, Are We Heroes led to that. Was Warpath in your head when you made Are We Heroes? 

Aron Giagu 00:40:41

So it's the same universe. So the story was it was written down as a narrative, not a script, which is completely different. So, yes, it was.

David John Clark 00:40:54

And did you envisage it would become as big as it has become?

Aron Giagu 00:40:59

No. Hence look, we'll talk about it all after our all right.

David John Clark 00:41:08

You want to do the trailer. So what we're going to do for everyone that's listening, Aron has the trailer for Warpath, which I won't say, I don't know when it's coming out. I don't know. That's all, he  may or may not say. We're going to play the trailer so we can film my reactions to it. You're going to hear it on the podcast if you're watching on YouTube. I'm sorry you're not going to see it. There'll be an official release later on, but you do get to hear it and you get to see my reaction. So I'm going to lean across the camera now.

Aron Giagu 00:41:08

And we will talk about it.

David John Clark 00:41:44

During? 

Aron Giagu 00:41:44

We'll talk after.

David John Clark 00:41:46

Beautiful. All right.

Aron Giagu 00:41:49

Let's just hope it works. You can cranck the volume if you want. I just don't know how loud it's gonna get.

David John Clark 00:42:03

We'll find out.

Aron Giagu 00:42:04

Let's find out. We can just redo it.

David John Clark 00:42:08

Here we go.

**Warpath Trailer (Character) 00:42:14

Who are you? I'm Gideon.

David John Clark 00:42:18

I know that guy!

**Warpath Trailer (Character) 00:42:19

What do you see? 

**Warpath Trailer (Character) 00:42:19

My father. He wrote about this place. 

**Warpath Trailer (Character) 00:42:19

Your father was a fool. He thought he could change the world with his little words. What are words against the fury of war?

**Warpath Trailer (Character) 00:42:43

Everything.

**Warpath Trailer (Character) 00:42:46

I'm looking for someone. A man by the name of Athius. I need to get to Ardenpah.

Aron Giagu 00:42:46

It's in Adelaide!

**Warpath Trailer (Character) 00:42:52

The Iron Conqueror has his hunters after me. In Ardentop is the safest place. 

**Warpath Trailer (Character) 00:42:52

I separated my conicals throughout the lands of Valentra. These will lead you to the answers you seek. Would you like to come? It would be a dangerous quest. 

**Warpath Trailer (Character) 00:42:52

Exactly.

**Warpath Trailer (Character) 00:42:52

Where'd you learn to fight like that? 

**Warpath Trailer (Character) 00:42:52

My parents taught me.  

**Warpath Trailer (Character) 00:42:52

You are a superhero. This world is about to become a lot more complicated than ever we expected it to be. Soon there will be no room for simplicity. 

**Warpath Trailer (Character) 00:42:52

Ever since I've had possession of this, I felt a darkness growing over me. 

**Warpath Trailer (Character) 00:42:52

I dream of a world that lives in peace.

**Warpath Trailer (Character) 00:43:37

I know one day the world loses.

**Warpath Trailer (Character) 00:43:41

I swear ....

David John Clark 00:43:41

 These locations! Awesome. 

**Warpath Trailer (Character) 00:43:41

You stood for something once.

Aron Giagu 00:43:41

 Hey Tim.

**Warpath Trailer (Character) 00:43:52

Be sure you're the man your country needs.

**Warpath Trailer (Character) 00:43:56

Are you willing to start a war? Only war. The war for love.

David John Clark 00:44:21

Yeah.

**Warpath Trailer (Character) 00:44:23

Fight with your heart. Fight with your steel. Fight with your blood. 

**Warpath Trailer (Character) 00:44:23

Watch it closely! 

David John Clark 00:44:37

Hey. That's amazing. Wow.

Aron Giagu 00:44:44

Pretty good.

David John Clark 00:44:45

That is awesome.

Aron Giagu 00:44:47

It's an epic journey.

David John Clark 00:44:52

Well, you heard it here, ladies and gentlemen. Right on set. 

Aron Giagu 00:44:52

I hope they heard it. 

David John Clark 00:44:52

I can trick later on. I put the audio over the top. That is fantastic. That is fantastic. Wow. And it just goes back to what I was saying for the locations just on the trailer, just seeing how awesome some of those things and the drone shots over the beach and that is fantastic. How does that make you feel, seeing if for yourself? 

Aron Giagu 00:45:21

I've probably watched it a million times! No, it makes it feel good. I get more excited about people's reactions to it and yeah. So I just hope people like seeing themselves in that world.

David John Clark 00:45:31

That's cool.

Aron Giagu 00:45:31

Yeah.

David John Clark 00:45:32

So now you can tell me what you can tell me. South Australians, everyone has been involved has become a big thing. I don't think there's anyone in the acting industry in South Australia that doesn't know about Warpath Chronicle. And so many people have been involved in it. And everyone's hanging to see it now. Nothing happens quickly in film.

Aron Giagu 00:45:54

I know.

David John Clark 00:45:55

Especially when it becomes an independent production. We're talking a series here. How many episodes have we got?

Aron Giagu 00:46:01

So we've got eleven episodes and they're about 45 minutes apiece, depending on the episode.

David John Clark 00:46:07

Wow.

Aron Giagu 00:46:08

So you're looking at a significant amount of time and you have to either choose to go with the original size or cut it down. Sometimes things end up on the cutting room floor. That's not the main reason it's delayed, though. The delay came from we're pretty much ready to release that when Covid happened. And that caused huge delays from a collaborating process to networks not having them. I won't say which, but there was networks that were open to specific kind of content and then they stopped doing that because of funding and all this other stuff. So it's been a bit of a journey. At the end of the day, though, and I think this probably just goes out to everyone that was involved. You're going to see it and it's going to look really good and feel really good. And I think I never got involved in this. To make a dollar from it. I got it to make a show with South Australian actors and promote South Australia. It's all about showcasing South Australia. And if I get $10, $10,000 or whatever it is, it doesn't matter.

David John Clark 00:47:21

But to have it out there for the world.

Aron Giagu 00:47:23

Exactly. And that's been my priority. And we all work our normal jobs. All of us. We're all just workers. Myself, Steff, Mark, Nick, all of us, we work our jobs and we have to do all of this editing and collaborating outside of it all.

David John Clark 00:47:41

I mean,  filmmaking itself.... And your days on set with it the same as any film or any TV shows. Twelve hour days, and that's for the actors. And then you've got you and starting early in the morning, set up and pack up to 14, 15 hours days and then have to go to work the next day.

Aron Giagu 00:47:55

Yeah.

David John Clark 00:47:56

So the fact that we're even watching a trailer is just a testimate to your dedication to making it work. I love it.

Aron Giagu 00:48:04

Yeah.

David John Clark 00:48:05

So do you have a release date.

Aron Giagu 00:48:07

You'll see it this year. At the end of the year.

David John Clark 00:48:12

Are you able to say how, where?

Aron Giagu 00:48:14

Not yet. Can't say exactly where, but it's coming out at the end of the year and everyone will know that's been involved. We'll get an email with how and where and everything okay. We will be doing this private screening for the people that were involved as well. If everyone we can fit into the space. 

David John Clark 00:48:14

Every episode?

Aron Giagu 00:48:14

I don't know yet. There hasn't been we should do a big long you got 350 minutes?

David John Clark 00:48:43

That's fantastic.

Aron Giagu 00:48:44

So it just depends. This is coming from me and I'm sure the guys would agree with me. It's not going to go past this year. We want people to see it and regardless of anything else, the most important thing to me is all those people that worked on it need to see this sooner than later. There's not much to do. It's pretty much done. So my loyalty is to the people that were in it, not to anything else. So I'm happy to not delay it any further and release it because it is pretty much complete and I think people are going to love it this way. I think any more galavanting around overthinking about it is just going to delay further for no reason.

David John Clark 00:49:29

Fair enough.

Aron Giagu 00:49:29

Yeah.

David John Clark 00:49:30

I mean, there's a lot of work behind it and I want you to release it in the way that you want to release it. Because like you said, whether you make money from it or not, you've made this to be where you're at now.

Aron Giagu 00:49:42

Yeah, exactly.

David John Clark 00:49:43

To showcase your work. And the actors work in South Australia, so maybe South Australian tourism.

Aron Giagu 00:49:51

I was thinking about doing something like The Hobbit. You know, when you take people to locations oh, this is where this was filmed.

David John Clark 00:49:57

I love it.

Aron Giagu 00:49:59

The battle of Bard Hill was here. The battle of Black Vulture Beach was here. There's all these locations that we use in Warpath that are just exceptional. And we had a lot of people watching us film. That's the other thing.

David John Clark 00:50:13

Yeah. And a lot of people are interested, and I touched on before. So you've received a little bit of media flowing of this. I think there was Adelaide Advertiser, June 2019. Did a nice story there with Daisy Fryer and Tim Hawkins, I think radio. That's a radio Adelaide vhatted about it as well. I don't know if you had any others, but that was started to get.

Aron Giagu 00:50:41

A bit of that's when the momentum started. That's because we were on day 49. Day 49. And for anyone listening that has been involved, we finished on day 90. So 90 days of filming and that's not one scene a day. That was probably about two to three scenes per day.

David John Clark 00:51:00

And that doesn't count all the stuff on the side or your prep. I don't know where we're at.

Aron Giagu 00:51:07

We got cut off. It's okay.

David John Clark 00:51:09

We had a bit of technical issues but what I was trying to say is the people listening to the podcast unfortunately didn't get to see what I was watching. And hopefully the sound sort of portrays a bit of what it is. But the end product that you've got there is just I'll say it again, Game of Thrones. It's absolutely brilliant. The actors look fantastic, the scenes look fantastic. The fight scenes are just immense. You're happy with that end result?

Aron Giagu 00:51:39

I'm so happy with it, yeah, absolutely. Couldn't ask for more.

David John Clark 00:51:41

And now we know. So we're getting a release date finally coming. So I know South Australians, both people involved in the production and people that have been following the production have been hanging and hanging and hanging. And it's one of those things we do see a lot of films and a lot of people things made that you tend to most things get finished, but sometimes things don't get finished and sometimes things take a long time and people get impatient. And I know you've probably seen a lot of impatience, but just talking to you now about how big this is and it makes sense that it's taken so long, a, because it is a big job. It's not being done by professionals down at the studios who are editing eight, 9 hours a day. You have to do it in your own time with volunteers.

Aron Giagu 00:52:27

That's what we all are, really. We're all volunteering to get it done.

David John Clark 00:52:30

And to do it properly. And so you've done that. Now, heaven forbid, if you actually recorded the hours you've put into everything, have you.

Aron Giagu 00:52:40

Bill Gates would have nothing on me?

David John Clark 00:52:41

90 days of filming and heaven forbid you put hours to it. So we were talking before with everyone that's involved in this, both actors in South Australia, upandcoming actors and new actors and everything like that, that you came into a lot of walls in your process to get a film made. So now that you've finally made it, can you sort of discuss a bit what walls were presented to you as a filmmaker that you think that we, as actors and content creators and makers in South Australia, need to take on board?

Aron Giagu 00:53:18

Okay, so I'll try to be gentle with my answer because I can be a bit overtruthful. I was probably met with more negativity than positivity. So when I first spoke to someone about this, who was in a pretty professional space, they almost told me I had to be a runner before I could be anything else. And it was mainly to learn how sets work, which is fair enough, which is some good advice, but they didn't consider anything else. They didn't consider even looking at the product, even looking at, okay, what exactly is Aaron pitching here? So on and so forth. So that was the first bit of advice I got. But what I didn't do is go back and go, maybe I should just be a runner and forget about writing stories.

David John Clark 00:54:03

Okay?

Aron Giagu 00:54:04

So I didn't take that advice to that point. I just thought, now you know what, I'm going to see what other people have to say. So you might get met with some resistance. You might have people scoff at you, think you're crazy, thinking it's not doable because Joe Blow hasn't done it yet, or because it's not the normal process. Sometimes people think, oh, it's been getting done like this for the last 20 years, it works, but then we're going to change. We're not going to change. But how much talent in the last 20 years have you missed? What opportunities have flown by because you've decided to go with it works?

David John Clark 00:54:37

Fair enough.

Aron Giagu 00:54:38

Do you know what I mean?

David John Clark 00:54:39

Or how many productions have been made that were great or good in their life, but lost so much of what they could have been exactly made with a handicam or whatever.

Aron Giagu 00:54:49

Yeah, whatever it might be. I think the important thing is for the director, the writer, the actor, the producer, not to go and take the back foot or just run away from wanting to achieve their goals if they are met with that  resistance. I think if you can just be a little bit persistent and stubborn, you'll probably find that you get your work. Someone will want to see your work on screen and you'll find a way of making it happen. So just try to be positive, be a little bit stubborn and definitely be persistent in getting it out there. If you really think it's worth getting it out there, then just do it.

David John Clark 00:55:27

Well, it's interesting because I've been listening to some motivational speech and music when I'm in the gym lately, and I had Arnold Schwarzenegger do one of his speeches just yesterday, and he said he was told so many times, you can't do that because they said, your body's too big, you can't. And he said, Well, I can. And then he got Conan. And the director said in an interview afterwards, they said, well, if we hadn't had Arnold, we would have had to make him. So his negative became positive. And then when they say, that's impossible, Arnold would say, no, I'm going to make it possible. That's what you're saying. If you've got a dream, if you got a desire, just go and make it. The worst thing that can happen is that you tried and you fail and you failed. But you can't make something if you don't try.

Aron Giagu 00:56:11

That's right. And if you've made it, you haven't failed. You've created the thing that you wanted to make.

David John Clark 00:56:15

Exactly right. And then you learn from that and you've actually got to the end product. You've made your product, and it looks fantastic and it's going to be exciting to see. And so now you have that next step. You can now take that and run. So before I go into the wind up questions, what is next for Aron and your filmmaking.

Aron Giagu 00:56:38

Well, what I'm doing at the moment is I'm working on that Blood City with Jason and Patty, helping them out. Just kind of collaborative work on that. Those two guys are great. They got the same sort of enthusiasm. They want to just get their product to make it happen. Don't worry about all the little political things that need to occur in between it. But I'd like to keep teaching fight for screen. That's something I've got a pretty big passion about. And you don't just teach that with it, you encourage and you teach confidence, because how can you not get confident if you learn how to kick ass on screen? You know what I mean? So that's something I'm going to be doing. I really am focusing on just make sure once Warpath is out, then I'm going to shift my focus to something I'm doing. Cold Mercs. That's a web series I'm going to pitch next year. Filmed again, in SA, actually filmed near Tailem Bend. That's a post apocalyptic comedy action kind of thing.

David John Clark 00:56:38

 Nice, because, you know, postapocalyptic stuff is my favourite. 

Aron Giagu 00:56:38

Yeah, I know. I thought of you in that week.

David John Clark 00:57:43

And you've got something that can sell now, can't you? Well, this is my work, so Warpath can be now your selling point.

Aron Giagu 00:57:51

That's my big stepping stone.

David John Clark 00:57:55

Because you can say you did that on your own and now you're putting your hand up for some assistance. Or you want to work with collaborate with bigger groups to get your funding.

Aron Giagu 00:58:04

Absolutely.

David John Clark 00:58:05

Especially South Australia, because you said there was such a lot of old sticklers. Is that a good word for it?

Aron Giagu 00:58:11

Don't know what it is. I think it's just not just South Australia. I think there's a mentality of, it's been done this way for so long, there's no point in changing something I learned in my last.... I won't say where I work, but I used to work somewhere. And the big thing there was, when you're at your top of your game, you change your game, because if you get stale, you miss out on lots of opportunities. So I think that's what doesn't happen enough. We just have a way and we're setting this way of doing things, and I think that huge opportunities are missed. Like, I have met some people in the last five years that are ten times better than anyone I know in the last ten years that are doing fight for screen acting, but they've been missed because they're just not I don't want to get too political, but it's just they didn't fit into the right crowd to get into the project, you know what I mean? But their abilityis unbelievable.

David John Clark 00:59:11

I think that's bigger than South Australia in Australian TV, is that we're now losing drama. We're losing shows in Australia because they haven't changed. So Australian TV itself now is all reality, because there's nothing there. But all the good shows on your streaming networks starting to build up. Not we all watch the American ones, but we're starting to get some really top quality Australian series now, and the TV networks probably need to learn from that. But it's great to see that the money makers in Australia are now recognising that we can make different content in Australia, and that's what's great. And just, Warpath, a fantasy series filmed in South Australia.

Aron Giagu 00:59:11

Who'd have thought. 

David John Clark 00:59:11

And it looks fantastic, I must say. Thank you very much for putting that all together.

Aron Giagu 00:59:58

Yeah. All right.

David John Clark 00:59:59

Awesome journey to watch you to do it from Are We Heroes to this and to be a part of it as well. So I'm really excited that I've been on that journey with you.

Aron Giagu 01:00:08

Yeah. Thank you.

David John Clark 01:00:09

All right, so thank you very much for coming to the podcast. I like to end with a couple of nice, relaxing so we can de-stress some stuff. First question is, what would your T shirt quote be?

Aron Giagu 01:00:22

T shirt quote?

David John Clark 01:00:22

I mean, I'm wearing my Late Bloomer Actor shirt at the moment because I do that when I'm in the room. I did that with Tim. If you were to get a shirt that had something a message on it that you want to say, do you have something that you would say?

Aron Giagu 01:00:34

I don't know. One of them is already taken. I just say be tenacious. That's my quote. Or just do it. But that's already taken, I think.

David John Clark 01:00:43

I think I had someone say just do it.

Aron Giagu 01:00:47

Absolutely.

David John Clark 01:00:48

Awesome. And we were talking just before the streaming TV. Are you bingeing anything on TV at the moment?

Aron Giagu 01:00:55

Yes, two things. Well, I've already binged them, so I'll just say what they are. So Cobra Kai, definitely.

David John Clark 01:01:01

I've heard good things.

Aron Giagu 01:01:02

David John Clark. No, it's really good.

David John Clark 01:01:06

I'm a shift worker, and the problem with my bingeing is I've got my wife, Kellie loves 98% of the stuff that I like, so we need to watch it together, so it makes it really difficult. I've got a list of all my shows that we want to watch, and when we retire, we'll be binging everything.

Aron Giagu 01:01:26

Okay, cool. And I'm a huge fan of The Witcher.

David John Clark 01:01:30

Nice. We started The Witcher, so it's a good show. And that's interesting for your discussions on fantasy and stuff.

Aron Giagu 01:01:42

It's mind boggling when you first watch The Witcher, so make sure you be open minded when you go in.

David John Clark 01:01:49

That makes me think, do you see yourself working on something like that on a big Hollywood production one day?

Aron Giagu 01:01:55

Yeah, something like that would be amazing.

David John Clark 01:01:57

I mean, you've got all those credentials now. I think you can probably take it and make it work. 

Aron Giagu 01:01:57

Try my best.

David John Clark 01:01:57

I look forward to that.

Aron Giagu 01:02:03

If they have me.

David John Clark 01:02:05

Do you have a most inspirational actor or director in the industry?

Aron Giagu 01:02:16

In the whole industry. Like celebrities?

David John Clark 01:02:19

Yeah. Someone that inspires you to do what you've done or to keep going or now that we call you a director?

Aron Giagu 01:02:24

There's a few actors in Adelaide that I think are amazing. I won't mention them all. They all know who they probably tell them too many times. But there's a guy in Adelaide that I met at the end of casting for Warpath called David Daradan. He inspires me because we are similar. And I think when I doubt myself, he's probably the only guy that would just physically come up to me. He's like, Dude, you gotta do that again. He'll just tell me. I'm like, okay, man. So, like, he's just really open and I can take his feedback on, like, almost as gospel, you know, like, it's truth.

David John Clark 01:03:01

I did see David on the trailer, didn't I?

Aron Giagu 01:03:03

Yes. Daradan's in it. So I really think David Daradan, he's got a whole array of things he can do, which is great. He's taught me a lot on download. So is Mark and Steph. Definitely. But I think having those chats with Daradan, he just gets in here on a different level.

David John Clark 01:03:21

And he's back in Adelaide now.

Aron Giagu 01:03:23

Yeah, Melbourne. Now. He's in Adelaide.

David John Clark 01:03:26

Awesome.

Aron Giagu 01:03:27

And then as a famous actor, funny. Probably Gerard Butler. Did I say that right?

David John Clark 01:03:32

Yes.

Aron Giagu 01:03:33

Gerard.

David John Clark 01:03:34

Unlike some people, who can't pronounce surnames!

Aron Giagu 01:03:37

But I saw him in Atilla The Hun, which was a Hallmark movie. This story really quick. It would be Gerard Butler. And I remember seeing him in that going, man, this looks cool. And then he was in 300, and that's where it all happened. 

David John Clark 01:03:56

I haven't seen 300! I know. It's on my list.

Aron Giagu 01:03:59

It's a good movie.

David John Clark 01:03:59

Yeah, definitely. Awesome.

Aron Giagu 01:04:02

Probably that, two? So they're the two actors.

David John Clark 01:04:05

Awesome. That's great. I love that it's someone local that can kick you in the butt, so to speak, and that gives you something. So that's fantastic. And it's all about collaboration and teamwork, isn't it? Filmmaking? And you've got an awesome team.

Aron Giagu 01:04:21

And don't hold back. When people want to learn, tell them, share your knowledge. That's what I would say. People always say to me, Aron, why do you care so much about how to make films? You could make money from this or you shouldn't share all your secrets. I'm like, you know what? It's such a hard industry to get into. So if you know something that's helped you share it with someone else I know that's scary, but I would share as much knowledge as I can with people.

David John Clark 01:04:49

It a lot of both actors and filmmakers. People say it's such a hard industry that you can't share because you might give someone else a leg up. I don't think it's like that. I think, man, especially for actors, you are the actor for that role or you're not. So you helping someone else out isn't going to mean you're going to miss out. Why? I run my Adelaide Actors and Extras page because it allows me to share information, allows me to bring filmmakers like yourself in together and collaborate and share and bring resources in.

Aron Giagu 01:05:15

100%.

David John Clark 01:05:17

And that's why I run the podcast now to share information and bring people together. What am I getting out of it? I'm getting out of the fact that I'm helping other people and that's what I love.

Aron Giagu 01:05:27

That's great.

David John Clark 01:05:28

So thank you very much. Is there anything that we think you might have missed on the podcast you'd like to bring up before we say goodbye?

Aron Giagu 01:05:37

Just a huge thank you to everybody that participated in the making of Warpath Chronicle. I know we didn't just come on here to talk about that, but every single person you have 100% my appreciation and I know that Mark, Steph, Nick, Tom, Pav and everyone else that was on the production side of it also appreciates the time and effort put in. So I want people to know that definitely haven't been forgotten. It's just been a giant project and we're finally at the end.

David John Clark 01:06:05

Awesome.

Aron Giagu 01:06:06

Thank you.

David John Clark 01:06:07

Giving people their recognition. I know that I'm behind you to do your IMDB. If you still get up online, everyone will get their credits on. The biggest actors down to the lowest actors have never done anything. They'll be able to see their name attached on IMDB. That's their credit and the recognition, which is awesome.

Aron Giagu 01:06:26

And if I see them anywhere, I'll buy them a drink. Cost me a lot of money.

David John Clark 01:06:32

Awesome! Aron, thank you very much for coming on board. I know we had some technical issues, so let's fingers crossed that it's all there, otherwise you're going to have to come in and we'll have to remember what we said. But thank you very much. Thank you for letting me see the trailer. Obviously, everyone will get to see it soon when you publicly release it.

Aron Giagu 01:06:52

Yes.

David John Clark 01:06:52

And in the series will be available. You first heard it here on the Late Bloomer Actor podcast, Warpath coming to a screen to you somewhere.

Aron Giagu 01:07:00

See you.

David John Clark 01:07:02

Thank you very much.

Aron Giagu 01:07:03

Thank you guys.