Last week , homegrown videographer Adrian Ortega released Bodycrash: A Look Into Melbourne’s Unique Club Scene. Over 30 minutes, the documentary honed in on the rise of the Melbourne sound and the niche scene around it, from the dance move “the juicy wiggle” to the influence of drugs like GHB.
Bodycrash sure proved divisive. Since inthemix covered the documentary on Friday, it’s gone far and wide, stirring up debate every step of the way. For some, the Melbourne sound scene wasn’t the side of the city’s vast dance music culture they were proud of, while others saw it as an important moment for Melbourne on the world stage. So to find out more about what went into making Bodycrash, we hit up Adrian Ortega for his take on the divisive scene and the fuss around his documentary. Have a read of what he told us below and if you haven’t seen it already, scroll down to watch the video that has everyone talking.
You said you spent a year putting the documentary together – can you tell us a bit more about the production process? How much time was spent in clubs filming?
The film started official production in August of 2013, so it’s been around a year putting it together. Friends of mine who also work as videographers in the same music scene gave majority of the club footage to me. My cinematographer and myself shot additional footage over the course of one night. We shot from 9pm until the recovery sessions at 9am.
What as the aim of the documentary, for you? What message were you trying to get across?
Honestly, the aim for the documentary was to tell an honest story. Every film I make, fiction or non-fiction is simply to tell a story. I guess I knew on a subconscious level that this would blow up online because people are always interested by this type of subject matter, but I tried my best to keep this as a non-biased documentary in the hopes that people would make up their own minds on this scene. The interviewees spoke their minds, and I simply documented it.
Some people criticise the Melbourne sound because they don’t think it’s an accurate representation of the city’s scene as a whole. Do you think that’s a fair assessment? What makes the Melbourne sound scene worthy of investigation, to you?
I’ve been working as a videographer in this scene for over 2 years now, and I have seen it become a more and more thriving community. People have approached me and said that they are furious that I didn’t investigate or even mention the other music scenes in Melbourne.
All I want to get off my chest is this: I know there are other scenes out there, but ‘this’ documentary wasn’t focusing on those scenes. This documentary investigates the Melbourne Sound scene, which is thriving whether you think it is or not. At no point in the film do I state that this is the ‘only’ scene, or that other ones have ceased to exist. That would be ridiculous. If you don’t like it, you have to still understand that it exists out there.
One person told me he “never knew anyone who has overdosed on GHB”. That’s great, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen every weekend, because it does. This documentary definitely isn’t a representation of the scene as a ‘whole’, but it was never intended to be that. This documentary focuses on a facet of the scene, but an important one with the youth of today and one that is continuously thriving.
And what’s your take on the Melbourne sound? Do you see it as a positive or negative force for the local scene? What misconceptions are there around it?
My personal opinion of the scene is exactly why I created this documentary. I don’t see it as a good or a bad thing. It is what it is, and it’s going to continue. I don’t think if I hated it or loved it that it would make any difference. This kind of thing has been going on for years and years.
The information in this documentary isn’t new or fascinating, but it exists, and I thought I’d document it to see if people learnt anything or not. That was the risk I took. You hear it from club runners first hand that they acknowledge all of the controversy surrounding the scene, and after working in this scene for years I thought I’d give them a chance to clear the air.
How have you found the reaction to the documentary?
The reaction to this documentary has been incredible. It’s doing so much better than I thought it would. I’d say about 70% of people love it to the 30% of strong hate. But that’s fine. This was never going to be a documentary that everyone would love, and I am embracing the hate.
Knowing that I’ve created something that is getting people so worked up about is why I became a filmmaker, to convey emotion, whatever that emotion may be. I’ve had film students, teachers and other people in different club scenes (hip-hop, minimal and trance) congratulate me on creating a film about a scene that they didn’t know so much about.
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