Robin Nicolle’s Most Recent Short Film Project – Honest Police Wins 3 Awards

WORDS: Robin Nicolle PHOTOGRAPHY Supplied

I began my career as a student when I enrolled in a course at the Actors Workshop. I made my first short film and my first commercial when I was a student. Since graduating, I’ve found more opportunities making more short films with students or friends. I made my second short film called O’Hare about a boy dealing with domestic violence. In 2014, I decided to audition for a theatre performance in Buderim. It was based on an award winning book called Drifting. I was cast as Michael, an important and supporting character. When I lived in Sydney, I was cast in a short film called Certainty and Doubt at New York Film Academy. I played a nerdy reporter for the first time in my career. I made 2 more commercials in Sydney. Then I made a short film about Edgar Allan Poe. The writer decided to cast me as the lead character and he called it Spirits of the Dead after one of Edgar’s best poems. I was also cast in a Web Series all about Gothic People and we shot a few episodes in suburbs around Sydney. Playing a Gothic character called Peter helped me to gain a lot of invaluable experience and helped me to be a more versatile actor.

I wrote a script in 2018. Then in 2019 I met a guy and his name is Glenn Ganley. He owns enough equipment to make short film projects. I sent him my script and then he added his own ideas and suggestions in improve my original idea. He plays a small role in the project. We found enough actors and a guy to help with sound all through a website called Star Now. I drove around the coast a couple times with Glenn to do a little bit of location scouting. When we found the right places to shoot scenes, we organized a day that all of the people were available. We shot scenes in 3 different locations on the Sunshine Coast, my suburb Sippy Downs, Big Top Shopping Centre and Kawana and we also shot at a bottle shop in Caboolture.

We shot most of scenes before the pandemic in 2019 and a couple of scenes in January and February 2020 before the first lockdown. Then we shot another scene last year in Kawana. When we finished editing the project we submitted it to a festival in Kampala, Uganda. The International Media, Arts and Film Awards. They decided to organize a live streaming of the projects and awards ceremony because of Corona Virus Restrictions. We were lucky enough to win 3 awards. As an ensemble, we won Best Short Film, an individual Glenn won Best Editor for the first time in his professional career and as an individual I won the Best Actor Award also for the first time in my professional career. An unforgettable experience to be named Best Actor after all my hardwork.

I describe my character Kevin as an individual with the right intentions but the wrong methods and execution. Kevin pretends to be a cop because he wants to make his community a better place. I describe Honest Police as a comedy for all ages and I also describe it as the most extreme version of taking the law into your own hands.

Now that borders are open, I’m thinking about submitting Honest Police to a few festivals around Australia especially in Melbourne because I have not been to Victoria since I moved to Australia in 2003. I want a lot of people around the country to watch and enjoy my ideas. I also want to inspire people around Australia to write and produce their own ideas even during a pandemic you can achieve a lot as a creative individual.