Behind the lens, Gabe Aylen tells the youngsters to get out.
Key points:
- A South Australian teenager is named a national film festival finalist for his short film
- Gabe and two friends camped along the Heysen Trail for four days to create the film
- He hopes to encourage more teenagers to go outside
His short film, Hiking the Wild South Coast Way: Heysen Trail, was a South Australian finalist for the REELISE National Youth Film Festival.
The five-minute production focuses on two young boys who have decided to go on a hike to escape the pressures of school and life for a few days.
“My message was just to go out and do something you want to do,” Gabe said.
“Just stop thinking about it, go ahead, do it.”
Created in 2013, the REELISE film festival aims to address mental health and cyberbullying issues that young people face.
“A lot of [the other films] were about anxiety and mental health, mine was a different approach, the positive side of it,” Gabe said.
Since Gabe was already writing, directing, filming and editing, he hired a friend and a cousin to star in the film.
However, the production was sometimes difficult.
“I had a hard time convincing them to let me take over if I didn’t make it the first time, because they didn’t want to go back down the hill and back up again,” he said.
“We also struggled when it was raining, but luckily it only rained a few times.”
Gabe had been interested in film as a child, but had taken a break until he rediscovered the art form – through airplanes.
“It’s a bit strange, but for at least seven or eight years I liked remote control cars, then I got a remote control drone about five years ago,” he said.
“About two years ago, I convinced my dad to buy me a drone with a camera, and I said that if he did, I could film his houses, because he’s an architect.
“So while doing that, I made a few movies for his houses while I had fun flying him.
“When I look back on those movies now, I think they’re really bad, but that’s okay.
“I kind of fell in love with film and photography thanks to this drone.”
However, Gabe’s mother, Jacq Iles, said his passion for movies goes back further than that.
“I remember when he was young, he always liked to take a bulky old digital camera and take pictures, or play games and make stop-motion movies,” she said.
“He combined his love of nature and getting out and being in nature, which I know Gabe really enjoys, so it’s the two passions that come together.”
To shoot the film, his friend and cousin Gabe camped along Australia’s longest marked walking track for four days and three nights.
Despite staying with a friend half an hour away in an emergency, Ms Iles felt it was important for her son and his pals to have an independent experience.
“I’m so proud of them, because no adults have gone on this journey with them,” she said.
“They organized everything, the food, the gear… two 15 year olds and my 16 year old son, there for four days.
“…But trust them. We’re letting them go on this epic journey on their own and proving they’re very capable.”
Although he missed out on a spot at the national level of the competition, Gabe has his sights set on a future movie career.
“My ideal dream is to finish school, to travel around the world, hopefully with friends with my camera and… to make movies doing that,” he said.
“And eventually go back to Adelaide and find some kind of career.
“I want to keep making movies like this…but bigger and better.”
The moral of Gabe’s story?
Well, there were a lot. That we should all take a hike someday, rediscover our passions and prove our abilities along the way.