Dale Stewart (filmmaker)

Dale Stewart
Born	March 30, 1985 (1985-03-30) (age 26)

Dale Stewart (born 30 March 1985) is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, editor and screenwriter, best known for his 2010 horror film Compound. He got international recognition early in his career with his horror short film, Awakened in 2008.

Early life

Stewart, the eldest of three children, was born on 30 March 1985. He grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland. He stayed there until 1999 when they immigrated to Auckland, New Zealand with his parents and two brothers.

Growing up in Scotland, Stewart is an avid football fan and supports Glasgow Rangers.

In 2007, Stewart attended South Seas Film School in Auckland, New Zealand. After finishing his diploma, his short film he made at the end of the year went on to get accepted into three major American Film Festivals and would gain not only national attention but International attention to Stewart. His short film is the most successful short film that has come out of the film school to date.

In 2010, Stewart embarked on his first feature film, COMPOUND, which began principal photography on February 1, 2009. Stewart funded this film fully by himself and also wrote, directed, produced and edited the film.

Awakened

'Awakened' is a short horror film that was directed by Stewart, who also wrote and produced the short while still at film school. Knowing that becoming a director was an uphill battle, Stewart decided to make opportunities for himself and started entering his short film to some of the biggest film festivals in America to try to get early recognition for his work. While he was still editing the short film at film school, he started making inquires to overseas festivals about entering his short film. He started submitting his synopsis to see if anyone was interested. After submitted his synopsis to a few major film festivals, Stewart received a phone call from a New York film festival requesting that he send his short film to their festival as soon as it was complete.

Stewart worked tirelessly over the next few weeks with the editor to get the film done and submit it to the festival. On November 30, 2007, the eve of his last day of film school, Stewart received an email from the New York film festival stating that his short film had not only been accepted to the New York film festival (which was held in March 2008) but its sister film festival in Los Angeles (which was held in July 2008).

With Stewart's success about getting an independently made short film into a major festival, he went on to appear on the front page of his local newspaper and would later be featured in the New Zealand national newspaper, The Sunday News. Word spread around the world and Stewart was featured on several popular websites around American and also Europe.

Stewart attend the New York film festival in March 2008. His short film was the only short film to play 4 times over the festivals run. It was nominated for 'Best Short film Horror'.

Awakened would later go on to a Los Angeles film festival to win Stewarts first award of his career. He picked up 'Best International Director of a Short Film'. It was selected as 1 of the 47 short films and feature films to play at the 'Rhode Island Horror Festival' in October 2008. All the success from his short film would provide a crucial part in allowing him to shoot his first feature film.

Compound

While Stewart was still at film school in 2007, he attended 'Spookers' in Karaka, Auckland. 'Spookers' is a haunted attraction theme park can be found in an old mental hospital grounds. Spookers is run from an old Nurses hostel where the nurses would stayed while working at the hospital.

Stewart attended Spookers with friends and was amazed by the location. A friend questioned if there had been a film there and if not, recommended Stewart approach them after film school. Stewart rejected the idea at first telling his friend he didn't have enough experience and credit behind him to approach them.

After getting back from New York in 2008 and having a nomination and world wide attention brought on him and his short film, Stewart decided to take a risk and approach the owners of Spookers. Stewart set up a meeting with the general manager, Julia Watson, in May 2008 and pitch her his idea. She stated to him that they get a lot of requests each week to film at their location but turn them down so having a sit down interview was a big deal. Stewart pitch her that if he could make a film at their location, he could maximize their exposure not only in New Zealand but overseas with the past success of his short film. The general manager thought Stewart was onto something and said she would get him the green light but he first had to meet with Andy Watson, the CEO of Spookers. Stewart met with the CEO and pitched him the same idea. He was interested in the idea but Stewart told him he wanted to start shooting on February 1, 2009. Stewart had 9 months to raise enough money to fully fund the film himself and the CEO didn't think he could do it. They made a deal that if Stewart couldn't raise the money by nearer the time, he would put it off until there was enough money available.

In June 2008, Stewart started to scout around for cast and crew. Stewart was loyal to those who had helped him on his first short film and other friends from film school. He would later cast the main cast from actors who worked on his short film, Awakened, and also friends from his film school that studied acting. The rest of the actors were made up from other actors from his film school that attend in 2008. He would also get his crew from his film school and put out a memo at Spookers telling the actors there that he was shooting a film there and to contact him if they wanted to be in it.

Stewart was against odds to fund the money for the film and decided to relocate to Perth, Australia to live with family while he saved as much as he could to fund his film. While over in Australia, we would cast the rest of his film via email without seeing anyone audition. Because of the situation Stewart was in being in another country, he would purely cast the rest of the roles on the actors personality and attitude. Stewart stayed in Perth, Australia from July 2008 to January 2009. He would work at a petrol station full time and in his spare time, he would delivery flyers to houses in the area where he lived.

While living in Perth, Australia, he found someone in August 2008 who was interested in funding his film. One 1 month before shooting was to begin, the investor was forced to pull out because of the recession that hit in the year 2008. Stewart was determined not to let everyone down, so he sourced other avenues in gathering the money.

Stewart returned to New Zealand on January 21 2009 with the money he needed ready to start principal photography on February 1, 2009 like schedule. The films principal photography wrapped on April 16, 2009.

In November 2009, Stewart was invited to attend the New Zealand comic expo Armageddon to promote the film with fans.

Current and future projects

Stewart is currently working on several projects that are in pre production. He plans to start moving forward with the projects in the 4th quarter of 2011. He will also serve as Executive Producer and Producer on several independent projects being made next year in New Zealand.

Style

Stewart is known to be a very easy going Director when working with him either in pre-production or on set. He has been known for letting the actors be very much involved with their characters and allowing them to try lots of stuff on set. Stewart works in a style that he likes to shoot the rehearsals and doesn't like to do more than 3 takes per set up. He likes to get the pace moving on set and doesn't exhaust the actors unless they are unhappy with their takes.

Awards and Honours

New York film festival

Year	Nominated work	Award	Result
2008[1]	Awakened	Best short film Horror	Nominated

Los Angeles film festival

Year	Nominated work	Award	Result
2008[2]	Awakened	Best International Director of a Short Film	Won

In November 2009, Stewart was nominated for the prestigious 'Young New Zealander of the Year' award for the year 2010 for his work and commitment to film. He was again nominated for the same award for 2011.^{[citation needed]}

Cameo Roles

In COMPOUND, Stewart played the character 'Control Room Man'.

Personal life

Stewart was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and moved to Auckland New Zealand when he was 14. He currently lives between Auckland, New Zealand and Perth, Australia.

He is a big fan of soccer and supports Glasgow Rangers.

He is an avid watcher of movies. He credits his early influences for wanting to get into film from such movies as Batman, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Scream, Terminator 2, The Blob, Nightmare on Elm St, Friday the 13th, The Thing, The Godfather and many more.

He had been dating his current girlfriend since 2005. They met when Stewart worked at the local cinema with her. They married in 2011.

Filmography

Short films

Year	Title
2008	Awakened

Feature Films

Year	Title
2010	Compound

References

1. ^ "Independent film selected for honours". North Harbour News (Fairfax New Zealand). 1 January 2009. Archived from the original on 15 July 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5rFlpwDXZ. Retrieved 16 July 2010. 
2. ^ "Los Angeles July 2008 Awards". New York International Independent Film & Video Festival. July 2008. Archived from the original on 15 July 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5rFlnPgCO. Retrieved 16 July 2010. 

• "Day By Day Schedule of Events". RI International Film Festival. Archived from the original on 15 July 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5rFlxM7hE. Retrieved 16 July 2010. 
• "New York February 2008 Schedule". New York International Independent Film & Video Festival. February 2008. Archived from the original on 15 July 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5rFmFumqo. Retrieved 16 July 2010. 
• "Awakened". Reelshow International. 2 April 2008. Archived from the original on 15 July 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5rFmJjUIS. Retrieved 16 July 2010. 
• "Dale Stewart's Breakfast horror". South Seas. 28 April 2010. Archived from the original on 15 July 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5rFmSTIc8. Retrieved 16 July 2010. 
• "Compound teaser trailer dell’horror di Dale Stewart" (in Italian). IlCineManiaco. Archived from the original on 15 July 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5rFmZkzSJ. Retrieved 16 July 2010. 
• "The Last Laugh". eventfinder.co.nz. Archived from the original on 15 July 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5rFmtCujF. Retrieved 16 July 2010. 
• Compound Full-Length Trailer (YouTube). 26 December 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxv-gQpDl7A. 
• Compound Teaser Trailer (YouTube). 30 July 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQaeLVPruN8. 
• Compound Horror Film on TVNZ Breakfast (YouTube). 27 April 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSNy6LWiiUA. 

Persondata
Name	Stewart, Dale
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Date of birth	30 March 1985
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