- Birth nameShane John Abbess
- Nicknames
- Het
- Silverback
- Height1.91 m
- A filmmaker with a powerful vision that compliments stories with heart, Shane is relentlessly passionate and immersive when it comes to his craft. In his early days, he spent the better part of a decade making short films, commercials and music videos with a view to understanding every aspect of a production whilst developing a distinct and engaging visual style.
In early 2005 he gathered his forces and put everything on the line to make his feature debut - Gabriel. With an upfront cash budget of 200K and a history-making sale to Sony Pictures, Gabriel released in Australian cinemas in late 2007 before going worldwide the following year. The film went on to become one of the most commercially successful independent Australian films of all time and still holds a current top spot among all Australian international releases.
Following this, Hollywood was quick to snap Shane up, where he spent several years developing high profile studio projects but was often disheartened by the lack of originality or creative risk taking and as such, found himself pushing into more experimental areas of cinema.
As a result, his second feature 'Infini' received international acclaim when it was released in 2015 and has since gone on to become a bonafide cult hit, though is not well know in his homeland of Australia. Shot in the vein of classic late 70s/early 80s sci-fi, the film was designed to be intentionally divisive in it's storytelling techniques as an alternate option to the current crop of science fiction.
Following this was the widely praised and more accessible premiere of Shane's third directorial effort 'The Osiris Child' at Austin's Fantastic Fest in 2016, which he stated was the closing chapter in his 'love letter trilogy' to the type of genre cinema he'd grown up with.
With a host of talent on screen, the film would go on to achieve great success as well as launch newcomer Teagan Croft into the world spotlight where she landed the co-lead on DC'S Teen Titans playing Raven.
Shane continues to focus on unique and immersive ways to bring characters to life, now pushing further into more experimental approaches to drama and performance.- IMDb mini biography by: WME
- Whilst making Gabriel, would often run out of money and had to work daytime in a call center then go and sit in with the editor at nights.
- Has worked with the same Sound Designer and Composer for almost a decade.
- His favorite or Top 5 films are Fight Club, Saving Private Ryan, Field of Dreams, The Notebook and Aliens.
- Attended Lucas Heights Community School in New South Wales, Australia.
- I think one of the fundamental flaws in Australian cinema in the past few years has been that we haven't been able to connect with an audience, especially internationally. We shouldn't be making films to satisfy funding criteria or industry peers, it should just be about the audience and what they want, because at the end of the day, it's them, which includes you and me, that's ultimately going to decided whether a film fails or not. They're the boss. That's it. It sounds simple, I know, but if you look at our box office figures in the past decade, we're obviously missing the mark somewhere. I think there's a very positive movement happening at the moment in the independent sector which is starting to show the depth of filmmaking talent this country has to offer and our want to tell stories that appeal to a wider fan-base.
- I don't think the larger Australian Community realizes how hard a film like 'Gabriel' was to make or what it has actually done and/or said about our local industry. In time though, the truth will surface through more filmmakers grabbing the bull by the horns and starting where Gabriel left off.
- A lot of people say I'm a 'method' director because I believe whatever we're doing is completely real. We're creating memories, not a movie. We're shooting characters and truth, not actors and a script.
- Live every second of the journey, because the destination isn't for you, it's for everyone else.
- I'm much more willing to take massive risks these days, knowing full well the line between success and failure gets closer the further you push, which is why it's the best place to be.
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