Interview with Filmmaker Jake Michael Shannon (SAMMY THE SALMON)

SAMMY THE SALMON played to rave reviews at the April 2020 LGBT Film Festival.

Matthew Toffolo: What motivated you to make this film?

Jake Michael Shannon: We made this film during the Australian plebiscite vote for same-sex marriage. During this time there were a lot of negative messages in the media coming from both sides of the argument. What I wanted to do, was to create a story that humanised the issue in a comedic, lighthearted way.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this short?

I wrote the first draft of the script years before we began production. But when we found out the plebiscite, we thought that it was the prefect time to dust of the idea and bring it to life. From that point on it was incredibly quick. We had three weeks in pre-production, three days…