A musician in Perth's music scene who struggles with social anxiety and fears stepping on the stage is the basis of a new Western Australian film which has scooped up a number of awards at international film festivals.
Anticipation is the debut feature film from Peter Renzullo who was inspired to make the movie from his own experiences as a music producer.
"My day job is a music producer, I have my own studio and deal with artists everyday from soloists to full bands," he said.
"The common thread which runs through them is they are very anxious and self deprecating people.
"Because I was so familiar with that type of experience from my clients, it seemed worthy of addressing in a film, and it doesn't just happen in the music industry it happens to people in all walks of life."
Renzullo said the main character in the film was trying to get over his own self-sabotage to get into the music industry and make a name for himself.
"There are a few side stories in the film about his sister and his past and why he ended up being the way he is and overcoming that," he said.
Renzullo and the main actor came up with the idea after they entered a one minute film competition about what live music meant to them.
"We made up this little story up about a musician getting ready for a show and being anxious in his room - the feature film was born from that," he said.
"I expanded the character about this anxious musician who is afraid of being in front of crowds but wants to be in front of crowds."
Released in August, the film has already been played to audiences in Perth and at film festivals around the world bagging eight awards including best film, best screen play and best director.
"People have reacted to the film amazingly it has been just crazy," he said.
"A lot of random people have messaged me to say the film has encouraged them to talk about their own things that were going on and discuss things with their friends and family.
"One of the things we tackle in the film is about opening up and starting a dialogue.
"Quite a few people have said the film has really affected them that way which is really amazing."
Making the film even more incredible, Renzullo is legally blind and lives with cone dystrophy, a vision impairment which has left him with 3 per cent vision.
"Bizarrely though the less light there is the better I can see because my rods are still okay they are not too bad," he said.
"The film was shot in night vision and lot of the film was set in night scenes and some of it is coloured quite dark just so I could see what I was doing.
"When I first started the film I got myself a massive monitor and edited it all myself, I taught myself how to use this program Davinici Resolve which is a really straightforward program to use.
"Because I had done some basic music videos in the past I had some basic editing ideas, but nothing like this, I just learnt as I was going basically."
Renzullo will screen his debut movie Anticipation at Orana Cinema in Busselton on Saturday October 26, tickets are available from trybooking.com/book/event?eid=544044.
