Caboolture businesses go global in short film

A short film about a misguided ‘police officer’ who hunts down dishonest people features snippets of Moreton Bay, with cameras capturing footage at two Caboolture businesses.

The movie, titled Honest Police, is the brainchild of Sunshine Coast actor, writer and producer Robin Nicolle, who dreams of moving away from his retail job into the Hollywood scene.

“I wrote the script in 2018, which took me roughly a day,” Mr Nicolle said.

Honest Police follows lead character Kevin (played by Mr Nicolle), who has a vision of a world without liars and cheaters.

“I describe Kevin as an individual with the right intentions but the wrong methods and execution,” he said. 

“Kevin pretends to be a cop because he wants to make his community a better place.

“I describe Honest Police as a comedy for all ages and I also describe it as the most extreme version of taking the law into your own hands.”

The movie was filmed at various locations including Sippy Downs, Maroochydore, Kawana and Caboolture.

“I was finding it difficult to find the location of a bottle shop on the Sunshine Coast, so I went to Caboolture and found the perfect shop,” Mr Nicolle said.

“It’s called Champion Liquor on King Street. I spoke to the manager to ask if he was interested in us shooting some scenes there and he was on board.

“He was kind enough to open the store for us at 7.30am so we could film before they opened at 11am.

“We brought in the cameras and actors to shoot the scenes, which took roughly two hours, and then came back to do a few reshoots.

“It was then that another business owner became intrigued, and he invited us to his laundromat where we shot another scene. That is actually where I arrest my second victim.”

Winning awards 

Mr Nicolle has entered his project into film competitions overseas.

“We submitted it to a festival in Kampala, Uganda called the International Media, Arts and Films Awards,” he said.

“We were lucky enough to win three awards. As an ensemble we won Best Short Film, and as an individual Glenn won Best Editor for the first time in his professional career.

“I won the Best Actor Award also for the first time in my professional career.”

No stranger to the industry 

Mr Nicolle was born in Zimbabwe, but moved to Queensland in 2003. 

He is no stranger to the screen or the stage, having appeared in television ads, short films and theatre productions. 

He studied drama in high school, and later on, an advanced Diploma of Film and Theatre Acting at the Actors Workshop in Brisbane, Queensland.

When he was a student there, he appeared in his first commercial for BCF. 

He has appeared in a number of theatre performances including Sexual Perversity in Chicago and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. 

Since graduating from the Actors Workshop, he has continued to write and produce short films with students, as well as take part in another commercial and a web series.