Vanessa Lam
14 September 2015: In the Australian family film Paper Planes, we see 12-year-old Dylan sitting at his desk in class, intricately folding a crisp, A4 piece of paper into a paper plane for a flying competition he's about to take part in at school. He carefully folds the paper to get the creases just right as the plane takes shape on screen. The teacher then invites all the school kids to simultaneously throw their planes into the air. Dylan and his classmates watch in awe as his paper plane soars out of the classroom, throughout the school and off into the sky.
It wasn't long ago that real life Dylan – University of Canberra alumni Dylan Parker – and his friend James Norton were trying to fold the perfect paper planes for a competition, but in a different education setting: on campus at the University of Canberra.
Never did they imagine that they would soon be able to say they'd inspired a blockbuster movie, thanks to their chance entry into a paper plane flying competition on campus in 2008, which changed their lives forever.
The pair's paper plane adventure took flight seven years ago at the University when they both entered the regional Red Bull Paper Wings competition, with Mr Parker winning in the distance category and Mr Norton in the airtime category. Both then went on to victory while competing at the national competition in Sydney, before their newfound passion flew them (literally) all the way to the 2009 World Paper Plane Championships in Austria to represent Australia as paper plane flyers.
In Austria, Mr Parker placed third in the distance category, an impressive feat particularly considering just before going to the world championships he was diagnosed with a brain tumour and had to have surgery to remove it. His experience was featured in a 2009 episode of Australian Story and not long after a film director approached them about sharing their story as inspiration for a children's movie.
-
UC alumni James Norton and Dylan Parker at the premiere of Paper Planes. Image copyright of Roadshow Films
This movie was to become Paper Planes, released nationally earlier this year and starring international superstar Sam Worthington and a young Ed Oxenbould as his son, Dylan. The movie is about 12-year-old Dylan's passion for flight and his dreams of competing in the world paper planes championships in Japan. The film has earned almost $10 million dollars at the box office, becoming the most popular Australian family film since Red Dog and grossing more than well-known Australian films like Ned Kelly, Mad Max, Animal Kingdom and Bran Nue Dae.
Mr Parker said he was amazed when he found out the film's writer and director Robert Connolly, whose work includes The Bank and Balibo, was interested in making a film based on their experience.
"It was a really surreal feeling to learn there was someone that wanted to make a movie out of something that you had done, particularly a thing like flying paper planes. At first it seemed a bit far-fetched but as the film started to take shape and more people got involved, the more real it became," Mr Parker, 28, said.
Mr Norton, 29, said: "It's been unbelievable. Everyone makes paper planes as a kid and we never imagined that our experience with paper planes would take us this far. After the world championships we did a lot of publicity and media interviews and it became an on-going joke in a way because we never knew where it would take us next, we certainly didn't think a movie!"
As well as having a cameo in the movie, they were credited as 'paper plane consultants', having designed more than 45 paper planes and folded over 5,000 of them for the film, as well as consulting with the visual effects team on the creation of the CGI planes.
"It was fantastic and very intense working on the film, folding and designing 5,000 planes that needed to be high quality as well as both fanciful and beautiful was a huge but exciting task. The planes needed to be able to fly, look good on screen and still be folded out of one sheet of A4 paper," Mr Norton said.
They said their favourite design from the film was the plane 'Clive' from the final scene. Shaped like an eagle, they spent two months designing the plane especially for the film, which started out as six different concepts and took three hours and 45 minutes to fold the first time they made it.
Up until a few months ago the duo were still working full-time jobs, Mr Parker in Sydney as a marketing specialist and Mr Norton in Canberra as a landscape architect. In April, while they were speaking about their experiences in front of 6,000 primary school students at a leadership conference, they decided it was time to dedicate themselves to being full-time 'paper pilots'.
"We thought, if we can inspire that many school children and make a positive experience and impact – not just with paper planes but with what we had to say – we couldn't not throw ourselves at this full-speed. We quit our jobs in the following weeks and made a commitment to use paper planes as an education tool full-time," Mr Parker said.
Together, they have now developed The Paper Pilots education program that sees them visit schools and community events to spread their love and knowledge of paper planes.
"We go to primary schools and teach the kids about the science of flight and also visit places like aged care facilities where folding paper planes becomes more of an activity that they can learn to teach their grandchildren," Mr Norton said.
They also hope to publish a book based around the paper plane designs they created for the film, as well as some of their personal favourites.
Mr Parker, who graduated with a Bachelor of Communications in Marketing and Advertising Communications in 2009, is originally from Maitland, NSW and said what he enjoyed most about his time at the University was living on campus and the sense of community.
"Every single person that I went to university with was very supportive, because Canberra's a small place everyone bonded together and it was always a really nice atmosphere," he said.
Mr Parker said his time at the University gave him the experience he needed when he went on to join an advertising agency in Sydney.
"It was really great how broad the course was, in terms of all the different types of things that I learnt. All of my teachers had such vast experience in the field and they were able to bring in examples of advertising campaigns that they've done and shared their real life experiences in the classes. I think being taught by people who had that experience in the principles, the course was really beneficial for me as a student," he said.
Mr Norton, from Byron Bay in NSW, graduated with a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture/Bachelor of Environmental Science in 2011 and is studying a Master of Digital Design. He said he enjoyed the different range of units on offer and the opportunity to form networks during his studies.
"I found the units I did during my degree were very creative, they were so new and different from anything I had ever done before and gave us limitless opportunity to come up with our own ideas," Mr Norton said.
"After I graduated, I was able to work together with some of my lecturers on projects in my job as a landscape architect. I also collaborated with many of the architecture and industrial design graduates on projects such as creating park furniture and shelters. It was great that I was able to build that network of people from different disciplines during my time at the University."
Mr Norton said that they never thought that a chance meeting at the most unlikely networking opportunity such as a paper plane competition at the University would lead to the start of a long-lasting friendship, business partnership and unique adventure that has gone on to become a hugely successful film.
Mr Parker said he was thrilled to see the power of paper planes bringing people together with the positive response and success the movie has received from audiences around Australia.
"Whilst the movie is a children's movie it has themes that apply to people of all ages and can be shared between generations. Paper planes are a universal activity, no age, race, gender or affluence barrier exists to stop people from participating. We see the same joy in everyone's face, no matter who they are, when they see something they have created from a single piece of paper."
Paper Planes is now available on DVD and Blu-ray and is set for international release later this year.
Watch the trailer for the movie below:
