Mat de Koning filmed Meal Tickets over 10 years, from 2004 to 2014. The documentary follows the ups and downs in the lives of four of his friends from Kalamunda High School in Perth - Charlie Austen, Lee French, Ben Ward and Mitch Long and their rock band, the Screwtop Detonators. With his up-close-and-personal access, de Koning was able to film hundreds of hours of footage chronicling the most intimate moments of the group's lively US tour with manager Dave Kavanagh, their return to Australia, their struggle to keep the dream alive after splitting with Kavanagh, and the struggles and tensions as they come to realise just how difficult fulfilling their ambitions really is.

Contrasting with their story is that of Will Stoker, initially their much put-upon roadie who quits to pursue his own musical dream and, as leader of Will Stoker and the Embers is considerably more successful than they are, at least for a while.

De Koning, 34, says he began making movies at the age of 14, filming his friends skateboarding.

"My dad had a camera - I took it skating and never gave it back to him."

He moved on to music videos and documentaries

In the documentary, "Benny is the natural leader of the band," he says - and is, he says, "a stand-up bloke" who was already in a steady relationship with Nicole, the woman he would later marry, and never cheated on her despite many opportunities and temptations.

"The rest of us didn't have such established relationships."

As for other members, "Lee has some brilliant moments of insight," and "Charlie is often the voice of reason - he was the first to bow out."

It was this latter action that signalled the beginning of the end for the Screwtop Detonators - although they found a replacement, it wasn't the same and the band soon folded. There were hurt feelings and estrangements but eventually also reconcilations as de Koning's film also shows.

The band members were somewhat ambivalent about the film at first - especially in earlier, more explicit cuts - and de Koning says he struggled with parts of it as well (he was onscreen more in earlier versions). Some material that was amusing was sacrificed in the interest of maintaining audience identification with the band while being true to the experience of what happened.

"I had to make it more sympathetic to the audience."

The final version was shown at the Revelation Film Festival in Perth last year.

"They're pretty proud of it now."

Ward,34, says he and French were the guitarists, singers and main songwriters for the Screwtop Detonators when it was constituted in 2001 with the lineup featured in the one in the film including Austen and Long. He was 19 at the time.

"We were all best mates since year 8, year 9 - before that there were different set-ups, it dated back to when I was 15," he says.

"We were into a lot of underground punk and rock 'n' roll" - bands like The Hellacopters - and came up with their own band name as a combination of the screwtops from beer caps and detonators because it sounded explosive.

As for their music, they started as a cover band but soon began writing their own songs: "In the early stages it was a bit punk but more fast-paced more rock 'n' roll."

They were soon landing pub gigs - first for free beer, then for "a hundred dollars here and there" and were having a good time.

"We played hundreds of gigs all over Perth and loved it," Ward says. In the early years they were happy just to enjoy themselves.

In 2003 they played at The Big Day Out in Perth in 2005, with the US tour, he says, "things got serious - we got management, we felt what it was like to be a working band rather than mucking around."

Ward says that since they had known de Koning for so long, "We never really considered what he was doing - he was just filming stuff, that's why we were so candid.

"No one ever knew he would end up doing it for 10 years and make a film out of it."

And, he says, "What you see in the movie made up a large percentage of what went on" - sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll indeed - but de Koning was sensitive to his friends' concerns about not wanting their spouses, partners, friends and children, not to mention the general public, to see absolutely everything that happened.

"Everybody knows that goes on."

As Ward says, everyone is young and foolish once but not everyone has a camera recording their behaviour at the time and then has to face the prospect years later of trying to put their kids to bed after they've seen Daddy getting up to some questionable behaviour on screen.

He has his own carpentry business now but continues to love music, though he doesn't perform as often as he once did.

"All I care about is writing good songs," he says.

"I still play in three bands ... my wife's a musician as well... We don't let it interfere with family life."

And he can see himself playing for a long time yet.

Ward says, "I'll be one of those 70-year-olds who's playing Credence Clearwater Revival at the pub."

As for Meal Tickets, Ward says, "It's real. It took me a while to understand that."

Watching himself and his friends come of age on screen was sometimes challenging, but as Ward says, "I came out unscathed."