Last time was back in May, for auditions... and here it is, last day of October, and we're leaping into post-production a whole week early!
Yes, we've wrapped on all our locations, from the Sunshine Coast to Snowy Mountains, and with all the limited internet along the way, I had to make do all this time with photo updates on facebook, twitter and barely half-a bar reception from my mobile phone most days.
But I'm back in the office more often now, managing and supervising all the editing, colour grading, sound fixers, animation and other vastly under-appreciated aspects of film production. So I'm making a renewed effort to keep the blog updated at least once a month too... mainly for all the big stories that need more room, like the next one... stay tuned!
And in the meantime, here's a few pics from our production album:
That's Adam Fawns, lead male actor in the role of Marty... learning to ride
(and deliberately fall) off a horse + Meet also Rocket, real name
Matador, a supreme champion dressage horse, owned and trained by Leesa Collishaw, who both travelled all the way down from
Gympie to Brookfield for 2 days, filming with our smallest team of Adam
Fawns (actor), Tim Carr (camera), Krishna (sound + assistant director for our Brisbane locations) and me on location in
the pony club grounds.
And here's Adam, learning to ski, before he can act a scene where *he* is the teacher....
My suggestion; "I think the skis go under your feet Adam!"
Meanwhile, Tim (camera guru) is showing Kyle (Archie), where he needs to stand to get the best camera angle... hmmm, perhaps a little too shy to come out from behind his camera and hand-held reflectors (nicknamed "fleckies):
Then there was the day the local Channel 7 News came on set to report on us:
And everyone packed to come home: (standing): Dominic Burjak, Skevos Mavros, Lachlan Dalby, Karen Hollywood, me, Jaimie Ringering, Adam Fawns. Front row: Tim Car, Kristen Irwin, Leah Pellinkhof and Kyle McCallion:
Next is Adam, Krishna and Leo (actor; in role of Detective Mozer) on location at one of the nicest little Gold Coast police stations. Sincerest thanks to the real girls and boys in blue who let us play on their footpath for the afternoon! (p.s. sorry about image quality on this one; I forgot to increase the screen rez from 1/8th to full before taking a screenshot.]
Hospital Scenes, with Kristin Irwin (Emily), Abb Vegvary (Dr Death), Kyle McCallion (Archie) and Asabe Goodman (best nurse anywhere):
And between scenes, in the hospital set that I made in a spare room at my sister's house; Leah Pellinkhof, our director, caught explaining how much she new about directing a feature film, before I chose her to help launch the vision of my little story to the screen... luckily all her years with theatre have made up for it admirably:
Doh! I forgot to mention this Snowy Mountain lodge scene, with the 3 main characters (LtoR) Adam, Kristen and Kyle as Marty, Emily and Archie... plus our lovely waitress for the scene was actually the owner of the decadently gorgeous - and internationally award winning - Beaufort Hotel - where we stayed and filmed in Adelong, NSW... how torturous it was to have a whole snifter of port in everybody's rooms every night as part of the bed-breakfast deal... and be too busy to drink any!
The main "stunt vehicle" ... nicknamed "the black dog" because it has a history of being a bit of a mongrel. I had to repair it first, then cut out all the rust and repaint it in under a day. Wish I'd had time to get the air-conditioning fixed too, coz the next 3 days filming, the weather blazed as hot as 36 degrees C, and all 3 actors had to be rugged up, with windows up, as if freezing, on their way home from the Snowy Mountains. But at least the black dog behaved admirably, and didn't scream like a demon or konk out, leaving them stranded! Yay!
One of the sound tech's, Zach Powson, checking that Tim's precious Red Scarlet is securely mounted on the Black Dog before the actors head out to record their first scene, directed remotely through walkie talkies... (along a route I'd scouted for them the previous week. Believe it or not, this beautiful place is only 20 minutes from the dead centre of Brisbane; and all private roads + private property = no truckload of city council permit-to-film applications!)
Scene seen through the windscreen... try saying that 10 times fast... + 3 cheers for the actors who still manage to act so cool, despite the heat!
Cemetery scene... with a very realistic headstone made by Jason Muller (the actor who plays "young Emily's father")... slight problem: the styrofoam "stone" was carved to make the letters, so light shone through a bit too much. Solution: I pinned up my red shirt behind it to block the light, and as a bonus, we scored a nice little red glow that added something extra special to it.
Working hard, obviously, during one of our production meetings on Day 13:
And finally, for the production stage;
Adam, Krishna, Jason and me, at the end of a very bad hair day... "Makeup!"
:)
Anita
Exec Producer.
