WEEK 3 / August 20th 2008

3 Weeks down, 3 weeks to go!

(Actually we are well into week 4 as I send this, as we have been without phone and internet *GASP!* out here in the desert!)

This week we moved from Quorn to Mt Ive Station for the salt lake. I think the crew really enjoyed getting on the road proper and this country is some of the most spectacular I've seen. Lake Gardiner is a huge salt lake about 3 hours of dirt road north - west of Port Augusta. It's one of the few salt lakes in the world that you can drive on, and as the script has a sequence that takes place on a salt lake, we were always going to end up here at some point.

I first recce'd the lake in February and fell in love with not only the lake itself, but with the rolling treeless hills that surrounded it. On this first trip, the lake was what you would expect a salt lake to be, brilliant white salt and deep blue sky. Very cool. But when I returned for my 2nd recce a couple of months ago, there was an inch of water from recent rain on the surface which effectively turned the lake into a giant mirror! It made this great location into unbelievably awesome location. The only trick, was that the water layer could never be guaranteed, as it is totally reliant on nature.

When we arrive I went out to inspect the lake, and luckily enough it was perfect. Just the right amount of water to make the whole lake into one of the most surreal places you could ever see. Driving on it felt like a cross between sailing on a water and flying through clouds. When we first stopped at our first location on the lake, I turned around and saw every crew member with a camera taking happy snaps like a bunch of Japanese tourists!

I came away from the two days shooting on the lake, feeling like we had created a sequence thats not only visually stunning, but emotionally engaging, with intense performances from Hugo and Tom. Some pretty full on stuff happens in the scenes and quite a few of the crew told me later that they cried through the takes. I hope it's a good sign, if we can get people to feel moved while on set with all the distractions of people and equipment, I know that once on screen it will be even more powerful.

The Salt Lake was freezing cold and very windy, and we battled through quite a few rain storms that passed over, at one point I really thought it was going to go all La Mancha on our asses. Onscreen I think the salt lake will look more like an ice lake, and I was very proud of little Tom who had to spend alot of his time bracing against the cold in his thinly layered wardrobe, while us crew were rugged up with ever piece of warm clothing we could pile on! I'll say it again, Tom is a Star!

On the flip side continuing with our luck with animals (if you remember we lost 5 of our 6 rabbits on day one) we attempted to shoot a sequence with a family of goats yesterday, we had five to start with, one was big daddy goat who wouldn't stop rooting one of the other goats... then we stupidly lost three as they escaped into the hills before we could even roll camera... then the horny rooting goat must have pulled a muscle or something because he started limping. So we had one goat left, who after one very average first take also ran off into the hills, by this point we had lost most of the crew, who were off trying to catch them all! Needless to say we abandoned the scene, which would normally have been a nightmare, but I think everyone could see how funny it was from the beginning. In the end the ridiculousness of it all probably helped, as I was able to quickly combine what we wanted story wise from the goat scene into another scene and I feel that sequence worked better because of it. I hope the behind the scenes captured some of it, as we will never talk of 'the goat scene' again.

We all pack up and move to Leigh Creek today (8 hours north of Adelaide). There is a special feeling here at Mt Ive. We have been staying in shearing sheds and the frosty nights have been spent around the camp fire. It's basic on all levels but we have more than everything we need. Joy and Len who manage the station here are some of the most hospitable I've met. It will be sad to leave.

Onwards!

This weeks snaps by our very special guest photographer Rhys Graham who joined us for a 4 days, it was so good to see him and apart from a whole bunch of BTS photos, he also took the images which will probably make up our main poster image as well.

WEEK 2 / August 10th 2008

Week 2 done already? Does it feel like we have shot 1/3 of the film? Freaky - if its true.

Shot some beautiful scenes this week, both from a visual and performance aspect. A couple of dawn sequences where the weather looked after us. Magic hour here is just that, the way the light and mist hangs onto the landscape is amazing, freezing cold, but amazing! We have a great crew on board and we have been able to shoot in sequence through the transition of pre-dawn > dawn > sunrise. A very fast and exciting way to work.

We also had the pleasure of having Anita Hegh with us for 3 days for the role of Maryanne. It was such a joy to see her work with Hugo and see them both lift their characters and their broken relationship off the page. Maryanne is only on screen for a short time but she needs to resonate through the rest of the story. I think Anita delivered such a wonderfully rounded and honest performance that will stay with the audience throughout the film and hopefully well after the credits have rolled. The only bummer about working with Anita was that she was with us for a such a short time. Her energy and presence onset was so warm and friendly. We joked about keeping on to assist the Gaffer just to have her there.

We also shot a very scrappy but brutal fight scene with Hugo in a packed pub (full of locals, who couldn't believe they could get paid to hang out in their pub for a day). Hugo does his own fight and stunt work (Hello Agent Smith!) and it was very cool to see the chaos unfurl. I've never really shot a fight scene before but I am really happy with the level of energy and the 'wrongness' in which we were able to choreograph the action so it felt nasty, fast and scarily real.

I'm finding many differences between making a feature film and short films and commercials etc, but the biggest difference is that with the shorter form I find I can always have all the elements of the production in my head. So when you are shooting you can gather all the pieces kind of knowing how they may fit together in the end. But with a feature you have so many different pieces it's near impossible to have all of them in your mind at once. I really felt this towards the end of this second week. The more we shoot and the further I work my way through the script the harder it is to see the overall story working cos you are fixed on making the the 190 or so separate scenes work as best they can. On more than one occasion I have found myself losing my view of the bigger picture, forgetting that we are telling a story, rather than these seemingly random shots. I trust though, this is a normal, and just another part of the process.

Stock, shooting ratio and time are still pressing down on, and perhaps will be for the entire shoot. It's the one and only constant battle so far. A couple of times throughout the week I was trying to summon up the spirit of Nash Edgerton and his way cool ability to block through stunning one shot steadi-cam sequences, but since we are punk-ass and cant afford all the toys all the time (not that Nash can either I 'm sure : ), we are devising simple and hopefully just as effective methods for getting quick and cuttable coverage without compromising performance and the film in general. This is where I really feel I'm at the coal face of that old filmmaking equation, the constant juggle of time, money and quality. However, I feel very confident being surrounded by my cast and crew that we can squeeze every last drop of goodness from the resources and time that we do have.

We are still based in Quorn and we are slowly taking over the town. The locals are great though and very friendly, Jane did a great job wrangling a bunch of people for the pub scene and we feel very at home and welcome. The air is clean. the sun is shining. Mid week we move to Mt Ive Station and Lake Gairdner (Salt Lake!).

ps: Against good advice I rewatched Lost In La Mancha this morning... no matter how hard making this film gets, it's comforting to know it will never be this hard...

TOUCH WOOD!

WEEK 1 / August 3rd 2008

All is good. Having a ball actually.

In the lead up to the shoot I got really nervous, which left me with no real perspective on the film at all. I had been quite calm in the months and weeks leading up to the shoot, dare I say even enjoying myself. But a few days before the shoot, it seemed like such a daunting task. This is my first feature film and I'm leading my cast and crew on a 5000km journey through the deserts of South Australia. So much to think about and work through, so many questions, not enough answers... But now at the end of week one (of six) it's feeling great.

I'm just beginning to find a rhythm and also learning what my role really is as a director, other than dreaming up the dreams and working with the actors. Talk about learning on the job. I've never shot so much, so quickly. But I'm feeling good about what we are creating and what the film is becoming. I guess this first week has been about trying to find a style and approach that works within the massive time and especially stock restraints I have (I have an official shooting ration of 1:12, which is kind of just enough, but as I wanted to shoot on 35mm this is what it has to be... and on Tuesday we shot close to 1:40 of which I was subtly reminded by Nick and Antonia (Producers) that some wildlife documentarians may not shoot as high as that...). So Greig and I are trying to establish a shooting style where we can shoot minimum coverage, with minimum takes but still find an interesting approach without stitching Jack up in the edit.

It's quite a weird feeling shooting this story finally. I've been with this film for almost four years now and there are some images and scenes burnt into my mind since the first time I read the script. So it's very cool seeing these characters and images literally come to life. The scary thing is when the time comes to shoot that image or that scene I have 45 minutes or so to do the whole scene. Which means nailing everything with that minimum coverage and with 1 or 2 takes. Scary, but invigorating. Alot of the morre dialogue heavy scenes (of whcih there are not that many in the film) we have covered as long takes with no cutaways or coverage. Which puts the onus on the Hugo and Tom to get it right in the performance. Kiind of feels the way it should be.

Last night Hugo had to hack all his hair and beard off with a pair of scissors. We only had one take obviously, and that take is one of the most mesmerising things I have seen. Intense, scary and beautiful. There have been a couple of shots where we have only had one take, and I really love shooting that way. The scene is charged with a very special energy. I love the fact that everyone, cast and crew have to hit the right notes. If anything I think it actually relaxes everyone as they know that whatever happens, happens and they know that they will not be standing around doing multiple takes.

Tom the 10 year old boy is constantly surprising me. As a young boy he is incredibly focused and present even more than I hoped he could be. On screen he delivers above and beyond what we would have ever expected. The other night we shot through till 2am, and even though he was really tired. Like falling asleep on the spot tired, he delivered. He had to sit at a table in a fast food resturant and vomit (an idea I introduced to the scene late that day...). Again one take, one mouthful of chicken and vegie soup and he nailed it. Perhaps the best vomit performance I have seen, and being the father of 2 young kids I've seen a bit of good vom action. It's a big relief to know he can bring the character to life and do it under such pressure.

On the flip side, one of the first scenes we shot involved Tom out hunting rabbits. We had a 'animal guy' go out and catch us six proper wild rabbits to use in the scene. They arrived in a animal cage etc. and left in the spot out in the feild where we were going to use them for the shots. When we arrived to shoot. Five of the rabbits had chewed their way through the plastic cage and escaped. Leaving one very scared and stressed little bunny who couldnt do what we wanted it to do anyway. Kids and Animals?

Shooting is a battle against time, money and the elements (90% of our film is exterior! Hello Winter!). Working with Greig (DOP) is the dream you'd think it be. As is working with Jo Ford (Prod Design) and Hugo W (Agent Smith). Infact I know the whole crew is fantastic, and I know I have the right army by my side to fight the good fight so the film keeps moving forward in the best possible way.

It's Sunday afternoon in Quorn population 700. Freezing cold and raining. Rain all you want to today, cos tomorrow we begin week 2 at 4:30am outside in downtown Port Augusta. I'm sure someone in the office has booked the clear skies : )

ps: The images aboved are for the geeks. A car rig designed by Skull (Grip) including an A-frame set up, no low-loader on this shoot. Also note Greigs lighting set up. If you need proof that we are working on a tight budget, every light you see has been bought from Bunnings and modified by Greig and Ari in his hotel room. Christmas lights, poly and gaff tape, thats how we roll on Last Ride! Infact we are using very few film lights on the shoot. Everything is available from your local electrical outlet. And it looks SO good because of it!