The Trailer!

I'm really happy to have this out there. It was always going to be a tricky trailer to cut, as the film relies on the audience not knowing much about whats going on, particularly in the beginning, so we never wanted to reveal to much about what actually happens in the film, it would be very easy to give it all away.

But I think the trailer sits in the right place. it gives you a good idea of the look and the feel and suggests what happens in the film, but doesnt show you everything. It teases in the best kind of way.

Most importantly I hope it makes people curious enough to see the film.

A few of the many faces of Tom Russell.

Rumour has it that Tom has had to shave his head, smooth to the skin! Hard to imagine. All part of his next role in the new Nadia Tass and David Parker film.

All the best Tom!

For One Screening Only...

Ahead of our national release on the 2nd of July, Last Ride will screen at the Sydney Film Festival on Sunday the 7th of June, at 4:30pm at the State Theatre. Tickets on sale now.

Details here.

Top 1500 of all time.

On the weekend I met a book publisher (who coincidentally publishes the book that one of my favorite films of the year is adapted from...). He was a very interesting guy and very passionate about books and the publishing world in general. He told us that when he turned 40 he was confronted by the fact that even if he read a book every week until he was 80 or so, he could only ever read around 1500 more books. And he set about forming a list of what those 1500 book would be, increasingly lamenting the fact that he would be forever missing out on more and more books that he would love to read but through his own mortality would never be able to read. The more he put on the list, the more he realised would be left off the list.

It's really got me thinking about the never ending stream of films, books and music that enters my life. Just when you think you've explored a certain writer / director / artist / genre etc, you find out you're just scratching the surface. The more you know, the more you realise you don't know.

Think about it though. If you knew you had a finite amount to read, watch and listen to, what would you choose?

Above is a snap of the 'To View or Re-view' section of my DVD collection. Every film in this section I really want to watch (and every couple of weeks new films get added to it). If I was to watch one of those films every week or so, that's nearly a years worth of viewing just there. And thats not taking into consideration the constant MUST SEE films that are constantly coming my way, from the past, present and future.

More Roads

Last week I spent a day filming with an old friend Celeste, who lives in Strathewen, one of the communities that was devastated by the Black Saturday fires.

Even two months after the fires, although there is some regrowth peaking through, the place still looks and feels apocalyptic. Also kind of beautiful, in it's own sad and surreal way.

I haven't shot anything documentary related for a long time. It is my first love when it comes to film making. It's what I studied at film school, and docos have inspired and challenged me more over the years than any other type of film.

It felt great to be there with just a camera with a mike on top, chatting to and observing people as they did their thing. It's a really simple process that's totally stripped bare of all the organised chaos that shooting drama brings with it. Hopefully I will get back up there and shoot some more.

Dust to Dustin

Have been working on a bunch of press stuff, but most importantly the trailer has been locked off and should be out and about very soon. It's quite different to the teasers, which it needed to be. It's a much more commercial proposition I guess. The trailer was cut in London by Dave Hughs at In-D. I worked remotely via email and Skype with him and to be honest I thought it was going to be a pain in the ass. I'm so used to sitting in edits and working directly with editors. But it went so smoothly. Dave was fast and friendly. Trailer cutting really is an art all of it's own.

Above is a shot of me and Greig I really like. On our days off (Sundays) Greig and I would go out and shoot stuff by ourselves. Usually with the help of our attachments, Dustin and Ari. It's where I felt I really got my head around making the film. In the middle of the beautiful desert filming shots and sequences that we knew might never end up in the film(and most didn't), but we had a great time shooting them anyway...

Hurry Up and Wait...

It feels as though alot has been happening as we move towards the release date. But it's all a bit nebulous at the moment, lots of ideas and plans but nothing I can really discuss at this point in time. Soon though...

One thing I'll mention though is that I was able to beg and plead with producers Antonia and Nick to let me crack open the sound mix of the film and do some more tweaking. If you have been reading this blog, you would know that the mix was a hard time for me as I'm pretty obsessed with the way things sound. It wasn't that I didn't have the right tech and /or people for the sound to be right, it was just our old friend TIME. Again.

I really felt as we finished the final mix before Xmas that I needed to watch the film in a cinema again and then have another day or two to do final tweaks. But due to our delivery schedule for the festival it just wasn't able to be like that.

But having been able to watch and listen to the film in a few different cinemas at the Adelaide Film Festival, I just had a growing list of niggling, horrible sound things that just bugged the hell out of me. They were not huge, and most people would never have noticed I guess, but to me they echoed in my head before, during and after each screening. The idea of locking the film down and these 'mistakes' being there for the rest of it's life really freaked me out. So I was very pleased when I got the green light to head back over to Adelaide and spend another two days tweaking all the things I wanted to, and quite a few other things as well. I feel really good about it all now.

LastRideMovie.com

The Last Ride website is now live and direct from Madman. (It's been up there for a week or two but I forgot to mention it) Check it out and let us know what you think.

The 'official' trailer is still to come. It's currently being cut on London.

One Year Ago Today, Again.

After spending a couple of days driving through The Flinders Ranges, I began feeling a little giddy with excitement. To much fresh air perhaps...

I had such a great time on this trip, I think we were out there for 8 days all up, and we drove around 5000kms, it really was like watching a dream come together in slow motion. However, the real trick at this stage was that the film had not yet been financed. We were being very pro-active and starting early so if and when it did get up we had already begun a major part of the pre-production, but on the other hand if the film failed to get funding, this trip would have been a great big tease for what 'could have been'. So once we returned home the pressure really started to build.

Below a selection from the thousands of photographs I took of locations and landscape on that first ride, many of which became part of the film.

One Year Ago Today

Back in the olden days, before I kept this blog, I used to write things down in a book. Freaky!

It's one year today (even though my journal says Feb, it was actually March) since I went on the initial location scout for the film. It was the first of three, but in many ways the most significant.

Nick and Antonia (Producers) Jo Ford (Production Designer), Mason Curtis (Location Manager) and me, all jammed into a 4WD for five days...

Adelaide Premiere pt2

The best way to describe what it felt like to show the film for the first time is that I felt just like I did on my wedding day. Nervous, a little scared and all those second thoughts etc, but ultimately knowing within myself that this is a really cool thing to do.

What I found really interesting about showing the film for the first time, was sitting there in the dark watching the film we had MADE, as apposed to the film we were MAKING. It was a really different headspace to be seeing it in. As everything to that point had been about making the film the best it can be. I felt this particularly in the 3rd screening on Sunday when my heart wasn't pumping as hard as it had been in previous screenings, I was able to sit back and look at all the decisions we had made over the past year. And in particular mid way through the edit where we really shaped alot of the film and gave Last Ride structure. These were the decisions that felt the most important now, not the smaller and far more obsessive sound and grading tweaks we had been making over the past few months. I've learnt alot in that regard.

It was really nice to share the film with other people. Like I said in an earlier post, it's been a really insular experience, and to finally hear and see people react in the cinema around me was the exciting part. And of course the after party, the handshakes, hugs and the congratulations were nice to. Very cool to have so many people come over to Adelaide as well, I really appreciate that! Although I never felt I was able to talk to everybody there properly. Also like my wedding day.

After the Friday night, Nick, Antonia, Paul C, Hugo W, John Brumpton, Tom and partners traveled up to Port Augusta where we showed the film to a whole bunch of people who helped us make the film from in and around the area. It was great to see some of the friends we had made along the way again. It was a really different audience as well, mostly people who wouldn't get to see a film like Last Ride, but they really enjoyed it and it was great talking to them afterwards. One guy hit an emu on his way to see the film (he drove for three hours!). You know your in the middle of nowhere when you hit an Emu on the way to the cinema.

We then all stayed up in Quorn, where we shot a big chunk of the film. I really love that little town. Then the five hour drive back to Adelaide, this time via the Clare Valley, I've never been that way before. Such a good drive.

The Quandong Cafe in Quorn. Best scones, ever.

On the way back down to Adelaide we passed through this really small town that had a run down Drive-In. Someone was living in the old snack bar / projection room. It would be pretty cool to live in an old drive in.

I think over the five days I was in Adelaide I had about 12 hours sleep. Pretty exhausting on all levels. Had a great time though, The Adelaide Film Festival is one of the best film festivals I've been to. And not because Last Ride was showing, it just has a good feel, and a most importantly a really diverse, but incredible selection of films. I'd love to go back and lose myself in the programme one year.

Adelaide Premiere

Wow... what a weekend...

The premiere and everything that went along with it was a fantastic experience. There was a really good buzz about the film and all 3 screenings had sold out well in advance. That was a good feeling in itself...

Much, much more to write, but right now... I need to sleep...

Ya Nervous?... pt 2

Just three more sleeps till the (SOLD OUT) prem in Adelaide. I wasn't really nervous (read entry below) but it's really starting to kick in now. It's a difficult thing handing something you love dearly over to someone else, let alone a whole bunch of people. I got a sneak preview of this a few months ago...

Towards the end of the edit we organised a little test screening. Just to see if we were making the film we thought we were, and to try and answer a few questions that we were not sure of. We hoped a small audience would help point us in the right direction. It was a really successful screening in that those questions were answered, and the discussions afterwards helped us focus on a few other things that we were not aware of as well.

But the really strange thing was, all of a sudden I had 65 other opinions to consider. Not that I had to take them on board, that could have been perilous, but the reality of them being there at all, I found quite overwhelming in itself.

Making Last Ride has been hugely collaborative. However, the process, particularly when I got into post, became very insular. The film exists amongst a handful of people. This is definitely the way it should be, but it makes handing it over to the outside world quite a strange idea, even though it's the very reason we have all gone on this journey. Why make a film if you dont want people to see it?

This Friday night there will be 400+ opinions of the film (and by the end of the weekend close to 1000). It's not so much that I care if people think it's good or bad or whatever (although of course I hope they do like it). It's more the idea of releasing it out into the world where it can be judged and also have a life outside of the strict confines of the post suites where it's lived quite happily for the past 7 months. I've been trying not to use the cliche about 'it's like giving birth to a baby', but alot of the same fears and paranoia apply.

While sitting here thinking and making myself more nervous I received a lovely message from a friend and wonderful actor Amber Clayton. She wrote...

"...Enjoy that you have such an amazing project that you have worked so hard for. You cant control what others think, just how well you've done! This is my new philosophy in dealing with the constant approval, disapproval, rejection and rejoicing in everything that we do as artists. It can send you seriously bonkers. So I try to enjoy the fact that I have something worth being terrified about."

It such a good way of looking at it. It IS a wonderful thing to have something to be terrified about in this way. The whole idea of being an artist is about taking risks and they wouldn't be risks if they were not scary to some degree. In this way I feel so fortunate that I have been able to create the film the way I wanted it to be in the first place. Where as so many amazing would be artists are fearful to make even the first step. The fear of failure, or exposing oneself sets in before they even commit pen to paper, or paint to the brush, or act, sing, photograph, dance etc. (Kind of on this subject, this talk by Author Elizabeth Gilbert is well worth the 20 minutes! thanks Struth!)

And speaking of handing your work over. Denise Young who wrote the book The Last Ride which the film is based on, handed her work over to the producer Nick Cole about 8 years ago. She came and visited us on set during filming and it was very cool having her there. She has written a very thoughtful and eloquent recollection of her experience of not only her visit to the set, but about the process of handing your work over to other people.

Crackbook

Now there is one more excuse for you to waste your time on Facebook.

We have launched a Last Ride Facebook page. It seems like a great place to make announcements, and communicate directly with people. Anyone can post photos, videos and news directly. There is a discussion board and a few 'fans' have already posted some of their own photos which is great.

Please do join in.

And on other geeky fronts. I've seen the working Last Ride website via Madman and I'm really, really happy with how it's coming along. Not sure when the full site will go live, I'm sure it will be sooner, rather than later...

"Ya Nervous?"

Perhaps not surprising, but now that the film is finished people keeping asking me if I'm nervous. I think I'm equally parts nervous and excited. I'm totally excited about the screening in Adelaide next week. Alot of cast, crew and friends are making the trip over and that's really exciting, I totally appreciate the interest and their continued support. It seriously means alot.

But I think the nerves kick in when considering the longer term goals of the film and it's eventual release (on the 2nd of July). I had a great catch up dinner with producers Nick and Antonia the other night before we watched the final print and we sat around for a couple hours and I think everything we discussed was pure speculation. What if? How about? What happens when? If this happens what then? We talked ourselves around in circles.

The next few months are really important for Last Rides life. And although I believe in fate and destiny, my fingers are crossed so tightly my knuckles are white. One thing I'm sure of is, is that this film has been looked after from the start. We have been very lucky throughout the entire process, so I trust this luck continues.