Meet the Press (pt 1)

The last couple of weeks Hugo and I have been on the press tour. It's been a pretty intense but interesting time. Kinda tiring getting asked the same questions over and over, but the interviews that are the best are the ones where you really get to talk about not only the film, but cinema as a whole. Or even better they don't feel like interviews, but more like really inspiring conversations.

Highlight for me so far was my interview with Margaret from At The Movies. I've watched that show religiously for years, so I found it quite surreal to be seated in front of a camera and under lights and hearing her voice (and that laugh!) coming out of the darkness in front of me. Nervous and excited about when the film is reviewed on the show on the 1st of July, the day before the film is released.

Still another two weeks of press, Word Of Mouth screenings, Q&A's and jumping around from city to city. Pretty cool time!

Last Ride Exhibition

With so much visual material generated during the making of the film, we have been looking at different ways to utilize some of it.

So to coincide with the release of the film we are having an exhibition of photos at Cinema Nova in Melbourne and the Palace Verona in Sydney. I'm really excited about the selection of images, they looked beautiful when I went and saw them at the lab the other day.

Some of the prints will be given away afterwards. If you are keen I'm sure there will be info at the cinemas. Or I'll post details here later. The photographs will be on display at the Nova from the 23rd of June. And at the at the Verona soon after.

I have always taken photographs, and part of my need to get into film years ago was a real desire to see the photos I was taking 'move' and come to life. But over the last few years (and perhaps with the emergence of increasingly good and very affordable digital cameras) it's something I am being drawn back to more and more.

Hidden Treasures

I updated the Behind The Scenes section of the website with a short clip - quickly cut from a tape from 'Tom's Camera'. As part of his school activities while on set he was given the task to shoot and edit a little behind the scenes film of his time on the movie.

It's quite a cool little insight into some of the things that he observed that others might not have noticed. The worlds is an amazing place to a 10 year old. Anyway, while spooling through the tape, (which in a funny way felt like looking through some else's diary) I found this really cool section of Tom and his acting coach Loren (who is also a great actor and stars as Lilly in one my favorite fun films ever) killing time singing songs together.

It really shows what Tom is like, just a regular down to earth kid, and it also reveals the warmth and friendship that was formed between Tom and Loren over the course of the production. Although I'm sure both Loren and Tom would have stories to contrast this. (In fact Loren still might have one or two bruises on her shins as evidence of this.)

Book > Film > Book

I have been up in Sydney for the Sydney Film Festival over the last week and it was nice to be wondering along King Street Newtown and see the re-release of Denise's book on display in the window as the staff pick! Very cool to see the book which has been out of print given a new cover, a new title (sans The) and hopefully a new life.

The screening in Sydney went really well. Had a good Q and A afterwards in which Denise participated in briefly to a warm round of applause. I have done a quick interview with Denise and it's now up on the 'News and Press' section of the film website. I think it's a nice follow up from her blog article I linked to a while back.

Behind the Salt

Weekly updates to the Behind The Scenes section of the website will be posted over the next month or so. A snippet from the Salt Lake has just been put up. Apologies that all the BTS clips so far seem to feature me and in particular me sitting in the drivers seat of a car at some point. Some different perspectives coming up, I promise. I'm not sure about 'behind the scenes' in general though. As a fan-boy, I'm really into them, I love what they reveal and what you can learn from them. I remember watching some Aniversery Edition of the The Wizard Of Oz when I was a 14, and even though it was a VHS tape, it had a little featurette (not the actually footage I'm writing about, but similar) of some scratchy Super 8 that was shot on set of people in tree costumes waving their arms so the 'branches' moved and IT TOTALLY BLEW MY MIND! It wasn't just seeing behind the scenes, it was like peeling back the absolute veneer of make believe to the point where the film and most importantly the story, just fell apart infront of me. It was a little like finding out about Santa or the toothfairy not existing.

So I'm not crazy about seeing any BTS before I see a film. Because the last thing I want when I'm watching a film and totally engrossed in the drama, is to be reminded mid-scene about what was going on behind the scenes.

While I can see the benefit of sharing clips to tease and provide interest in the film pre-release, we have tried to cut and select clips that a) dont give anything away about the story, and b) doesn't reveal to much about the scene that you are seeing behind. And therefore jerking you out of the film when and if you see it. The clips are more about process and little access to the reality in which the film was made in.

Larger Than Life

I first met Hugo to talk about the script in a cafe near his house in Sydney (March 2007). The first thing I noticed was how 'big' he was. I'm pretty tall at 6'2", and I don't think he is much taller. But he just appears bigger. Quite the opposite to many actors you meet or see in 'real life' where they are much shorter than you think. Hugo is larger in life and on screen. (I think that GW cover might be close to actual size :)

ps: Cool that the mag used a shot of Hugo in character as Kev, bloody wound above the eye and all! Although, Hugo always had a thing about Kev not making eye contact, especially in a photo.

Print it!

As an ex-graphic designer, I find hard-copy printed material very stressful, especially when designing things for yourself. It's one of the things I love about the web, it's always liquid (the ink never dries), so you can always go back and fix and refine details, but with print, once it's signed off that's it. It's on the press, to be printed X amount of times, over and over, mistakes and all! I had a few print bungles when I was a designer, can you tell...? : )

Thats said, I've been very excited about the printed material for the release campaign. The poster looks great, (thanks Marcus ! I'm sure I drove you a bit nuts, but I appreciate your fine work!). Also I'm very pleased that Madman printed the posters 'double sided', which means the colours and print will be more solid and saturated once in the light boxes. Geeky I know, but so much thought, time and effort goes into making these items, it's cool to know they will be presented as best they can be. I'm sure it makes an impact on the public even if it's on a subconscious level.

Along with the regular A5 flyers, we have also designed some beautiful 'limited edition' fold out poster/flyers, that should be in your favorite cinema, cafe, bookshop etc very soon...

Behind The Scenes

My friends Jono and Tim who shot all of the behind the scenes footage and are now neck deep in over 40 hours or so of footage that once cut down will eventually make it onto the DVD etc. They have been doing a great job (at making me look like a dill).

"235" as in an Arri 235, one of the most compact 35mm film cameras. It's light-ish (you couldn't really hold it like that picture shows for too long...) and portable, but it's not a synch camera which means you can't shoot and record sound at the same time, unless you want the sound of the camera whirring away in the back ground.

"M.O.S" stands for 'Mit Out Sound'. Deriving from an old Hollywood story where a German director asked for a shot to filmed 'Mit Out Sound', without sound, and the camera assistant complying and writing M.O.S on the slate.

We shot quite a few sequences of the film like this. "235 MOS" meant we could strip right back and work as a (even) smaller team, usually just 3 or 4 people, and work very quickly. I love shooting this way, it really frees you up. Depending on the set-up and what the scene requires what might normally take a 3-4 hours, might take an hour. Of course you can't shoot with synch sound, which means it will have to be created later in po$t.

Apart from just saving time though, I find it creates a far more direct and intimate shooting situation. And this above everything else is what I crave.

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.