After finally getting everyone together in one place and in time sequential order the final editing was done, including the audio striping, and the offline version 'put in the can.' However, this is really only the start of another process: getting the movie into different formats and out into the big world to film festivals and government bodies: to use it as leverage for the next movie. That's right, folks, the next movie! What, are you mad, man - after what you've been through??!? Yes, but this time it's going to be different (that's what they all say). I have been toying with an idea for a short film for ages: to be done mostly in flashback, as part of an 'interview' that runs the whole movie. With a few twists along the way. It's a script and some costume designs at the moment. Watch this space.
Back to "The Yowie." I heard that Cannes only does premiers, and it seems we've missed it for this year anyway. So I really would prefer to premier it here in Australia instead - forget Cannes - and see what the reaction is. There is a short film festival in Canberra soon and I'm trying to get everything done before the final entry date, which closes really soon. So there is no destination, only a journey -(other sententious claptrap coming soon). Seriously, there is always something new to be done or thought about in the world of movie making, resting on the laurels is not possible, especially when there are none to rest on. But people who've seen the film seem to like it, so there's hope. Thanks to all the team.
We entered The Yowie on a sort of central hub site called withoutabox; their job then is to inform you of upcoming film festivals and then farm out your details and your film to the convenors of the festivals. This is really convenient as it saves you having to laboriously apply to each and every one. There is only one problem: It seems to be impossible to upload the film to their site. I tried for three days to do it: after hours of 'loading' nothing appeared in the progress bar and the site informed me my 'video box' is empty. "Contact us for support" they say: I did and was told they could not help me, but someone else who'd had the same trouble was able to do it after converting their film to an MP4 in iTunes (!!). So I tried. I converted it to mobile phone format called m4V (the only option on my mac) Did it work? NO! I tried sending a hard copy DVD to Whistler - they told me it's region 4 and they can't view it - they need region 0 apparently, and they won't go and look at the film online at www.definitionfilms.com/yowie. Their excuse? Oh we have too many films to look at. Very unhelpful. And so we persist, frogs against the dawn (or is that boats against the stream??)
Monday, July 26, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Two forward, one back
The weather in the Sydney area starts to cool in late March. With this cooling comes the rain - on and off and fairly unpredictable. I started to get anxious as March dragged on. Then J called and said 'we're on for March 13th' and I had to rearrange my life again to get up there and do my Yowie thing, as well as pay for everything and coordinate with the others. I was starting to run out of friends to stay with, but my old friend and colleague A, a fellow artist and doctor, said sure there's a bed available as one of my daughter's has left home and the other is about to, so come on down. A is a very interesting guy, apart from his medical work he also has a masters in film and is an innovative and dynamic artist. He goes up to Bali with sketches and gets local craftsmen there to carve big statues for him in what looks like Paulonia wood, then brings them back to Australia and exhibits them. They are very zany and post-modern, drawing on everything from ancient greek mythology to pop culture. I have one.
Back to the shoot: I had to drag out the Chewbacca suit and the Yowie suit and repair them both; the Yowie suit in particular had split all over the place and was covered in bits of bracken and gum leaves. the fur was very matted and I found to my shock that a bottle of glue had spilled on the trip home from the main shoot and leaked all over the face area, requiring lots of cutting of big chunks of hair out of the head. Potentially disastrous, and lots more work. Luckily I had saved a lot of fur and got to work with thinning scissors (my best friends) and glue. The crossbow also needed serious repair. After a speedy trip on Friday after work in the general practice, I got to A's place quite early and we interrogated a bottle of wine and the movie world fairly closely (joined by several mosquitoes) before a marvellous dinner with A and his wife. I didn't sleep very well, worried about the shoot, and got up quite early. A had already taken off for work so I met his wife (also A) at the coffee shop over the road, ate some Bircher muesli, and got going. I had to be in Bondi junction by 8.30 to meet the star, young Kevin in the movie, who was about to go on a state-wide drama tour to high schools. We met up fairly quickly using cell phones and then I turned on the GPS and got up into the Blue Mountains via the Lane Cove tunnel quite quickly.
It felt good to see the main crew again: J, C the DOP and D the Ist AD. The usual suspects. Luckily there was no rain, though the scattered clouds threatened to dump on us and the light played havoc with shooting. But we got it all done: lots of punching on the ground (kevin attacks the thugs) rushing through the bush and punching (the Yowie attacks the thugs) and then the Yowie holding the Chewie head at the very end and getting all excited. Took all day, though we took a long break at lunch and all went to the Kurrajong hotel for a 'slap-up lunch' and beers. The 1st had persuaded his attractive son-and-girlfriend up, and they were troopers; doing a new scene in which Chewie pulls a tent off the two of them. Also J the director was a man peeing behind a tree - the acting left a lot to be desired.
I dropped K off in Bellevue hill where he was staying with a friend, then turned the car for home. Got home pretty late. The drive to Canberra is not attractive at night: featureless except for very big trucks. In daylight it's a lot better, especially in early winter mornings when the mist lifts off the cow-mooching fields.
It now became a process, almost of attrition, but certainly lengthy, of ingesting the new footage (taken on C's still camera which had a movie function), then re-editing it into the old stuff and then checking for pace, arcs of change, and so on. J did a splendid job on this with n the editor at Deepend. I got very alarmed when the people who'd agreed to do the music said they'd not been told I was doing songs for the piece. I couldn't get hold of J for several days and my paranoia took hold, suspecting that my music was being edged out of the movie. This was intolerable for me: my vision of the piece was so strongly bound up with the songs that I could not envision it any other way. I worked out the production could be finished off in Canberra, where I'd located lots of skilled people. I also spoke to a top entertainment lawyer who is a personal friend. The result was me sending a nasty email, and then immediately regretting it. But once you've pressed that 'send' button! It upset J a lot - he'd had no intention of excluding my little songs. The reason I hadn't been able to contact him was that he'd been on a remote shoot - this info had been passed on to a producer but I was never told!
After several weeks a final visual cut was ready. With some scepticism and worry I logged into the production house's dropbox and watched it. I was delighted: it was all there now and the story was far clearer than before. Still no Yowie breasts, but on reflection I think that's OK - the gender of the beast is in doubt, and that sort of adds to the mystery. The Yowie looked suitably wild and chunky and capable of beating up the thugs. Its tail also took it away from a Chewbacca clone, which is important, as the face was still only seen fragmented and momentarily. My songs were there and added an original feel to the atmosphere. Credits look good, and I don't think we've left anyone out. My weird ska song goes well over these and gives a sort of funky energy to the end of the film.
Then another minor disaster: somehow the sound files had been buggered - I think it can only have been during the production house's ingestion originally. the poor editor will now have to synchronise sound from some other files for the whole movie (I don't understand the technical details). this will take two weeks or more. Then the whole thing goes somewhere else for colour grading and final audio striping. I'm going around trying to get quotes for DVD reproduction now.
A week or so ago I had another thought: what about Chewbacca? He is the property of Lucas film, and we haven't got permission! I had thought, in my vague way, that he had become a sort of generic part of popular culture and so anyone could use him. Well they can, but not for commercial gain - you can hire a Chewbacca suit from a licensed fancy dress place and go to a party, but you can't make a film showing him and then charge money for people to see it. So I wrote to them, explaining we were essentially an amateur and unpaid crew who'd made a little 15 minute film, and could we please get permission to use Chewie? No, came the reply, they wanted more details. I explained the story. Well, the upshot is that we now have an agreement from Lucas to use the film, but only for film festivals. This stymies any sale to TV and so on. Bad news for the investors, but it can't be helped. The possessor of intellectual rights, though they have millions and millions of dollars, have to be protected, I suppose, from penniless amateurs like us. I can see their point.. sort of. I am reading Michael Palin's wonderful diaries and he describes taking a food company on for using the Lumberjack song, so I can understand the feelings of the original artist in wanting their work protected, and not abused, either for banal and inappropriate use (such as breakfast cereal ads) or for direct commercial gain.
So where are we at? We have a final visual, with credits locked off. We have a balls-up in the sound, but that is getting fixed. we have a wonderful offer of free music, but the poor muso's will have to wait for the sound to get fixed. Now nearly five months after principal photography, I am a little impatient. Production houses, understandably, view our work as minor and so scheduling gets squeezed in between their bigger jobs. On the other hand, i can't wait. I've written two more short films and quarter of a novel since January - during my yearly manic phase, and will reconsider them and judge them as rubbish during my winter depression phase. With any luck, the highs and lows will cancel each other out to produce something reasoned and gutsy by next spring.
Back to the shoot: I had to drag out the Chewbacca suit and the Yowie suit and repair them both; the Yowie suit in particular had split all over the place and was covered in bits of bracken and gum leaves. the fur was very matted and I found to my shock that a bottle of glue had spilled on the trip home from the main shoot and leaked all over the face area, requiring lots of cutting of big chunks of hair out of the head. Potentially disastrous, and lots more work. Luckily I had saved a lot of fur and got to work with thinning scissors (my best friends) and glue. The crossbow also needed serious repair. After a speedy trip on Friday after work in the general practice, I got to A's place quite early and we interrogated a bottle of wine and the movie world fairly closely (joined by several mosquitoes) before a marvellous dinner with A and his wife. I didn't sleep very well, worried about the shoot, and got up quite early. A had already taken off for work so I met his wife (also A) at the coffee shop over the road, ate some Bircher muesli, and got going. I had to be in Bondi junction by 8.30 to meet the star, young Kevin in the movie, who was about to go on a state-wide drama tour to high schools. We met up fairly quickly using cell phones and then I turned on the GPS and got up into the Blue Mountains via the Lane Cove tunnel quite quickly.
It felt good to see the main crew again: J, C the DOP and D the Ist AD. The usual suspects. Luckily there was no rain, though the scattered clouds threatened to dump on us and the light played havoc with shooting. But we got it all done: lots of punching on the ground (kevin attacks the thugs) rushing through the bush and punching (the Yowie attacks the thugs) and then the Yowie holding the Chewie head at the very end and getting all excited. Took all day, though we took a long break at lunch and all went to the Kurrajong hotel for a 'slap-up lunch' and beers. The 1st had persuaded his attractive son-and-girlfriend up, and they were troopers; doing a new scene in which Chewie pulls a tent off the two of them. Also J the director was a man peeing behind a tree - the acting left a lot to be desired.
I dropped K off in Bellevue hill where he was staying with a friend, then turned the car for home. Got home pretty late. The drive to Canberra is not attractive at night: featureless except for very big trucks. In daylight it's a lot better, especially in early winter mornings when the mist lifts off the cow-mooching fields.
It now became a process, almost of attrition, but certainly lengthy, of ingesting the new footage (taken on C's still camera which had a movie function), then re-editing it into the old stuff and then checking for pace, arcs of change, and so on. J did a splendid job on this with n the editor at Deepend. I got very alarmed when the people who'd agreed to do the music said they'd not been told I was doing songs for the piece. I couldn't get hold of J for several days and my paranoia took hold, suspecting that my music was being edged out of the movie. This was intolerable for me: my vision of the piece was so strongly bound up with the songs that I could not envision it any other way. I worked out the production could be finished off in Canberra, where I'd located lots of skilled people. I also spoke to a top entertainment lawyer who is a personal friend. The result was me sending a nasty email, and then immediately regretting it. But once you've pressed that 'send' button! It upset J a lot - he'd had no intention of excluding my little songs. The reason I hadn't been able to contact him was that he'd been on a remote shoot - this info had been passed on to a producer but I was never told!
After several weeks a final visual cut was ready. With some scepticism and worry I logged into the production house's dropbox and watched it. I was delighted: it was all there now and the story was far clearer than before. Still no Yowie breasts, but on reflection I think that's OK - the gender of the beast is in doubt, and that sort of adds to the mystery. The Yowie looked suitably wild and chunky and capable of beating up the thugs. Its tail also took it away from a Chewbacca clone, which is important, as the face was still only seen fragmented and momentarily. My songs were there and added an original feel to the atmosphere. Credits look good, and I don't think we've left anyone out. My weird ska song goes well over these and gives a sort of funky energy to the end of the film.
Then another minor disaster: somehow the sound files had been buggered - I think it can only have been during the production house's ingestion originally. the poor editor will now have to synchronise sound from some other files for the whole movie (I don't understand the technical details). this will take two weeks or more. Then the whole thing goes somewhere else for colour grading and final audio striping. I'm going around trying to get quotes for DVD reproduction now.
A week or so ago I had another thought: what about Chewbacca? He is the property of Lucas film, and we haven't got permission! I had thought, in my vague way, that he had become a sort of generic part of popular culture and so anyone could use him. Well they can, but not for commercial gain - you can hire a Chewbacca suit from a licensed fancy dress place and go to a party, but you can't make a film showing him and then charge money for people to see it. So I wrote to them, explaining we were essentially an amateur and unpaid crew who'd made a little 15 minute film, and could we please get permission to use Chewie? No, came the reply, they wanted more details. I explained the story. Well, the upshot is that we now have an agreement from Lucas to use the film, but only for film festivals. This stymies any sale to TV and so on. Bad news for the investors, but it can't be helped. The possessor of intellectual rights, though they have millions and millions of dollars, have to be protected, I suppose, from penniless amateurs like us. I can see their point.. sort of. I am reading Michael Palin's wonderful diaries and he describes taking a food company on for using the Lumberjack song, so I can understand the feelings of the original artist in wanting their work protected, and not abused, either for banal and inappropriate use (such as breakfast cereal ads) or for direct commercial gain.
So where are we at? We have a final visual, with credits locked off. We have a balls-up in the sound, but that is getting fixed. we have a wonderful offer of free music, but the poor muso's will have to wait for the sound to get fixed. Now nearly five months after principal photography, I am a little impatient. Production houses, understandably, view our work as minor and so scheduling gets squeezed in between their bigger jobs. On the other hand, i can't wait. I've written two more short films and quarter of a novel since January - during my yearly manic phase, and will reconsider them and judge them as rubbish during my winter depression phase. With any luck, the highs and lows will cancel each other out to produce something reasoned and gutsy by next spring.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Not to bore you, but... we need Pickups!
I won't laboriously detail every aspect of the shoot. It went pretty well, but we ran out of time and money. Some sponsors didn't really come through for us and the resort wanted us out by Friday noon. So that put the kybosh on shooting there all Friday. Anyway we found a bracken-filled valley and did most of we had to on the last day. Plus an absolutely splendid golden rock shelf above a classic Blue Mountains vista - the hero rock! I suddenly conceived the idea that one of the characters needs to hold up a large grey fish at some point, so the runner went off to the nearest town with $50 to get a fish. She returned with a large mullet, but I never saw any change. Never saw her again either. Fair enough, though she did get a petrol voucher! Anyway, we shot until it was pretty dark, then scooted back up the fire trail to a stack of pizza boxes delivered by some intrepid pizza company. We all said our goodbyes and swore to meet again on the red carpet. My family stayed on overnight and packed up the paraphernalia - huge amounts of stuff/My trailer was almost as loaded for the trip back to Canberra as it had been going up! Then I think most of us went and had some sort of Xmas holiday. I took my family to NZ for 10 days and that was very nice. On returning I contacted J the director - yes the files had all been 'ingested' into the computer and the post-production house and the editor was about to start. two weeks later and nothing had happened. He was holiday, he was ill, he was in Fiji. I wasn't clear what the story was. Eventually he turned up and by some miracle got together with the very busy director (now back at his real job). They put together 12 minutes of footage. I was disappointed. Story points had not been nailed, in my opinion. I went up to Sydney and sat in on another editing session. Pace was variable - we cut a lot of stuff out. The rough cut looked OK but we were still lacking some vital shots. Pickups are needed! Groan. This means going back up to the mountains and shooting some more stuff. Luckily not much. But the costumes are badly damaged (the Yowie needs new nipples for one thing)and continuity might be a problem. Also we can't afford to get most of the actors back. Compromises are made and we're on for the first dry weekend we can find.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Tutti Fruitti and all that
I got up and carefully placed all the props that would be needed for the morning's shoot by the door. The crew were shooting at Tutti Fruitti, a little fruit shop cum cafe all on its own in a field of fruit trees and vines, just a little up the road from Madison's. (Kylie and I had scoped out this place over a year ago and got permission to film there). Hot and cold breakfast was well underway - I got the sense of a juggernaut having started rolling - nothing I could do to halt it or even control it from now on - and that's OK! I went into the kitchen: Neil and Shirley-Anne were hard at work. Shirley-Anne is our other marvelous NZ friend who agreed to cook. She let Neil go with me for the getting of the minivan.
We drove down the mountain and found Freeman's Reach, a typical little Hawkesbury town, and the garage, run by a cheerful Indian couple who confessed they watched Bollywood movies but turned the sound off when the songs came along - and they wanted to make movies in Australia too! The minivan was actually pretty big - a 14 seater. Neil and Rose drove my car back while I drove it back to Tutti Fruitti where shooting was well underway. The scenes were on different days in the script, which meant that the shop had to be completely redressed between takes. One scenario calls for an almost bare and gloomy shop pre-Yowie hoax - and the other has the shop filled with cheerful Yowie merchandise once the hoax has got underway. So the art department and I had to work overtime. Our art department were very professional and photographed everything beforehand so they could replace every thing when we left. A very chic journo turned up from The Hawkesbury Gazette and snapped away at everything. We gave her a press release - can't wait to read the article.
After lunch back at Madison's we started to film in the caravan; hauled to the site on a flatbed truck by Kylie's uncle. Its wheels were kaput - we could not move it at all. The windows were blacked out and 'Bill' got to reminisce in there with a bottle of whiskey (the director preferred the art department's fake bourbon to my bright red bottle of 'Get Younger' Nigerian scotch). Then we moved to a huge sloping area of rock out beyond the Boer goat paddock. Here we filmed scene one (the dream - not a flashback) where Bill 'sees' Marge. Marie had been dragooned into playing Marge and stood on the rock looking wistful. Then we had a scene where Kevin/Chewbacca screams in frustration at Bill. This went spectacularly well as a storm was brewing and the late afternoon golden light contrasted well with the darkening sky and low angle shots. With the last light I had to get into the Yowie suit and throw the Chewbacca head around as I leap up the rocks (final scene). I couldn't see a thing as the eyes fogged up. It was also the first time for years that I'd worn contact lenses! It was virtually dark, and the suit split every time I moved up the rock. I hoped it looked good on film cause it sure didn't feel good in there. The last of the packing up was done in complete darkness; the crew coming up through the bush to a little track where the cars were parked. I was parked up in the paddock beyond the gate and stayed there with my headlights shining into the back of the lighting truck as the boys packed it all up.
Dinner was a marvel of Italian and Greek dishes, salads and desserts (Shirley-Anne's husband is Greek). Everyone was tired but elated. Next day was going to be huge. I left, though many of the others stayed and partied; meantime I spent several hours repairing the Yowie and Chewbacca suits before bed. Marie, Neil and Shirley Anne cleaned up the common room and kitchen.
We drove down the mountain and found Freeman's Reach, a typical little Hawkesbury town, and the garage, run by a cheerful Indian couple who confessed they watched Bollywood movies but turned the sound off when the songs came along - and they wanted to make movies in Australia too! The minivan was actually pretty big - a 14 seater. Neil and Rose drove my car back while I drove it back to Tutti Fruitti where shooting was well underway. The scenes were on different days in the script, which meant that the shop had to be completely redressed between takes. One scenario calls for an almost bare and gloomy shop pre-Yowie hoax - and the other has the shop filled with cheerful Yowie merchandise once the hoax has got underway. So the art department and I had to work overtime. Our art department were very professional and photographed everything beforehand so they could replace every thing when we left. A very chic journo turned up from The Hawkesbury Gazette and snapped away at everything. We gave her a press release - can't wait to read the article.
After lunch back at Madison's we started to film in the caravan; hauled to the site on a flatbed truck by Kylie's uncle. Its wheels were kaput - we could not move it at all. The windows were blacked out and 'Bill' got to reminisce in there with a bottle of whiskey (the director preferred the art department's fake bourbon to my bright red bottle of 'Get Younger' Nigerian scotch). Then we moved to a huge sloping area of rock out beyond the Boer goat paddock. Here we filmed scene one (the dream - not a flashback) where Bill 'sees' Marge. Marie had been dragooned into playing Marge and stood on the rock looking wistful. Then we had a scene where Kevin/Chewbacca screams in frustration at Bill. This went spectacularly well as a storm was brewing and the late afternoon golden light contrasted well with the darkening sky and low angle shots. With the last light I had to get into the Yowie suit and throw the Chewbacca head around as I leap up the rocks (final scene). I couldn't see a thing as the eyes fogged up. It was also the first time for years that I'd worn contact lenses! It was virtually dark, and the suit split every time I moved up the rock. I hoped it looked good on film cause it sure didn't feel good in there. The last of the packing up was done in complete darkness; the crew coming up through the bush to a little track where the cars were parked. I was parked up in the paddock beyond the gate and stayed there with my headlights shining into the back of the lighting truck as the boys packed it all up.
Dinner was a marvel of Italian and Greek dishes, salads and desserts (Shirley-Anne's husband is Greek). Everyone was tired but elated. Next day was going to be huge. I left, though many of the others stayed and partied; meantime I spent several hours repairing the Yowie and Chewbacca suits before bed. Marie, Neil and Shirley Anne cleaned up the common room and kitchen.
The gathering...
I woke at five and ate the rest of the airline biscuits in the little basket by the kettle. Probably I should have brought up some food! At 7.30 Callan the DOP came and got me. Back into the bush in the director's 4WD: we sorted out a few more locations. The heat and the general logistics of getting the cast and crew to some of these glades and slopes was starting to really worry me, but the director and AD were onto it: they had alternatives for everything, which is always a good idea. Film-making is contingent on so many things: weather, time, people's schedules (one of out main actors had to leave at 3.30pm every day as he was taking part in 'Taming of the Shrew' down in the Sydney Botanic gardens); the needs of various proprietors (the resort wanted us out on Thursday night; which meant shooting all Friday in their bush property was now out - playing havoc with the schedule) and the shop we were going to shoot in could only give us a few hours. And so on.
The bush is really quite dangerous: between the trees in the more wooded areas the sandy soil is covered is a deep litter of leaves, bark and sharp branches. Going through there in bare feet is completely out of the question. On the slopes there are small bluffs of sandstone about five metres high which run along the contour line, each separated from the next one below by a an intervening strip of steep bush. Everywhere you look - and you've got to look! - there are biting ants and other creepies, including snakes (we saw two). One thing is for sure, there is no way a real yowie would have long fur, as it's just impossible to push your way through thick NSW bush without it getting caught on everything and festooned with gum leaves, bits of bracken and stray bark. Then there are the pests that seem magnetically attracted to fur - ants, spiders and flies!
We popped out of the bush on one of the many tracks and went to find a good coffee. A little cafe place near Madison's resort run by a genial older man and his bevy of female helpers supplied this, as well as a large bottle of ice-cold local apple juice, which I took with us. We drove down to the pub and checked out the verandah. We returned to the cafe and got meat pies. People started to arrive in the afternoon. Neil (a friend from NZ who had agreed to be one half of the chef team) and Marie and the girls arrived late it the afternoon, with my trailer piled high with food and other goods. Neil had built a sort of wall round the trailer with bits of blue board and this created a deep box in which to pack things. He prepared a vast spread in the early evening while the actors, J and I did a read-through in the gazebo above the dam. This went well - the actors all gel together well. Later on in the big common room J gave a little speech - minimal, as it should be. I looked around: there were about 22 people there, most of whom I didn't know! Assistants to assistants, friends and hangers on maybe: I will discover their functions in the next day or so. They all seem very young. Filming starts at 0730 tomorrow!
Still very hot at 10 at night. Didn't dare open the gauze doors though for fear of mozzies. An anaemic fan stirred the air weakly (expect Peter Lorre behind the potted palm). Our cabin is scattered with bags and boxes of props - each labelled for scene numbers. Neil is crashing on the sofa bed. I set the alarm for early as i had to get down the hill to Freeman's Reach, a village near the Hawkesbury where I was due to pick up a minivan the next day at 0700.
The bush is really quite dangerous: between the trees in the more wooded areas the sandy soil is covered is a deep litter of leaves, bark and sharp branches. Going through there in bare feet is completely out of the question. On the slopes there are small bluffs of sandstone about five metres high which run along the contour line, each separated from the next one below by a an intervening strip of steep bush. Everywhere you look - and you've got to look! - there are biting ants and other creepies, including snakes (we saw two). One thing is for sure, there is no way a real yowie would have long fur, as it's just impossible to push your way through thick NSW bush without it getting caught on everything and festooned with gum leaves, bits of bracken and stray bark. Then there are the pests that seem magnetically attracted to fur - ants, spiders and flies!
We popped out of the bush on one of the many tracks and went to find a good coffee. A little cafe place near Madison's resort run by a genial older man and his bevy of female helpers supplied this, as well as a large bottle of ice-cold local apple juice, which I took with us. We drove down to the pub and checked out the verandah. We returned to the cafe and got meat pies. People started to arrive in the afternoon. Neil (a friend from NZ who had agreed to be one half of the chef team) and Marie and the girls arrived late it the afternoon, with my trailer piled high with food and other goods. Neil had built a sort of wall round the trailer with bits of blue board and this created a deep box in which to pack things. He prepared a vast spread in the early evening while the actors, J and I did a read-through in the gazebo above the dam. This went well - the actors all gel together well. Later on in the big common room J gave a little speech - minimal, as it should be. I looked around: there were about 22 people there, most of whom I didn't know! Assistants to assistants, friends and hangers on maybe: I will discover their functions in the next day or so. They all seem very young. Filming starts at 0730 tomorrow!
Still very hot at 10 at night. Didn't dare open the gauze doors though for fear of mozzies. An anaemic fan stirred the air weakly (expect Peter Lorre behind the potted palm). Our cabin is scattered with bags and boxes of props - each labelled for scene numbers. Neil is crashing on the sofa bed. I set the alarm for early as i had to get down the hill to Freeman's Reach, a village near the Hawkesbury where I was due to pick up a minivan the next day at 0700.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
The filming
On 5.12.2009 I was up at 0530. I had a helluva day ahead, and was planning to use my wife's small car so she could come up later with my bigger car and the trailer, jammed with food for cast and crew, children, chef and various props. Loaded to the roof, I finally left Canberra at around nine. I carefully covered the two crossbow props, as I had found out they were illegal (yes, even replica's with no function) in all of Australia except.. Queensland! I drove straight through to Castle Cove, with near disastrous effects on my bladder. Got there at 1pm. In Castle Cove is Mal Green Sound studio, a basement recording studio in the home of Mal Green, who was drummer for Split Enz for ten years. He'd just returned from the UK, with a heavy cold! We laid down the tracks in double quick time, and I got out of there at 3.30pm. I wanted to get over the bridge before the traffic started getting bad.
Got to R and K's home in Tamarama and had a few drinks with them before R walked me to his favourite hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant in Bondi beach. A pizza and a large bowl of mussels were washed down with a good red wine. I hardly slept that night and took off quite early to get back to Mal Green's, where he'd laid down the tracks onto 16-bit CD for me. From there I had to strike out across country to get to route 40 which was the road to Windsor and the Blue Mountains. The north shore's certainly got busier since I lived there more than a decade ago. I made it across to Lane Cove Road and then to route 40. Then I headed west, though no longer a young man.
Got to Madison's resort in the Blue Mountains quite early: a well-laid out series of cabins on long lawn, with a central common room and indoor pool. I found J the director in the cabin next door, frazzled from his busy job, and storyboarding like crazy into several large children's sketch pads. I left him to it, but not before showing him some props and playing the 2 songs to him. I checked out the alpaca herd and the rickety jetty into the dam. I phoned home: a dog had killed one of the chooks. I went round the cabins and met D the first AD, and C the DOP. We all went on a recce trip into the bush. The road was a 4WD track. I was sceptical: how much time were we going to take getting the big camera truck around these sites? It was nearly 40 degrees also - my mind was boggling thinking about the water needed to keep everyone hydrated. Spectacular country though. The film will look good.
Later we all went to the Kurrajong hotel. five of us: J, me, C, D and his partner N (script supervisor and continuity) all chose the Fisherman's Basket! A giant pile of batter and stuff that may once have come from the sea. Bed to a chorus of frogs and bright Orion overhead. Tomorrow things will really get going. Money's pouring out of my pockets like water. Not as if it's easy come, either! Still, 'the film's the thing, wherein to catch the conscience of the Yowie.' Take care of the art and the pennies will take wing of themselves. Note to self: stop mangling idioms.
Got to R and K's home in Tamarama and had a few drinks with them before R walked me to his favourite hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant in Bondi beach. A pizza and a large bowl of mussels were washed down with a good red wine. I hardly slept that night and took off quite early to get back to Mal Green's, where he'd laid down the tracks onto 16-bit CD for me. From there I had to strike out across country to get to route 40 which was the road to Windsor and the Blue Mountains. The north shore's certainly got busier since I lived there more than a decade ago. I made it across to Lane Cove Road and then to route 40. Then I headed west, though no longer a young man.
Got to Madison's resort in the Blue Mountains quite early: a well-laid out series of cabins on long lawn, with a central common room and indoor pool. I found J the director in the cabin next door, frazzled from his busy job, and storyboarding like crazy into several large children's sketch pads. I left him to it, but not before showing him some props and playing the 2 songs to him. I checked out the alpaca herd and the rickety jetty into the dam. I phoned home: a dog had killed one of the chooks. I went round the cabins and met D the first AD, and C the DOP. We all went on a recce trip into the bush. The road was a 4WD track. I was sceptical: how much time were we going to take getting the big camera truck around these sites? It was nearly 40 degrees also - my mind was boggling thinking about the water needed to keep everyone hydrated. Spectacular country though. The film will look good.
Later we all went to the Kurrajong hotel. five of us: J, me, C, D and his partner N (script supervisor and continuity) all chose the Fisherman's Basket! A giant pile of batter and stuff that may once have come from the sea. Bed to a chorus of frogs and bright Orion overhead. Tomorrow things will really get going. Money's pouring out of my pockets like water. Not as if it's easy come, either! Still, 'the film's the thing, wherein to catch the conscience of the Yowie.' Take care of the art and the pennies will take wing of themselves. Note to self: stop mangling idioms.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Raising the steaks
Last day of work, so tonight (Friday) I'll have to pack like a maniac and get everything in my wife's tiny car. I leave tomorrow for Sydney, where I'll spend Saturday afternoon in a recording studio doing two songs for the production. My wife will follow later in the big car with the trailer full of food for the cast and crew, who now number about 30! Everyone, it seems, has an assistant or two - I think the Yowie should get an assistant, just a small one, who could attend to her wardrobe and catering needs ('I'll just have a banana, thanks - Oh, and did you get the carpet shampoo?'). Scheduling hiccups have been more or less ironed out, though one of the days will be 12 long hours on set. The cast did a read-through last night and it all seemed to go well - or at least so I'm told, because I haven't actually met any of them yet. My friend N from New Zealand is flying over tomorrow to help with catering. A small newspaper in the Blue Mountains has heard of the project and wants to do an article. We'll have to keep the Yowie away from them though, as we don't want to reveal her in her full glory. Except on this blog, of course, oh lucky readers. I think we have all the props. A couple of scenes may be a bit spartan; the art department asked if I had had a newspaper printed up, a faked, complete newspaper, so Bill can 'read it' on camera without copyright issues. I'd never thought of such a thing and anyway it would be far too expensive. I suggested a 1956 Illustrated London News instead - being more than 50 years old no-one can complain about copyright - blow me down when I opened the 1956 ILN I just happened to have and there was a full article on 'Candidates for the Yeti' with pictures and all: a bear, a langur, and so on. Bill reading this with interest would really fit well with the story. We have primed a few extras to turn up in the pub at 8am and pretend it's a jolly evening - they've got to have Yowie Tshirts, cameras.. and zinc on their noses. A wonderful friend of ours who owns a limo company has agreed to take people up and down the mountain - talk about arriving in style! Not me though, just the writer, folks, ignore me please and get on with your important business - realising the vision.
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