MONSTER CHILDREN

Monster Children has been my favourite magazine for years. So I was pretty chuffed to be asked to do a couple pages in the latest issue (#31). They usually publish two different covers, which is cool in itself, but I was particularly excited to see both covers for this issue featuring past heroes of mine. Dennis Hopper on one cover as there is a great article about Hoppers photography and David Carson on the other, who when I was a graphic designer was like a god to me.

Featured  in the spread were a couple of snaps of my very own monster children, Ollie and Rosebud.

MINERS

Took some dirty portraits of some of the dirty actors one lunch break while shooting at the A1 mine.

BEACONSFIELD, WEEK 3

Returned on Saturday from a week shooting deep down underground. Filmmaking takes you to some pretty cool places, but I'm still trying to comprehend not only where we have been, but how on earth we got there. To even step foot in an underground mine is difficult enough, but to gain access and take fifty cast and crew for a week of filming under ground is a thought almost to crazy to consider, particularly on a schedule and budget as tight as ours. Mines are dark, wet, small and full of safety, technical, geological and physical considerations. A crew member with over 25 years in the industry said to me during the week that what we were doing was the most logistically and physically tough shoot he had ever been on. Which on one hand excited me, and on the other made me realise just how hard everyone was working to make this happen as smoothly and efficiently as it could.

The underground environment goes against everything a film crew needs to work; flexibility, accessibility and time. But what the mine took away from us in logistics, it gave back ten fold in providing a location that visually and structurally we could never have recreated in a studio. Speaking of which this week sees us back in Melbourne filming in the relative comfort and convenience of a set built in a huge warehouse in Footscray.

A huge thanks to A1 Consolidated gold mine, tucked high up in the hills about 4 hours drive from Melbourne (just near Woods Point, which is dying for a Deliveranceremake to be filmed there!). A1 essentially shut down for the week to facilitate the shoot and give us mostly free reign on their very cool place. And also a huge thanks to location manager Chris Stanton and the rest of the production team who help seal the deal!

And a massive thanks to the cast and crew who endured the cold, the mud, the dark and the insanity of it all.

More snaps after the break...

Director of Photography Toby Oliver, grinning and bearing it...

Make up designer Fiona Rhys-Jones doing final checks on Syd Brisbane. Everyone below ground had to wear a helmet, cap lamp, steel cap gum boots, safety vest and most importantly an OxyBoks self rescuer that thankfully no-one had to use!

These kids are more than alright...

...they're amazing!

Via Nick Turpin via The Guardian.

BEACONSFIELD, WEEK 2

We are half way through the shoot. This week we shot all the scenes of the boys in 'the cage', all 62 of them! We built a set that was the exact dimensions to what the real cage was, it's such a small space that Todd and Brant had to endured for over two weeks. All the news reports at the time, depicted the cage more like a prison cell size, or a least a space they could sit up and casually sit back in. But it was more like a coffin sized space that two big guys could just fit in, when lying down. They could not straighten out, nor sit up, and had the constant threat of thousands of tons of rocks hanging just centimetres above. I think it was Brant who described the situation as similar to having someone point a loaded gun at you for two weeks. Never knowing when or if they might pull the trigger. I had my mind set to build our cage exactly how the real one was, or as close to as possible. And even though we could remove walls and the roof etc to assist us with shooting it was still a really tight fit. It was built on quite a complex rig that could be shaken, jacked up and dropped. It was like this living thing, a bit like a theme park ride. The real Todd Russell dropped onto set and gave us the thumbs up, which is good enough for me. He joked earlier that we was going to get into the cage, but after he had a good look around it, I suspect that he didnt need to re-live the experience even if in the realms of make-believe.

Above: The Cage

We have been shooting between 10-13 scenes a day and I think we got up to up to 13 minutes of screen time on one day. I thought shooting in such a restricted space would reduce time, but because it was so small and there were so many special physical effects (rock falls, dust, water, 'seismic' activity, blasting etc) everything took much more time than I expected. But we got most of what we needed in the end. I hope we have captured some of the true horror of what it would be like to be trapped and buried alive a kilometre under ground.

Despite the long hours and the pressures of the schedule, I'm really enjoying myself. Fingers crossed the good experience continues for the next 2 weeks!

Lachy and Shane Jacobson (below, who plays Brant) are doing a great job as Todd and Brant. I've been so impressed with their approach to the characters and their performances. It was hard to shoot the scenes when they actually left 'the cage' I wish I could have spent another day or two with them on that set!

We are heading to shoot in a working gold mine this week for five days. A very cool but remote location about four hours drive from Melbourne.

SHOOT DAY 1

Just finished day one out. Fast and furious shooting to say the least... A good day though and a good start to the next 23 days. Below, Lachy Hulme (who I first met and had the pleasure of working with on Offspring last year) as Todd Russell. Lachy has packed nearly 20 kilos for the role. Impressive!

END OF PRE...

Last day of pre was on Friday. Shoot starts tomorrow. Weekend was spent soaking up some family time and last minute script tweaks with writer Judi McCrossin. There was a good energy in the office on Friday. Everybody seemed reasonably calm and on track as much as could be expected. I'm usually pretty nervous the night before any shoot, but I'm actually pretty excited! I'm looking forward to getting on set and getting some of this story out of our heads and into a camera!

LAST WEEK, THIS WEEK

Spent last week scouting and tech recce-ing locations with the crew. Which included a trip to Beaconsfield in Tasmania. Toby, camera assistant Chris and I stayed on for an extra day or so to shoot some landscapes that I hope will become an important part of the film. Much of the film takes place underground in the deep dark of a gold mine, so the moments where we can break out and show the world above will provide a much needed breath of fresh air in more ways than one. It will give both the film and the audience a moment to breathe. It was nice to get some beautiful images 'in the can' or 'on the drives' so to speak (shooting the film on the wonderful Arri Alexa). Tasmania is such a amazing place to shoot these sequences, especially in winter. Low sun during the day and a morning fog that hangs thick in the air well into the day. So nice! One final and very short week of pre to go... it really doesn't feel like there will be a enough hours, minutes or seconds in the days to get everything done. But I know in these situations even if we had another 4 weeks, it still wouldn't be enough time. You got to take what you got and make the most of it!

Yesterday

A wet and wild day spent on the road looking at locations. Searching for places in Melbourne that look like (and feel lke) Beaconsfield, Tasmania. I'm very focused on making a film about a community and a place, as I am making it about an event. But for budget and funding reasons we have to shoot most of the film in and around Melbourne. We will be shooting in Beaconsfield the place, but we can't do everything there I would like to.

LAST WEEK

I think last week was the last week of "maybes", "what ifs", "perhaps we coulds" and "how abouts". The last week of all the nebulous ideas taking shape and all the possibilities of film making thrown up in the air and looking at where they could land. My favourite part of pre-production. This week things really start to get pinned down. It's going to more, "it's this", "it's that", "you can", "you can't". All part of the process.

4 Weeks to go.

HARD ROCK

300 meters or so below ground... which reminds me of a track from one of my favourite albums...

GREAT DECLINES

NEW DIGS

Moved into the 'Beaconsfield' production office in Footscray (Thanks Antje for setting up a great space!). We'll be based out of here for the next three months or so.

TUESDAY

MONDAY