I could only sit and watch the forecast, as so much was hanging on this day.
1) The XB Falcon I'd lined up to be there had never been wet in all the years Jef had owned it, and here I was asking him to drive over 200km to the location, with rain and storms floating about.
2) Imogen, my lead actress is actually in other paid gigs at the moment, and Sunday April 10 was her last and only opportunity to finish filming. The next available time is months away...
3) I needed a makeup artist on site and all my usuals were unavailable, but thanks to Imogen I found one who could come, but only stay till 3pm...
4) My DOP Kris Woldt of Thru A Lens Media is in high demand due to the high level quality of his work, and he'd fought hard to give me his time on Sunday...
5) My brother in law Alec is flying up from Sydney and his flights are tight for his own filming schedule (TV series all over Australia in production!)
Friday April 8 rolls around and this small window of opportunity is fast approaching and the forecast is said to be rain on Sunday afternoon...we might be lucky and get it done in the first half of the day.
Sunday rocks around and it's bright glorious sunshine, blue sky, no clouds...BAM, Imogen is into make up, I start filming with Kris on his 7D, and my pro photographer from Alchemy Studios snapping away on his 1D...Alec and Kazuya Wright (who had answered my call thanks to Jake Reedy) were fantastic together, like they'd been mates for years, joking and serious at the drop of a hat.
It was awesome when we needed a certain shot, Kris and the snapper Greg Boyd looked at eachother and without saying a word, swapped lenses!
Then the XB turns up, and it looks and sounds incredible, and it's smoking a little bit (nothing serious though) as it turns out Jef has never driven it this far before, and he had to replace an engine part during the week as it had broken down, he'd fixed it, and driven it to set without telling me as he didn't want to let me down! Now that's dedication to an idea! It was the first time I'd ever met Jef!
My darling wife was my producer/1stAD and had us on a tight schedule, with my Uncle Peter catering for the crew and family on site, and we were chasing the light. In fact I think Kris Woldt my DOP was orchestrating the light and elements himself, for when it came to shoot the XB Falcon in all its glory, a solitary cloud floated across the sun, diffusing the light for the entire car shoot, and moved on after Kris had finished, the largest trace diffuser you can get I reckon!
The day was amazing, no rain, perfect light, everyone was on schedule, actors were performing on cue, powerful shots were taken, and the stars aligned for the whole thing, it just worked.
That window closed once we finished, it poured down rain the very next day, the XB Falcon broke down on the way back to the Gold Coast, leaving Jef at the BP service station till a mate with a tilt tray truck came and got him. I was mortified, his car had been pushed to the limit for me, but it turns out it was an easy fix, just not without the right tools at a servo ha! Everything worked, when we needed it and we dodged disaster on so many levels. It was an overwhelming shoot, response and the team we had was awesome, because we all believed in the project.
Now, I'm cutting and compositing the trailer, at the same time, when I need a break from Redeemed, I composite the VFX in my short film. (2 projects one computer!)
To give an idea of how much VFX is in my short, I have a firefight, with 90 shots, each shot can have up to 12 VFX elements, plus any masking/rotoscoping I have to do (one scene!)...so needless to say I'm keeping busy!
And so is Frankie Oatway, my British mate and lead in my short film, check out this, he caught up with one of the writers of Casino, Frank Cullotta! So we're all moving forward in our persuit of our dreams...
Ex Pertinacia, Victoria
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