On Reflection #2

End of week 2 of pre-production. Strange how things slowly emerge into view increment by increment. We're still stalking the margins of our locations (below are a bunch of shots of some areas we're shooting in by esteemed cinematographer Stefan Duscio, who I've mentioned in these parts before); we've almost entirely secured a killer crew; the composers have sent through more demos and tracks; and, most, importantly, I've locked in my key cast - four incredible young people to play the central roles. So, everything has it's shape and form and the film is alive. Terrifying and electrifying.

 

(turns out i don't look as relaxed as i feel when i'm location scouting... looks like i'm taking a nervous poo in the middle of our location... probably felt like it too as i tried to work out the logisitics of a major sequence... better not to think about it)

On Reflection #1

It's the end of week one of the official pre-production of Galore.

Here's what happened, in a nutshell.

People were hired.

Locations were scouted.

I saw some spiders:

And visited one of our locations to discover that every room was full of books.

I cast some of the roles and agonised over some others.

I showed films to the cinematographer and images to the production designer.

I visited, while location scouting, the childhood home I lived in with my Dad after my folks split and discovered that the tiny place seems even tinier and is now the home of a whole bunch of migrant workers.

I took a bunch of photos in some of our other locations and tried to imagine shots, scenes and sequences.

I spent a lot of time thinking about bushfires and fistfights and fireworks. 

I ate out almost every night and spent a ridiculous amount of money on cabs while rushing from place to place and meeting to meeting. 

I watched films by Lucrecia Martel, Alma Har'el and Nikola Lezaic for inspiration. 

I terrified myself before bed every night by reading Misha Glenny's McMafia, and then tried to console myself by reading Junot Diaz' beautiful new short story collection This is How You Lose Her ("the half life of love is forever").

I scraped in some time to finish an episode of a TV series I've been writing. 

And I freaked out about my bank balance. 

Then I watched the AFL grand final, got stupidly, breathlessly drunk and tried to dance salsa until dawn.

So, all in all, a successful start to pre production. On to week 2.

Bliss

Another week of street casting and pre-pre-pre production for 'Galore' and 'Small Mercies'. We went crazy this week on the technicalities; testing camera formats and lenses across a number of mock up scenes as well as running open castings in Sydney and running from meeting to meeting, planning out post production pathways, places to house the crew, testing camera movement and a thousand other things. In between, I discovered Angel Haze's new track New York and the handclaps seemed to be just the perfect accelerated heartbeat pace for all the things that needed to be done.

Inventory:

Arri Alexa vs Arri Alexa Studio vs Red Epic
Cooke Sphericals vs Panavision Anamorphics (in place of Hawk Anamorphics)
A lightweight crew
The amazingly charismatic Teresa from The Agency Models
Brothers, friends, producers, camera assistants
Laptops playing Dr Dre
Pickle and Roast Beef sandwiches
Casting sessions and location scouting
Fog, Rain and Blazing sun
Bikes, fans and singlet to emulate summer in freezing conditions
A happy director feeling like he is flexing his tiny, wasted muscles for the first time in many moons...

Here are some photos