Production Diary...
Location Scouting
Day 3: Brendan and Daniel Mount Bulla
(Heh - heh - snort)
 It was Sunday the 18th of May. As a lot of films seem to start, so did my day. My alarm-clock was blaring away on the edge of my subconscious, enticing me to open my eyes to the brave new world, turn the alarm-clock off, and to repetitively bash it against the bed-head. As my alarm also doubles as a mobile phone (a feature I really do believe they should advertise on the box), I restrained myself from performing such an action. Instead, I crawled out of bed, had a shower, and poured myself a glass of Coke. Some people smoke first thing - I have a Coke. The same can pretty much goes if I'm nervous, I've just had some lousy sex, or I'm socially having a beer. This last instant can of course be rather embarrassing if I try to drink both at the same time. Which can of course sometimes happen near the end of a long beer drinking night - and is usually a good indication to get me home before I start telling the bartender how the texture of his waistcoat looks like it would taste better if it wasn't so pastel.
Anyway, with Coke in belly and only three and a half hours sleep (as I had worked the night before), I arrived at the train station for Brendan to pick me up. Falling asleep was not going to be an option in driving on the way up, as Brendan was sure to put in his brand spanking new Matrix Reloaded CD and pump up the car chase track as loud as the human ear can tolerate without blood spurting onto the person sitting next to you.
 With Brendan driving along as if he's Neo, now is a good indication to mention the weather. It was cold. It was also wet. It was wet and cold and Brendan thought he was Neo. At some point my brain should have come to the sparkling conclusion that this was possibly a bad idea, but for some reason it didn't. Personally I blame the Coke, because although it is my one true love, like most loves it often clouds the mind to the harsh and genuine reality of the world. We slid off the road. And into the path of an oncoming truck. Okay, that last sentence was a bit of a lie but it certainly made it sound more interesting didn't it? Mud flew in the air, the car span as it tried to find the freeway again, and eventually we got back on track. We didn't hit a thing. Not even a person. I felt somewhat cheated in this, as I was sure hitting casual bystanders was part of the driving off-road experience. At least that's what modern computer games have taught me.
I leant forward and changed the CD to Conan the Barbarian, because I was sure that dealing with a half naked man waving a sword about would be a lot easier than another road related incident. Boy was I wrong.
Okay, that was another lie to suggest that we did indeed have to deal with a half naked man waving a sword about. This is untrue. Although we will have to deal with such an issue later on, we certainly didn't have to do so on this particular day.
We continued our drive passing such places as Bonnie “We're all going to Bonnie Doon” Doon, the River Gallery “And this here is the river. And here's another picture of the river. This is the river in spring.” and Merrijig - where Brendan did indeed perform a jolly dance. At least in the car. I'll try and capture it on film next time.
 Past Yea we found some perfect locations for the shots we'll need when Cohen exits the forest and goes back into farmland. There are some beautiful (and very green) farms along the main road that have mist shrouded pine forests around the summits of the hills. We're bound to get permission from at least one of the farmers to shoot there - and we will do so later on when dates are figured out. I can safely say that these farm hills exceeded any expectations I had for these shots, and will look utterly stunning in the movie. So yay for Yea!
 We arrived at the bottom, and then proceeded to climb up Mount Bulla as high as we could go - promising to visit any interesting places on the way back. This was both our first time here so we were of course both rather excited. Half way up, when we were well and truly in the cloud cover, we took some photos of the trees lining the road. As Brendan had said, they looked very Tim Burton through the mist. They also look utterly nothing like Australian bushland, which is something to be happy about. The trees were long, tall and thin, and had strips of bark hanging down from branches like dead woody vines. Very alien and otherworldly. These will be perfect for the background plates for the bridge scenes - and will look even better when there is snow cover. You guys have no idea how happy I was as my expectations were once again exceeded.
 We arrived at the top and couldn't see a damn thing. The cloud cover was so thick now as to make anything too far ahead white and to cover everything in moisture. We parked the car and went for a walk further up, with the occasional grumble from Brendan due to lack of jacket or coat (I guess he forgot that people ski here). It was all very nice and pretty at the top, but certainly nothing we could use for the movie. I made a solemn vowel to come back and ski here (like a solemn vow but with less oooooh). Maybe we'll organise that into the shooting schedule if there's time.
 Coming back down we found a little park area with a very rain-forest type of stream going through it. With snow cover it could be perfect for the lead up to the bridge with Cohen talking to the horse, or it could be perfect for Young Cohen to cross on his way to the Underground Dungeon for the deleted scenes. It's becoming a sad fact that I keep finding places I want to shoot something at, but would interrupt the story line - and thus become deleted before we've even shot them. As every DVD should have deleted scenes I think we should shoot them anyway. We can thus advertise on the DVD box: Includes Deleted Scenes Especially Shot For This DVD! I dunno. It made me laugh.
 We ended up doing a heap of driving around elsewhere as well, but there was nothing we could really use. At some point I tried climbing down a break-neck gully to reach a cool looking waterfall, but Brendan had the sense of mind to tell me it was probably a bad idea. The leech I contracted (most likely at this point) was probably a good indication he was right. It's amazing how much you'll bleed when the wound is coated in an anti-coagulant.
Well kids, that's it for this weeks update. I'm sure Brendan will chime in with anything I may have missed. Be sure to check in next week when Daniel Does the Computer Fair (and possibly Kryal Castle)!
Day 4: Kryal Castle
Casting the Castle
After various visits to the Computer Fair on various days to obtain all the various parts necessary to complete this and various other films, Daniel (that's me!) decided it was time to once again begin his hunt for the stone walled rooms needed for the films opening. Although a room complete with an obsidian sacrificial altar with blood collecting rivets would have been ideal - Daniel would have been happy with a room that looked remotely like it was from the Dark Ages. Ironically enough Kryal Castle certainly seemed it was from the Dark Ages, but in an oh-so-different light. To put it bluntly, Kryal Castle either needs to be knocked down or used for a more useful task such as a holding pen for Australia's criminally insane (such as Rolf Harris or Nicky Webster). The place reminds me of the abandoned theme park in Spirited Away, although I imagine the only spirits that helped in the construction of this park was a high-octane alcoholic beverage made from red-spotted mushrooms. (The sort short little blue men live under).
So - as it was, Daniel (that's me again!) and Karen turned up to Kryal Castle, handed over their money and begun on their search for a room with stone walls. You wouldn't think this would be hard in a park that has a huge outer wall constructed of this very building material. Unfortunately the only room that came close, was a leaky tower top that had terrible paint over the wood areas, a modern entry door, and four metal poles spouting upwards from the floor's centre to hold the roof on. Although it did have a really cool bridge attached, spanning across a three-story drop to another tower. It was so old and neglected that we would almost certainly lose an actor in the process. Yes, a random guard falling to the cobbled ground below would look really cool in the movie, I know, but frankly I don't want to be the one to have to clean up the mess. Again. I still have nightmares about Little Nancy Nurdles and her Amazing Flying Gerbils to this day. I swear after that shoot, the ground looked like someone had trodden on a heap of furry toadstools.
One really cool thing the park did have however, was a heap of marionettes by themselves, trapped and dancing jerkily in glass boxes. These puppets were so old and neglected the jaw was half coming off one of the puppets in his jolly little puppet band, exposing a gaping maw full of jagged teeth.
He continued to drum happily though as his lower jaw dangled on some thread bare tendons - and many more puppets shared a fate similar. An eyeball out here - some pants falling down there. If ever I were to make a movie about a collection of jollily vicious puppets that hide under your bed and stab you in the throat with their little wooden hands, then here is where I would make it.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, is that Kryal Castle was no good.
 Never fear though, because the day did bring forth something of use. Namely, a horse named Mr. Snuggles. Thanks goes to Rachel O'Connor, who has kindly let us use her horse in the shoot. Mr. Snuggles has a nice light grey coat, and is also (I am told) fantastic to float (as in transport, not as in buoyant), and is very friendly to humans. Karen in fact had a very difficult time in taking photos of him, as he was too interested in eating the camera. But we promise not to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Ouch. I can't believe I just typed that.
So that's it for this week folks, I've attached two photos of Mr. Snuggles for you all to enjoy. Until next time - stay tuned to this very station!
Location Scouting Day 5: Sheep Sation
Where woolly mammals host talk back radio!
 It was the 29th of June and bloody cold. I had just worked the night before till 3:00 am (again) and was heading up to Ballarat (also again) and in the winter down pour. I slept pretty much for the entire train trip until I reached the little gold rush town that was my destination. There, both Karen and Russell picked me up, and we headed for the bridge that was to be the bridge in the movie. We needed to get an exact location down and take some measurements. It turns out the bridge is about 15 km out of Creswick (where Rutger was seen recently doing his thang for Salem's Lot) towards the Daylesford area. It also turned out that there was a little church nearby with a toilet, so now we don't have to hire one. As you can imagine - being able to defecate is a load off my mind.
 After that, we headed for some sheep stations dating back to the 1800's that both Karen and Russell had previously checked out as having stone walled rooms. The first sheep station turned out to be unusable, but the second one was fantastic - but not what I was looking for. So I simply changed what I was looking for, and now I'm happy.
Although they don't have a dungeon as such, they have a few amazing looking outdoor locations that can easily be used for a campfire area. So now instead of the evil wizard keeping the virgin sacrifice chained up in his temple - he's actually in the process of transporting her there before Cohen interrupts in the only a way barbarian knows how. This will require a little bit of script re-writing but I think it will be well worth it. It still keeps within the genre and will be a very recognisable set-up for the audience, so no humour will be lost. It also means that we're close to power and toilets which is yet another bonus. But wait... we know you want more...
 St. Enochs (as the place is called) and David Bain (the man who owns it) also have a stable that is no longer used that can easily be converted into a tavern. I know this may sound a bit far fetched, but it really is usable. The stalls can (and will) easily be converted into booths, where people can be sitting down and telling stories to one another during the narration. Just hang a few lanterns about the place and whack some tables into the stalls and Bob's your mother's brother. It'll actually end up looking very authentic.
Day 6: Pining for a Sunset
A tale told in two reels
Ladies and gentlemen I present to you, what is (hopefully and yet somewhat depressingly), the last day of location scouting. I rather like location scouting as a general rule. You get to drive around the countryside aimlessly, relax, enjoy the environment, and yet still claim you're doing something pro-active for the film. I think I'm going to really miss this aspect.
Anyway, on Sunday the 3rd of August we started off the day by heading to the O'Connor's shearing shed where we bumped into Rodney McErvale, whose family owns most of the land around the district. After describing to him what we were looking for, Karen and I headed outward to some areas we thought would be useable.
 As it turned out, the first location he gave us was perfect. There's a nice hill in one of his paddocks that has a few dead trees and a forest bordering it. The hill has a natural dip in it where (with the aid of a compass), we discovered the sun sets. There are also apparently 100 odd head of sheep in that paddock (it's pretty big), and Rodney has offered to round them up for us on the day. Effectively this means the end shot is going to be pretty damn impressive.
Picture - if you will - Cohen riding the horse in the final scene and revealing his plans for the immediate future (as in paying a visit to a few troll who embrace the evils of progress and civilization). Continuing forward he plods through a sea of sheep (who scatter), and rides off into the sunset. This last shot (done well) is going to embrace the entire film's story perfectly. I personally can't wait to see it come together at this peak.
We then drove around some more, for scene 8 this time, (Cohen riding to the bridge), looking for any land that didn't contain Australian vegetation. A pretty hard task let me tell you. We finally found (in the heart of Beaufort) an area of pines where the local youth obviously hang out and get drunk and stoned, (as in there were a few car wrecks near by, and I'm sure if I had looked I would have found a shopping trolley with some traffic cones in it).
 Other than that, the area is perfect and very eerie. It kind of made me think of the Pine Barrens in New Jersey, where they say some woman in the 18th century gave birth to a demon child who now (yes, still after all these years) flies about eating kiddies lost in the woods. Do a search on the Jersey Devil... it's actually rather interesting and makes me wonder if it had a small influence on a certain cult witch film.
Oh dear, I've gotten sidetracked.
Anyway, there's a heap of pine trees with more then a few stumps about the place (think of the conversation Cohen has later on the bridge). There's also a good rise we can utilise for the purposes of revealing a massive spiky CG mountain chain, with misty peaks (I can already hear Jared groaning). And then we'll cut to them arriving at the mist-shrouded bridge (thanks to the use of a monolith sized green screening).
It's all come together. It really has.
Daniel Knight |
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