DAY 1: The chase, Galston Gorge
What a welcome we had to the first day of shoot. 5am in the morning at the Galston Gorge. Our crew arrived to the location and realized the apparent dangers of being on set in the bush. Leaches, snakes, spiders, flies and mosquitoes, the river, not to mention the road to get down the mountain, the 35 degree heat and no bug spray! Production was well underway with in a few hours. Our lack of a stunt team proved to be an issue as our lead actor, Leigh Murray (Matt Shepard), was instructed to glide, slide, run and jump through untamed terrain in search for his co-star and on-screen sister, Ashleigh Cummings (Ally Shepard). Towards the end of the day, costumes and limbs alike were barely in tact. Leigh left the location with a rather embarrassing hole in the crotch of his jeans. Our hearts went to Jessica Arapi (Monique) who was forced to play out the entire scene in heels. And our little Ashleigh fell asleep in the car on the way to the next location.
Oh yes, the day didn’t end there folks. On to Wiseman’s Ferry, 2 hours late. Tension between directors and crew took its toll along with the heat. Months of preparation were proving unfavorable as the conditions of the location were not what they expected. Frustration had it’s moments as one of the directors nearly quit, and cast and crew were exhausted.
While on location, I traveled to a recording studio in Penrith with Rubia Braun, my savior, to meet Kayla Bonnici (Sarah). This young talented singer/song writer and actress captured our hearts as they wrote “Sarah’s Theme”. With Rubia playing piano and Kayla’s voice to match, the song became hit before the nights’ end. Late at night, we all went to bed with much anticipation to show the group the following day.
DAY 2: Back to school.
All seemed bleak from the day before, however, the sun still shined. 32 degrees and we’re sitting in the playground with all our extras. The team was back on track after a night’s rest. Student Producer and actress, Catherine Neasbey (Miss Entwistle), i.e. me, had my hands full with my wonderful history/english/PDHPE class of approx 20 extras. Special mention to13 year old Brendan, who found pulling out his tooth more interesting than learning essay writing on-screen. The entire group was fabulous and ultimately productive. The day ran smooth and on schedule, which was a nice change of pace to the previous day.
DAY 3: Back to school, again.
Young Kayla arrived on set, all bright eyed and ready for action. After filming the first scene in the principle’s office with Jacqui Murray (Principle Cavanagh) and Ashleigh Cummings (Ally), the crew moved on the film the auditorium. With ultimate disappointment, our directors, Jessica Lytton and Ben Richardson, and executive producer, Artur Kade, discovered the curtains in the auditorium to be dark green, rather than the expected black. New lighting had be improvised on set, delaying shoot 1.5 hours and frustrating our cinematographer, Ryan Somerfield, as he and Art spent time relighting the scene to accommodate for the newly discovered colour tones.
At last, the day was complete, the scene was shot, and everyone set off to have a well earned night’s rest.
Cat - Producer
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