Australian alpha-male comedy "Blokes" now shooting

[Adrian Van Rossum]

G'day fellow antipodeans - a quick post to share some stills from Australian alpha-male comedy "Blokes" I'm shooting in North Queensland (Think "Kenny" meets "Superbad"). Having a blast seeing a project more than three years in the making come to life. Seems like only yesterday I was putting pen to paper to write the first scene. Just a few more scenes to shoot before we enter post. Our RED One named "Spike" was used for 90% of the shots, with a smaller HD cam used on the car-mounts and steadicam. The trailer is months away, but RED footage screenshots and some behind-the-scenes photos now posted at -

http://www.blokes.net.au/Galleries.htm

A year's worth of camera and post testing has served us well with no major problems to speak of. RED is a learning curve and we've learned a hell of a lot about the joys and limitations of shooting RAW. Look forward to keeping you posted in the months ahead. Apologies if I don't reply to posts immediately as there's still loads to be done to get the film to the film festival circuit. Live the dream ....

[Cail Young]

Hey Adrian, look forward to seeing it!

[Adrian Van Rossum]

Cheers Cail. Ditto for Van Diemen's Land which is getting great press. Particularly liked this interview with director Jonathan Auf Der Heide over at Inside Film -

LINK (http://www.if.com.au/2009/06/25/article/Paul-Cox-inspires-Van-Diemens-Land/PDNEGOYMLQ.html)

Particularly liked this quote -

“Paul gave me the confidence to go out on my own. When I showed him the short film he said there was no reason I couldn’t go out and just make the feature myself rather than wait for a funding body to come along. So he was quite an inspiration for me, and if I didn’t have that conversation with him I would probably be sitting around to this day with the script.”

Similar story on "Blokes" with us going the DIY route. The upside has been no studios to answer to. Sometimes you just have to build your own doors rather than wait for one to open. Looking forward to having a chance to see VDL when we wrap.

[Bayden Docking]

Screenshots look awesome Adrian. Cool BTS too mate. Looks like a top trip. Would have been a blast.

Doc.

[jimhare]

Good on'ya Adrian, can't wait to see it. Love the Cold Chisel CD, I authored two retail DVDs from them a few years back!

[Adrian Van Rossum]

Cheers for the comments guys. The Cold Chisel CD shot is part of a wordplay gag in our 'Logjam' scene shot under one of the utes. It will be a joke mostly lost on the foreign audiences with its reference to one of the most 'blokey' rock bands in Australian history, but I think the domestic audience will get the pun. When we wrap I'm also looking forward to seeing 'Into The Shadows' and its analysis of Australian film distribution. If you haven't seen the trailer, you can check it out here -

LINK (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ28vr7plFI)

Here's to more home-grown!

[Vince Doran]

Here's to more home-grown!

Yeah, Australian films hold some incredible records, Mad Max...held a 20yr rain as top profit ($ for $) film before Blair Witch
Crocodile Dundee still holds the record for most $$$$ for an indie film

Great stuff Adrian, keep up the good work

[Jason Joseph]

Hey Adrian

nice mate, having lived in Queensland for a few years its great to see independent stuff coming out of there. Your handheld rig looks massive.
Did you guys get funding? Hows the Z1 footage holding up next to the RED?

[Adrian Van Rossum]

G'day Jason - Shot a bedroom scene yesterday, which was a lot of fun with the female model up for a laugh. No government funding or industry assistance on this project. We're fully independent - 95% my own money with a few sponsors throwing in a few thousand here and there and giving whatever in-kind and material support they can, which has been refreshing.

I looked into funding assistance a few years back but there was too much red-tape involved and a strong bias towards drama as opposed to comedies on the Australian landscape - even the makers of 'The Castle' opted to go it alone. One funding body even said they wouldn't touch 'Australiana', which makes you question if they are genuinely committed to helping Aussie cinema or busy trying to justify their own existence. Looking back I'm glad there hasn't been any script interference or 'watering-down' of the content, a risk many movies take when they have to pass through funding committees for a green light.

The idea to shoot HDV on the car mounts came from reading workflow whitepapers from "Dust To Glory". Many formats from 35mm in the helicopters to SD for the helmetcams intercut well in that movie. There are some motion blurs when the HDV is converted from interlaced to progressive, but for us it adds to the driving scenes and enhances the feeling of motion and being 'off-road'. Not that a Z1 is disposable, but there's also peace-of-mind knowing you'd be wiping out a $8000 camera on the external car mounts if you hit a tree, cow or razorback - rather than your one and only Red on a remote shoot (for the record, the Z1 did survive the roadtrip north). Scarlet would be a great replacement for the Z1 in these situations. I'm editing on a 2K timeline, so the ingested and converted HDV at 1920 x 1080 progressive doesn't have to be zoomed to far in to fill the frame. Red at 4K Redcode 36 was used for all the dialogue, giving us loads of latitude to push-in to those shots if required. We greycarded every scene, whether it was Red or HDV, to ensure the best possible colour match when we get to the colour-grade. Lots of fun to be had in the months ahead. Keep you posted ...

[Jason Joseph]

woah, refreshing images, Adrian! Yeah i know a fair bit about funding in Queensland, i did some non-film work at the PFTC a few years ago. Heard they went through some major problems last year. Frankly, not surprised. oh well may be you can try for a distribution deal. if you're printing to film don't rule out going to somewhere like thailand or india, its nearly half the price and also doubles as a well deserved holiday :) can't wait to see a trailer

[Adrian Van Rossum]

Thanks for the film printing tip Jason. Initially we are just going to Blu-Ray and entering fesitivals that accept disc or digital based submissions and take it from there. The Blu-Ray workflow tests we did over the past year looked awesome so hopefully that will translate to the big screen with the 2K projectors that are about.

[Joe D'Arcy]

Hi Adrian, hows the editing going? Im looking forward to seeing the film.
I just had a look through your website, your shots look great, what lenses did you use on the RED?
Joe

[Adrian Van Rossum]

Hi Joe

55 minutes of the film rough-cut now with temp soundtrack for now. Taking a break from the edit room until the New Year so I can approach the cut with fresh eyes (and more sleep). 90% of the film was shot with the Red 18-50 zoom.

Another North Queensland movie to look out for in 2010 is the wartime drama Beneath Hill 60 which was shot in Townsville (not sure on what camera though). Spoke to a guy who attended an early screening for investors and he said it's looking pretty good. I think they are shooting for a 140 print Australian release just prior to ANZAC Day.

[paulherrin]

lookin good... can't wait to see it!

[Joe D'Arcy]

Hi Adrian, its good to have a break from it at times. Especially when you have been multi-tasking for some time. Keep us posted with where you are up to.
Joe

[Brian J Wells]

How's the cutting room been since the New Year?

[Adrian Van Rossum]

A few curveballs in my personal life in the New Year so I've had to take a few months break from editing to get a few things sorted. Guess that's what makes this whole filmmaking journey interesting. Will be back on the horse soon if all goes well. I have a new-found respect for anyone who gets a film made, independent or otherwise.