Would you like to hear a story…

…So I finally managed to see Australia; and was lucky enough to watch it in the outdoor cinema which inspired the design of the cinema portrayed in said film.



I've now seen the film a second time in preth, and am still unsure of how I feel about it...

overall I quite like the film (it's certianly much better than the press is making out).

on to other things...

we've now moved onto the Perth leg of our shoot...

soon I'll be back in Brisbane, wondering what to do with my life...



interesting weed whilst wandering around Broome...

If it seems like this post has been a little scatter-brained; it's cause that's how I currently feel...

'till next time.

Ian

travelling...

...from Broome to Perth on wrap today.

unsure of my internet access at the new accommodation.

will post more nice piccies next time.

Ian

Week 3...

…hot, hard, over!

Notable things:
This past week in Broome we were shooting nights; I almost quit mid-week (not going to go into it all here, but things are a little better), and I’ve spent yet another weekend in recovery mode (switching back to days).

I missed the ‘Australia’ Premiere in Sydney on Tuesday. Unfortunately I also missed the screening in Kununurra (10hr drive away), and in Broome on Thursday (for Brandon’s family, and some crew members – as there are a few of us up here). Subsequently I don’t know if I’ll be able to see the film before I fly to Perth on the 6th of December.

Storm-clouds moved in this afternoon and even gave a fine misting of precipitation in places; fingers crossed it’ll hold off for a few more weeks…

Most of the coming week will be spent indoors with some of the larger musical numbers…

I should be home for Christmas.

The heat is sending me mad – anyone up for a skiing trip to Japan at the end of January? (Seriously… anyone?)

Best wishes to everyone in Brisbane, hope you’re all coping with the storms…

Photo-time


Camera on a cherry-picker




On-set #1




On-set #2




Weekly sunset shot #3

‘till next time,

Ian

week 2...

...is finished

Nothing more to say really;

The heat is still kicking my arse mid-week; and once again I find myself at the end of a weekend spent in recovery mode.

Most of the week we were shooting on a low-loader. It’s a trailer, which allows you to put actors in a vehicle and film them as if they were driving.

Upsides – very little booming is possible, and you spend most of your day sitting down…

Downsides – very little booming is possible, and you spend most of your day sitting down… On a camera box in the sun, whilst diesel exhaust-fumes waft by, and you’re safety harness gets in the way.

Picture time.


Red-dust/sun-burn combo at the end of a regular day.




Picture-car on low-loader. (In this particular set-up the camera is sitting in the front passengers’ seat shooting towards the back)




Alternate angle on the low-loader




view from my exhaust seat on the back of the towing vehicle




Weekly sunset shot #2




Filming in downtown Broome, WA (set to resemble 1960’s)




This past saturday, I went down to the lighthouse cliffs, to see if I could take a photo or two of the “dinosaur footprints”




Concrete representation of said footprints (the real ones are only visible during very low-tide)




This might be one of the real ones… or not… it’s kind of hard to tell without a compass.




Pretty, late-afternoon sun on the cliffs




Another shot of the rock cliffs




Cliff-rocks #3




One of the many tourists searching frantically for the dino-print before the tide came back up and the sun went down…


‘till next time
Ian

Pretty Sunsets...

Are the norm, up here in Broome, WA

It is also, bloody hot during the day, (almost passed out on Tuesday, and Wednesday…)

We shot nights on Thu/Fri which allowed for a little reprieve from the heat, and the crew is starting to find it’s own rhythm; so things are looking up.

Here’s a few more photos…


Flight from Perth to Broome




Coast-guard chopper at the Broome Airport




Cable Beach, near our accommodation.




Which looks like this…




One more shot of the sunset at cable beach



'till next time, Ian

untitled...

I'm Back...

...and quite ill.

3 things happened on my trip to Mt Hutt, NZ


1 - I'll never return to that mountain - weather/road access/dis-interested staff

2 - I really want to return to a ski-life, nothing can deter my love of the sport (even 90+km/hr winds)

3 - most of my party were struck with an amazingly bad form of the flu...

am now nursing myself back to semi-health, and deciding what I want to do with the remainder of my life...

Ski'n Ian

P.S. the above photo is one of only 5 that I managed to take at Mt Hutt. During the GOOD weather I was focussed on skiing, and when the weather went BAD... well I was nearly frostbitten taking the above shot.

I also submit the following video for your perusal - it's BIG (no idea how to reduce it's size, I may look into it and modify later), and advance appologies for the shocking audio quality (it's pretty much the worst wind recording I've ever made :)

gone skiin'...

...and it's going to ROCK

best snowfall at Mt Hutt in YEARS.

I'll be gone from 9th - 17th Aug, and unavailable until the 20th.

more information when I can.

Ian

This is the end...

…my friends, the end…

I’m officially un-employed again.

What a wild ride it’s been. Almost 14 months to the day that I left Brisbane; I’ll be returning.

The mighty flu hit me at full force and reduced my fitness efforts to an abysmal lack of movement and over-eating. Combined with my love of good coffee – it has resulted in my current pudgy-ness.

I am however on the path to redemption – 6 ½ weeks and counting… I have a goal, and it’s to NOT hurt myself on the ski-trip.




The final few weeks of shooting were entirely dedicated to Stunts and special fx/title sequences: which should go some-way to showing the film-makers commitment to making a “massive mega-budget-action-film TM”

There were some days when we had over 420 people on-set to help recreate various wars (main unit was much smaller), and it was one of those few times when the sound department could relax and watch all the big ‘splosions; as none of our work will make it through the various stages of post-production and onto a movie screen (it’s nice and noisy; however it lacks the "punch" required, and will be re-created later…); still ‘twas damn fun to watch.

As stated above – I’m heading home. It’s been too long, and I need to spend some time up in Brisbane sorting out some stuff before jetting off to NZ for the ski holiday (Mt Hutt has snow! – one of the few places in the southern hemisphere that does at the moment).


See you all soon.

Skiin’ian


P.S. as per usual, I'm lazy, so the above post is from early last week - I'm actually in Brisbane right now - it's nice and sunny up here, and my commitments are pretty low right now, so feel free to contact me with times to catch-up.

best contact is the mobile phone.

happiness is...

- Sunrise Photos of the opera house

- Ordering new skates (technically happiness would be USING the new skates, but...)

- Movies

- Replacing some U2 albums that were stolen many years ago


All in all it's been a good day

On the work front - I'm recording 2nd Unit for the next two weeks.
Still unsure of my finish-date, as it all depends on whether I’ll be re-joining the main-unit (when it down-sizes into 2nd Unit… it’s all a little confusing to explain); or moving onto another project.
Either way it’s unlikely that I’ll be back in Brisbane before June.

more photos

the actual sunrise...




I'm pretty sure this is one of the water taxis that the production use to ferry crew across the harbour; poor buggers must've been returning from last night's work...




reflections are cool




phone-booth...




Circular Quay...




and the harbour bridge...



See ya

Ian

another month...

...another 4 paycheques? ...another lunar cycle? ...another...ummm, nevermind

so what's happened in the last month or two?

I suppose the biggest news is that I'm going skiing again. the flights are booked, accommodation and hiring of cars is sorted, and lift-tickets reserved.

look out mt hutt (I know; i should really look into a bit of variety). for 5 days during the 9th - 16th August 2008 - you're mine... again.

(it seems a little strange that I started this blog in late 2006 with mention of my upcoming ski-trip, and now I'm embarking on another - to the same location no less)

what else has happened

apple.com (via i-tunes) has launched the set-to-screen series. for the feature film AUSTRALIA

for proof that I actually worked on the darn thing, and wasn't on a nine-month sabbatical - check out the pod-cast on stills photography at the 1:20 mark - I'm the boomie in the camo-shorts on the left of frame. that was the last day (almost sunset too) out at diggers rest near kununurra WA, with main unit... fun times

not exactly the most auspicious beginnings on the internet, I know; but still, 'tis interesting to finally see something about the film; it's going to be special...

things are still going well on the current project; we've moved into night shoots on an island in sydney harbour, and it's no where near as bad as first thought.

there's sound to be recorded as the original issues (reverb/planes/traffic/boat noise/birds/rain) have reduced themselves to be at least workable.

It has of course been raining non-stop (well partially non-stop :)) for almost 2 weeks now, and it's getting a LITTLE tedious having to drag ourselves up to work yet another rainy evening... at least we've been indoors

Unfortunately the boom op injured himself and has been replaced temporarily; also the original sound recordist (whom, I worked with on the last film) has returned home for some long-overdue family time, and also been replaced (with our 2nd unit recordist).

I'm waiting for fate to step in and render me either lame or stricken with something that will remove me from filming (everything happens in threes...); but so far I've been lucky enough to only get a bout of pre-winter cold and flu, nothing too serious.

nothing else to report really; I've been working. I've also been working at night - and therefore improving my coffee-making-skills exponentially.

until next time

see ya

skiin'ian (woo hoo, i can finally use the nick-name again)

Sweet as...

…nothing… It’s not a full sentence; and yet it can sum up so much. equivalent to; cool, no worries, and OK; “Sweet as” has a multitude of uses.

In NZ it covers everything.

The main unit is now in the process of shipping its-self back to Sydney for a few months. 2nd Unit remains on the south island shooting the jaw-dropping effects sequences that will surely astound audiences in May 2009.

I would have posted more often; if I were actually taking photos… It’s weird; but I feel more inclined to post on the blog, if I’ve taken a bunch of photos.
The job was not conducive to taking photos; hence the lack of posts…

Also, I stop taking photos once I’ve hit what I feel is my artistic limit (this is something that I can’t explain; and even more of a concern than the no-photo = no-post)

I hit it VERY early in the trip, and the following photo is my own personal pinnacle…



It’s a view from the hike I took up Queenstown gondola. And if I may say so – one of the best I’ve ever taken…

Ok, time to sign off.

Ian

P.S. I’ve had a few very nice emails requesting information and photos, and thought I should point out that I’m not able to take any photos of the set. I’d be fired for sharing ANY information about the film (including photos); it’s just not worth the repercussions.


P.P.S The t-shirt was one of my few indulgences during the brief trip to NZ. I'd seen it in a Queenstown store, promised myself to purchase on a day off; and never got around to it. By the time I'd searched and failed to find it in Dunedin, my heart sank. it was an absolute fluke that Christchurch international airport has a global cultures store... and that they had one of the shirts in stock.

art is cool...

...and so is Dunedin.

their public art gallery has a nice exhibit at the moment. Elizabeth Thomson's (no relation) "my hi-fi, my sci-fi".

Also on display is Monet's "le debacle" which is pretty impressive.

check it out, if you're in town.

If you do happen to be in town; there's a good chance that you're either:
1 - a student who's about to start classes (Dunedin is a MAJOR university town with over 20,000 students expected in a weeks time);
2 - Here for the MASTERS games (there's almost 8000 people expected)
3 - Possibly off a cruise ship, on your way to Antarctica?

Dunedin is a surprising little town, good food, a nice vibe, and a familiar climate for those who enjoy the cold.


we're back in town for a little while, shooting in the forests about an hour out of town (the pine trees feel surprisingly canadian, which always makes me happy), and closer to the city in an old cement works.

speaking of work, it's all going quite well.

don't know why I seem surprised; as we've got a fantastic crew, and amazing scenery - what more could you ask for.

the differences between this film and the last are as numerous as they are massive.

Not that either one was the correct way to do things, but it's almost a holiday to return to the regularly structured form of shooting feature films; and our pace has been a nice contrast as well.

One thing that has made me really happy is how good the local crew are; I was always expecting good things (i mean, c'mon; lord of the rings...), but damn... they've got the logistics of shooting in remote areas well and truly sorted. Everyone is really friendly, and it's got a chilled vibe that doesn't usually happen on bigger productions. it's almost enough to make me want to move here...

I'm having a small issue getting used to our lead actor's accent though... after 9 months of hearing him speak with a hearty Aussie tone, it's a little disconcerting to hear some northern american coming out. Then again, his previous character didn't have claws either...

Photo time...


from the top of the queenstown gondola (which I hiked up, then caught down...)

The photo at the headd of this post is from a small side-trip to the otago-coast

catch you soon

Ian

been busy bro...

NZ is good, more photos of the landscape are coming; when I get a chance to sift through and pick the good ones...

see ya;

Ian

crossing the ditch...

this time tomorrow I'll be sitting in Queenstown, hopefully with some kind of beverage in my hand; contemplating the next month of location shooting...

photos may be posted; we'll see.

Ian