RADIO PIRATES ,,,,, THE MOVIE

Some Time ago Craig Newland approached me over the Phone . He wanted to Shoot a concept trailer for a script he had written to prove to investors that he could direct it ........  It was called 'Radio Pirates' .

      I was interested in the story and the music of the 60's would be good ,,,,,, But I would shoot the Trailer for him ,,,, Only if it was on the RED camera ...

                  I suppose I thought it would go away like so many do ... But he kept plugging away and Plugging away ... 

 I had just returned From shooting a TV movie in Canada and was looking for that Deep sleep REST that always happens after a movie  ,,, I didn't get that ,,, I just got another week shooting the movie........ So I was in TV movie mode ,,, moving along ,,, We shot Over 100 setups in the 4& a half days of Filming and a Bit of fun was had by all . I hope .

  THANK YOU ALL ......... GRIBS ,

Special thanks to Patrice ,,, His assistant gets the award for the most spunky assistant of the Film ..,,, Although Milan's Assistant came a close 2nd .

CONCEPT TRAILER FOR ,,, RADIO PIRATES

Patrice is Thinking ,,, He speaks such bad french ,,, cant understand a word he says !

ANDY is Thinking ,,, How the Hell did I let myself get talked into this ,,,!!!!!!!!!

 

       How luck we were to get such a professional bunch of people to work on this Film ,,, What a Break to Get Andy as his First AD . The Call sheet were Proper Movie call sheets , the Office  organization was first class along with Script

 supervising , the Wardrobe was Spot on ( except for one time we had 2 many green dresses ,, LOL) Hair & make up did a Fab job , The sets LOOKED wonderful ... Grips & Gaffer were up there with the Best ,,,, The Gaffer was French/Oz & the Grip German/Oz , the Steadicam was Czech/Oz   already you have more nationalities than there were in Brisbane when I was a Kid .

 The enthusiastic Props & Set dressing people , The diligent Sound department ,,,,,,, The Actors gave their All ,,, ( bloody hell I am going to get in the Shit if I forget some one ) and I will . Oh Yeh the Stand ins were out Standing in their Field ....... Oh Yes Bren & Tony & Paul ,,, A great team ,,, Well done .

  I felt like we could just go on and keep shooting the Movie ,,,

 Boy this is such a suck up it should be an article in American Cinematographer Magazine .

                                                                                                                                                                   Last But not least was Craigs Determination and integrity of  'Putting his Money where his mouth is'  It was commendable ,,,,,, A lot of people go around talking about ,,, "I am going to write and Direct this Movie and Direct this Short Film " Very Few of them Spend their own Money ........

 

                 Hang on What the Fuck am I saying ,,, We didnt get paid ,,, So actually he is also putting Our Money where his mouth is LOL LOL LOL .

DAY1 Scene 32 Here we are at the REDCLIFF Beach for our First set up BUT .........

There we all were at the Beach ,,, The sun was shining  ( after Giant Brisbane Storms ) It was a clear day , the crew were all there then we had one of those  ,,, Why is the camera taking so long moments ... With Films like this were there is no Pre for the Gear ,,, The Camera was from Sydney the steadicam from Brisbane ,,,,,, It was all about Different mat box configuration not fitting on  etc etc ,,, and then Milan didnt think we would want the Iris control working so back to the drawing board ,,, It all got sorted pretty quickly .

The Good thing was that Craig could take a few moments to chat to the actors about the emotion they should be feeling for this scene ,, 

Then we were doing our First shot of the Film.

CRAIG WAS DIRECTING HIS FILM ... At last .

DAY1 Scene 32. First Shot of the film was a L to R move along a HOT sunrise horizon to Find 2 people walking & then swinging around in Front of Them

This was a good test for the camera ,, I did a one Stop Iris pull to give the Hot horizon a bit more detail ,,, It looked Good and handled the situation . This a strenuous move for Milan ,,, the REd is quite heavy ,,, heaver than other digital or Video Sony cameras that Milan might have been used to ,,, But he got it done after a few takes ,,, One of the Things I hate is centered 16:9 and most steadicam operators will centre the first offering ,,,,,, We sorted that out and things were good .

Craig was able to keep tabs on what the camera was doing with a hand held monitor ,,, even though they are sometimes not to bright to view .

DAY1 Scene 32 The second Version for an opening was looking down the beach between them and Pulling Back out to find them .

Milan had to move pretty fast backwards for this shot ...... It looked good .

There is one thing that is the same with the red camera and Film cameras ,,, You can see Fuck all on the monitors , Always a problem in Bright Summer Sun .

 It was Nice to work with such a nice bunch of Actors and Crew who are interested in everything you say ,,, Like here I am telling that If I put lots of white UV cream on my Face I wont look so much like a old dude ,,,,,, You can see by their faces how interested everyone is ..... 

Day 1 Scene 32 .We Then covered the Actors in a tighter 2 Shot ,,, Straight in ,,, as a Lot of the dialogue was Looking straight ahead

Milan was starting to look a little sweaty by now ,,, I don't know if he knew he was going to have to work so hard on a short Film ,,,

         Steadicam  in the sand is harder than on a nice hard surface ,,, Paticularly when you have someone telling you to move and be at certain positions in fast time , I cant imagine who it was that was telling him  these things . But he got the job done and didnt complain ,,, Just started to sweat and look a little pale at the end , I think he might have been glad when the beach scene was over . Then he could rest .

 Once again how wonderful of him to offer his services ,, without charge ,,, and what a spunky assistant 

DAY1 Scene 32. We did two overs ,,, because we could easily with Steadicam ,,, We did Richards first . Sun was getting a Bit to high

Check out the earlier Shot of Lindsay before the light got to high ,,, You can see the Light is in his eyes and a Huge improvement ,,, Good reason for getting up earlier on a REAL shoot .
 On a Movie we would have started about 2 hours earlier than we did ( a hell of a thing to do to  new  crew on the First day ) ,, When the sun was just peeping over the Horizon , doing the wide towards the Sea and then the Straight in Cover and CU Over's  looking west , leaving the Ladies CU back lit and the sun by then would be high enough to be out of the lens .. 

       The Director was happy with just the Straight in coverage ,,, But I thought it might be a case of just one take each on the overs so he could see what they are like in the edit , may as well learn as much as you can ....  I didnt like the Light on Richards CU as it was getting tooo high ,,,( If you have to Go flat Light with the sun behind you ,,, It is almost bearable if the Sun is very low having just risen with maybe a shadow or two giving it contrast )  And  the reverse Cu on Judy had a bit of light cloud defusing the backlight ,,, not ideal ,,, But we needed to move on ,,, had a lot to do ,,, on DAY one .

Here I was Thinking " I suppose If I hide my face in this thick UV cream the Girls coming down the Beach wont notice I am such an OLD Dude  ,,,, It Didnt work ... they were wondering who the Old due was with White cream all over his face ,,, Oh well back to Cinematography .

DAY1 Scene 32 The Last Shot on the Beach was on the 300mm 0n the Steadicam ,,, Yes I said Steadicam

      

 To Save time demounting the RED from the Steadicam we used it in a apple box and a C stand & Bren to steady it ,,, No

movement required ,,, And we attracted a few Seagulls for the compulsory beach seagull wide shot  It all worked and we were

 packing up before we knew it ,,, And on our way to Caboolture aerodrome ............

 

As we left I noticed some weird people doing sound recordings of Dolphins talking 

Next time I do one of these Short Films I want a Assistant Like Milan had with him ,,,, Sorry Tony .......... And I bet she got him coffee .

We all Finally all get to The aerodrome at caboolture about a 45 minute Drive from Redcliff Beach.. Some Still looking for Coffee.

Craig had intended to Shoot the Scene out side where there was an old plane , I was hoping he could be convinced to take it inside the Hanger away from the Ugly Now Vertical Summer Sunlight ,,,,,,,,,, It was resolved by  the Fact that the Plane was not where it was before and without it ,,,It looked boring .

  Bren and Tony were raring to go,,, as There was a lot of Steady cam at the Beach ,,,,, So we set up a Tracking shot moving forward to the Two guys ,,, We covered a couple of set CU's in that position as well ... This was mostly on the REd 18 to 50 Zoom .

CRAIG WAS Looking Relaxed after the NO (big) PROBLEMS Beach shoot .

Day1 We did CU's of each of the Guys

I didn't use any Lighting on the interiors ,,, choosing to go with the Natural Soft light from the Big doors ,,, I control this easily by closing and opening them until I get the desired lighting ,,, It works a treat ,,, I had to do this years ago when the generator failed on a shoot and I knew it would work again ,,, 

          As we Tracked towards them From a Wide ,,, They came out of the shadows ending up in a close two shot ,,, Nicely lit ,,, The Camera Handeled the opening dark Shot well .

 We Changed to the 25 to 250 HR Zoom for the close ups ,,,,,,,,,, They Look Good .

EVEN ON THE MONITOR .......

CRAIG selected a Nice Tight CU of Michael and the Walk up to this Long lens wide open Gives Tony his First real test of the Day 

DAY1 Even Though Bren and Borris hadn't had a coffee they had a Great IDEA ,,,, LUNCH

Day1,,,,, Lots Of Interesting Things in That Hanger

THE Sign DID say Sit and there were steps up to it , SO 

DAY1 In the Hanger After LUNCH for the Reverse ,, We are a Bit behind Schedule

It was a Fantastic Lighting Opportunity , I used the Large sliding Doors as Soft Light Cutters again ... The Best ,,, Between the First and the Second Photo you can see how you can control the Soft light ,,, It was Cool and it looked Great on the RED monitors and Through the camera ........