Thorn Productions presents – Elindil’s Secret

These shoot days were the 1st three days that saw the filming move into interior locations with more substantial dialog. Although there are still a significant amount of action sequences to film, you could say we are now moving into a period of filming that presents the storyline. One of the things that sets independent films apart from big Hollywood type productions in most cases is the story telling.

For the cast and crew, its the storyline of ES that is the essences of the film, without it the film would simply be another 90 minutes of entertainment. Its our hope that the storyline will both entertain you for 90 minutes and also present you with a message of hope that will leave a lasting impression.

There will be no synopsis for internal and/or blue screen shoot days other than to say that each shoot day starts at dawn and concludes at dusk generally in the one location for the entire day.

The Bega Weekend shoot started early Saturday morning with a trail of Silver cars winding their way east and then north to the coastal town of Merrimbula in Southern NSW.

During the trip we scoured the countryside for an interesting looking ridge that would save us a trip to the backbone of Mount Feathertop, but to no avail. We’ll just have to wait for the weather to warm up and the snows to melt.

We setup “camp” at a local Holiday Park before heading to the RSL for a bite of dinner.

Those who had the early morning start were greeted with the special joy of an East Coast sunrise over the water as the cameras rolled capturing those early morning scenes on the beach. Back to base to collect those who had a sleep-in and bacon and eggs breakfast. All the dads were wished a Happy Father’s Day and we set off to the secret location for the day’s shooting.

A few scenes around the edge of the water before those that had to make the jump into the water took their places for the big, and chilly splash. Well done Dave, Cassie and Daniel.

We were done with the shooting in time for some lunch and another leisurely 7 hours in the car plus a stop at the Family Restaurant on the the way home. In total 14 hours of driving for 4.5 hours of shooting!

Synopsis of the weekends events
Day 1:
08:00 – Travel to Merimbula
Day 2:
06:30 – Makeup and Wardrobe, 1st makeup call for cast.
07:00 – Shooting at Location 1, Merimbula for 1 hour.
08:30 – Relocate to Location 2, Bega
10:00 – Shooting at Location 2, Bega for 3.5 hours.
13:30 – A Wrap, then Lunch.
14:00 – Travel Home.

Well, shoot day 7 was always going to be a challenge for various reasons. 1st there was the early morning start, then came the trip to Portsea followed by a long shoot. We then had to travel back to Mt Evelyn, by the time we arrived at location 2 we were 1 hour behind schedule.

Shooting continued while several of us left for location 3 to meet cast there, at this point we found that the call sheet was incorrect. By the time all cast and crew had relocated to location 3, we were a good 2 hours behind schedule. This shoot had its own challenges and we eventually called it a day.

Shoot day 7 presented us with both challenges and some of life’s little lessons. Maybe we tried to push more into the day than was possible, maybe the cast and crew need a break. Regardless of all the challenges this day presented, we did managed to get some excellent footage and someday we will all look back at this day as been just another day in the making of Elindil’s Secret.

Synopsis of the days events
05:00 – Travel to Portsea, 1st makeup call for cast.
06:30 – Makeup and Wardrobe, 1st makeup call for cast.
07:30 – Shooting at location 1, Portsea for 3.5 hours.
11:00 – Relocate to Mt Evelyn and lunch, What is known as Abigail’s cabin.
13:00 – Shooting at location 2, Abigail’s cabin for 2.5 hours.
15:30 – Relocate to Macclesfield, Car scenes.
16:00 – Shooting at location 3 for 1.5 hours.
17:30 – Decided to call it a Wrap, will pickup shots another day.

The 2nd day of shooting started 2 hours prior to sunrise for most of us. The 40-50 minute travel along the Warburton highway through patches of fog with a constant changing sky provided just the right backdrop for an early morning peaceful and tranquil drive.

That was going to change, 1st came the numb fingers of the MUA as she worked on each of the cast applying makeup with a directors chair, a generator, two 500W floods on yellow stands and a picnic ground as the backdrop.

Then came the challenges for the wardrobe area with the make shift change rooms, commonly known as our cars or simply behind a car or tree.

Then the different challenges for the cast, some with normal footwear, others with sandals and one poor cast member with bare feet. All trying to keep their feet from entering the freezing cold water of the Yarra River or avoiding a pampas grass that found several willing victims.

Finally, the camera crew standing in the Yarra River for several hours with only the rubber of our gum boots protecting our feet from the freezing cold water. Not to mention repositioning the camera and tripod countless times whilst ensuring it didn’t go for a swim. Who’s dumb idea was this, gum boots in water that sometimes was up to ones knees.

You could say the morning location presented several challenges for both cast and crew that will be etched firmly in our minds forever.

From here we moved onto some pickup shoots back at Warburton to finish of the shooting from day 5. At least this presented us with no challenges, even the broken jar was still there, No need to break another, Woot! Our final location was to see us return to Emerald and re-shoot the scenes from the previous week. This ran much smoother and the images look much better than the 1st time.

As to the catch phrase “Just One More“. Its going to continue for another 18 shooting days.

Synopsis of the days events
07:00 – Makeup and Wardrobe setup, 1st makeup call for cast.
07:30 – Rest of Crew arrive at location 1.
08:00 – Shooting at location 1, Yarra River for 4 hours.
12:30 – Shooting pickup shoots at location 2, Yarra River for 1.5 hours and lunch.
13:00 – 2nd makeup call for cast to meet at location 3 by 14:15.
14:15 – Shooting at location 3, Emerald for 2.74 hours.
17:00 – Wrap.