Production Report
Production for Stone Man began on 21 July, 2011, at the Happy Yess in Darwin city. Mike gave an interview on ABC local radio, which helped attract a few extras to the set, and the Jigsaw Collective were there to provide some musical ambience to the scene. It was a great start to the production. Big thanks to everyone involved.
Day 2 of production was at Cullen Bay, where we were able to show off another Darwin icon. Thankfully we got there early and the area was very quiet. We also shot the opening scene at a house in Moil.
Days 3 and 4 were a big deal, one of those times in a production you tend to think, 'This is getting serious'. We had a huge 10x20ft green screen set up at the house in Moil, with our rental car parked in front of it. This is where we shot the last 4-5 minutes of the film, with all the driving and the stone man wreaking havoc in the background. We had to shoot the entire sequence from one angle at a time. The process was: shoot all the scenes with the green screen at the rear corner, then move the car, then shoot all scenes with the green screen at the back, etc. It was hard going at first, but by the end we were all pros and we finished way ahead of schedule.
On Day 5 we finished up at Cullen Bay again, with the yacht scene where everyone was drinking champagne. Conveniently, there was some champagne left over at the end.
At this point our esteemed actor Jesse Richardson flew back to Brisbane, but this was not the end of the production. Before pre-production could commence in earnest we needed to get a few cutaway shots of the yacht sailing across the harbour, and we also had to do some ADR (automated dialogue replacement).
Overall it was an intense, long and thoroughly rewarding 5+ days, and we were all still on good speaking terms by the end. All the cast and crew did a great job, and it was great to have support from the Happy Yess and the Jigsaw Collective.
Thanks, everyone! Until next time...