The town had one motel. Two pubs. A road running North to South, crossing the road running East to West.
There was a bakery and a coffee shop – although the bakery sold coffee too.
Every person we passed in the street knew each other, so it was obvious we weren’t from around those parts – and on top of that, saying you’re a video production team is a great conversation starter.
We were scheduled to start before dawn, so we’d made note of a couple of landmarks near the location the day before so we could find the small white mailbox again in the dark. The hayfields on the right were 2kms out, the rusty tractor was just before the driveway. If we drove back passed the microwave on the fence post we’ve gone too far.
It was far too early for most people to have started their day, so we couldn’t get coffee from the bakery and the cafe was only open Wednesday thru Sunday. It was Tuesday.
Luckily, the 24hr service station right next to the motel had just what we needed. Fuelled up on double shot espressos we headed off down the road – 30kms or so… it is Australia after all.
Sunlight peaked at us on the horizon of an otherwise overcast day. The colours were fantastic. These were ideal filming conditions.
Many people I film with have never been in front of a camera before, especially in regional towns. I love that the experience of ‘being on a film set’ so to speak can be the most exciting day in someone’s week – and I’m the person who gets to bring that to them.
You can get to know someone quite well in only a few hours – especially when you’ve been probing them with interview questions for half the morning… but when that is all over and they’ve taken a breath of relief (and decided it wasn’t all that bad) the real fun begins.
I get to scratch the surface of a very large number of topics. I get to step into someone’s world, often just for a day, and see how they operate. Watch (and film) the inner workings of their operation or industry.
I love capturing people in the moment, when they’re whole-heartedly focussed on what they do. And for me behind the camera, in my zone, focussing whole heartedly on what I do… well you can probably imagine, that’s one of reasons I love my job!
Regional towns have character that big cities do not have. I must emphasise that it is like stepping into someone’s world when you visit a remote town. You get to visit a tight community that you’ll rarely see in largely populated areas. People might say that every regional town is the same. That couldn’t be farther from the truth.
I painted a picture of perfect filming conditions and rich landscapes greeting us for our shoot that morning. I suppose I should add the part where we experienced unseasonal rainfall half way through the day. Coincidently, only over the farm we were filming on.
No, seriously. That cloud had it in for us.
After many away trips and much travelling, the only constant is, you really can never know what to expect. Every town is unique. Every film shoot is unique. Every scenario you think you’ve experienced a hundred times before… it’s ready to throw you a curve ball.
I think that’s my favourite part.