First Contact The Making Of
A film by Matt Richards, First Contact explores the lives of a father and daughter and the arrival of a mysterious black stranger. Forced together in dramatic circumstances and set in the midst of a bleak landscape - what will happen when these lonely individuals have to engage with one another? And how will these emotions play out in an environment resistant to change?
I've been invited to create this behind-the-scenes blog in the lead up to production, and I'll be making daily video updates from the 8 day shoot with interviews from the cast and crew - all uploaded 400kms out of Melbourne from Lake Tyrell.
* * * DAYS TILL SHOOT: 0 day(s) * * *
Blog by Stefan Raabe
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The film has been cut, and the blog wouldn’t be complete without the trailer!
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Today is our last day out at Lake Tyrell. It’s sad to be leaving such a beautiful place, but nice to know where it is for another trip back someday. Overall everything went to plan as well as it could’ve gone, the weather was perfect, and the crew was great to be around and work with. It’s been great running this blog for such an interesting film, and to see it take shape over the last week - looking forward to seeing it sometime in December.
For now it’s uru to Sea Lake.
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End of day 6, and tomorrow the shoot will wrap for the majority of the crew and cast. The first stills in this vid are by the talented makeup artist Connie G, who flew from Sydney to be part of team, she’s also been collecting many behind the scenes stills for First Contact.
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End day 5
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End day 4
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Uncut - First Contact’s Producer, Brendan, rocking out at Sea Lake hotel on his birthday, featuring Olaf on wine bottle and chair.
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End day 3
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End of day 2
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End day 1
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The entire crew of about 16 are now all together up at Sea Lake.
Tomorrow will be an early start with a dawn shoot planned, so for now it’s showers, hot dinners, a few cold beers and a lot of rest.
Anyone who would like to help support the film with a small donation can still do so through Matt’s Pozible page:
http://www.pozible.com.au/index.php/archive/index/1203/description/0/0
Check back tomorrow for a behind the scenes look into the opening shot of First Contact, which is planning to be filmed from the dingy on the lake itself.
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We made the drive to Sea Lake (including flat tyre, fixed for $30) and stopped at every opshop on the way to scavenge anything extra for costume/props.
The whole crew will be joining us tomorrow (Thursday) with shooting set to begin Friday morning.
Caravans are in position, and Art Department are putting in final touches.
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Latest news from behind the scenes, is sound recordist Jim Walter from The Wilderness Collective will be joining the team and actors are all locked in, including the last cast member to be confirmed - the mysterious stranger, who is remaining mysterious for now “Our mystery man is now re-cast and suitably renamed and background story redrafted. I am very excited by the change in dynamic. He’ll be remaining a mystery so I won’t say any more” was as much as Matt was prepared to say.
And also, Matt Wood has been confirmed as DOP, above is a trailer from a short he shot.
One week till cameras start rolling up at Sea Lake.
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This week I invited myself to John Nguyen’s studio where he’s been creating some pretty intense soundscapes for First Contact.
He kindly let me use some of his work-in-progress for this 2nd episode as a taster – and seeing how much time he’s already put in, I’m guessing he’ll be crafting something even more impressive for the final.
2 weeks till shooting begins.
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We travelled up to the lake last weekend on a reccie, and stayed at the local hotel overnight. It was a chance for the actors and art department to have a look at the space, and after meeting some super helpful locals, things turned out pretty good. The drive was long, the landscape picturesque, and the location looks perfect - not a bad place to be for a week in September. Here’s the first video for the blog!
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Sea Lake reccie this weekend
Heads of department are making the trip up to Lake Tyrell tomorrow, I’ll be joining to see if this idea of uploading video 400k out of melbourne is really doable… Looking forward to tagging along and grabbing some footage for the blog. Should have something uploaded by this time next week…
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