I’ve just returned from a nine day trip to Auckland, culminating in a three day shoot that finished on Sunday night.
The film is called Silence about a guy who records and catalogues silences, believing that every silence is different – a tranquil silence, for example, couldn't be more different to an awkward silence.
It was a very intense few days of pre-production and shooting. The 12:12 films so far have varied in size and complexity and this was a big one, requiring a number of actors and several locations – a logistical double whammy. Plus, I didn’t really have a producer, so in the days leading up to the shoot I was running around like a madman being chased by a headless chicken – scouting locations, meeting with crew, doing wardrobe fittings, writing shoot schedules and sourcing props. Lesson: have a producer.
Pulling something of this size off successfully meant calling on the full Winlove massive. This was a big part of the appeal of shooting in Auckland – there’s a bit of a Winlove surplus there. In key roles were the three brothers – Todd as cinematographer, Toby as production designer and Benn as catering. On top of that we had parents and nephews and nieces stepping in on both sides of the camera.
Playing the lead role of Dale was Geoff Allen, an actor I found through the very generous Robyn and Hannah from Auckland Actors. Geoff was brilliant – he nailed the part and was a lot of fun to have along on the shoot. He was absolutely perfect for the role of our eccentric protagonist.
We shot all over Auckland – on a remote lake, on a motorway overpass, at a derelict house, at an Opera theatre and all over the streets of Mt Albert. We roped in several of Todd’s neighbours who were all great sports. It’s amazing how open and generous people can be in these situations.
Our biggest obstacle was the weather. It was impossibly erratic for the three days we were shooting, changing from blue sky to grey cloud to horizontal rain in the space of minutes. And it was cold. But we forged on and bit by bit we got everything we needed – finishing at 9pm on the last day.
I’ve seen some of the footage since and it looks amazing. I’ll put up some screen grabs of the actual footage shortly.
Big thanks to everyone who was involved.