IT’S A WRAP

On the weekend we drove back to Gunnamatta and had another go, but it clouded over, it started raining, somebody went AWOL, the whole thing went to buggery and we shot nothing. 

On the drive back, I was speeding with everyone and everything packed into one hire van, maybe a little drunk, when the cops passed and turned to follow us. I steered into a side street and we were all very quiet as we hid for five minutes in someone’s driveway in Mordialloc.

With nothing at all done at the beach again, we stuck to schedule, arriving to film at the Anzac memorial around sunset on Monday evening. Finding it too dark and hard to light, we moved to Labassa Mansion in Balaclava and lit the glass front doors from within for the lightning effect when Tim to opens Frank’s door. 

Something else in the can, and another detail missed - Frank was supposed to catch another note telling him to follow Dumaine, but I messed up and it didn't matter in the long run.

Tobscha Learner and Richard Stringer built the Janus armour for Tim and Nessa. Frank intended to wear a black velvet jacket with a fine gold thread I wish I still had that jacket, it was amazing), my gold leather tie and his own hair, in disguise as required. 

The costumes were ready for the big night shoot in the city. After a day of recuperation, we arrived at the abandoned building on King Street in the city, without permission from anyone.

We intended to film the meeting with Janus, the killing of Janus and Nessa’s big crying scene. Tobscha knew Sharon and they arrived with the armour to help with costumes.

Successive night shoots had taken their toll and the task of carrying equipment up an open staircase to the third floor, running cables for lights and generators, etc. became too much. Exhausted, the crew continued setting up, but we had generator problems and everything slowed down terribly, like miners working underwater in the deep.

I saw Rob laying sound wires and Paul and John feeding cables up the stairs to the third floor of a building that huge holes in the floor, and as I realized things were going swiftly off the rails I wondered what I had let them all in for. I felt guilty, and I think it was after 2am when Sharon said she was bailing out.

The whole thing fell apart as she walked away down King Street. The crew obediently packed up and we retreated from the building at about 4am without shooting a frame. Sharon did not return for any further shooting. Matthew and her went back to Wagga and I never heard from either of them again.

AFTER THE DISASTROUS NIGHT SHOOT, CAROLE BARBERIS AND ANNE GIBSON LEFT NOTES WONDERING WHAT HAD HAPPENED TO ME. CAROLE'S FINAL MESSAGE WAS WRITTEN ON THE BACK OF A "DEAD CAN DANCE" POSTER.

Days passed before Mark Atkin suggested asking Adam Nankervis to replace Sharon. The kid could act, he was good looking and he was into it.

With a skeleton crew of Paul, John and maybe somebody else, we returned to Gunnamatta Beach for a third attempt. We kept the "Beau Geste" marching up and down sand dunes to a minimum and Vanessa, Tim and Frank were very confident and relaxed, having rehearsed the whole thing twice before. The weather held and all the set-ups went well. 

We shot the whole scene in sequence and ended with their long walk away. That final speech from Vanessa was completed on the first take, and her performance was on the money.

As they walked away, Vanessa turned back to camera and I waved her on, wanting to hold the moment, and then Tim turned also, and we cut soon after that and went home with some light still in the sky, which I'd begun to realize was a very good sign.

Back in Hawthorn, we picked-up all of the city stuff over one long night in my backyard, a claustrophobic maze of dilapidated wooden fences and alleyways with long grass, cobblestones and low trees.

Using the pharmacy toilet door for the entrance to Janus’s room, Frank got a ride in the wheelchair from Tim and Tim got to play assassin, and the picket fence from the lounge was returned to where it was found to be used as a cucalorus for Nessa’s big climax.

The costume armour that Tobscha and Richard had made incorporated a bird inside a cage, representing a natal bump. The bird was a white dove, and it was handled very carefully. 

Adam’s flaming head was done with a clay armature, burning latex and toilet paper and a spray can of gold paint. It was a very late night, but with no travelling, no hitches and no cops. I became very pragmatic about locations.

We returned to Red Bluff to shoot anything we’d missed at Gunnamatta. It was a very cold damp day, with grim clouds and late afternoon light. 

Vanessa drew her magic circle on the ground, and she was incredibly brave and took a dive in a freezing Port Phillip Bay for the sake of a few seconds of screen time, which was later optically-printed in reverse motion.

Paul grovelled in the mud to get the shot of Frank’s dummy falling out of thin air on fishing line, and I took the shot of the empty chair in silhouette, solitary against the final light of the day.

Back home, I shot the title sequence in the chaos of the lounge room. I cut tall gothic letters out of black paper, gaffer taped them to a tabletop and backlit the words with a redhead. I did several passes with the Bolex, and some double exposures.

The next afternoon we threw Frank’s dummy off the roof of 764 and caught it on film before it smashed on the concrete. 

There had always been two chairs, and Frank had carried them everywhere, just in case somebody needed to sit down. Now there was only one left.

We clad the walls of the lounge room with tinfoil and completed dolly shots following Frank down the hallway and into the lounge. This shot begins with another example of Frank's excellent use of physical space, in the way he staggers and catches himself against the narrow walls. 

Nessa put on the dress again, wore scary make-up and teased her hair. She made a great white witch. I recall Paul shot the close-up of Nessa lunging upwards into close-up, and I wish I could be certain as to why I felt so jealous of him and so possessive of her, because I loved them both.

We used the drum full of keys to make the return of the keys shots, sliding them down a length of old guttering to create the torrential stream of keys. 

We stripped most of the tinfoil off the walls of the lounge and made up Adam Nankervis in a layer of latex and toilet paper to make him look really old - well, that was the idea. Maybe he just looks like a guy who's had a drastic face peel.

Paul shot the scene of Adam delivering some over-the-top expositional dialogue to Frank. I recall this because Paul and I got Frank to laugh out loud at the line "What's so funny?" by tickling him.

On the final afternoon of filming, Tim and Vanessa came with me to the Boulevard to shoot their kisses. We made a picnic of it, and took along the little white dove that Nessa carried inside a small cage. 

I operated the clockwork Bolex, the sun was low and the light was brilliant. They were both wonderful, and they’ll always be that beautiful.

When I saw the footage on the Steenbeck, I noticed an interesting flash frame of an empty picnic basket and the little dove in the birdcage that Nessa had carried inside her armour. 

We set the bird free on that final afternoon, and this single image seemed to capture the story of their characters, the dream of the locksmith and the gatekeeper, and the memory of making this tiny little film that was about to be set free itself.