I ended up being able to grab some equipment from the tech desk in building 8 as some people didn’t come to pick up their bookings. I obtained a 6D with a 20 – 70mm f2.8 lens, a Rode shotgun mic and used my tripod. In hindsight I would of gotten a lens with a higher focal length as it was hard to get close to the speakers at this event. It was very different to the last protest in Bendigo, where a wider lens was ideal as I was in among the action. This reassured to me the idea that every situation has different ideal equipment in terms of filming it.

The day didn’t start too well as I missed the bus into town and worried I’d be late. Luckily my brother came around and drove me into town where the protest was held. To my worry I got to the place where it was supposed to be held and there was no one there. Well, except one UPF bogan who told me that everyone had already marched onto Rosiland Park. The UPF had leaders speaking on a stage with their supporters surrounding them, with a barrier of police then surrounding them. The anti-racism groups the Socialist Alliance and No Room For Racism where counter protesting on the other side of the creek, with the police blocking the bridge so there wasn’t any real clashes. I didn’t get much footage of the counter protestors as they were gone within less than an hour of the UPF Rally beginning. For that first hour I didn’t want to go around to the other side of the creek as I didn’t want to miss the start of the UPF rally. Turns out the counter protestors had started early.

Standing in the intense sunny heat and filming extreme right winged racist wasn’t incredibly enjoyable but I got some good footage. Unfortunately I didn’t capture any good interviews in which I planned too. I somewhat regret this now but at the time I felt intimidated by members of the UPF. They knew I wasn’t ‘one of them’ and was swore at  and given the finger a couple of times. In hindsight I should have worn a racist Australian singlet to blend into the crowd. I almost interviewed Radio & TV personality John Saffron at one point but someone stole him from me.

After the protest the UPF dispersed and I hung around for a bit. I captured these three peaceful christian counter protestors holding up signs about love and acceptance be abuse by UPF supporters. Not only did they yell terrible things at these poor people, they grabbed their signed and ripped them to pieces aggressively. It disgusted me to watch and was tempted to do something about it but there really wasn’t anything I could do. Except film.

The shoot was semi successful although I won’t really know the quality of the footage and whether I have enough until I run through it all in the edit suites. I’m booked in today so hopefully I make a good start on the editing stage.

Over and out,

Luke