(Outtakes from B Roll)
When I joined the group, Luka and Sean already had an artist in mind – Willy Dynamo. The initial issue I encountered was that they wanted to do two music videos which I was dead against – a huge undertaking. We talked a lot and brainstormed. Here are some of our notes:
| PROPS | LOCATIONS | CONCEPT | CHARACTERS |
| Power tools
Garden tools Smoke Machine Bicycles Kids stuff – toys, water soaker, safety trampoline CostumesKarate Outfit x 2Buddha – saffron robeStylePalette – corny Dirk Diggler Boogie Nights look, Kung Fu Hustle comedy. Fighting is stylised comic style perhaps.Maybe black and white in the beginning and comes back in colour? |
Castlemaine Cinema Art Deco LorneBush Mornington Peninsula Two Burmese CatsPrimary SchoolCoburg Lebanese cafesBox HillAsian restaurants, markets, trains, cool underpassLittle BourkeDegraves StreetSt Kilda BridgeSwimming PoolHanging RockVolcano craterEureka TowerDocklandsBars – Section 8, Ferdydurke, Giant MazeBamboo Garden – Willy to run through being chased by someone/henchmen/etc. China Town Arch – water featureInflatable WorldInteriors DojoBoxing ringCoco Cabana – BrazilianWilly Dynamo |
Big personality, super loud, brother, BrazilGuys at the beach – volleyballSkateboarding -Karate – dojo – fighting himself
2nd thought as WILLY DYNAMOWilliam as EVIL WILLYSubtitles telling the
· Dirk Diggler kinda names?
|
Good Willy (Played by Willy Dynamo)Evil Willy (Played by Willy Dynamo / One Sixth)Referee – for both fights (?)Kung Fu Master/Sensei/Buddhist (Played by Daniel San?)The Crew (?)Girl Protagonist (Played by Sora?)3 Baddies ‘The xyz Three’Films for InspirationBoogie NightsKung Fu HustleWillie DynamiteChungking ExpressFoxy Brown |
Eventually, a narrative started to take hold after splurging our ideas about. Sean suggested looking at seventies style movies that Willy based himself on such as Willy Dynamite and Shaft. This soon shifted into movies of the time such as the Bruce Lee movies and we started thinking about Willy doing a Kung Fu fight scene and who he would be fighting. I said I’d write a story and the following week came up with a preliminary draft of Willy fighting his arch nemesis in a dojo – himself or Evil Willy. He gets beaten up, has an epiphany on the way home and later defeats Bad Willy. On my second draft, this evolved to no dojo and Willy getting beaten up by Evil Willy in an alleyway.
With time our roles became apparent. Luka was an obvious choice for doing camera and editing because he, rather modestly, said he had proficient skills (the man is a gun!). I nominated Sean as directed because of his connection with Willy. He agreed, despite having no experience in directing. Melody, who arrived a bit later in our group, offered to assist and procure props. I would shoot B roll and production manage.
To assist with making the experience more manageable, Sean set up a production schedule (prior to me joining the group) which included valuable things like contact details of our crew and a week to week break down of what we should try and achieve (see below:)
Production Schedule
| Week | Task / Item Due | Date | |
| 1 | Orientation | ||
| 1.5 | |||
| 2 | Lock Down and Confirm (with Willy) direction of Video. | Due: 14-11-17 | |
| 2.5 | Story-Board & Shot List | Due: 16-11-17A dot point narrative worked out – Russ | |
| 3 | Collate all Information into Presentation | 22-11-17 Willy Dynamo Album Launch | |
| 3.5 | PB3 (Part 1) Pitch Presentation (15%) | Due: Sean introducing the concept, Melody story, Russell locations, Luka doing visual styling/storyboard. | |
| 25th | Saturday – Shoot? | ||
| 26th | Sunday – Shoot? | Russell can’t do shoot this day | |
| 4 – | 27th | Monday | DAY FOR LOCATION SCOUTING/LOCKDOWN. Russell not available (working). |
| 4.5 | 30th | Thursday | |
| DEC | 2nd | Saturday | |
| 3rd | Sunday | SHOOT CANCELLED | |
| 5 | 4th | Monday | SHOOT CANCELLED |
| 5.5 | 6th | Wednesday | |
| 5.5 | 7th | Thursday | SHOOT (CONFIRMED – BE AT ROSE STREET CAR PARK BY 9 AM) |
| 5.5 | 7th | Thursday | Edit Rough Cut (Afternoon/Evening) |
| 5.5 | 8th | Friday | |
| 6 | 11th | Monday | ROUGH CUT DUE TO PRESENT |
| 6.5 | 14th | Thursday | SHOOT IN ST. KILDA, BIKE SCENE/INFINITY POOL (NOT CONFIRMED) |
| 15th | Friday | FINE CUT DUE TO PRESENT | |
| 6.5 | 14th | Thursday | OVERNIGHT EDIT PROCESS |
| 7 | 18th | Monday | PB3 (Part 2) Video Submission (30%) |
Some of this flew by the wayside as we weren’t always available to meet or to do the shoot. Locations, which were initially going to be in the alleyways of Hosier Lane (which I recce-ed – see earlier post) were shelved for the quieter laneways of Fitzroy. Sean managed to find a car park that was excellent for shooting required scenes.
Shooting was delayed because of the unusual weather conditions on the weekend of the 3rd and 4th December and because of difficulties in locking down the talent to a date and getting him to fulfill that commitment. The only other issue was a crew member not really contributing to the project which did cause tensions within our group.
In the end, we only got one day with Willy (we had planned a second shoot in St Kilda with Willy riding on a low-rider bike) which was a shame because we all had such a good time making it. It would’ve been good to try more experimental aspects time permitting and availability of crew and talent.