A little news report which appeared on WIN TV

The ultimatum (Kanowna - selected scene)

Chomatsu conjures up a devious plan but his ultimatum may have backfired.

Kanowna teaser trailer

For those of you who haven't seen the Kanowna teaser trailer yet, here it is.
Stay tune for more news coming very soon.

Kanowna poster

Hello everyone and sorry for the lack of posts of late, we have been very busy and will be adding more to the blog very soon.  Here is a draft of the Kanowna film poster, Michael and I have already made suggestions for alterations to the designer, but I thought it would be nice for you all to see it anyway.

We are discussing the colour of the title's font and will be posting the options for your feedback in a future post.  If you have any comments about the poster please let us know, we'd love to hear from you.

Happy New Years

Welcome to the year of 'Kanowna'!

Lost in translation

We recorded Chomatsu's opening lines of the film today in Adrian's makeshift studio at his home.  The lines are off-screen and in Japanese, so Ben arranged a Japanese work colleague to come down and ensure that his pronunciation was correct.  He also got the same person to translate the words from English to Japanese.  The result was a Lost In Translation moment where the Japanese translation seemed much longer than what is said in English.  Ben did a great job and we were told it was better than the guy in Hero, it's good Japanese, but a Japanese person would know it isn't being spoken by someone native to the language. 
My last film had German speaking parts and a previous one had Indonesian, on each occasion the actor didn't know the language and had to be coached.  Seems to be a common thread in my films.  As one actor once said to George Lucas, "You can right it, but can you say it"?

Hills Gazette, Nov 14

The Fight

The philosophy behind the fight in this film was to make it a real scrap.  So, in the choreography of the fight we cut out any big arcing punches and added the use of elbows, headbutts.
Ben and Dustin did an amazing job at working out the story within the fight and I focused on the intent for each of them.
Doing the fight in the confined spaces of the set corridor added another dimension to it, having it constrained into the area and it also proved a challenge to film with such a big camera. 
There were a couple scary moments, a couple cuts and bruises, but I think we have a very believable and brutal little scene.
All credit goes to the boys for getting down and dirty, with no complaints, just the desire to make this the best it can be.

Bad Guy

The films 'bad guy', Chomatsu - Ben, who is really a very nice guy.

Kanowna short film - Day 1

Kanowna, day one.  A big day.  I don't think we realised how big an ask the Art Department's job is.  Lots of moving walls, building and dressing.  They did an amazing job and it is really showing on screen.

Working with a baby is always a challenge, but Mathilda did a fantastic job and truely added to scenes by her interaction with Dustin Clare and Peta Sergeant.  She did cry a little, initially, but in the end, there were some magic moments.

Chomastu is the Japanese Terminator!  Ben was fantastic!  The stillness in his shooting scene was great and the knife scene was scary.

Peta and Dustin's reunion was lovely and the shots were great.  My only worry here is the coverage and if scenes where Peta is carrying the stunt baby will cut with Mathilda's.

Dustin's scene with the Doll was awesome.  His guttural yell at the end, is chilling and gives me a good cutting point into the next scene.

Many of these discoveries were made in rehearsal yesterday or on set.  None could be planned for, which is the beauty of film and what I love about the process.

We start at 0700 in Meckering tomorrow!

Dustin Clare in a scene from Kanowna.

Production meeting

We had a production meeting this morning, which was good.  I've been concerned about some areas in the production, but I'm now more confident about where everyone is up to.  There are still a few minor things that need to be sourced, but in general, it is all coming together.  Michael has done a great job getting us to this point and I'm sure he'll get us over the line.
Ben Khaw and I stayed behind after the meeting to chat about Chomatsu and do a little rehearsal.  It was really beneficial, because we made a few new discoveries about him and I was able to get my vision of Chomatsu across to Ben.  Working with Actors is my favourite part of the process, finding the character, tracking their journey and bringing them to life is a most rewarding experience.
Three days to go and there is a little weather concern for Thursday, but there is nothing we can do now.  Fingers crossed!

The cast for Kanowna, the short film

Just to remind everyone who is in Kanowna, the short film.

 

Dustin Clare is playing Trooper Brown. 

Peta Sergeant is playing Osarno. 

Ben Khaw is Chomatsu.

Clarke Richards is Trooper Clarke.

We've got a good group of very talented and eager actors.  The characters are layered which will give the actors a good challenge to breathe them to life.