Saturday 19 May 2012

Lair

We shot ‘Lair’ in the ruins of the old Mental Home, a secure facility for the criminally insane near Wyee NSW. The place has been trashed and heavily graffitied , plus it is a perfect ready made set for a movie. It was finished earlier this year and it recently won first prize in our film club's first open competition of the year. Renee Mondy is our sole actor in this one and she does a first fate job as usual under trying circumstances. The damaged buildings and trashed surrounds plus the eerie solitude of the place does give a certain creepiness to our film. I was taken by the graffiti - it seems to be watching, a sort of evil knowing witness. And as luck would have it there was just enough on site for us to complete a story - although, we filmed over a few days ( weeks and months apart ) and some of our featured graffiti would get painted over...I had some old footage of an extreme close up of a camp fire and I used this in our opening credits and end titles - to give our titles a distinctive look. Then I passed the ball to Ian Huish ( a great friend and collaborator ) and Ian provided: the wonderful creepy music; colour grading; sound effects; the animation on the faces of the graffiti; the Devil and fire effects; plus a ton of very helpful advice on this project. He was very much an ace up my sleeve. Thanks man. Lair also represents a very different type of story for me, I usually make short comedies or documentaries and this was my very first drama. We were very pleased with the end result and I think in time I'll have a go at a few more stories with an edge....( queue the crazed laughter...)