I Escaped From KFC

This film was shot at Barnsley NSW by good friend and collaborator Mark Owens, and features a rather strange bird called Cocko, a female Australian white cockatoo. Cocko was owned by an elderly gentleman who sadl passed away. She was very distressed and deliberately pulled out all of her feathers. By the time we had filmed her she was back with a new owner, her spirits had lifted and she was ready to dance again. And what a sight Cocko is, she looks like your lunch is dancing for you! The music for our film is by Jason Paris. Jason has provided a heap of wonderful music for my films and we are currently working on another film together, a music video clip for his song The Hearts Eternal Vow. It was great working with Cocko, she is just so full of mischief and fun. The last thing she said to us as we were packing our gear up to leave was “rahh, get me outa here, rahh!”

The Broughton Island Mystery

This film was based on a true story. We shot this last year at Broughton Island. The film features good friends Trevor Anderson and Fred Vanags plus myself, and our crew on the day were Carolyn Starr and Gillian Smith. Trev has a huge boat and carted us all out there from Nelson Bay. The water was a nippy 16 degrees which made my underwater camera housing fog up quite a bit. I got a cramp and ever helpful Trev bent my foot back the wrong way ( which was fun...!) I'd sourced a bottle of Bell's scotch whiskey and painted it gold to look like a ship's bell, some gold chocolate coins and borrowed a jewellery box to stand in for a sunken ship's treasure. When I was half burying these things the sand felt strangely rubbery. Turns out I was trying to dig into a stingray's back! Mick Rippon again provided the music and sound effects, brilliant work again as usual. And Steve Ezzy created the authentic looking old treasure map of Broughton Island with sea monsters and a tall ship. Our day filming was really a small adventure and I'm very pleased with the end result.

Walkies

I completed Walkies in late January this year for entry into my clubs one minute competition. The film stars Malcolm Young and our two dogs Lacey and Booger. Malcolm does his usual top notch performance.We filmed it at Edwards Park, Lake Macquarrie and DAPA theatre Hamilton with a host of volunteers as our audience. Initially I wanted to film with an orchestra but you can only go so far on a $10 budget....!!

Le Pont D'Amour

I shot the footage for 'Le Pont' in Paris late last year and finished it just in time for entry into my club's one minute competition in February this year. This is my first foreign language film and I think it works well. The actual bridge crosses over the Seine not far from Notre Dame Cathedral, and with all of it's colourful padlocks it provided great subject matter for my film and I'm very pleased with the way it all turned out. The music is called Pavement Cafe and is by Richard Myhill and the French voice over was supplied by Michele Scott and she does a first rate job,which is just as well because the closest I could get to speaking French is probably saying " Oh, Ha,Ha, Hucklesberry..."