Feb 2008

What's been happening on set since our Christmas break? Well knowing that my unit has finished its episodes (so we cant be seen in anymore scenes) i've been tagging along with the other units doing back ground actions. We've been filming more battle scenes where i've been firing the machine gun on a rocky hill side, running around firing my M1 grand into a cave then have the men around me throw a grenade into the cave to take it over, also been running past the main cast with the machine gun while gun fire hits around us.

The last two weeks my unit (1/7) has been helping out on the Iwo Jima set because their set is very big with a lot of background to be filled. So the last few days we've had 160 extra marines to teach the basics and keep everything in order. The set is filled with black sand that is very hard to run in. We've been having to crawl up the sand, drag dead bodies back down, run from point A to point B, run and take a hit (die), while big explosions are going off with tanks on fire and smoke blowing over the set.

Friday, (while we were getting the 160 extras to drag bodies, run and crawl for a scene) me and 4 other guys from my unit were called up in front of the camera to take hits. Because we have been to boot camp with all the training and have been on set from the start, we were told we were getting squibbed which means we would have small exploding blood packs rip threw our clothes to emphasise us being shot. This only happens if your close to camera and if you're a stunt person but the director and Freddy Jo wanted to use us. So in the scene 5 of us are crawling through the black sand while explosions and gun fire is happening around us. We all get up to run for it when we all get fired at and we fall to the ground like a tonn of bricks. I had 1 hit on my thigh, 2 on my ankle, 1 on my shoulder and the last one was an exit shoot which went right through my right shoulder. Since we all were going down at different times we had a button to push which was up our sleeve to make the squibbes explode. The explosions didn't hurt that much, it just felt like someone giving you a quick dead leg or a dead arm. After the squibb goes off the blood pack busts through the clothing which goes everywhere including all over your face and hands. The director was happy with our falls so maybe in the future we'll get more opportunities like this. The bonus is we get paid as a stunt person for the day on top of our normal pay day, so for that day we got paid about $700.

Another highlight is that we got to watch 2 of the episodes. Today everyone from A core went over to Freddy Jo's penthouse to watch episode 2 and episode 5. These episodes are almost finished with a few shots and computer graphic images to be added. Captain Dye wanted us to see what we've done so far because on set as we're unable to see the playbacks. Episode 2 was mostly all about the unit i was with so Jess finally got to see what ive been getting up to the past 7 months. I was pointed out 5 or 6 times in 2 to 3 different scenes which was cool. The episode was amazing and it isn't even the final cut. We then watched episode 5 which is all about a different unit but i was still involved with the actions in the background. We got to see the days and hours spent on the boats and the beach landings we did in Port Douglas. Warwick was also seen in a scene were the main cast is in their tent talking while he is laying in his bed reading. Episode 5 is also half done with shots still and CGI's to be added but again everyone thought it was awesome. Hopefully in a few weeks time we'll get to see more half done episodes!

Jess had arranged for my birthday present a tour along the Great Ocean Road which was at the top of our lists of things to do in Melbourne. So last Saturday morning we were up and on the bus at 8:30am. We left the city traveling through old suburbs and little surf towns on the coast of Geelong. Our first stop was at Torquay for lamingtons, biscuits and coffee. The bus driver told us that this was the best beach in Australia but personally I don’t think he has ever left Victoria if he can make a comment like that! It was pretty windy and cold so Jess and I played on the swingset, took some photos and jumped back on the bus.

Our next stop off was at Bells Beach, where they filmed the movie “Point Break” and hold the oldest surf carnival every Easter. Bells Beach isn’t much of a beach as it is more cliff and rocks but that’s probably why it makes for a good surf carnival. The rain had stopped spitting and the sun came out for us so we were able to get a few nice photos.

After Bells Beach it was a long coastal drive on the official “Ocean Road” passing through Lorne and stopping for more photo opportunities along the way. We stopped off and had lunch at Apollo Bay and then we were off to “The 12 Apostles.” This is the main highlight of the trip which we were very excited to see as we had seen pictures of it on post cards and we were keen to take our own post card photos. They call it “The 12 Apostles” but there are only 9 standing now, 3 have collapsed since they named them and of course they can’t keep changing the names everytime one collapses.

The bus pulled over at a lookout point where we took some awesome photos. We then moved down the road some more to where I surprised Jess with an early Valentines Day present - a helicopter ride over “The 12 Apostles.” Jess got to sit in the front seat of the helicopter cause she was the lightest out of the 4 and I got a window seat in the back. The flight took us over the cliffs and dropped us down low to get some amazing photos. The helicopter ride was priceless and gave us a mind blowing view.

We moved down The Great Ocean Road some more where we stopped along the shipwreck coast at Loch Ard Gorge. This is where two people got washed up after a ship wreak 100’s of years ago and I think it’s where they filmed part of the movie “The Pirate Movie”.

We kept traveling down the road stopping at more lookouts and seeing more rock formations. We had a last chance stop for food at Port Campbell and then visited the remains of "London Bridge." London Bridge was once connected to the cliffs but a few years ago a group of people jumped the boundaries and walked out along the cliff having it collapse after them leaving them stranded on the arch out in the ocean. Pretty interesting story and pretty cool to see what they would have been stranded on for 4 hours until rescuers came!

At this point it was about 6 or 7pm so the tour ended and we traveled back to Melbourne after a long day of sight seeing.

Thanks Jess for a wonderful birthday present.

We've once again reached our photo upload limit but Jess has loaded all the pictures onto her Facebook which if you copy and the paste the address site below you should be able to see. The first link are the main Great Ocean Road photos and the second link are photos from the helicopter ride.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=39395&l=ae671&id=522015976
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=39463&l=bf5bc&id=522015976