[willreichelt]

The Arctic Monkeys performing at the Hordern Pavilion, Sydney. 22.01.09.

From April 2007 until October 2008, a large team of us at Animal Logic worked on the visual effects for a number of sequences in Baz Luhrmann’s film Australia.

I spent about three weeks in north Queensland, two weeks in the Northern Territory, and then two or three months on and off in Sydney, running around taking photographs of the sets & props, helping to record measurements, and anything else necessary for creating the digital set extensions of 1940′s Darwin.

Besides the landscape and sets, I also took a lot of photos of the extras hired to play the soldiers and townsfolk of Darwin. Playing an extra in a film is mostly about waiting, punctuated with short bursts of activity when you are required for a shot, so I found it fascinating to watch how people spent their time when they weren’t required for filming.

Bowen.

Darwin.

Fox Studios, Sydney.

An outdoor night shoot at Fox Studios, Sydney.

Here’s some photos I took of my friends, Skullsquadron at the CarriageWorks in Redfern recently.

The site, once an industrial train yard, was recently converted into a spanking new Arts Centre with lots of beautifully preserved brick buildings and original ironwork.

The goal was to use the elegant brick and yellow colour scheme of the environment to offset the guys’ simple black outfits so that they would stand out more. I had an off-camera flash on a cable that I could position as far as my arm could reach, to give myself a bit more flexibility with the lighting.