In My City: Sydney

Having Fox Studios Australia located only 10 minutes from the center of the city is also a very convenient place for a pro- duction to be based when it has a combination of soundstage and location sets.

Further out from Sydney, we have a wide variety of landscapes from rainforests, deserts, mountains and, of course, beaches, rivers and grass plains—all of which are used for the setting for many productions.

Stevie: WHAT TYPES OF PRODUCTIONS FILM IN SYDNEY?

CM: Many Hollywood feature films shoot here, including Star Wars: Episode II and III, all three Matrix films, Mission: Im- possible II, Superman Returns, The Great Gatsby, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Wolverine. We currently have Ridley Scott’s next installment of the Alien franchise in production. We also get a number of other international films, includ- ing Bollywood and UK features, international commercials, TV series and tele-movies. Australian feature films of various sizes are also regularly in production. Local TV dramas are very strong at the moment and there are usually many proj- ects in various stages of production at any one time.

Stevie: WHAT CHALLENGES DO YOU FACE IN YOUR JOB?

CM: Paperwork has definitely become more arduous, from per- mit applications, location agreements/releases, to contracts for private location owners. Things just keep getting more complex. I now have more team members on each project just to cover the increasing external and production requirements. Managing the issues associated with high-frequency filming locations is always a challenge. It is totally understandable when residents and business owners get upset when they are impacted by our activities on a regular basis. I always find good, clear, regular and honest communication is the key to finding solutions to these issues.

Stevie: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES TO FILMING SPECIFICALLY IN SYDNEY?

CM: Sydney has become a very busy city with more than 4 million people. Filming has all the challenges faced in most modern world cities. Coordination across all the government agencies and authorities required can be quite a challenge, especially for a large production with significant impact. Our local film office, Screen NSW (New South Wales), does a great job helping to coordinate and liaise with various government bodies. Screen NSW in consultation with many government agencies and the film industry, developed a “Filming Protocol” which was enacted into legislation in 2008. Signaling the support of the NSW government to screen productions by establishing a presumption that approvals for location filming should be supported wherever possible, the Protocol is a document that sets out a framework for all the various councils and other state government agencies (permitting authorities) to classify various film projects (based on impact) and then assess the project/proposed filming activity for permitting. It aims to develop a consistent approach across these various permitting bodies throughout the state. It also sets out a fee structure for permits (based on cost recovery) and sets out concessions for parking of essential production vehicles.

Some areas in the central city are currently experiencing significant disruption to transport and parking due to major infrastructure projects.

Any additional disruptions due to filming activities would be very hard to get approved in these areas. Fortunately, we have a smaller satellite city in the western parts of Sydney called Parramatta, which has some excellent streetscapes and buildings to work for city locations.

Parking, of course, is an ongoing issue in the city area of Sydney that we share with many cities worldwide. Often, we use sites that are vacant and awaiting redevelopment; however, these options come and go. Sometimes there is just no viable option for base camps or even for essential working trucks so we have to base ourselves on the out- skirts of the city and “go guerrilla”—ferrying gear into the location via smaller vehicles.

Stevie: WHAT ARE A LOCATION MANAGER’S FAVORITE “LOOKS” OR LOCATIONS IN SYDNEY? WHAT ARE YOUR PERSONAL FAVORITES & WHY?

CM: Cockatoo Island is a decommissioned navy shipyard under management as a heritage precinct. It has a wide variety of industrial warehouses/ buildings, from a fort dating back to convict days to massive industrial buildings that were integral to shipbuilding during the first and second world wars. The whole island is now managed as a heritage public space and filming can be arranged here scheduling around other events and users. Cockatoo Island was a key filming location for X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I really love this location as it gives a variety of looks on a large industrial scale, combined with large open spaces.

Another favorite is the suburb of Redfern, located right on the edge of the inner city. It has a long history as a working- class suburb with many of the local residents from families that have lived and worked here for generations. Until recently, it managed to largely avoid the gentrification that has transformed many working-class suburbs around Sydney. It does, however, still have many areas that have great gritty residential houses and streets that work well for different projects.

A sensational, self-contained “go to” location in Sydney is Parramatta jail—a disused prison developed more than 100 years, so there is a range of prison buildings from the original stone cellblocks to more modern administration and holding cell facilities. Production vehicle parking can be contained on the site and of course, it is very secure while filming!

Stevie: WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE OR MOST MEMORABLE FILMING EXPERIENCES?

CM: There are so many, from chasing crocodiles in Kakadu National Park in the tropical north of Australia with a National Geographic crew, to flying in helicopters over the remote southwestern coast of Tasmania, to scout locations for a major US feature film. It’s hard to pin it down to a few.

The Australian feature film Tracks was filmed in part in Cen- tral Australia at Uluru. This was an amazing and memorable experience, not just working in the very remote desert, but also having the opportunity to work closely with indigenous elders. Uluru is a sacred site and there are strict rules govern- ing the use of its image. It was a great opportunity to get their perspective and insights firsthand and to get to know them in the process.

I also once worked on a Bollywood film called Heyy Babyy, which was also quite memorable. We had a full Australian crew as well as a full Indian crew on the production. Of course, we had many singing and dancing sequences to be filmed in various locations around the city. Some required us to shut down city blocks while we had hundreds of dancers of all kinds of nationalities, dressed in their national costumes, dancing to the ever-increasing volume of the playback music.

In December 2010, Oprah Winfrey brought 300 of her biggest fans on an eight-day, all-expenses-paid trip to Australia to film four special episodes of her show, titled “Oprah’s Ultimate Australian Adventure.” I had a great time flying around Australia with the producers finding the best holiday experiences we could put together for her guests and the filming of the show. We arranged to take around 150 of them to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge via the commercial climb operators’ “Bridge Climb.” That was quite the logistical exercise coordinating to get them to all arrive on top of the bridge at the same time.

In 2013, I worked on an ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) TV political drama series, The Code. We wanted to shoot our Federal Parliament House in the nation’s capital, Canberra.

This was quite a challenge. While they commonly had news crews reporting inside the House, they had never allowed a drama to film. This took quite a bit of work to negotiate, with many meetings and endless emails and discussions. At the eleventh hour, we finally got the formal permission and access to film. It was quite a logistical exercise to get all the equipment and crew through the security checks each day.However, for me, it was quite an experience getting access to areas of our Parliament House that very few people see, and of course, experiencing firsthand the workings of the Parliament House staff.

Stevie: DOES NEW SOUTH WALES OFFER ANY INCENTIVES TO HOLLYWOOD FILMMAKERS?

CM: The NSW government is committed to making the state the most attractive destination in Australia for major screen projects. It offers incentives to eligible “footloose” productions to attract them to Sydney and regional NSW.

The attraction program is discretionary and incentives are provided in the form of rebates, which are generally formulated based on the Qualifying NSW Production Expenditure. The incentive is determined on a case-by-case basis, taking into account demonstrable benefits, including job creation, NSW production expenditure, skills development and technology transfer.

These incentives can be accessed on top of the Australian federal government’s Location Offset, and the Post/Digital/ Visual Effects Offset and Producer Offset.

Stevie: WHAT ARE YOUR TOOLS OF THE TRADE?

CM: My main photographic tools are a Nikon D800 and a D750. My everyday go-to lens is a Nikkor 17mm-35mm f2.8. However, I also use a 24mm-70mm f2.8 and a 70mm- 200mm f2.8 for longer shots. Most of my day-to-day computer work is done on a 15-inch MacBook Pro and my archiving and backup of images are done on a bank of hard drives connected to a Mac Pro in my office.

I do all my photo organization and editing in Adobe Light- room and generally create reports and image documents in InDesign.

Probably the tool I use the most now is my iPhone 6, for everything from navigating and creating GPS tracks while scouting on the road, to getting sun path data or tracking weather on a radar app as it moves toward set, to give the ADs the heads-up of the approaching storm. I am now using the excellent camera in the phone more and more, especially to take image notes for later reference.

And of course, the Toyota Prado 4X4 gets me most places I need to go.

Stevie: WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT THE JOB?

CM: I love the way doors are opened to us, to experience worlds we would not usually have access to. I love that we get to see many hidden places that you would normally never be able to visit. I really enjoy that we get to meet interesting people from all sorts of professions and get a brief view into their world; from wealthy persons living in mansions, to loners living in the most remote parts of a big country. From meeting politicians to miners, it’s such interesting work we do.

I also get satisfaction solving a creative location problem, especially a difficult doubling problem. Maybe it’s trying to find a great match for a Malibu house, or it might be a London street. I love the feeling when you creatively crack it and the option also works well from a logistic and production point of view.

Stevie: WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO JOIN THE LMGI & HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN A MEMBER?

CM: I joined the LMGI earlier this year. I believe joining the LMGI will help me get a broader perspective on our profession by being more exposed to how other location professionals approach their work, the challenges they face and how they solve them. I am also hoping to get the opportunity to meet more people who do what we do from all over the world.