Diffraction BTS

Diffraction was Elfenshot’s first short film, shot in August, 2014. We wrote it for Tropfest and has a duration of 6:52. Tropfest’s TSI (Tropfest Signature Item) for 2014 was ‘mirror’, and boy, did we take it to the extreme.

The story involves a man at a job interview, where he is in the process of fielding questions from a couple of corporate types. He (and we) hear a voice, buoying him into making the right decision. His day continues, and we can see that the voice has more than a passing interest in the outcome.

The locations used were Braeside and Hastings, Victoria.

Braeside

The office scenes were shot at All Torque Transmissions, with the carpark scene also at the same location.

Late on the first day, Ebony and Kim prepare for a take with Tony and Brendan. The unattached hands belong to Christine and Sally.
Tom was professional throughout the three days of shooting. The original office scene ended up being done about 30 times.
The All Torque Transmissions car park became a de facto office car park for our purposes. Damian, Murray and Kim’s cars all should have been credited as extras.

Hastings

The old Mitre 10 carpark (next to McDonald’s).

Tom doing one of his solo scenes, with Lisa hiding in the back.
The Hastings Police station is just over the road, so they did a drive by to make sure everything was okay.

Foreshore

Ebony slates one of the final shots done. Cloud cover, passers by, seagulls and ‘Biggles the Inquisitive Pilot’ all played a hand in adding to the drama of actually getting these shots done.
Mmmmm, fog. The thickest fog in years. We should have got a couple of scenes from a zombie movie in the can.

Sandwich King

The guys at Sandwich King in Hastings were fantastic, and let us film there on a weekend. We only found out later that they had opened especially for us!

There were three days of principal photography. Day one was in Braeside and covered all of the office scenes. Cameras started at 9.30am and didn’t finish until 9pm.

Day two started in Braeside (the first carpark scene), before a location change to Hastings and the Sandwich King and Mitre 10 carpark scenes.

The final day of shooting was in Hastings on the following Saturday, with all of the foreshore shots to get done. I had done a whole heap of scouting in the area in the weeks leading up to the shoot, and the weather had been fantastic.

The morning of the shoot saw one of the biggest fogs in history fall over the whole of Westernport Bay and surrounds. Hastings was cloaked in dense fog, so any chance of the morning golden hour was well and truly gone. We took the opportunity to film the house scenes first, before returning to the foreshore.

Having a DSLR on a tripod doesn’t do much to draw a crowd, but as soon as a boom operator is on the scene, all of a sudden it looks like you’re making a movie. At least, that was the opinion of everyone in Hastings on the day. The 1st AD and script supervisor both certainly earned their keep keeping the location clean of unwanted ‘extras’.

CREDITS

CAST

Thomas Kay as James Leeson

Sarah Attrill as Lisa Leeson

Brendan Hill as Max Stewart

Tony Adams as Wil Colbert

CREW

Writer / Director: Damian Harris

Ist AD: Christine Harris

Camera: Kimberley Pereyra

Sound: Sally Hicks and Murray Hyde

Script Supervisor: Ebony Pereyra

Music: Murray Hyde

Make up: Emma Duff

SPECIAL THANKS

Angie Baker

Sandwich King

Hastings Chamber of Commerce

All Torque Transmissions

Emily Holmas

Craig Cumberlidge

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