Still plodding along with the Merino film and the Yallourn book…..slowly but surely.

Meanwhile here is a series of stop mo ads I did for the Wimmera Catchment Authority a while ago to promote awareness of the Wimmera River. There hasn’t been a heap of rain up here of late and the river that used to be quite a focal point for the population has become more of a series of salty ponds. Last year was the first time in a decade that the river had actually flowed. So the ads were about getting people to remember what it was and not to give up on it just because its going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment. Amazingly enough a lot of river life has managed to hang on somehow in those isolated pockets of salty water… biding its time till the river flows again.

Jacqui Schultz collected all the interviews from locals reminiscing about the river, most of the models were made by local paper maché genius Mary French (I made the Egret and the Water skimmer) and the sound design was all done by David Franzke. Most of the interviews were recorded at the Wimmera field day and Jac did a great job grabbing little pearls of wisom with a minimum of background chatter. I think my favourite voice was the muscle at the end of the second ad. He was a truck driver who Jac just managed to nab at the end of the day and as son as I heard the voice I just knew he was going to be a muscle in the mud at the bottom of the river.

For the third ad (with the tree) I did the stop-motion component all in one horrific 30 hour stint as I had to leave immediately after that for a few days. I literally got up one morning worked all day, all night, finished the shot the next morning walked out, hopped in the car and drove off (was driven rather) for a few days not knowing if the whole thing was a complete disaster that would all need to be re-shot.

Wimmera CMA 1.

Wimmera CMA 2.

Wimmera CMA 3.