My First Film Set
Welcome to my first ever film set: Guide Falls. The heavenly location that cost me 1500 times more pain than it was supposed to.
I’ll touch on that in a minute, but first let me briefly introduce you to the leading actor! Well, the only actor, obviously.
Archie Rogers:
- The cute kid with the note pad in my jujitsu class.
- The teenage Sharman who wouldn't shut up about the benefits of meditation.
- The valuable assistant for my first three wedding shoots.
- The kid who inspired me to write some film scripts (including the one above).
- The kid who bought me a book and ultimately cornered me into downloading the 'Waking Up' mediation app.
It turned out that Archie was a talented local soccer player but also a theatre actor. He seemed to spend a lot of time working out, but then one day he informed me of his deep aspirations for an acting career. Intrigued by this rare goal, I assured him that I didn’t know the first thing about acting, but that I could perhaps teach him a thing or two about cameras.
Therefore, I lined him up to assist me with my February weddings, but soon enough Archie was sending me acting monologues and I was throwing him back film scripts. After writing three scripts that were way complicated for a couple of Film Production newbs with limited resources, I decided to write something simple, easy and low movement that was relevant to the kid who would be reading it. Of course: meditation.
*Wednesday 31st of January:
Within 10min of reaching our ‘simple’ film set, Archie was climbing up a cliff face and I was launching my new drone above the water.
My dopamine was peaking, it must have been the best shot I had captured to date. I couldn’t stop panning back and forth, edging closer and closer towards the cliff face - this was it, we’d made it, this would take us straight to Hollywood..!
Next moment, the spray of the ever approaching waterfall caused my DJI Mini 3 to freak out. Naturally, I amplified the freakout to 10 and crashed the little feller straight into the cliff face before it plopped into the depths of the river below.
With some desperate underwater free-diving, I managed to find my deceased drone with the hope of still retrieving the footage. I soon confirmed, however, that footage was corrupted and that mine and Archie’s short film career had come to a crashing halt.
We got through wedding season and it was a success but the monologue and movie script trading seemed to be well and truly over. It wasn’t until I learnt that Archie had spontaneously decided to move to Sydney that I also spontaneously decided to send him a message:
Friday March 22nd:
“What are you doing Monday morning? Want to go get this Guide Falls footage? I’ll regret it if we don’t.”
Yesterday:
Archie climbed back up on the chilly cliff face and shivered in his meditating pose. I ran around the slippery rocks capturing some shots with my handheld before pulling out my brand new DJI Mini 4 Pro.
We took off and I nervously approached the spraying cliff face, capturing Archie in frame before flying up in altitude. And then once again a shock, followed by another flow of dopamine that would rival the flow of Guide Falls itself.
Like the Gods of Film had decided to gift us for our courage, a rainbow appeared, perfectly in frame. One mission, one take, and the Film Gods reminded us of their Covenant.
The Covenant: that if we stayed disciplined and refused to stop hustling, then everything would be ok 💫
Today:
Archie leaves to Sydney. I guess it's a shame that I've lost my leading actor and camera assistant, but I wouldn't dare stop a young man and his adventures. Plus, I got some dynamite footage and new mediation app that reminds me to slow the fuck down and smell the roses.
But lets be honest, the real (elephant in the room) shame here is that none of the distracted young ladies around this place noticed this young stallion and pinned him down before it was too late.
Remember ladies, future prosperity looks much more like notepads and meditation retreats than it does 8balls and 10 packs 💊>📝
😂🌈 #hustle
