Saying I love you with a train crash

Behind the scenes on Event Zero. Photo: Clark Carter

Giles Hardie, The Sydney Morning Herald, reports

Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey are more used to guerrilla filmmaking than warfare, yet they dabbled in a little of both on Tuesday as a temporary office space in Gladesville was transformed into a terrorist crafted train crash at Circular Quay for the purposes of making movie magic.

An idea born out of the Tokyo sarin attacks, Event Zero is a web series funded by the pair's successful 60 second pitch in the Movie Extra Webfest competition that will consist of seven three minutes webisodes, each a different perspective on one story that begins with a terrorist attack on Sydney, spiralling from crash, to chemical warfare to conspiracy theory. "It was just an idea that we had kicking round the back that we thought was really cool," Harvey said on the set.

As far as career trajectories go, Harvey and Tedeschi's is oddly counter-intuitive. Having taken the mantle of torrent-funding pioneers last year to fund their feature film The Tunnel, a horror film about a monster lurking in the tunnels beneath Sydney, they now have an actual budget of $100,000 to make less than thirty minutes of story. And now they have money, they yearn for more screen time. "You've got this really restrictive parameter, so you have to be creative and every little detail counts," said Harvey.

City Rail aren't involved in the series - hence a credit for a Gladesville industrial estate in the role of Circular Quay train station - as the crash itself is digital and the stories rapidly move away from the train, but wannabe extras might find the crew filming around Circular Quay in the next few days.

Given that a generic location would be easier, crashing a train in Circular Quay is oddly a perverse love letter to Sydney. "I have a personal gripe with Aussie film makers who go out of their way to make it not be Australian," said Tedeschi. "It's one of the most awesome, readily identifiable cities in the world it's no different to using New York or Paris or all those cities that get used."

In fact the pair are so in love with the city, they've now put a monster underneath it and attacked it with terrorists. "Next time it will be aliens destroying the whole city or something like that," promises Harvey.

The Tunnel screens at LA’s Mann's Chinese Theater

Sydney-made movie to crack the American market

From the Encore Magazine website

Australian self-financed horror The Tunnel will have its US premiere screening at Los Angeles’ Screamfest on Saturday October 15 at legendary Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

A Q&A with director Carlo Ledesma and Co-producers/writers Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey will follow the screening. The venue, situated next to the Hollywood Walk of Fame is home to some of the world’s biggest film premieres and has also previously hosted the Oscars ceremony.

The team has also confirmed a US DVD release through Blackrock Films on December 27, 2011.

“It is an exciting time for The Tunnel as we break into the US market. We expect a great reaction to our little Aussie movie at Screamfest and are thrilled American horror fans will have the opportunity to own our film when it comes out on DVD in December” said Tedeschi.

The film had its world premiere at Popcorn Taxi in May with a Q&A, followed later that night by pay TV channel Showtime broadcasting it, online distribution via file-sharing platform BitTorrent and Paramount/Transmission Films releasing it on DVD. Since then Dendy has given it a theatrical release, the film released as an iPad app and both ABC iView and Fairfax Digital streamed it.

The film’s executive producer Ahmed Salama of DLSHS Digital told Encore they were looking good to making back the $135,000 budget.

Sydney on Screen: Where Adventurers Roam

Click on picture for larger size!

Excerpt:

“St James Station, at the northern end of Hyde Park, gets its name from St James Church. The underground station began regular service on 20 December 1926 and was meant to serve four different directions. However, the plan fell through and two of the completed four platforms were never put to use. Construction was halted and the tunnels connected to the station were abandoned which resulted in one of the tunnels flooding and producing an underground lake. In the early 1990s, the tunnels were used by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as a location for Police Rescue (1991-1996), the television series starring Gary Sweet. More recently, they were the inspiration for horror movie The Tunnel (2011).”

“Before Superman (Brandon Routh) is rushed to hospital in Superman Returns (2006), he is seen falling from the sky and crashing into Hyde Park - Metropolis Park in the movie. The scene depicting a crowd of people witnessing his fall was filmed in the courtyard in front of the cathedral. The producers of The Man Who Sued God (2001) approached St Mary’s to ask for permission to shoot both inside and outside the cathedral. They only got clearance for exterior shots and, consequently, had to relocate to St Andrew’s Cathedral on George Street to film interior scenes. Problem is, St Andrew’s is an Anglican cathedral and the story required a Catholic setting. St Andrew’s received a slight makeover and the scenes were put in the can in record time so that the team could return the establishment to its original faith.”

“The successful mini-series Underbelly: The Golden Mile (2010) starring Firass Dirani as John Ibrahim was shot on Kellett Street and in the Sugarmill Hotel at 37 Darlinghurst Road. The TV show about police corruption and the running of the golden mile in the 1980s and 90s also used Longueville Road in Lane Cove to recreate the infamous stretch of road that cuts through the Cross. Two Hands (1999) had Heath Ledger spruiking in front of a Darlinghurst Road doorway next to the ex-Westpac bank. Further filming took place near Fitzroy Gardens, at the landmark El Alamein Fountain, also a location for Candy (2006) and Blue Murder (1995).”

For information on how to obtain your copy of “Sydney on Screen: Where Adventurers Roam”, contact sydneyonscreen@hotmail.com