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Art Beat with Rosalie Crawford |
Making a short film on one weekend that tells the story of 100 trained assassins, one evil warlord, one ancient relic and just three girls was a big task.
It also provided a brilliant opportunity to showcase the high energy and technical skills of the growing community of film makers, actors, stunt people and set designers here in the Bay of Plenty.
Production stills taken by Tez Mercer.
In June, I jumped into being a part of making this movie in downtown Tauranga. As location manager I was quite inexperienced, so found myself doing on-the -job learning from those who have worked on films such as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, the Z Nail Gang, Spartacus, The Hobbit, and the recent Scarlett Johansen film Ghost in the Shell.
Liaising with council, police and local businesses in advance, as well as picking up all the rubbish before the actors arrive to film is all part of making the magic happen.
The BOP Film community is made up of over 100 talented people with a range of film experience, but who now mostly all reside in the Bay of Plenty.
The goal is to establish a film office here to attract international productions and grow the local industry, and this film is a means of showing what that could look like.
‘Just 3 Girls' was directed by Anton Steel, written by Daryl Belbin and produced by Simone Ashton, with director of photography Chris Kirkham. All about featuring local talent and locations, the film stars Katherine Kennard, Tanya Horo, Melanie Bevan and Thiago Moraes. It's full of stunt action, one-liners and beautiful shots, and was all filmed around central Tauranga.
Locals were invited to participate as film extras, and we also managed to capture the 100 Pokemon Go players wandering through a background scene at Masonic Park.
To find out what's next for the BOP Film community, follow the group on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the website www.bopfilm.nz
The short film by the BOP Film community 'Just 3 Girls” is now live to view on Vimeo. (https://vimeo.com/178385133)
