DEVELOPMENT JOURNAL
Field
Notes
A working notebook from the making of Colac – research, photographs and production notes gathered along the Port Adelaide waterfront as the film finds its shape.
We shot the first test over two cold mornings, before anyone had agreed to anything. One actor, a borrowed camera, and the tide. We wanted to know whether the harbour would hold a face.
We were testing whether the place would let us in.
Six weeks of mornings spent walking the wharves, warehouses and old shopfronts. We photographed everything twice and let the buildings tell us which scenes belonged to them.
Open calls, shop-window notices and word of mouth along the docks. We were looking for faces that already belonged here.