Film Construction director Justin McMillan’s lyrical film for Tropical North Queensland one of twenty films competing for the big prize
Hot on the heels of his award winning documentary Storm Surfers 3D, Film Construction director Justin McMillan’s latest project ‘1 Day In Paradise’ is one of 20 films made by top Australian filmmakers as part of a short film challenge and campaign via SapientNitro Brisbane set against the inspiring backdrop of Tropical North Queensland.
The 1Day in Paradise project was born out of a desire to reinvent or reframe the traditional notion of what constitutes paradise. The brief was to create a two minute film (shot entirely on the new GoPro 3 cameras) capturing Tropical North Queensland’s diversity through inspiring, humanity filled narratives. This unique challenge, called to mind Pascal, a 14-year old boy McMillan had met in Byron who’d been raised and home schooled on a boat sailing the North Queensland coast.
McMillan remembers meeting Pascal.
Says McMillan: “With a surfboard tucked under one arm and a snake wrapped around the other, he kinda reminded me of that magical time I too experienced just prior to adulthood. Pascal is an anomaly. I was struck by how his deep connection to the sea and nature is at odds with typical distractions kids have these days. He’s not the kind of boy to be bothered with iPhone apps and technology entertainment. In fact, I don’t think he’s ever eaten McDonalds!”
Inspiration for this project also arose from McMillan’s own early influences.
Says McMillan: “The film Stand By Me has stuck with me since I was a boy. It drove me to take Pascal back to his childhood paradise basing my entry around his potent memories of the region.”
Pascal’s journey unfolds lyrically as he relives his formative years walking, diving, fishing and flying us through the coastline that touched him so deeply. As he freely explores nature in its purest form, this disarmingly intimate film reveals spiritual pull of this region on one so young.
McMillan called upon long time friends, Dean Crop (underwater DOP) and Guy Alexander (RPA pilot) to donate their time and found that the smaller crew quite liberating.
Says McMillan: “We were able to go with the flow and let Pascal lead us…hence the footage feels incredibly un-formulaic.”
The music was another gratis element crafted by Guy Brown at Nylon.
Says McMillan: “Guy is just so talented. We sent him some footage early on and he literally had the score pretty much done by the time we’d finished shooting.”
Andrew Holmes from Heckler took control of the edit crafting the imagery in line with a script that McMillan and Pascal had developed together.
“I love working with the guys at Heckler…they’re an amazing group of skilled individuals who embrace the opportunity to do something different.”
Shooting on Go Pro cameras had its advantages too.
“These cameras just get better and better making complex projects like this possible without any loss of quality.”
The competition launches on May 15th when the public will be able to view and share the films via a dedicated Youtube channel.
4 Comments
Unlike many webfilm kinda things that I get bored with and switch off halfway, I watched this all the way through. Really nice job Justin.
Really great job from Justin and the boys… Given no money….A Director to watch for sure…
Amazing film, and the front runner for the whole campaign.
Awesome work.
beautiful film makes we want to go there and experience the essence of North Queensland myself. Refreshing to see a young boy at one with nature and not caught up in this mad world of ours.