A film crew were in Benalla on Tuesday, May 25 to shoot a movie focussing on the tragedy of the Black Saturday fires of 2009.
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Despite being more than a decade ago, that day is still fresh in the minds of those who lived through it, those who lost loved ones, and even those watching on from a distance in disbelief at what was happening.
At that time new emergency reporting systems were in their infancy and many of the lessons learnt that day were put in place during the response to the nation's 2019-20 summer bushfires.
However, back then people were tuned into emergency broadcasts, and trying to keep up with email updates.
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Sadly, holes in those systems meant not all fires were being reported.
Film Director Matt Bird said the film's story was inspired by the real life experience of family friends of his cinematographer.
Rana and Sinel were recently-arrived, first generation, migrants who were operating a petrol station in Yarra Glen.
They knew very little about the state's history with bushfires, and even less about the early warning systems that were in place.
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“On Black Saturday they had arrived for work at the petrol station at 4 am,” Mr Bird said.
“When you run a petrol station you go inside the shop, turn the air-con on and you don’t know how hot it’s getting outside.
“What happened, and the scene we are filming now, is early in the morning a car pulled in, filled up with petrol and then drove off without paying.
“Then it happened again. Then it happened a third time.
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“The next time it happened, which is what we filmed yesterday, the husband, Sinel, ran out to try and catch the car driving off without paying.
“He didn't get very far and was stopped in his tracks by the heat.
“By that time of day the temperature had gone up to 48 degrees C, the hottest day on record in Australia at that point.”
Mr Bird said he, and his crew of 15 actors and filmmakers, were creating what was called a proof of concept film - which is essentially a pilot that will be pitched to television networks once complete.
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“At the end of 2019 I got the opportunity to meet the executive producers at SunJive entertainment,” he said.
“They produced films like Wolf Creek 2, and more recently High Ground.
“Essentially I cold-pitched this idea to them.
“They liked it enough that throughout lockdown they asked me to write a tele-feature length script.
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“A script that would ideally be turned into an hour-long film for television.
“Over the course of lockdown the timing was perfect and by the end it got to a point where they thought okay, this is market ready.
“I told them of my intention to direct, and part of shooting a proof of concept is to prove that myself and my team can put a film together.
“They think this is the kind of project that would belong on a channel like SBS.
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“We’d also take it to Screen Australia to see if they’re interested.”
Mr Bird said Benalla was chosen as the location of the petrol station, with the filming taking place on Monday, May 24 and Tuesday, May 25 at the Metro station on the Midland Hwy.
“We chose Benalla as, firstly, the petrol station owners are so accommodating - you can see all the stuff they are doing for us.
“It's also a perfect aesthetic because part of my directorial vision is to frame it almost like a western.
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“And across the road we have this beautiful horizon, and it’s very similar to what we pictured when we came up with the concept.
“We filmed here yesterday, and in Eltham where we filmed the opening, which is a symbolic mantra.
“So the real couple were devout Hindus and what we’re doing is taking sacred rituals and equating them to some of the tragedies that happened.
“The film opens with a Surya mantra. Surya is the sun and Rani, the lead character, is making an offering of water to the sun.
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“We filmed that in Eltham on Saturday. We’re filming two days in Benalla and then one more day back down in Melbourne.
“After that the editing will take a couple of months.
“I’m an editor myself, that’s my commercial job. You can’t make money wanting to be a director.
“What will probably take the longest are the visual effects.”
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Mr Bird said the proof of concept ended at the point that Rani and Sinel realised the danger they were in.
“After the car’s sped off, and Sinel has run out and he gets bowled over by the heat, Rani pushes him back inside,” he said.
“She steps out past the fuelling bays at the edge of the petrol station and hears the rumbling and these sounds we’re so familiar with, often described as something between a freight train and a jet engine.
“She then looks above her and sees the smoke clouds.
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“And Australia is like a mixing pot of different culture and creeds so the film also highlights that as well.
“I think what this film really illustrates is that the 2019-20 fires were a tragedy for wildlife, we lost three to four million animals, but we had a system in place for human lives.
“People died, but it was nowhere near the scale of Black Saturday.
“This film will really highlight the breakdown of communication and that massive confusion that happened on that day.
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“For example we didn’t know the full scale of what had happened until much later in that week.”
Mr Bird recalls his own experience of Black Saturday and the moment, as a child, he realised the severity of it.
“I was playing a little league cricket game on the Sunday after Black Saturday,” he said.
“There were these dark clouds that formed above us and rain started to fall.
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“The rain actually smelt like the bushfires and there was this moment of everybody understanding.
“And a feeling of ‘oh my god’, that smell, that was from the same fires that had just killed upwards of 200 people. It was this moment of community that I will never forget.”
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