After 6 drafts of the screenplay and when I became happy that the story did what I wanted it to do, I set out to create the production team starting with myself as writer, director, and producer, and Cassie as my co-producer and go to person when I needed help. I knew from the start that I had to create a team that was professional, experienced, and talented. A film is only as good as its team, and I wanted to avoid the mistake that amateur filmmakers sometimes make in thinking they can do, and know everything. Film is a collaborative medium, and by bringing people onboard who specialise in their fields (DOP, sound, editing, music), you can really draw on their strengths, and also learn from them. It’s important, especially when people are working for free for you, to listen and use their advice and guidance, and I think my willingness to do that was a key in bringing good people onboard.

Richard Davies was the first actor I approached, he was someone I had wanted to work with on a previous script that I never ended up producing, and was someone I saw in my head when I wrote the character of Peter. Mahalia was suggested to me and once I met with her, I found she embodied the character of Maddy so completely that no audition was ever necessary (you also have to trust your instincts in casting I think). Producing and directing are such different tasks, and I continued to try to switch hats all the time, although in a low budget situation I think it helps to be involved with both. All up One Moment had 13 different locations; a dorm room, a hostel foyer, a beach, a pier, the riverbank, a city alleyway, a bar, a nightclub dance floor, a park, a toilet block, the back of a taxi, the entrance to the hostel, and a balcony. We had to deal with one government office (Parks Victoria), two city councils (City of Melbourne and City of Port Phillip), three private businesses (Habitat HQ Hostel, Wah Wah Lounge, and BLVD Bar), and a taxi driver. Apart from having to buy public liability insurance, all the locations were extremely keen to help out and allowed us access and rights to the areas for free. Special mentions go to Wah Wah and Habitat HQ where we spent several hours in each, disrupting their usual business to shoot in and around their venues, it’s this co-operation that allows independent film in this city to flourish. Without the help of all location officers and managers, I wouldn’t have been able to afford the production on the scale we did. (Big thanks goes to Nicola and Natalie from Habitat HQ (and all staff), Steve from Wah Wah, and Dave from BLVD Bar)

After all the roles were cast, I searched across the net and posted several ads online for crew roles, the response was fantastic. All up 35 people emailed me offering to work on One Moment, their experiences ranged but generally most had good to impressive resumes. I called upon quite a few of my friends too, and favours from people I know, and then family. The one thing that’s important in a short film production is networking and being resourceful. Two weeks out from production the crew was locked in and the list was really exciting. Stephanie came onboard as my producer’s assistant and I had her running around several times organising things and also as someone to bounce my ideas off. David (DOP) and I did a reccy at the locations to check out conditions and work out the equipment we might need. We worked out a shooting schedule across three days, as the film is set across one night most of our outdoor scenes would have to be shot at night or early morning, which unfortunately didn’t leave us with very nice start or finish times.

We started shooting on Sunday the 21^st of March at 6pm, and wrapped at midnight on Tuesday the 23^rd. It was a whirlwind shoot, something I won’t forget. We were very unlucky with the weather with howling winds on day 1, and no sun during sunrise on day 3. Other than the weather (something we couldn’t control!), the shoot went really well, and it was really nice to see everyone having a good time and getting along and really embracing the script and production. That was the highlight for me, working with people that were helping bring something to life that I had created, it was incredibly rewarding. Even on day 3, where we had finished at midnight the night before, and had to get up at 4am for the sunrise and where I got the sunrise time wrong by a few hours, nobody actually killed me (even though I’m sure they wanted to). During those three days we got all the footage we needed, and I was relieved I had taken the Wednesday off as I really needed to catch up on some sleep. A massive thankyou goes out to all the crew;  David for being so great to work with and capturing some remarkable footage; Keith for an amazing job recording sound, even with hurricane winds you managed to get clear dialogue; Vi for not just doing makeup, but for being our security guard and helper; Flavio for your great designs and for becoming our slate man; Rod (Dad) for helping with transport and camera assisting; Bryce, Patty and Ella for your great acting work;  and Steph and Olivia for being great 2^nd AD’s. Oh, and I shouldn’t forget my mum, she did a great job putting the catering together.  Cheers.

-Rob Innes.