Lights, Camera, Action! By Penny Edmanson
Anglesea residents were lucky enough to witness the filmmaking process firsthand during the months of March and April when a production team descended on the town. Surviving Summer is an upcoming Australian drama series in 10 parts. Produced by the Australian company, Werner Film Production for Netflix and ZDF Enterprises, it is supported by Film Victoria and developed with the assistance of Screen NSW. Geared to a younger audience, it is the story of a group of teen divers who race to find their best friend when she disappears after a storm hits their small coastal town. Filming has taken place along our coast, with an amalgamation of Wye River and Anglesea being used to create the fictional coastal town of Shorehaven. Surf and aerial shots feature beaches from Jan Juc to Lorne. American actress Sky Katz stars as Summer Torrens, a headstrong 15-yearold from Brooklyn. When expelled from school, she is sent “Down Under” to live with family friends in Shorehaven. Katz stars alongside Brazilian rising star Joao Gabriel Marinho, Australia’s own Kai Lewins and Savannah La Rain. It also stars Lilliana Bowrey, five-time Queensland junior state surf champion, in her first acting role. The cast trained hard to get ready for this demanding shoot, spending three weeks at surf bootcamp at Melbourne’s URBNSURF, under the supervision of Surfing Victoria’s high performance director Cahill Bell-Warren and fellow performance coach Todd Rosewall. On a bright sunny day in April, I was lucky enough to catch up with Locations Manager Drew Rhodes. He fully endorsed Executive Producer Joanna Werner’s comment, “I am so excited to start filming Surviving Summer all along the Great Ocean Road at some of the most stunning beach locations in the world”. As locations supervisor, Rhodes has worked on numerous feature films, documentaries and mini-series including Halifax Retribution, The Wrong Girl and The Dressmaker. 6
Surviving Summer, coming soon to Netflix, was filmed on the Surf Coast earlier this year.
He was loud in his praise of this location. Indeed, he said the production room they were assigned in the brand new Anglesea Surf Lifesaving clubhouse blew the whole crew away. As he explained, normally they were ferreted away down some side alley with no outlook whatsoever. Here they had one of the best views along the coast. Not only has the location been pretty special, but Rhodes said they have been overwhelmed by the fantastic local support for the project. He particularly noted the good grace with which residents dealt with the inconvenience of carparks being closed and production equipment invading their favourite spaces. This of course worked both ways, with the local businesses, particularly
accommodation and food providers, benefiting from the boost to their trades during the eight weeks that filming was in progress. Accommodation houses were canvassed a good six months before shooting commenced, with the opportunity for a two-month rental. Graeme Harding’s Airbnb became the home-away-from-home for one of the production coordinators. Graeme said his guest was one of the easiest he’s had: leaving early in the morning, returning late, and really only requiring weekly housekeeping and linen. Graeme also noted with pleasure that his guest stayed around on weekends and took the opportunity to get to know our beautiful coast. Another perk for residents was the opportunity to participate. Many locals were employed as extras, sourced
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