10 minute read
Surviving Summer
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.
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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.
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
through local casting consultancy Geelong Extras.
One such lucky youngster was Joel Kerr. Growing up by the sea and the surf, he was originally asked to attend for a week of shooting.
This was extended for a few extra days and then Joel reluctantly had to turn down more work because of school commitments. Apart from it being a nice little earner, Joel said one of the highlights was the awesome food: an enormous spread was provided for breakfast and lunch.
The extras were split into small groups and then told what they were required to do. For Joel, this pretty much involved just walking along with a board, or sitting in a crowd.
Some other lucky young locals were Maggie Keogh and her friend Rain Scuzr, who just happened to be in the pharmacy when scouts were about.
“When asked if we were local and interested in being in the show, we both thought it sounded fun and agreed to it,” said Maggie.
Rain and Maggie worked for about 10
Some locals said the awesome spread of food was one of their highlights as extras on the set of Surviving Summer.
Point Roadknight was one of the key locations for filming a new Netflix series.
The new Netflix series Surviving Summer was filmed along our coast, with an amalgamation of Wye River and Anglesea being used to create the fictional coastal town of Shorehaven.
days doing random scenes but mainly surf carnivals, where they were sometimes bystanders and sometimes surfers.
They were also in a few party scenes where they just danced and pretended to hold drinks and talk to friends. As Maggie said, “It would have to be the easiest money I have ever earned … paid to sit on the beach with our friends AND we got free food!!”. Lina Libroaperto, well known locally for her roles with Anglesea Performing Arts, took the opportunity to answer Geelong Extras social media call out. Although a veteran performer on the stage she was keen to experience acting in a different setting.
Lina provided the necessary details: height, age, profile, complete with a photo, and in early March received the call to attend a shoot. She was required for a “surf memorabilia auction”. A highlight for Lina was the detail in the “mise en scène” – the stage design and arrangement of actors. She described the fantastic set up: like a fete with cake stalls, snail race, preloved clothing stall and even an ice bath challenge.
After wardrobe assistants provided extras with additions to their attire for a summer look, and make up was applied, a minibus drove them to the site in Point Roadknight.
The group was given an explanation of what was required, they rehearsed and were filmed. There were several takes with different angles and lighting ... and now Lina is hoping to see if all that effort “survives the cutting room process”. Although the crew packed up and left at the start of May, it is unlikely the series will hit the screens before the end of the year.
The actual filming is just the start of the process. When shooting is wrapped up, the film is just a mass of raw footage. It needs to be edited, visual effects added, and sound mixed. Some of this happens during filming but much cannot be done until the director calls “that’s a wrap”, and footage can then be assembled into a sequential narrative.
We’ll need to wait a bit longer before we check out Surviving Summer, searching for familiar faces in the crowd scenes and identifying what parts of Anglesea we recognise in “Shorehaven”. We can be excited that not only has our little town “survived” the experience but next “summer” should provide some extra viewing for us all!
Maggie Keogh was one of the lucky locals recruited as a paid extra for the mini-series.
by Sam Gault, President – Committee of Management, Anglesea Community House
4. To the best of our knowledge, no community surveys have been undertaken in relation to the land uses outlined in the Final Plan.
Readers should satisfy themselves as to the accuracy of charts and diagrams derived from data.
In the last edition of N ew sA ngle (Autumn, issue 145), an article was written about the “Anglesea Futures” plan developed by DELWP (Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning). Following feedback from a number of readers, we would like to clarify the following:
1. The three bar charts/graphs that accompanied the article relate to the proposed land uses in the draft
Anglesea Futures Plan (Draft Plan) not the final Anglesea Futures
Land Use Framework 2018 (the
Final Plan). 2. The proposed land uses in the Draft
Plan are not exactly the same as the land uses proposed in the Final
Plan. A comparison is shown in the table (right) indicating what changes were made in the final version. Readers should satisfy themselves about the differences in the land uses between the draft and final plans, and are strongly encouraged to review the verbatim comments that sit behind the raw data used in the graphs for context. 3. By publishing the charts next to the
Final Plan land use descriptions, readers could have been led to believe that the survey data represented in the charts related to the Final Plan rather than the Draft
Plan. Water Body Funding
Furthermore, where it is asserted in the article that government will be funding the filling of the mine pit with water to form a lake, or that the lake will be created with public money, readers are advised that there is no current agreement by any level of government to fund the filling of the mine pit.
Alcoa Director John Osborne has advised: “The draft Alcoa Mine Rehabilitation and Closure Plan (MRCP) proposed a waterbody, rehabilitated southern and western slopes and the relocation of a portion of Coalmine Road.
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The need for these clarifications highlights the complexities associated with this project, and the challenges the community faces in following the planning and consultation processes.
This is a journey we take together as a community. We should not be afraid to discuss the challenges openly and transparently because if we were to stop communicating altogether, misunderstandings and misinterpretations could persist, undermining the integrity of the community discourse.
We again encourage people to satisfy themselves of the facts and to continue to provide us with your unfiltered feedback and questions so we can continue to learn and engage together.
It is important to remind readers that the views and opinions expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of the Community House (see page 3).
You can have your say at the following link: https://anglesea.org.au/get-involved/ have-your-say/
Further details, including links to the final A nglesea Futures report, the raw data used to create the charts, and other sources of information can be found at:
https://anglesea.org.au/category/newsangle/
Anglesea Futures Draft Land Use Plan December 2017 (Draft Plan) compared with Anglesea Futures Land Use Framework October 2018 (Final Plan). (C) refers to complementary use.
Area Draft Plan Land Use Final Plan Land Use Variance
1
Conservation Passive Recreation
2
Passive & Active Recreation Community Tourism (C) Active Recreation Community and Visitor facilities Camping (C) -Tourism +Community and Visitor Information
3
4
5
6
7
Tourism Accommodation Retail (C) Other Commercial (C) Renewable Energy (C) Eco and Adventure Tourism Camping (C) Community & Visitor Facilities (C) Retail (C) Other Commercial (C) Renewable Energy (C) Active Recreation (C)
Conservation Passive Recreation Conservation
No change
8
9
10
Passive & Active Recreation Conservation
Conservation Active Recreation +Active Recreation
Tourism Accommodation Residential Conservation Active Recreation Rural Living Community and Visitor Facilities -Tourism -Accommodation +Rural Living -Residential +Community and Visitor Facilities
