Lake Mungo

RodThompson

RodThompson

Veteran
OMG! Has anyone seen this movie? It's a mockumentary, but looks creepy as shi*! Its an Aussie flick, and is aparently being snatched up by Vantage for a "non-mockumentary" American remake. I think if they lose the Mock feel, it will surely suck the gay out of Liberache's dead anus. This trailer alone sent chills down my spine and creeped me out...even knowing it was mock. I'm panting to see this flick! Anyway, check this trailer out, and if anyone knows how I can find a local showing of this, let me know.

Oh, and on the same note...anyone see Paranormal Activity, which has the same feel?

Rodimus

http://lakemungo.com/
 
RodThompson said:
OMG! Has anyone seen this movie? It's a mockumentary, but looks creepy as shi*! Its an Aussie flick, and is aparently being snatched up by Vantage for a "non-mockumentary" American remake.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a fun film. I love paranormal shows like Ghost Hunters, which with a documentary feel this reminds me of a bit.

Too bad every interesting foreign movie gets remade before it hits DVD over here. I'm getting tired of this.

I think if they lose the Mock feel, it will surely suck the gay out of Liberache's dead anus.
Click to expand...

For God sakes man, I just ate dinner.
 
PLEASE...someone HAS to know where I can get a copy of one of these movies! Especially PA...it's being hailed as one of the scariest films EVER.
 
I'm shocked there isn't more discussion about Paranormal Activity... then again, I guess it just opened this weekend. I just came back from a midnight showing - this is most indie filmmakers dream of a story.... one location, 4 or 5 actors total (only 2 in about 90% of it), shooting on what looked like an EX-1.

Not a "great" movie - but definitely enjoyable... decently well structured... great 'creepy' factor.
Kept me engaged the whole time... which is saying a lot... I'm generally hard to hook in for 90+ minutes.
The audience seemed to enjoy it as well - though the girl sitting behind us sounded like someone had just stabbed her most of the time.
(I guess that means the movie did its job).

Anyhow - interested to hear some thoughts on it.
 
I saw it last night (at a midnight screening with a certain wookie and his wife).

And I agree with pretty much everything he said. It's a fun watch, with some genuinely creepy and scary moments, with very few "telegraphed" punches.

From what I read, the production budget was $15K. Pretty good illustration of what you can do with a simple idea, some creative thinking and solid acting.

--SM
 
Luis Caffesse said:
I'm shocked there isn't more discussion about Paranormal Activity... then again, I guess it just opened this weekend. I just came back from a midnight showing - this is most indie filmmakers dream of a story.... one location, 4 or 5 actors total (only 2 in about 90% of it), shooting on what looked like an EX-1.

Not a "great" movie - but definitely enjoyable... decently well structured... great 'creepy' factor.
Kept me engaged the whole time... which is saying a lot... I'm generally hard to hook in for 90+ minutes.
The audience seemed to enjoy it as well - though the girl sitting behind us sounded like someone had just stabbed her most of the time.
(I guess that means the movie did its job).

Anyhow - interested to hear some thoughts on it.
Click to expand...

Luis, I'm more shocked than you are! This is the 'little indies' dream come true type movie, WOW! A self marketing, LOW budget indie horror movie that no one here knows about :) Imagine that :)


[discraimer for Luis and the other 3 people in this thread]
 
RodThompson said:
PLEASE...someone HAS to know where I can get a copy of one of these movies! Especially PA...it's being hailed as one of the scariest films EVER.
Click to expand...

Hello Rod.

Thanks for the Lake Mungo plug. You'll be able to watch it in a cinema as part of the after dark festival at the end of January. It will be released on DVD shortly after.

Love to hear what you think once you've seen it.

jb

DOP Lake Mungo

John Brawley
Cinematographer
Sydney Australia
www.johnbrawley.com
 
Mark Harris said:
I'm a little confused. Why are these two films lumped into the same thread?
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No good reason - it just started that way.
Let's split them up, seeing as Chip has started a thread on Paranormal Activity here:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=185615


Let's keep this thread on the topic of 'Lake Mungo' -
thanks.


EDITED TO ADD:
And welcome to the boards, John. Once more of us get a chance to see the film I hope you can share some BTS information with us about your experience making it. Nothing like hearing it form the source.
Welcome aboard.
:thumbsup:
 
Luis Caffesse said:
No good reason - it just started that way.
Let's split them up, seeing as Chip has started a thread on Paranormal Activity here:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=185615
And welcome to the boards, John. Once more of us get a chance to see the film I hope you can share some BTS information with us about your experience making it. Nothing like hearing it form the source.
Welcome aboard.[/I]
:thumbsup:
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Thanks for having me.

Happy to answer any questions. I can say that we used over 40 different cameras. See if you can pick them.

Jb
 
John Brawley said:
Thanks for having me.

Happy to answer any questions. I can say that we used over 40 different cameras. See if you can pick them.

Jb
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Ha, nice! Cannot wait to see this film. The trailer is fantastic. I have been sending it to everyone I know.

From the DP's chair, would you care to talk specifically about how much effort went into creating a "realistic" look, as opposed to letting the natural, practical lighting sources just be what they were and let the image fall where it may?
 
Mark Harris said:
Ha, nice! Cannot wait to see this film. The trailer is fantastic. I have been sending it to everyone I know.

From the DP's chair, would you care to talk specifically about how much effort went into creating a "realistic" look, as opposed to letting the natural, practical lighting sources just be what they were and let the image fall where it may?
Click to expand...



Hi Mark,

We tried very very hard to create a genuine documentary feel for Lake Mungo. Joel Anderson, the director, was obsessed by it and it drove me NUTS !

But ALL the decisions about the look had to answer in the affirmative to this overriding conceit....would this be how it is in a *real* documentary...?

Although there was a very detailed script, it didn't actually have any scripted dialogue. All the performances were improvised and in many cases we used real locals in the town in their real life roles, like Police, doctors, search and rescue divers, journo's etc.

In Lake Mungo, I basically also had to take on a role just like the characters in the film. The camera itself was as much a character because of the multitudes of formats and sources.

Mostly I imagined I was a documentary cinematographer from a prestigious production. We imagined we were resourced but only so far as a high budget documentary shoot would be. I deliberately limited myself to a small lighting package from a van running only from house power.

Most of Lake Mungo was shot with this perspective, shooting formal interviews, observational footage, re-enactments of stories told by characters being interviewed and other doco visual wallpaper. All of the documentary footage was either Super 16 for the observational material or 35mm for the recreations or visual motif's to create a sense of gloom or spookiness.

As well as that material, which was one camera *character* if you like, plus there was other doco material, such as home movies ( going back 5 years on Mini DV, High 8, VHS-C and Super 8) filmed by the family themselves, home movies filmed by others in the town (mobile phones), news footage (digital betacam) by the local news services and other created footage such as police evidence videos (HDV, P2HD and Mini DV) when bodies are exhumed or recovered.

All of these different camera characters had their own visual style and visual signature which we had to create.

We shot formal interviews with actors answering questions "in character". For these, I lit them using very simple interview lighting techniques. It got trickier with observational material and the many home movies that had to be created. The observational material had to look 100% naturally lit. If someone's shooting a home movie then it's actually really hard to light things so they aren't lit !

We often did NOT block scenes. We would shoot it continuously "in character". We did this simply because it's the only way to build in the visual mistakes that happen when you're trying to reframe or reposition your body to cover something that is literally unfolding in front of your camera.

Many scenes in Mungo are shot as a single *take*. There's a scene where we first meet Ray, the Psychic counsellor, where he's doing a session which we shot as a single take. The action went over 20 mins and involved Ray getting ready for his session, a couple of asides to camera, before his client arrives and he launches into a session. The two actors had never met and she was given a cue to drive her car into the scene, knock on the door and start her session with Ray from there.

I had to think on my feet, not knowing where the actors would stand, sit or even what they would do. It meant i was reacting to the action and covering it. it meant i couldn't really polish things at all and give the game away.

Home movies were the same. The lighting had to be consistent with what would be *true*. Sometimes this could be as simple as using pracs in shot, and then trying not to make it too pretty but we often had to to include other elements (not wanting to spoil the movie).

In pre, I created a database in Filemaker Pro that enabled me to keep track of everything. We had home movies that stretched back over the previous 5 years, plus the contemporary footage that we were collecting as we had to appear that we had filmed the documentary over 12 months (really a month of main unit) PLUS the other sources that happened 6 months before the documentary commenced filming then running concurrent to the production. We shot out of order and it was the only way I could keep a handle on how to shoot everything.

The documentary mode was both frustrating and liberating. It meant I had a licence to find ways to shoot things in a way that appeared naturalistic and as it was found. We wanted to make a documentary that was more than *found* footage doco's like blair witch and now Paranormal. Although we had some found footage within the tory world, we wanted our footage to look like it was made with a bit of craft and not a lot of money.

Although it appears to be somewhat haphazzard, it was actually incredibly difficult to be disciplined in creating a genuine doco look and in not cheating in the way we covered and lit things. Joel to his credit kept me on my toes, cause I wanted to cheat ALL the time...!

Even now when we've done q&a's and the audience have seen the credits we still get people asking how we got the police footage and how the family are doing.

We always felt that the best way to watch Lake Mungo would be to accidentally catch it on TV without knowing a thing about it.

jb
 
The reason for the double topic thread was because I found out about both of these movies the same night. Lake Mungo was found when I was just surfing randomly on VIMEO, and PA shortly after in a "related" google search result list.

I didn't want to start two new topics about movies that (at the time) were hard to find, if at all. I just wanted to know if anyone knew of a hidden nook online that had these, since at the time...they were still Indy.

Hampton Roads just got picked up for limited release of PA, so I'm DEFINITELY going...and I'll see about Lake Mungo. I honestly want to see Lake Mungo a little more because it's not as hyped up, and you always want what you can't have. Lol.
 
Damn. I watched the trailer first and missed the warning not to. :(

Loved the trailer, John.
So happy that you've decided to come on the forum and share your thoughts with us.

Were the shots with the ghost put in during post or was the actress there and was her appearance just altered in post. If you get my meaning.

Thanks,

Mike
 
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