The Very Excellent Mr Dundee – Feature Film
The grade for The Very Excellent Mr Dundee has come to an end – what a lot of fun it has been. Octogenarian Paul Hogan is as lively and cheeky as he ever was and has gathered a terrific cast around him to make this light hearted ‘mocumentary’ movie. (Stay tuned for the full line-up of actors….). Here are some of the cast already mentioned on IMDB, in the press on the internet and of course recently mentioned by Richard Wilkins on Channel 9’s morning show as he too was a cast member:
John Cleese
Paul Hogan and Reginald VelJohnson
The Very Excellent Mr Dundee
Shane Jacobson and Paul Hogan
Paul Hogan and Olivia Newton-John
The grade commenced in May 2019 and has had a few editorial tweaks and new VFX dropped into the timeline along the way. As with most feature films recently, there rarely seems to be a ‘lock’ on a cut until the very last minute. (We like to refer to it as a soft lock or perhaps even a loose latch!) The final grade date was Sunday 13th October and with a few final touches with some new VFX it was mastered by Marcus Herrick ready for the cast and crew screening just 10 days later. The team at Blue Post (bluepost.com.au) did a great job as ever, assisting with VFX, new cuts, colour traces and marrying in a huge number of stock shots to sit well with the recently shot footage. The grade was done in the sound theatre at Paul Pirola’s new studio; Boom Tracks, just beneath Blue Post in Salmon St, Port Melbourne. Marcus Smith set up and checked the projector on a regular basis to ensure that we have the right colour and light output. It was a great environment to grade in and the team work between Boom Tracks and Blue Post made it all flow seamlessly.
The cinematographer was the lovely Mr Roger Lanser ACS. We have worked together on the Miss Fisher Mysteries TV series over the years and more recently the Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears feature film – set for release in February 2020. Roger is very meticulous and always shoots images that are a delight to work on. As with many cinematographers that I have worked with over the years, there is a mutual understanding of what he expects to be achieved in the grade suite to get the images where he wants them and a clear understanding of how and why he has shot scenes in a particular way. He was unable to attend the grade due to the randomness of the bookings and his hectic schedule, but I believe we have the film looking how he envisaged it.
Working with Director Dean Murphy once again was a delight; he is the master of remaining calm in the eye of a storm and somehow steered the ship to a safe port. He has terrific rapport with all involved and managed to juggle everything with ease. There’s no doubt he was much like the proverbial duck- calm on the surface but paddling frantically below the water level. Huge congratulations to him for what he has achieved.
The release date is yet to be confirmed, but it will no doubt appeal to Paul Hogan/Mick Dundee fans worldwide.
