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Gallery: Windcatcher behind the scenes

Here's how Stan family movie safely filmed some of their most dramatic scenes in studio.

Published by David Knox
on March 27, 2024

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Late last year I was lucky enough to attend the filming of a crucial scene for upcoming Stan film Windcatcher.

The film premieres tomorrow on Stan with newcomer Lennox Monaghan (pictured top) Jessica Mauboy, Max Turner, Coco Greenstone, Kelton Pell, Pia Miranda , Ngali Shaw and Lisa Maza.

This scene involved some impressive CGI from Nant Studios at Docklands Studios simulating a rural fire encroaching upon our young hero, Percy Boy (Monaghan).

On the large video screen behind each branch of each tree had to be individually “lit” by computer animation. The parts in these photos which look odd or unaligned were kept out of frame for the shots.

In the foreground was a makeshift turf plus wind machines to add to the atmosphere and to help match location scenes.

In this way, crew did not have to try and film outside, faking a fire and dealing with uncontrollable elements. Nice when you can take a coffee break in the middle of filming a realistic bushfire. ABC’s Fires used similar DreamScreen tech for their 2021 drama.