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DAY 11 – Racing time, racing rain

So today our adventure began at the local “Empu” (Knife-smith) where we had our personalised Tiger-Claws (Karambit knives) made.

When the clouds set in & our driver was out of reach, we employed two locals we met at the Empu to take us on their motorbikes to our afternoon location. Much to our surprise & obviously another sign of luck, they ended up being local stuntmen so you can just imagine the epic ride we had with them through the city, in terrential rain, holding on to them & all our gear! It was meant to be, as with their skills & speed we were faster than the clouds & made it safely.

Arriving at a beautiful temple, we had less than a ten minute window to launch Horus to get the aerial shots, which was followed by a very wet knife-twirling sequence in the rain. Our Lead, Jessica picked up the difficult Karambit skills for the 1st time on the 1st take, never having even handled the above-mentioned weapon before – which turned out to be the most authentic scene in the film.

We bid farewell to paradise filming some farewell scenes & packed our gear up ready for the journey back to Australia, where local production will begin soon.

Keep following us as we are excited to share with you the next chapter of Daimonion.

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Day 10 – Down into the Abyss & up into the Waterfall

Today we were in one of the prettiest regions of Indonesia, so lush & green in the central southern tip of Java.

1st location was a Stalagmite cave in the grounds of an Ashram, such a peaceful, colourful garden that surrounded the entrance down into the deep dark cave, wet, muddy & cold. You could see the mist gently hovering over pools of water, the only sounds were the occasional drops of water from the jaggered roof and the flutter of bats as they flew by our heads.

A challenging scene it was, working with minimal light & slippery surfaces, not to mention our Lead, Jessica being bound & blindfolded!

The afternoon saw a journey that seemed to take forever – but finally took us to the waterfall we had been wanting to shoot at. A stunning waterfall that had rare access to the very top was our 2nd location & here we shot a scene filled with fear, self doubt, then finally achievement. With some assistance from a friendly local, we pulled off the action scene with success & made the long journey back to our hotel, feeling pleased with our accomplishments but sad that tomorrow will be our last day in paradise.

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Day 9 – All Roads Lead to Challenge

Another early start today & our first 2 locations were deemed unsuitable – only after we spent hours getting there! It seems to be the problem when shooting on unseen locations – but can sometimes work out to be a blessing also, you learn to take the good with the bad. Today we took both.

After a quick discussion about our impending cave descent, we decided our risk assessment was not worthy of the 60m drop into the dark whole when carrying all our important gear, particulary as the tropical rain that had been pouring all night wasn’t letting up.

The day wasn’t wasted though, after scouting beach locations for the afternoon we finally found our perfect setting on a stunning beach with beautiful rock formations & crashing waves of the Indian Ocean.  On this picturesque set we shot a grueling training scene with our lead Jessica, working up quite an appetite for her favourite Indonesian meal of Nasi Goreng for dinner!

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Day 8 – From Stupas to Lava Trails…

After our day of extensive planning yesterday, we were so prepared for our 1st day at the new location – what we weren’t counting on is the rain!

As we travelled through the city & then the lush green countryside with our new wingman, our private driver Yoga, there were frequent checks of the weather satellites & plan B discussions.

Clearing up just in time we made it to the world’s largest Buddhist temple & got the shots we came for, with Horus gliding through the air like a champion, stealth in her mission to go unseen by the many revellers below.

With the rain gone & the sun now shining, the humidity kicked in & made for the perfect atmosphere as we arrived at an active volcano. Trekking the Lava Trails, we got up as close as we could, where our lead Jessica had to climb out of a channel on the mountain cut by the lava in the last eruption. Manouvering through spiderwebs & slipping on loose rocks, she made it up safely & I then went down for my shots, balancing with a camera in my hand.

A bumpy ride back down to ground level & we were back to our hotel to sit down over some more delicious local food & discuss the remainder of the script & celebrate successfully casting our male lead! Stay tuned for our official announcement soon.

 

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Day 7 – Location setup in paradise (again!)

Day 7 saw us packing up all our gear & boarding a flight to a new base camp for our next week of location shooting.

We are so humbled by the generous welcoming of the Indonesian people, their custom making us feel right at home & wishing we were staying longer to film a full feature!

Between script discussion, location set up, props coordination & rehearsals, the day seemed to get away from us quickly.

Leaving just enough time to sample some wonderful local food & drinks, our day was a success yet again. We now bid goodnight to the surrounding jungle with the excitement & anticipation of tomorrow’s adventures ahead of us. Daimonion is well under-way now.

Good night to all on the 1st day of the year!

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Gusman Wirantana, Guru of Silat Bakti Negara

Today we had the honour of training with Gusman Wirantana again, this time at his beautiful home in Jero Taman Bali. Gusman is our Film-fighting Choreographer & Stunt Coordinator for the Daimonion film and has been a wealth of knowledge & a great asset to our production.

Taking some time out after a training session with our lead Jessica, we sat down with Gusman to talk about Silat & his journey with martial arts over his Mother’s famous Balinese Ginger Tea.

Gusman spoke fondly of his love for Silat & what it meant for him & his family going back many generations. His Grandfather was the founder of Bakti Negara & much of Gusman’s inspiration came from him.

We documented our time with Gusman yesterday, which will form a part of our upcoming documentary on the great guru. Stay tuned for more information on the documentary soon!

After a fantastic day with an incredible man, we managed to have a celebratory cocktail for the New Year’s Eve festivities in the town before hitting the hay for an early flight on the 1st – a new year & a new location for part 2 of our filming!

Happy New Year!

 

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Day 5 – The Village of the Dead

After a blissful night of relax & recovering (if you don’t count the weird noises of the nocturnal native animals!), we set out on our next mission to shoot some heavy scenes.

Through winding roads & down a mountain we arrived at a peaceful lake with a magnificently eerie backdrop of a huge volcano. This became the setting for our main character to manouver a canoe towards a semi-submerged house. It took more than one take to get this shot while the fishermen on the land giggled at our actress as she could only go left. She needed one more pedal to make a little row boat.

The surroundings matched the storyline, finding ourselves in a place that can only be described as somewhere not for the faint-hearted.

Finding our courage we stepped off a small fishing boat & into the village of the dead, where we were surrounded by rotting corpses & human bones. Despite a few people problems we managed to complete the scene with time to spare…

So off to a bonus location this afternoon where we found ourselves in a magical grotto, a secret garden not many people know about. Bonus for us as it meant no interruptions, and we nabbed ourselves some pretty spectacular footage.

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DAY 4 – Welcome to the jungle

Another early start & off we were again, heading towards a sacred temple in what was an almost-eery setting next to a lake that was as still as the night.

Fortunate enough to have our government escorts, the temple was closed off for our private set, with only the crew allowed.

On board today we had:
Fight Choreographer – Grandmaster of Silat Bakti Negara, Gusman Wiranata
Stunt Actor – IB Anom Mustika
Stunts – Nuana & Komang

After a tranquil meditation sequence & master/student scene, a fantastic chase & fight scene followed & boy was it full of action in more ways than one! Our lead Jessica threw herself into her fight scenes full throttle & wasn’t afraid to get dirty, in literal sense, barefoot running through the Indonesian jungle, ducking & weaving through the thick foliage. Skillfully disarming the the first 2 jungle warriors, she got more than she bargained for with the 3rd, taking a shoulder roll into some not-so-friendly native plant that had her in an allergic reaction almost straight away. Fighting back the screams of agony, she bravely finished the scene before we made a beeline to the hospital.

Such a great team we had, the crew all came for support & once her medication kicked in we all went for dinner to celebrate a great day of filming & friendship at the beautiful Secret Garden restaurant.

 

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DAY 3 – So this girl walks into the bar

Day 3 & what a start it got off to. Straight into a sunrise sea emersion & into a bar, drenched & thirsty, our character ordered a tequila & the bar chatter began.

Scouting our bar & casting our bartender the night before on our reconnaissance mission was easy – in fact it couldn’t have gone any better. Our tiny island held many humble beauties & our important location was one of them.

Bidding farewell to paradise, we once again packed up all the gear & took what seemed like the longest boat in the world back to the mainland.

Sun-drenched, tired & buzzing with excitement of our journey ahead, we headed to the hinterland jungle to set up for our fight scenes tomorrow.

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DAY 2 – Location Paradise

The long journey and high seas proved that you really have to go through hell to get to paradise.
After shooting some dream sequence on such a dreamy location it was time to jump on board our fishing boat for the afternoon shoot where our actress Jessica had to face her fears of sharks and dive head first literally into the beautiful coral laced waters. All toys came out to play today for the watershoot under, above and beyond.

Location scouting is never easy. Especially if you are trying to find something unique. We are just so blessed for the fast and efficient communication and help our amazing Airbnb hosts Maela and Sam provided us so we could film the scenes we imagined in their overwater house in the private luscious settings of Gili Meno.

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