a work of passion: the fact sheet

Here are a few facts on the challenges we encountered during filming over the past year.

• Car enthusiasts from all over Australia were encouraged to donate photos of their GT’s for the opening scene of the movie. We only required 15 photos, but we were bombarded with over 300.

• First day of filming, we found the star car (Red GT-P) on bricks – an irony for a car/heist movie, the wheels had been stolen during the night.

• We had full access to a friend’s café for a 1 day shoot, the only condition; it had to be on Easter Sunday... the cast and crew sacrificed this traditional family day for the film.

• While filming, Mark Lamb got a call from an ad agency with a request to feature his blue XY GTHO in Ford Performance Vehicles latest 'Mother of Performance Cars' TV commercial. So we needed a change of script and a replacement car... enter “The Mustang”

• My passion for the film was tested half way through shooting when we ran out of money. The film had to be finished. The choice was between the house or the car.  There was no way I’d sell the car ... the house had to go.

“Then we got our break”

• A chance meeting with international film editor Ping D’Souza (one of Michael Moore’s colleagues) meant that he generously came on board. Working for three days straight he changed the feel of the film forever.

• The film duration was originally 1hr 30 mins until Ping waved the magic editing-wand and skilfully turned 56 hours of footage into an action-packed 30 minutes of Aussie car culture. The film is not a work of art or a technical masterpiece, but a work of passion.

• A key scene had to be re-shot on the morning of the film’s premier screening because the editing machine had eaten the scene.  This really kept us on our toes; it is the definition of being very fast and very furious.

• Indicative of the film’s popularity, the gtmovie.com web server overloaded and crashed on the first day of release due to the massive number of Aussie car-culture enthusiasts wanting their first glimpse of the movie trailer. It makes it all worth while...