Posts filed under 'Media'
As the lead VFX company for Australia, Animal Logic was awarded the task of designing and creating the key VFX shots that take place within the port town of Darwin. This entailed creating a CG Darwin, complete with harbour, wharf and ships that had to be re-dressed across the three time periods seen in the film: ‘Cattletown’, ‘Militarised’, and ‘Post-bombed’.
The Animal Logic team brought to life a CG Wharf modelled from lidar scans of Darwin wharf as well as various larger-than-life ships, creating the “heightened reality” of a romanticised Darwin. Referencing colour palettes from vintage photographs and classic epic films, the splenderous 1930s landscape provided an exciting canvas for the wide aerial shots and set extensions created.
In addition, CG cattle were added to boost the numbers in the cattle yeards, the cattle race and during the “triumphant return” when Sarah droves cattle into Darwin. These shots involved the combination of multiple plates shot accross three locations: the cattle town set in Bowen, Darwin harbour and the bluescreen wharf set on a stage in Sydney. The CG FX work includes the harbour water, huge burning smoke plumes, burning oil tanks, funnel smoke, fog, clouds, wakes, flames, atmos and cattle dust.
As seen in excerpts above, you can view a fantastic gallery of images, credits and additional information at the Animal Logic website Australia section.
June 16th, 2009
Australia has had a busy long weekend in the Australian media. On Sunday Channel 9 featured a 30 minute Making of Australia feature and on Channel 10 Hugh Jackman appeared on talk show, Rove.
Upcoming on Tuesday 14th of April those with subscription tv, be sure to tune into Foxtel’s Sky News at 1pm to watch a very candid edition of Showbiz in which Baz Luhrmann finally has his say on the critics, the tourism campaign and the box office results. Check local listings for specific times, it will also be re-aired on Friday.
April 12th, 2009
Homegrown film Australia has been now been released on DVD and BluRay down under, despite it still showing at some cinemas.
“The Aussie audience has decided — that makes me feel good,” Luhrmann said. “I have found that profoundly rewarding.”
Currently a stripped down version of the DVD is available in all stores, however a cardboard slipcase cover version with bonus postcard inserts has been spotted at budget store BigW, similar to the Walmart special in America.
Respected newspaper, The Australian reports; the early indications are that DVD sales will be strong. Since being released in Australia on Wednesday, the DVD has already sold double what Fox expected. And in the US, almost two million DVDs have been sold in one month — 80 per cent of what the film giant predicted it would sell altogether.”
source: The Australian
April 3rd, 2009
Australia is out now on DVD and Blu Ray in America.
American citizens also have access to a Walmart “Exclusive” edition of the DVD, seen left, which features special packaging to encompass the glossy Australia picture book inside. Unfortunately this is not available to those outside of the USA.
Additional release dates have now been listed in the sidebar to the right of the site. For more information about the Australia DVD and Blu Ray release, read our DVD press release update.
March 5th, 2009
Baz Luhrmann’s epic romance Australia has become the second-highest grossing Australian film of all time.
Now in its 14th week of release, the film has grossed $A36.78 million at the Australian box office. On Thursday Australia overtook the 1995 hit Babe’s long-standing box office figure of $A36.77 million, and is surpassed only by Crocodile Dundee’s record $A44.7 million.
The film, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, is also set to pass $US200 million ($A307.93 million) at the global box office this weekend, with the film still to open in Japan.
“The ongoing box office success of Australia has been outstanding and a unique testament to the way the film has been embraced by this country,” Twentieth Century Fox Australia managing director Marc Wooldridge said.
Top 10 highest grossing Australian films at the local box office:
Crocodile Dundee - $44.7m
Australia - $36.78m
Babe - $36.77m
Happy Feet - $31.8m
Moulin Rouge! - $27.7m
Crocodile Dundee 2 - $24.9m
Strictly Ballroom - $21.8m
The Dish - $18m
The Man From Snowy River - $17.2m
The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert - $16.5m
source: ninemsn news
February 25th, 2009
Baz Luhrmann and Nicole Kidman feature in a stunning photographic spread for the Vanity Fair March 2009 issue. The piece is entitled Hollywood Portfolios. Some of the actor-director teams featured have a history together, while others produced their first mind-melds in 2008. Nonetheless, in each case the chemistry was profound, the effect exponential.
This most recent photographic session was undertaken by none other than legendary photographer
Annie Leibovitz. If that name sounds familiar to you, it should. Not only have Annie’s past photographs left their mark on hollywood history, but more recently she visited the sets of
Australia and produced some stunning shots for the film
as reported in June 2008.
For more insight, view a behind the scenes video with Baz and Nicole …
February 3rd, 2009
Previous News Updates
Unfortunately Catherine Martin did not come away with an Academy Award this year but Australia definitely was in the spotlight, and host Hugh Jackman certainly couldn’t let them forget that mentioning the film in his opening dialogue and generally doing the movie and the country proud as a great host. In addition to Catherine Martin’s nomination, Australia star and Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman was on hand to help pass torch in the Best Actress category.