PRODUCTION
Bill and Jennifer brought on Annie Kinnane as Line Producer, Dave Suttor for Unit/Transport, and a small but highly experienced crew of exceptional people who were prepared to shoot the film in the unconventional way that Bill was envisioning.
Bill knew that this film would be a “light-dependant” shoot. He wanted to place a priority on available light, shooting at the extreme ends of the day – and he was thankful that First Assistant Director Rachel Artis Evans came out of retirement to board the production. They’d last worked together on the Eric Bana comedy, The Nugget, which Bill wrote, produced and directed.
Completing his essential on-set crew were Director of Photography Calum Stewart, who brought an artist’s eye and a craftsman’s exactitude to the visuals; drone maestro Scott Last, and sound recordist Nick Emond who, along with his boomie Gerry Nucifora, had the challenging job of getting clean dialogues on the Camino. They were more than up to the challenge. Rounding off the on-set crew was Tiffany Chuck, who did Art Department, Wardrobe, and everything else in between.
The production spent five weeks filming along the entirety of the Camino. Bill was obsessive about getting every geographical aspect of filming the Camino correct – there could be no sequences out of order. There could be no faking of locations because they looked beautiful or were logistically more convenient. He knew that eventually the film would have to withstand the critical scrutiny of Camino diehards, so every detail had to be authentic.
At the end of June the production returned to Australia for one final week of shooting – then Bill gave his trusted editor Rishi Shukla two further weeks of picture cutting for him to deliver his assembly. (Rishi had commenced on location in Spain at the start of the shoot.) Then followed six intense months for Bill in the editing room with Rishi, with Jennifer coming in periodically to give her witheringly insightful notes.
During that time Bill and Jennifer did several audience test screenings with Camino pilgrims, but also those who knew nothing about the Camino. With this audience feedback, and feedback also from Camino legend Johnnie Walker, they did revisions and by Christmas 2023, they locked off the cut at 95 mins, without front and end credits.
Then followed several months of painstaking work by Oscar nominated (for “Elvis”) Sound Designer Wayne Pashley and his crew at Big Bang Sound, and an original music score by brilliant composer Jackson Milas, from Sonar Music. And to put a cherry on top, Bill and Jennifer decided to use Camino podcaster and acclaimed musician Dan Mullins’s classic Camino anthem, Somewhere Along the Way, over the end credits of the movie.
On set with the usual suspects
On location