Here's what Hugh had to say about the shoot:
"Apart from the actual shoot we did the whole thing over the internet. Cast it, quoted it, retouched it. I only came to Sydney to sit in a studio. We actually didn't have locked in layouts, but rather a series of scenarios- we shot every scenario with each talent and then worked out which was going to work best for the final images.
The talent were fantastic and worked really hard - its much harder than it looks being strung up on those wires (thats me in the red shirt finding out the hard way) and it would be so much more difficult with the extra pounds these guys are carrying! The riggers (Spider Monkey Constructions) were quite concerned about the amount of weight were going to be lifting but in the end it went off very smoothly and he was just what I wanted.
I was really looking for the kind of big guy who would surprise us with his co-ordination. I had this image from the old movie The Hustler in which Jackie Gleason (as Minnesota Fats) had the elegance of a dancer in spite of being, well, really fat. Lucinda ( the female talent) too, had the grace of a ballerina up there on the wire.
Once the day was done I spent Thursday and Friday shooting the background plates, briefed the wonderful Claudia Fitzpatrick about the retouching on Saturday and I was back to Los Angeles first thing Sunday morning! Then the emails went back and forth until we were all happy...."
And here are the final results plus some behind the scenes shots - Look out for Hugh hanging out in the red t-shirt.
