Marguerite
Active Member
husband found this today. We've been watching for news and promos. To refresh your memories, "The Black Balloon" is the film my younger three kids were in (big final scene) filmed a year ago. The story - a teenage boy trying to cope with an autistic brother. It's got an all-star cast, including Toni Collette. We're getting increasing publicity for it in Australia, it's to be released at the Berlin Film Festival next month.
The scene our kids were in - it's a sort of song & dance Noah's Ark school concert. difficult child 3 was Noah, easy child 2/difficult child 2 was on stilts as a giraffe and difficult child 1 was a psychotic rainbow lorikeet, with a choreographed fight scene with the other lorikeet. However, I think most of their fighting has been cut. A pivotal part of the scene revolves around a pair of monkey ears, which we see a fair bit of in the trailer.
husband managed to download the film trailer today. We also noticed a LOT of footage of a swimming spot very close to where we live - it's absolutely beautiful, there is an ocean beach with a palm-fringed lagoon beside it, the lagoon has a waterfall pouring into it (when there has been enough rain). The main people in those scenes are the young teen, his new girlfriend and his autistic brother. They must have filmed it outside school holidays, because right now at this time of year, the place is packed with people and picnickers.
We found a MySpace page. If you're MySpace members, you will be able to work your way to the photo album. Somewhere in there is a cast photo from the day of shooting our kids were in - the Noah's Ark. difficult child 3 is sitting right up front to one side. easy child 2/difficult child 2 is one of the giraffes in the rear - NOT standing on a box, that's how tall the stilts are. The other giraffe is also a stiltwalker. And the rainbow lorikeets are the ones with green lycra hats trimmed with orange feathers.
We already knew most of the kids in this group from difficult child 3's drama class and the associated social group. We met a few more, some of whom turned out to be part of the regular cast.
mother in law was here today, saw the info and mentioned that sister in law, who we've been telling about this for ages, still didn't realise how BIG this is, she seemed to think it was some sort of minor release documentary. No, this is BIG. After Berlin it's slated for world-wide cinematic release. sister in law is in for a shock!
So here is a link to the MySpace page, the public part.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=157624391
If you're a logged on MySpace member, you can go to the picture menu under the poster on the top left. "View my: pics"
Then you will see "My photos" - the big cast photo is the second of the group of three photos.
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cf...imageID=5189961
The woman in the white shirt, dead centre - that's Elissa, the writer/director.
Elissa was telling her own story in this film. The bloke playing the autistic brother really is very like her own brother, who was there for the day the kids were being filmed. He and their mother were in the audience for the 'play'.
It was an amazing experience for the kids to be involved with.
I'm hoping that when the film comes out, you can see it and remember "what we did in the holidays" in 2007! I was ferrying the kids to and from rehearsals from November 2006 until filming on 25 Jan 07, for this.
Marg
The scene our kids were in - it's a sort of song & dance Noah's Ark school concert. difficult child 3 was Noah, easy child 2/difficult child 2 was on stilts as a giraffe and difficult child 1 was a psychotic rainbow lorikeet, with a choreographed fight scene with the other lorikeet. However, I think most of their fighting has been cut. A pivotal part of the scene revolves around a pair of monkey ears, which we see a fair bit of in the trailer.
husband managed to download the film trailer today. We also noticed a LOT of footage of a swimming spot very close to where we live - it's absolutely beautiful, there is an ocean beach with a palm-fringed lagoon beside it, the lagoon has a waterfall pouring into it (when there has been enough rain). The main people in those scenes are the young teen, his new girlfriend and his autistic brother. They must have filmed it outside school holidays, because right now at this time of year, the place is packed with people and picnickers.
We found a MySpace page. If you're MySpace members, you will be able to work your way to the photo album. Somewhere in there is a cast photo from the day of shooting our kids were in - the Noah's Ark. difficult child 3 is sitting right up front to one side. easy child 2/difficult child 2 is one of the giraffes in the rear - NOT standing on a box, that's how tall the stilts are. The other giraffe is also a stiltwalker. And the rainbow lorikeets are the ones with green lycra hats trimmed with orange feathers.
We already knew most of the kids in this group from difficult child 3's drama class and the associated social group. We met a few more, some of whom turned out to be part of the regular cast.
mother in law was here today, saw the info and mentioned that sister in law, who we've been telling about this for ages, still didn't realise how BIG this is, she seemed to think it was some sort of minor release documentary. No, this is BIG. After Berlin it's slated for world-wide cinematic release. sister in law is in for a shock!
So here is a link to the MySpace page, the public part.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=157624391
If you're a logged on MySpace member, you can go to the picture menu under the poster on the top left. "View my: pics"
Then you will see "My photos" - the big cast photo is the second of the group of three photos.
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cf...imageID=5189961
The woman in the white shirt, dead centre - that's Elissa, the writer/director.
Elissa was telling her own story in this film. The bloke playing the autistic brother really is very like her own brother, who was there for the day the kids were being filmed. He and their mother were in the audience for the 'play'.
It was an amazing experience for the kids to be involved with.
I'm hoping that when the film comes out, you can see it and remember "what we did in the holidays" in 2007! I was ferrying the kids to and from rehearsals from November 2006 until filming on 25 Jan 07, for this.
Marg