12 Hawkesbury Gazette,Wednesday, September 8, 2010

NEWS FEATURE

CCrreeaattiinngg aa ttuunnnneell ooff tteerrrroorrby Justine

GeakeTWOHawkesburyresidents areright inamongst thegore in a newhorror moviebeing filmedunder St

James’ stationin the city.Make-up artistNicolleAdrichem ofVineyard and

actor JamesCaitlin of Richmondare both excitedabout the movie,

which should bereleased by the end ofthe year.The story is that the

government hadannounced a plan to use

water that had accumulatedin disused tunnels under thecity, to ease water restrictions.But then the government does abackflip and abandons the pro-gram with no explanation. Amidrumours of a cover-up andshadowy urban legends, a crewof four reporters enter the tun-nels to find the real story.

Shot like a documentary, itcovers what happens downthere and what they find.

Ms Adrichem said the film hada real atmospheric quality,where an unnamed horrorstalks the characters like in(the 1999 movie) Blair WitchProject. “I’ve been doing make-up and special effects for themovie as part of my businessReelEFX Make-up Studio,” MsAdrichem said. “I’ve done eyesgouged out, scrapes andscratches, and the dirty anddishevelled look (for theactors).” Some very convincingwounds have been part of herTunnel repertoire as well.

Actor James Caitlin, aRichmond resident for eightmonths, plays a homeless man –the only one of a group of home-

less men living in the tunnelswho survives.

“The crew keep mentioningall my (homeless) friends whokept disappearing and I startscreaming and lose it,” he said.

Like from post traumaticstress disorder? “Yes.”

“I finished filming my partabout three weeks ago,” he said.

“We filmed my part in aclosed-down nursing homenear Ashfield. It was a veryeerie place to be. It was like ashoot we did at the old mentalhospital at Rozelle – it gets verystrange at night.”

Mr Caitlin said the movie doesplay on feelings of claustropho-bia, and said being down inthose tunnels is extremelyunnerving.

“I play tough guys,villains andmurderers usually,but [in thesetunnels] I’d be the first onescreaming out the door!”helaughed.Once the movie comes

out you may recognise him inColes in Richmond,or at Patchy’s,places he’s frequently at.

The film also has the guidinghand of Andrew Denton, one ofthe executive producers of themovie, with his company –Zapruder’s Other Productions –providing rehearsal space atChippendale as well.

Besides tunnels under StJames, they’ve been shooting atthe Navy base in Woolloomoo-loo, old bunkers in Vaucluseand at George’s Head.

The film has already beennominated for an AustralianDirectors Guild Award in thecategory of “cross-platforminteractive” for its unique pro-motion methods. The film willnot be released in cinemas, buton-line and on DVD. To raisethe money to pay for the film,and to sidestep the problem ofmovie piracy, the filmmakersJulian Harvey and Enzo

Tedeschi started what theycalled the 135K Project.

“We figured that movieposters and collectable framesfrom movies are being soldevery day, so what if we couldraise the money to make TheTunnel by selling every individ-ual frame of it,” Mr Tedeschisaid. “We would be able to makea movie unencumbered by astudio’s need for box office.”

They figured out there wouldbe 135,000 frames of film in themovie and if they sold everyone for $1 they’d have enoughto finance the film and releaseit online for free.

But how do they pay theactors?

“We’re on a deferred con-tract,” Mr Caitlin said.

“We get paid when the moviestarts making money.”

If you’d like to know more, goto www.thetunnelmovie.net.

Richmond actor James Caitlin.

Showing Nicolle Adrichem’shandiwork,an actor on The Tunnelbears the scars of an attack.

James Caitlin (centre) discusses the approach to a scene during shooting for The Tunnel.

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