Warriors of Virtue II – Return to Tao

Warriors of Virtue II – Return to Tao (PG) Is a four million dollar fantasy drama with Kung Fu Kangaroos.
How could I resist!
Due to the budget being a tenth of the original that didn’t eventuate.
C’est la vie.
Shot in China with two crews shooting 23 hours a day, 600 slates of martial arts equaled 30 minutes of the film and over 100 CGIs this family flick was going to push my skills.
I hadn’t cut martial arts before so this was an unbelievable opportunity.
Working through an interpreter with the martial arts director for a week was cool.
By the end we were communicating with hand actions accompanied with sound effects while the interpreter sat quietly between us. It was a fantastic experience.

I had the sum total of a day’s contact with Michael Vickerman (the director) before he jetted to China and hey presto two months later the first batch of rushes arrived at telecine.

In 2002 direct communication was limited. Email proved the best form of communication so between the hours of 11 pm and 2 am I would email telecine reports. This was important as the rushes had a 10 day turn around from processing the neg in China to telecine in Melbourne then dubs sent back. So I was the first person to assess the footage for technical, performance and story points. This was Michael’s first feature film.

It was great to come in each day knowing that neither of us were precious and it was all about getting the best out of the material.
After all we were making 90 minutes of entertainment.