A Howling tough shoot

Australian actor Damian Walshe-Howling is pretty proud of his latest film, The Reef, and so he should be - it nearly cost him his life. Shot in Hervey Bay last year, the film follows a group of people who try to swim to a nearby island after their boat capsizes at sea. To add to the situation, they're being stalked by a Great White Shark. But it wasn't a ferocious, man-eating shark that brought the Underbelly actor so close to his deathbed.
``The most dramatic aspect of the shoot was I stepped on a stonefish which is, like, one of the most poisonous creatures in the ocean and can kill you in less than two hours,'' he said.
``I can talk about it now as this great heroic story, but the whole shoot was shut down and I was rushed to hospital.
``I was talking to a cast member in Los Angeles and she was saying how my eyes were rolling into the back of my head and she thought `oh my God, he's going to die.''

Suffice to say Walshe-Howling lived to fight another day, or shark, and is busy promoting the film ahead of its Australian release date on Thursday, March 17. The Reef is another creature feature from the man behind crocodile thriller Black Water, Andrew Traucki, and the writer/director put his actors through an ``intense'' filming schedule.
``It was an extremely intense shoot,'' Walshe-Howling said.
``We were pretty water-logged and even though we were shooting in warm Queensland, after you're in the water for more that two hours it starts to get really cold.
``And we were in there for hours on end every day.
``Each of us at one point had a mild case of hypothermia.'' The film also stars fellow Underbelly alumni Gyton Grantley, as well as Adrienne Pickering and Zoe Naylor. The low-budget thriller also incorporates real shark footage, filmed by Traucki and his team in Port Lincoln. As a keen surfer, Walshe-Howling said The Reef hasn't put him off the water, but he's certainly more aware of what's lurking underneath.
``I love surfing, but the ocean is their (sharks) domain,'' he said.
``They're one of the most beautiful creatures in the world and one of the oldest creatures in the ocean, but I wouldn't want to be eating lunch with one.
``If you're stepping into that domain you have to realise that's a possibility.
``It would be a horrible way to die though.
``I don't have a phobia of sharks, but sometimes when I'm in the water you just get that feeling where you think you need to get out of the water quickly, that instinct.''

The Reef opens in cinemas on Thursday, March 17.

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Just keep swimming, just keep swimming . . . .

Imagine being stalked by a ferocious Great White Shark in open water, with your only refuge the hull of the capsized boat you were sailing on. Do you wait to be rescued? Or take your chances and try and swim to shore? The answer could be the difference between life and death and filmmaker Andrew Traucki brings this terrifying scenario to the big screen in his upcoming film The Reef (a scene from the film, above).

Filmed earlier this year in Hervey Bay, Traucki said he was determined to use real sharks in the film and not `just some actor in a suit’.
“I’m a great believer that in any film the villains have to be very real and believable,” he said.
“Not that I think sharks are evil, but they’re in the way of our heroes.
“There’s nothing worse than a film when you watch it and realise the creature isn’t real.
“I was compelled to have real crocodiles in my previous film Black Water and to have real sharks in The Reef.
“Jaws is a great movie but in that last scene when you see the shark eating the man you can see the rubber figure and it’s really dated.
“So we used wild sharks that we filmed in Port Lincoln from the boat and inside a cage.”

The Reef is Traucki’s second feature film after the critically acclaimed Black Water which saw three people stalked by a crocodile. Traucki said although he is now ready to move on from `creature features’ what attracted him to both projects were the real stories behind the terror.
“There’s a common link because both are based on true, Australian stories,” he said.
“I’m fascinated by survival thrillers and wondering what I would do.
“I’m into thrillers, not horror.
“For me it’s the anticipation of the event rather than the actual event.
“Sure, it’s about a shark and people trying to escape but it’s more about where is the shark, what is it doing, is it coming for us . . . it’s about he psychology of it.”

The Reef is one of 30 films that is screening at the Gold Coast Film Festival next week and stars Underbelly alumni Gyton Grantley and Damien Walshe-Howling as two members of the unlucky group. Traucki said he hopes the film will find an Aussie audience, as it has already been sold overseas and selected to screen at the prestigious South Korean Pusan Film festival and in Spain at The Sitges Film Festival.

An online community has already started rallying around the film after a day of shooting was streamed online at The Reef website.
``It was a world-first I believe,'' said Traucki.
``No one has ever streamed the making of a film live before and more than 10,000 people went online to watch.
``We always love the behind-the-scenes footage on DVDs, so we thought why not have it while we are making the film?
``It was a very hard, very gruelling shoot from my point of view and it was the same for the actors.
``Being in the water for 10 hours a day, six days a week . . .people aren't meant to be in the water that long and you go pruney and odd.''

In other news, when I was in Egypt last month pirated copies of Traucki's first film Black Water were being sold everywhere. And I mean everywhere! Which I found very intersting, considering it was a relatively small film here in Australia.

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