With my video application for the “best job in the world” I wanted something that was going to stand out. I didn’t want to sit in front of my webcam and complain about the weather or tell the judges about the Great Barrier Reef facts I had just googled, eg, “Hi, I’m Bob, I’m sick of winter, I want to come to the Great Barrier reef where there’s 900 islands, 2900 individual reefs, over 1500 species of fish, and did you know that you can see it from outerspace!”.

Video Application – Part 1

The seed of the spa idea arose when at work (in the outback for the new readers), we had stopped off at a river that was inundated with weeds and mud, acting the clown I covered my face in mud and hair with weeds. Then I thought I could shoot the movie up in the middle of  the outback and pretend I was at spa etc.  The original skit plot was a lot more indepth, due to the 60 sec time constraint of the video application, I made do with the skeleton plot.

With an upcoming dive trip to Thailand looming, I was fast running out of time. I decided to get the video done in Perth before I flew back to the outback for work. The problem now was that I had no outback setting.  The best setting I could find was the “lake” at the local golf course.  I use the term “lake” very loosely. The “lake” has more mud than water, and the lack of rain lately meant the drain run off from the street gutters hadn’t replenished the stagnated water. To add to matters, my mate told me that I was stupid to do it there as he had heard that the lake is situated on reclaimed rubbish dump land, and the waters toxic, even the ducks get sores from the water! 

I was fast running out of time, and had to utilise the lake. When you watch the video application, and think that the setting looks pristine, think again, watch this behind the scenes video of me rubbing mud on myself and trying to cross the stagnated ankle deep mud that sends up a repugnant odour when you stir up the mud.

To bring my video idea into fruition I called on the help of my mates. The “production crew” consisted of my girlfriend Mandy as my “publicist”, number 1 fan and co-star. Long time mate Bugz was behind the camera, taking a day off from his reason films commitments.  And finally Matty as logistics manager and behind the scenes photographer (also ball thrower for the dog that wouldn’t leave us alone).

I thought the video wasn’t going to get off the ground as concerned morning joggers saw us heading into the park with a petrol can (filled with water for me to wash myself with), a mirror, and video camera, especially after the weekend arson attacks on Perth’s King park that saw major roads into centre city shut down as fire crews tried to contain the arson blaze.

It did get underway, but the funny looks didn’t stop.  There were many bemused morning walkers stopping to rubber neck at the skinny dreadlocked guy covered in mud (and no doubt duck fecal matter) wearing a rubber ducky shower cap lying in the repulsive water that not even the ducks were swimming in – I don’t blame them either.

But all in all we had a great laugh, and found the end result to be a success, a big thanks goes out to my “production crew”, and also my workmate Jacko for letting me use his video camera.

Video Application 2

With my marketing budget depleted (a carton of beers for my mates that helped me), Mandy my girlfriend at Pilates, mates at work, the battery of the borrowed camcorder nearly depleted, and fly out day to work looming, it was up to me to “get er done” as they say on the rigs in Canada.

So “get er done” I did. I hung up a sheet, set the camera up and talked the talk.  My origianl idea was to wear a suit on top and a skirt and high heels on my bottom half.  Then at the end of the video after being all serious, the camera would zoom out and I would be dressed like a woman on the bottom (ummm yeah, I think some of my ideas are best left in my head).  But when I got changed into the skirt, I had no one to operate the camera zoom, and realised it was bad idea aswell.  So I did all the takes wearing a skirt,  in the video posted in my visual CV, I’m actually wearing a skirt (No high heels though, I couldn’t find any high heels in the house that fitted me)!

But the funny part of me wearing a skirt and videoing myself was when my flatmate came home from work early and walked in on me wearing a skirt with a video camera set up! His frist thoughts were that I was making some weird kind of homemade porn movie, and he says “do you want me to leave you alone?”.  After I explained about the best job in the world and the need to make a video application he was a little more understanding, haha.

That wraps up behind the scenes, I hope it gives you a little bit of an insight to my video application.  Wish me luck!