About That Alien Bar Backroom Altar for PERTH (2004)

Getting the Altar Table for the backyard of "Alien Bar" was quite a daunting task. The budget had not permitted the opportunity of purchasing one, at the same time props-rental houses were charging an exorbitant rate (once you mention "feature film", folks' eyes and cash registers light up). And "borrowing" from existing folks' homes was a superstitious no-no (where are they gonna put their deity as we shot our feature?).

I was insistent on having an altar table (foreshadowing-sequence), so second-hand furniture dealers (actually rubbish-collectors) was my final recourse. Managed to find one within a few days in decent condition and a great price. We darkened the wood-stain a tad and left the knocks and wonky bits in.



A bloodied Harry stumbles and knocks into the altar table, mayhap angering the Gods with his unintended action. A foreshadowing to the inevitable outcome, I reckon. On hindsight, the back of the wall of the altar should have been "dirtier", from all the smoke and soot from the joss-sticks.

BTW: the Altar with the Guan Gong-deity statue was actually from Harry's house! Small-budget feature = RECYCLE! Aaaahhh yes, the "magic" of "movie-making" ... :p

(First blogged in 11.28.2006)