BTS - Ty 2: Bush Rescue (118) (Patreon)

G'day! Sorry for the delay on getting this up, busy times. But I'm very happy to see people continued enjoying this series beyond the standard review and documentary stuff, as the deeper narrative started to unfold in this episode. Of course, not only did we venture through the untouched rain forest, but we also visited a local pub to ask for help finding a Thylacine. So let's get into it!

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The Locations of Ty the Tasmanian Tiger!
One of the big goals for this series was to showcase as many similar locations from the actual games, here in the real thing. Of course, one of the most iconic levels from Ty is 'A Walk in the Park' from the first game, which takes place in a rain forest. This seemed like a good excuse to not only include some variety to the locations featured but to also give the overall series a feeling of travelling progression. It just wouldn't be the same if everything was shot with the same scenery. Now the location we used was actually Plan B!
Over the Christmas break at the start of 2018, when this series review was in concept phase, my family and I visited a rain forest and explored around the waterfalls there, in the actual water.

On the left, you can see both the original, intended location for the waterfall shoot, where I visited early in 2018. However, it was quite a drive to do the video, so it seemed like a much safer option to stay close to home base and save precious time. Sorry to kill the immersion that I actually went across state on an adventure. Honestly the entire series has been filmed at my back door! ;)

Cut Content:
This episode actually contains several cut segments, probably more than any of the other episodes in the series. Writing in general for the video went fairly well, these were all just concepts either effected by time or logistics:

Keeping with the idea of making this a 'documentary' type series, I was trying to write down all the ideas I had for potential jokes, that were still somewhat educational. One concept that went into development was the idea to discuss local cuisine (Vegemite, grubs from trees and kangaroos). Originally, I wanted to discuss each of these throughout the episode, which would include me finding some grubs in a tree and eating them raw but the logistics of actually finding some and me having the stomach to even have a go at them in the first place, ultimately led this entire idea to be scaled back. in it's final form, it was going to be a quick single segment Man vs. Wild style, where I'd find food (a jar of vegemite) naturally growing among the trees. Here you can read the cut segment of the script.The problem was simply time. The video was already going to be quite long due to the bar scene so it was cut to keep the video length down. But I was also worried it felt too forced anyway which isn't something I wanted.

Now you may have noticed simply watching the episode that around halfway through, I just stop appearing on camera all together after the "let's head back to town" clip. This is because again, time wasn't on our side so anywhere corners could be cut, it just had to happen. But originally, all of these scenes that were take place during this part of the video would have taken place inside the car, actually driving back to the small town. Now filming in car's legit, is incredibly awkward, especially if you're like myself and don't actually drive. I messed around with chroma keys and faking it, but it just made a lot more sense to simply cut these out. Those are the two biggest pieces cut from the episode, most other being ideas that never got off the ground.

The Pub Scene:
Alright, what you're probably all wanting to see. From early 2018, I knew that I wanted to include a small town pub, again to bring some variety to locations. But also to try and bring in some authentic Aussie character into the series. My Uncle had told me at the time he was up for being in a movie whenever I had something for him, so I immediately wrote him as the mysterious pub man. This scene became pivotal for the narrative of the series where I'd first encounter this character, which would then snowball all of the following events. But I'll come back to him shortly.
The trick with this scene was the interior shots. A lot of people asked if this was an actual establishment but no, it's not. We considered using a local pub but as usual, the logistics of that far outweighed the payoff. Luckily, our family friend has a man cave in his backyard built to look like a small town pub, so we just used that. The guy who threatened me when I was leaving is the "owner" of this pub and he is also such a fucking mental character, I had to give him something to do and he was super keen.

The rest of the staff and patrons of this place are of course, friends and family who were happy to come in and fill the space. With such a small room, it didn't take many people to make it look full and remember, this is a small remote town to begin with.

This was an interesting shoot because not only did I have to act, but I was also directing everyone (or trying to) so that we could get all of the shots. I do have some experience directing, mostly learning with myself over the years and how to achieve certain things. But I still haven't put it into practice on a scale like this since my major film project in College which is available to view on the channel! It was a lot of fun though once we got into it a bit and I'm super happy with how all of my first time actors performed. After my Dad's appearance in Tony Hawktober 2018, he was given a minor background role here to try and subdue the taste he gained for being the center of attention ahaha.

Influence from 'The Hunter' (2011):
If you haven't seen it, The Hunter with Willem Dafoe is an amazing movie produced entirely here in Tasmania about the Tassie Tiger. I hadn't heard of it until late 2018 and watched it during the writing process of this series. The biggest piece of inspiration from that I got was for the pub scene. In the movie, Dafoe's character is an unliked outsider poking his nose in the business of the locals, who don't like him. And every time he visits the local pub, there is a constant awkwardness and threat looming. I thought this would make for a sharp contrast to the fun and silly tone, to just flip the switch into the major plot devices that would follow it. This might also be the first time the character of Square Eyed Jak has ever faced an actual REAL threat.

Meeting the Mysterious Stranger:
Now given that this series is still on-going, I will NOT be going into too much detail here. But like I said earlier, this character is played by my Uncle who wanted to be a part of one of my projects. I needed someone who could be a bit mysterious and he seemed the perfect fit, again without any experience. Given he has spent a lot of his life living out in remote areas, he has a lot of character to him. But is also just such a character anyway and he's always been a big supported of what I do, even though he doesn't fully understand the video game/YouTube side of things. This exterior location is actually on another Uncle's property which was done, mostly just because there wren't many other options for the look I was going for. The interior was originally going to be shot here as well, but that would require a lot of set design so I decided to save it for future projects.

Filming these was a bitch given it was the dead of Winter coming up on serious deadlines. This was the last possible day to film or the entire thing would have to be shelved so thankfully it was a clear day. But working right under a mountain, it was a solid 10 degrees Celsius when we started filming and dropped to around 6-8 by the time we were done. Reminder, I was in fucking T-Shirt and short shorts for fuck sake, it was brutal. Probably even worse than the river shot in Croc, simply due to the prolonged exposure to the cold air this time. As for this scene itself, my Uncle did a good job. He had lost a lot of confidence between being cast in 2018 and come shooting now in 2019 but I had faith and I think he did an excellent job for a FIRST TIME effort. We stumbled into a lot of happy accidents thanks to the way he talks, with his amazing soft, storyteller's voice. And when it came time get crazy, we had a lot of fun with it!

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That's a WRAP!
Well that mostly covers it for this episode, at least what I can talk about without spoiling future episodes. Overall, this was a video that come together incredibly quickly, shoot wise, for such a whopper final produce I'm very proud of. Particularly the narrative segments towards the end. It's thanks to the amazing people that were featured in this episode with me, that help keep me motivated and encourage me to keep going, no matter how impossible the task seems. Next week, I'll get into the Making-of Ty 3 episode but until then, thank you for reading and I hope you have a great fucking day. Cheers! :)