Just two months ago, Melbourne-based director Matthew Holmes approached the Forbes community, looking to raise funds for a film project.
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On Tuesday, Holmes returned as promised with almost 20 cast and crew in tow, ready to shoot the fully-funded film- The Legend of Ben Hall.
The cameras rolled in Forbes over two days, shooting first at the Lachlan Historical Village and yesterday in the Weddin Mountains.
The crew have already been filming for two weeks, in Victoria and most recently in Jugiong.
Originally Holmes hoped to spend three days in the Lachlan area and film scenes at a property in Eugowra, but due to unforeseen circumstances was unable to.
On Tuesday afternoon, Holmes spoke to the Advocate and said he was pleased with the footage the crew had got that day.
“So far so good,” he said.
“The location is great and we’ve had great support from locals with props. We’ve got some really great stuff from here.”
The Lachlan Historical Village was chosen as a site to recreate the famous scene of the Mutbilly raid.
The scene was shot in a barn at the village and shows Ben Hall, with gang members Gilbert and Dunn trapped in a barn, attempting to fight their way out.
Holmes said the location was ideal for the scene.
“We looked all over Victoria and we couldn’t find a barn like it,” he said.
“It needed a little bit of work so we added a lot of stuff and brought it back to life.”
While the cast were on site from 8am-6pm, the footage will equal just three minutes of screen time.
Holmes said such is the nature of film making.
“What we’re shooting here is an action sequence which takes a lot of time,” he said.
“But film making is an extremely painstakingly long process, until you’ve worked in it, it’s hard to understand how long it takes.”
The Legend of Ben Hall will launch another Kickstarter campaign soon, in order to make the film “bigger and better”.
“We’ll continue to raise funds,” Holmes said.
“Money always allows us to do things better.” The film is hoped to be completed by 2015 and will premiere in Forbes for the 150th anniversary of Ben Hall’s death.