Since I dared Sam to ride around Australia on a unicycle, over 3 years ago, we have had a team of dedicated and committed film makers following our journey and recording it all. 3 years of planning and work, fundraising and awareness raising has been compressed into just 42 minutes of footage, which makes up the Love Your Sister TV special which will go to air on Channel Ten on Saturday at 3pm. I was one of the lucky ones to get a sneak peek at the advance screening for all of the volunteers who worked on the show. The preview was held in Fitzroy in Melbourne and was a great opportunity for me to meet the people behind the production and thank them for their hard work, and amazing results.
Alistair Marks came on board right at the very beginning and started following us around with a camera while we planned Love Your Sister. We scurried around trying to get sponsors, worked out who the beneficiaries would be, and planned all the logistics of the event for 2 years before Sam even pedalled a metre. And Al was there with us, recording it all. Then he went on the road as well, filming things like Sam riding off a 60 metre high bungee tower. Al also became the LYS stills photographer and took a lot of the best shots that have been seen on facebook and instagram throughout the journey.
Stuart Liddell came on board just before Sam set off, and Stuey has been there, camera in hand, for most of the journey around Australia. He has endured high temperatures, raging winds, heavy rain, and the highs and lows of life on the road. He has sifted through and painstakingly transcribed hours and hours of footage.
Both Al and Stuey have seen us at our best, and seen us at our worst, they have witnessed the highs and the achievements, but also those moments when we thought that Love Your Sister was never going to happen, when we were in deep despair. Together, they have made a TV special of the Love Your Sister story, out of hundreds of hours of footage, they have sifted through it all, and dug out the highs and lows and made our story come to life on the screen.
They have worked with a team of editors, transcribers, and production and post-production professionals to make this a compelling hour of Television, and they have done it all for free. The entire documentary was made with a budget of $0. So please, if you watch the documentary on channel 10 on Saturday, please watch the credits, and clap for the professionals who gave their time and expertise out of the goodness of their hearts to make this doco. Hopefully it will move people, make people cry, make people laugh, and with a bit of luck, make people pick up the phone and donate, so we can keep raising money to fight breast cancer.
Making a TV show isn’t just about the footage. So much happens to it before we see it. There is graphics, colour grading, sound engineering, and of course, music. All of the music in the Love Your Sister TV special is original and has been produced by professional writers and musicians who have donated their time. 29 people worked on the writing, performance and recording of the score. Leading this team of dedicated professional musicians was Nick Marks, and he has done an amazing job.
I was gobsmacked at the quality of the production. Al, Stuey and Nick, and the countless other volunteers who worked on it have made something especially meaningful for me. For me it is more than the TV special. For me it is also a record of me for my boys. When they grow up a little, and they have forgotten the sound of their mums voice, and the way I looked when I smiled, they will be able to see me, larger than life on the screen, and they will be able to see the work that Sam and I put in to try to make a difference to people with breast cancer and their families.
Sam and I lost our Mum when we were 3 and 4, and things were different back then. There were no mobile phones to take photos and videos on, so we didn’t have a lot of photos of mum, and we didn’t have any footage of her. Being as young as we were when she died, neither of us have any memories of her at all. When I was diagnosed, my children were 3 and 4, and I feared that I would die and that my memory would die with me, that the kids wouldn’t have memories of me. Now I have seen this TV special I know that even if the memories of me fade, my kids will always be able to watch this and remember their mum and how much she loved them.
So thank you Al, Stuey and Nick, and everyone who gave their time to this project, for making these memories for my children.
TV Special Credits, Thanks to every single person who made this TV special, so very, well, um, Special!!
Presented by
Guy Pearce
Produced by
Samuel Johnson
Alistair Marks
Directed by
Alistair Marks
Stuart Liddell
Post Production Producer
Stuart Liddell
Edited by
Stuart Liddell
with
Joao Dujon Pereira
Cindy Clarkson
Director of Photography
Alistair Marks
Stuart Liddell
Camera Operators
Alistair Marks
Stuart Liddell
Leighton Thomas
Jonno Hinton
Written by
Stuart Patch Liddell
Alistair Marks
Assembly Editors
Lucy Paplinska
Jaklene Vukasinovic
Lidia Costa
Bill Kalajdziovski
Belinda Fithie
Assistant Editors
Bill Johnston
Ariel Shaw
Supervising Editor
Peter Carrodus
Post Production Supervisor
Belinda Fithie
Transcribers
Brenton Matulick
Katherine Eden
Ben Praccus
Kate Candlish
Nadine Barry
Nadia Ali
Production Manager
Emma Rooke
Original Score Composed by
Nicholas Marks
Score Produced by
Richard Stolz @ Woodstock Studios
Nicholas Marks
Audio Engineer
Richard Stolz
Assistant Engineer
Luke Mullan
Musicians
Sam Hirschfelder (Drums)
Nick Martyn (Percussion)
Luke Mullan (Percussion)
Matt Hayes (Electric Bass)
Brendan Tsui (Electric Bass)
Grant Higgins (Acoustic / Electric Guitars, Ukelele)
Andy McGarvie (Electric Guitar, Claps and Foot Stomps)
Ryan Lim (Electric Guitar FX)
Jules Pascoe (Double Bass)
Brae Grimes (Trumpet, Piccolo Trumpet)
Alex Howroyd (Flute, Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Whistle)
Vocalists:
Jess Palmer
Kate Kelsey-Sugg
Rachael Comte
Lauren Glezer
Noah Rosenbloom
Strings
Lizzy Welsh (Violin)
Phoebe Lindner (Violin)
Christian Read (Viola)
Caerwen Martin (Cello)
Kain Borlase (Double Bass)
French Horn
Lauren Davine
Matthew Coulsen
David O’Meara
Peter Marks
Trombones
Simon Carter
Daniel McIlvride
Licensed Music Credits
Hiatus Kaiyote
Leap Frog
Lace Skull
Mobius Streak
Ocelot
Hey Frankie
I see you
Leave
All I want
Sold
Charity Rose Turner
Into the Stream
Sailing Along
Alicia and Glass Lake
Luminous
Higher
The Box Tiger
Hospital Choir
Testimonials Supplied by
Graphics
Nick Cooper
Sound Mix
Paul Shanahan @ Final Sound
Laura Hesse @ Final Sound
Colour grade
Vincent Taylor
MoVI Operator
Cam Batten
Road Crew
Leighton Thomas
Alistair Marks
Jonno Hinton
Stuart Liddell
Sarah Hallam
Gemma Fisher
Amanda Nelson
Dion Szer
Nathan Wentwort
Thanks To
Connie Johnson
Hilde Johnson
Michael Johnson
Willhougby & Hamilton Johnson
David Johnson
John Johnson
Jamie Johnson
Optical Alkemi studios
Final Sound
Woodstock Studios
Ben Joss
Jon Barrie
Chris Walker
Karl Stefenovic
Carrie Bickmore
The Project
The Today Show
LateNite Films
Andy Kaos
Mara-Jean Tilley
Andrew Giles
Kylie Sherwood-Kelly
Charlie Rooke
Dez Stallard
Kate Radford
Steph Farmelo
Mel Van Deventer
Justine Bloome
Solitaire Paul
Tony Hayes
Mark Brewster
Jacob Zhivov
Andrew Mara
Louise Munnoch
The Johnson Family
The Thomas Family
The Marks Family
The Liddell Family
It was far too short! Looking forward to the upcoming documentary and your book, Connie.
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