Press release from JVC Professional
Brisbane-based film production company, Flickchicks, say they are in the business of telling stories and selling messages with the help of their trusty JVC ProHD broadcast quality cameras and finely-tuned filmmaking skills. They have spent the last year, putting this gear and these skills to good use, “stalking” centenarians for their bittersweet documentary The 100+ Club.
Flickchicks co-founder and director Mandy Lake explained, “We read a newspaper article two years ago about this incredible social group called The 100+ Club. It was and still is to this day, a weak knee moment. So we contacted the organisers and suggested making a documentary about its members. Fortunately they loved the idea and agreed.”
The 100+ Club is literally one of the world's most exclusive clubs. But you don't have to be fabulously wealthy or wearing the right school tie to join, you just have to be old. Very, very old. More than 100 years old, in fact.
The Club’s manager Ken Mawdsley said, “What other club do you know of in the world today that would admit the Queen Mother and someone who used to row across the river to work? At the moment, we have 95 members on the books but membership is certainly on the up: Centenarians represent the fastest growing demographic in the developed world. Most of them will say they're not terribly special but as The 100+ Club reveals, there's nothing ordinary about this group of Australians.”
Lake continued, “After it was agreed that we’d produce the documentary we started following these amazing people around with cameras. We’ve even stalked errr… followed one over to Perth for a week. It certainly has been a privilege to get to know them.”
The 100+ Club follows three central characters as they pursue their goals over the course of a year: Ruth Frith, the world’s oldest competing athlete in pursuit of world records; all-round entertainer Olive Webber making one last performance following her bowel cancer operation; and cattleman turned outback author Dexter Kruger painstakingly eking out his fifth, and possibly last, book.
Flickchicks co-founder and producer Margie Brown said, “Our story focus was always upon how amazing they were to be doing what they are doing at 100+ years of age – chasing big dreams and being late starters. We also wanted the film to be very good looking, as a way of paying homage to these incredible people. All the cameramen who used our 100 and 200 series ProHD cameras shot the footage beautifully. It has a real cinematic feel. Again, we have to give special thanks to Dave Russell our DOP who shot the doco 25p.”
Bearing in mind the nature of the documentary, the choice of camera was important to Flickchicks. Margie Brown added, “We were looking at other formats but the JVC ProHD is simply better for documentaries involving field work – overall it’s an easier workflow. We love how user friendly the ProHD cameras are, the tape factor and the shoulder mount. Also, we must give special credit to Steve Hibberd at JVC main dealer Pro Visual. Steve is just amazing. The support he has given us has been second to none. In fact he’s been so incredible he’s getting a credit on the film!”
Mandy Lake commented that the quality of the images was undoubtedly a big part of the documentary’s appeal. She added, “When we pitched it at the AIDC we received very positive feedback with many saying they loved the filmic look and we thought, at last, we’ve got something that looks beautiful from such cost effective cameras. The ProHD kit helped us capture such lovely blues, greens and reds – we were blown away.”
The 100+ Club has been commissioned by ABC TV and has also received funding from Screen Queensland. It is currently in post-production.