14/10/2023
Meg & Patrick Interview
25 May 2022
Djaara Country, Daylesford, Central Victoria
Having interviewed Woody and seen and heard firsthand what an inspiration he was, we thought it might be a good idea to see what his parents had to say.
Dan was living in New Zealand by this time so having him as the interviewer was a little bit of a challenge but I was very happy with the final set-up.
When interviewing someone on video it’s important that the interviewee has an eye-line with the interviewer (difficult when they are more than 2,500 kms apart). So my solution was to have Dan call me via a video call on my iPad, and then I used a teleprompter to present Dan’s face to Meg and Patrick, while he asked them questions in real time. It worked! Pretty fancy stuff when you’re sitting in a forest in Daylesford.
Meg and Patrick also run a community bush school in the forest where we filmed. Forest and Free bush school allows young people to play and learn in the natural world under the care and guidance of Meg and Patrick. It was great to capture some of this for the film too.
Meg and Patrick are such grounded, intelligent, beautiful human beings who have added such important perspectives to this film. I am privileged to know them and call them my friends :)
Ps. How remiss of me to not mention that Zero was also present for this interview (seen on Patrick's lap). Although not specifically asked a question, Zero did at times provide responses for the film. I am yet to have these translated but no doubt they are sagacious 🐶
