Verona

Filming inside a Freezer

By Greg Page 14/06/2013

The temperature inside the freezer was minus 28 degrees celsius, and we were told that under no circumstances must it get above minus 15, or millions of dollars worth of ice cream would be ruined...consequently we had to keep stopping during the shoot because with six people sweating and breathing and the lights pumping, we were creating too much heat.

Initially the plan was for the band to wear big Russian jackets and hats, but then [drummer] Scotty Pearson said "f*** this — I'm doing it in a singlet". Scotty couldn't finish the first take. Too cold. I kept spraying water over his drums to get that ice-shattering effect. We ended up shattering his drum skins too, which split and broke due to the cold.

The floor became very slippery with frozen sweat, and at one stage I foolishly removed my gloves to move an aluminium ladder — and got stuck to it.

Other challenges included having to remove all the oil from the film camera (or it would have frozen); having no playback speakers because the cones couldn't handle the cold (the band had to wear earphones), and having to put the lenses in the freezer before we used them so they didn't fog up. My director of photography was Neil Cervin — I used him because he'd shot in snow before.

- Director Greg Page to writer James Coleman, March 2009