The Lake of Scars' NITV premiere: Oct 3

A big week coming up in the life of our critically-acclaimed documentary The Lake of Scars; we're heading for a national broadcast on NITV on Monday 3rd October, at 9:30pm!

There'll be a daytime replay on Tuesday, as well, plus a place on SBS On Demand.

The Lake of Scars is an environmental story of reconciliation told by the late, great Uncle Jack Charles, a tale of allyship from Dja Dja Wurrung Country in Victoria. Made with the the irreplaceable help of several members of the Yung Balug clan from this corner of Dja Dja Wurrung Country in NW Victoria, it tells the story of their fight to protect and recognise scarred trees

and other heritage, with the dedicated help of a local white couple, Paul and Cathie Haw.

It's great to finally get the broadcast - after hitting up 35 cinemas in six state and territories, this film, made on a very small budget with an even smaller team, will reach further into schools and universities with the help of new impact partners.

Uncle Jack Charles (L), recording with director Bill Code and camera operator Rudi Siira

Educators wishing to screen the film can copy using their institution's Screenrights licence and use the fantastic resource created in partnership with ATOM - which is available for free! It contains great discussion starter points for students on reconciliation, heritage, scar trees, cultural burning, frontier history and more. The DVD is also available for pre-order (dispatch after October 3rd) from our distributor friends at Ronin Pictures.

A massive thank you to all involved from me (Bill Code, director) in this team effort; in remembrance of the wonderful Uncle Jack who provided an unmatchable spark, passion, wit and integrity in the latter stages of filming.

Video and drone production on the State Library's landmark 'Dyarrubin' project: Open to the public!

An evening shot of the bend in the river at Sackville shot on the Inspire 2 drone.

A quick note to say that if you are in Sydney, we're super proud to have carried out the documentary video and drone work for the State Library of NSW's landmark Exploring Dyarubbin project.

Dyraubbin is the Indigenous Darug word for the Hawkesbury River west of Sydney, and the State Library team have been working for months on a groundbreaking exhibition which – as well using Wedge-Tail's video production! – tells the stories of a group of Darug women from across the region. Stories of survival and cultural heritage and cultural renewal, stories of creation, stories to fill your Easter holidays with if you're visiting central Sydney.

The exhibition also features the work of academic Grace Karskens who has been working with Darug people documenting and uncovering the (until now) partially-lost names of the region. Such a pleasure to work on and to have a fairly free-flowing creative video brief to work with.

The exhibition has been beautifully produced/curated by the talented Marika Duczysnki and Arielle Whitnall. As well as the beautiful photography of Joi Lai, there's plenty of video and drone shots of big country to keep the kids occupied. Get down there!

Shot on the Canon C300 mark ii video camera, Inspire 2 and Mavic Pro 2 drones, and edited on Final Cut X - above embedded video is but a taster!

Documentary video shoot with Stan Grant and Tracey Holmes in the Snowy Mountains

It's a pleasure to publish the video and drone shoot with Australian broadcasting couple Stan Grant and Tracey Holmes, carried out last winter in the Snowy Mountains.

The mini documentary was commissioned by leading portrait photographer Nic Walker who wanted a video production to document his photographing of Grant and Holmes for the National Portrait Gallery's Love Stories collection, which has just opened.

Walker went to great lengths to have this portrait take place in the dawn light on the edge of Kosciusko National Park, a place of great important in Grant's (Wiradjuri) and Holmes' (European and Chinese) family stories. It was an early start after leaving Sydney the day before, but the mood captured in Walker's portrait is, simply, beautiful. The amount of work that went in to the image is remarkable; and it pays off. It was an extra treat to take a trip after the (admittedly not too bad) lockdowns we'd had in Sydney.

The video production itself is shot in ultrawide screen (21:9) at 4k to make the most of the stunning landscape. Shot on a Canon c300 mark ii and a Mavic Pro 2 drone, both capturing 4k footage in LOG (Canon LOG3, from memory, with a coolish grade). I was a little worried about the drone battery in the cold conditions, but from memory the temperature was hovering just above zero. That Mavic drone really is a workhorse and a nice size to carry into remote jobs like this. My toes faired less well, and some poor bugger put his feet in that freezing creek.

In terms of production time it was fast - shooting and interviewing in a two-hour period, with the odd drone shot captured later in the morning. Let us know what you think of the edit and shoot in the comments.