Ouroboros was filmed between May of 2011 and April 2012 in Adelaide, Australia in three stages. The first stage of the scene of the two gangsters meeting high on the cliff’s edge was shot over three very cold nights between Friday the 27th May and Sunday 29th May2011 in two quarries around the North Eastern Adelaide hills. Producer, Fiona De Caux worked tirelessly to attract a range of sponsors including the brick and paving company that owned the quarries, a car restorer company to provide an American 1971 restored converted Dodge Polara (worth over $ AU 100K) and other sponsors who generously provided goods for catering during this stage. Over the first two nights, “Quarry One” was used to establish the entire scene, and all of the main shots of that scene were performed. On the third night, the team moved location to “Quarry Two” which had some old factories providing the backdrop for the car driving scene, and where a one metre high edge was excavated to create a platform for the stunts, blood make-up special effects shots and discharging the firearm. Stunts were performed by the second lead actor, Raphael Felix. This location was made to look like “Quarry one” which had a much higher cliff’s edge.
The second stage of production was a visual effects shoot on Sunday June 26th 2011. It was shot in a theatre in a University campus in Adelaide and was preceded by a rock climbing session arranged by the first assistant director, Andrei Gostin, who is also a rock climbing instructor. This familiarized the second lead actor, Raphael Felix, to being suspended by a harness which he would have to endure over this production day. There were just six shots achieved on this day, but there was no effort spared in recreating the “look” of stage one in the quarries.
The third stage was completed ten months later in April 2012, in a quaint location called Brown Hill Creek at the Adelaide foot hills. This scheduled production day of the “far away” scene between Frank and Bonnie, was complicated by gale force “gully” winds which caused a gazebo protecting equipment to blow over injuring Fiona De Caux and the lead actor suffering with episodes of vertigo. Despite these mishaps, the day ended up being a successful shoot.
