Kimble Rendall was a regular staple of the musical world – as a founding member of the seminal Aussie rock band Hoodoo Guru’s – before transitioning into film. He’s spent most of the last decade playing Second unit director on such stout blockbusters as ‘Matrix Reloaded”, ”Matrix Revolutions”, ”I, Robot, ”Casanova” and ”Ghost Rider”, but now he’s the captain on one of his own – “Bait 3D”.

”Bait 3D” works because it knows what it kind of film it is…
It’s what I like to call a ‘popcorn film’ – it’s designed for a specific audience. The teenage crowd. But it’s also the kind of film that I myself enjoy, being a long time fan of the genre.
But I’m surprised to say the film is already appealing to an older age group, too. aving Julian McMahon and Martin Sacks in the film adds…

Class?
Yes. And I think because of their TV personas, particularly McMahon, it broadens the appeal. His presence has helped open the film up – I found in Los Angeles, where we screened it, that older people seemed to get into it too.

But let’s talk about those Italians. The film went down a treat at the Venice Film Festival..
We were the first 3D film to play at Venice too! And the first film like it! But they simply said they loved the movie and wanted to show it. And the audience loved it – the Italians really love their genre movies.

It’s got a great concept, but it also encompasses some solid 3D. It was shot in 3D, right?
Yeah, it was shot in 3D. It’s been around for a while now, and I think 3D is here to stay.

So long as it’s not tarnished by some of these poorly-done post-conversions, right?
Right.

How did you find working with it?
It was great. I really enjoyed working with 3D. I was comfortable with it. It obviously had its challenges – the cameras weigh 64kg, it takes an hour to change each lens – as opposed to 5 minutes on a normal camera, and we are working with sharks, cables and water, so that’s another challenge in itself. But we structured the set in a way that worked for us. And it worked well. I think we utilized the 3D well; I didn’t want to be sticking things out at people all the time, I just wanted to use it as a tool to compliment the story – like Avatar. I wanted to create a 3D world.

I imagine, coming from a music background, that sound is just as important – if not more, especially on a film like this – to you as the image is?
Music and film are my two passions. Coming from a music background, I truly believe sound is just as important as vision and I spent a lot of time on that – I spent a lot of time on the mix in Singapore.
I also worked hard on the soundtrack – A band we put together provided a song for the soundtrack. It’s on the end credits.

It’s a great track! Do you plan on playing some gigs? Getting out there again?
I dunno… we might get out there. Not sure yet. But we may get out there… yeah.

The movie, I believe, was a co-production between Australia and Singapore?
It was a co-production between Australia, Singapore and China. In Singapore, it’s getting like a 100 screen release – that’s huge for that market (and the number of cinema screens in China is expected to double this year, so it’s a good market to get into), and a film of this type. We just did the press conference for it there, too. So it’s a big release for a relatively small film.

I have to ask though, with the film being released on video-on-demand in America the week of the film’s theatrical bow in Australia, does that hurt the film at all?
In America it’s getting a limited theatrical – where exhibitionists can book the film if they choose to. But yeah, then it’s going out on Blu-ray and Video on Demand and those things. I guess it’s a different model in America. You see, it costs too much money now to do a theatrical in America, considering marketing costs, so less and less films are going out through cinemas there now – especially for something that only cost about $20 million.

Are you tinkering with sequel ideas yet?
I know I definitely want to continue working in the genre – I’ve always said we should do more genre films here; we can do them economically and effectively. As for sequels to Bait, we will see how this one does first.

Bait 3D commences Thursday

WIN!

To win a “Bait 3D” prize-pack, containing an in-season double pass to the film and a “Bait 3D” T-Shirt, email us with your name, address and the answer to this question : “Which band was Kimble Rendall a member of?”
(Entries Close Thursday 20th September)