Feature Film - DRAMA

Moon Rock For Monday

Gold Award ACS — Australian Cinematographers Society NSW & ACT 2021 Feature Films · Budget under $2m

Award of Distinction ACS — Australian Cinematographers Society National Awards 2022 Feature Films · Budget under $2m 

Set in Sydney, 1999, after an unlikely encounter at a train station, a young girl befriends a fugitive teenage boy and they travel to visit a moon rock that the girl believes will heal her.

Moon Rock For Monday was shot on the ARRI Alexa Mini in 4K UHD with a hard 2.35:1 anamorphic crop, paired with a Cooke S4 prime set for their gentle skin rendering and signature bokeh roll-off.

To achieve an otherworldly quality for the moon-scape sequences, I stacked heavy external ND with the camera's internal ND to open the aperture to T1.4, compressing depth of field to isolate the children, the moon rock itself and small details of the surrounding desert against a soft fall-off. The widest Cooke S4 in the set exaggerated the scale and emptiness of the landscape while keeping the leads intimately framed within it — a deliberate visual tension between vastness and intimacy. I also used a lensbaby for the flashback car accident sequences, these were also shot 'off-speed' at 30fps to create a glitchy feeling to the sequence.

For the night exteriors, I floated a 4K helium balloon at maximum height as a soft, cool overhead key, dimmed to balance against the warm interactive light of the campfire — itself augmented with a gas rig burning under real wood for both control and authenticity. The starfield was photographed as a static plate on location and composited in post.

Working with Kurt Martin

Among my longest creative partnerships is with director Kurt Martin, whose feature Moon Rock For Monday and a couple of short films: Narcititis, The Briefcase I shot for Lunar Pictures. Kurt and I first crossed paths through a mutual friend, and the partnership clicked instantly — same sense of humour, same shortlist of director–cinematographer pairings we'd both been quietly obsessed with for years. Kurt is a strongly visual director but likes to hand over the keys early, preferring to see what I bring before he commits to a look. What I love about working with Kurt is the room he leaves for the process. I try not to over-drive a shoot when we're collaborating — giving him space to discover things on set keeps him responsive to the environment and to the actors, and he's exceptional at both. He's particularly gifted at reading people: at seeing what holds true for a performer and chasing it. That means the camera has to stay flexible and ready to follow rather than dictate. His willingness to be led by the room, and mine to be led by him, is what makes the work feel honest.

On Moon Rock For Monday that meant multiple scouts of the outback to find the right country, time of day and shoot schedule. Filming there in the warmer months pushed temperatures to the extreme — so we structured most days around controlled interiors at midday and used heavy overhead skims to soften the high sun on exteriors.