Fun facts about Tag

All, Destinations

11 months in the making, Tag has been our most ambitious project to date. Now spearheading STA Travel’s global Blue Ticket campaign, our project of love throughout our 2014 Epic Journey from London to Sydney has quite a few Easter Eggs hiding in it. Without further ado, find out some interesting facts about the shoot and see what you can spot:

1) Quick fire facts:

Total millage covered in production: 40000km

Total countries covered: 19

Total destinations and activities filmed: 34

Total featured destinations in the final cut: 19 across 10 countries

Total featured activities in the final cut: 8

How many can you name? Travel buffs are required to accept a handicap of -4 points to level the playing field 🙂

2) Cuts:

To make it to two minutes we had to cut Tallinn, Penang, Roppongi, Kyoto, our friend Wu’s Kung Fu demonstration at 798 Art District Beijing (spot him in STA Travel’s Insider Intel film!), temples in Ubud, Bali (check out Ganesh in the Tag lowdown) and Uluru. Talk of killing your darlings…

3) Locations:

Unlike a lot of movie magic, most scenes in Tag were shot in sequence, though there are some fun exceptions. Surfing Bondi was actually shot at Spot X, the epilogue was shot in a public park in the middle of Joetsu, Japan. There’s one scene that’s shot on the other side of the world to where it’s set. Guess which one!

4) Oufits:

Our two outfits (before and after swimming) stay the same throughout production, so we needed to cart them around for 11 months through all sorts of climates. An exception are our shoes. How many pairs do Nic and Sax get through? And what country does Nic change her hairstyle in?

5) Planning

Some things, such as our longtail to scuba shot, were carefully planned and took several takes to get right (see how Nic goes from dry to wet hair?). Some things, on the other hand, were complete coincidence, but we just had to include them. The Chinese dude spitting on Tiananmen Square gave us the same feeling a wildlife photographer gets from capturing the perfect shot of a majestic eagle catching salmon. Can you guess another one that was complete pot luck?

6) Crew

Production consisted of a skeleton crew of 2 people, plus local assistance for knowing the best places to shoot and guarding our kit of Canon DLSR x 2, Hero3 GoPro x 2, Lenses: 50mm 1.8, 18-55mm, 50-300mm, Sennheiser mike, Zoom recorder, Tripod, Slider and compact steady-cam.

7) Stars!

Finally, we could not have produced Tag without our unsung heroes. Kahori and Yumi-delux, two of our best mates from Japan, nailed playing professional patty cake in front of snowy Joetsu’s Takada Park samurai castle. Nicola’s brother J is in the background on Koh Phi Phi doing what he does best: adding tone. Paul, Kate, Honorata and Rob at the Victoria STA Travel store – thanks for your lunch breaks!! And Celina, Saxon’s sister, (who’s a professional actor!) and boyfriend Ryan presented an outstanding emotional performance as the perfect UP couple with a happy ending! For a cheeky side-track, can you spot the ‘porn’ star?

Tag was indeed a monster to create, but we’re stoked that so many people will be seeing this little piece of epicness as part of STA Travel’s Blue Ticket campaign. Whilst we’re mega busy at the moment (watch out for Oz road trip films and TLC adventures coming soon!), we can’t wait to get our hands on our next Epic Project.