Imagine if you said ‘Yes’ to every surreal opportunity that came your way for a day. What would you do? And where would you base yourself to do it?
Yes Day: Tropical North Queensland is a short film I wrote, produced and directed with Wade Lewis and Chris Baker (Tokyo Swim Team). It developed in response to the adventurous tourism opportunities that kept coming up when planning and shooting Like a Local.
While Like a Local explored the kinds of things local riders do on a typical Sunday, Yes Day is more about the kinds of things that tourists do. This one features Specialized Australia riders Fiona Dick and Ryan De La Rue.
We had some extra challenges creating this film. It rained heavily for most of the time we had scheduled for filming, so we drove south to Tully. This town holds the record for the highest ever annual rainfall in a populated area of Australia, so found out what a Yes Day outdoors means to them: which turned out to be sport rafting. Thanks to Wildside Adventures for sharing your love of the water!
Alongside the film we produced a package of photos and shorter film edits for Tourism Tropical North Queensland and Specialized Bicycles Australia who both supported the project. We also produced photo galleries and one minute social media edits for the tourism operators and local businesses who made this film possible: AJ Hackett Cairns, Raging Thunder, Wildside Adventures, Divine Hairdressers, Castaways Resort and Spa Mission Beach and Pump ‘N’ Pedals bike shop in Cairns.
This image, of the bike bungee scene at AJ Hackett, is the one that incited the most comments and shares.
This alternate edit of the bike riding scene by Chris Baker shows his skill in filming and editing, and makes me want to return to these trails again and again.
Thanks to everyone involved. In addition to those mentioned already, Adam O’Malley went beyond in developing wet and dry weather schedules, activities to showcase and associated logistics. Thanks also Melissa Popov for taking photography (and super human everything support) to the next level alongside Wade, to Patrick Smithson for the underwater camera work on Fitzroy Island and to Craig Nissen from Tropic Rides for shuttling us to the top of those beautiful Smithfield trails.
A few behind the scenes images are here:
In addition to showcasing the adventurous living opportunities within the one region or destination, our goal is to encourage people to back themselves more, to worry less and to do more. What would you like to do today?
Photos: Melissa Popov, Wade Lewis and AJ Hackett Cairns.
Kath Bicknell 