The Producers of the shark-infested ‘Bait’ approached Kimble Rendall to direct the film knowing that Kimble had worked on some of the largest films that have been made in Australia as Second Unit Director, including The ‘Matrix’ Trilogy, ‘The Knowing’, ‘Ghost Rider’ and ‘Underworld: Rise of the Lycons’. Chris Brown was confident that Kimble could handle a film like ‘Bait’ 3D because “he is not at all threatened or overcome by big scenarios whether it’s blowing up cars with a 100 person cast, or chase sequences down a freeway that are so big you have to shut the roads down.”

Kimble was finishing up on ‘The Killer Elite’ in Melbourne when approached and he was immediately attracted to the project. “I’m interested in genre films. I’m interested in making films that already have an audience. For the last 10 years I’ve been working the Hollywood systems specializing in action with visual effects with every intention of bringing the expertise back to make the films here in Australia. I’ve had to wait a while for the opportunity because Australia doesn’t tend to make these types of films. I think it’s time the Australian industry embraced making commercial films. A good story combined with action and visual effects is what interests me.” remarked Kimble.

Kimble was not interested in making ‘just another scary movie’ and was attracted to ‘Bait’ as it was a strong ensemble piece. The story involves 13 core characters which needed to carry the film with an international feel. The casting had to be perfect. Kimble also recognized that a top production designer was essential in making the film work because the majority of the story takes place in a flooded supermarket and car park. The fact that the whole film needed to be shot in 3D required bulky cameras, which required a very technically savvy DOP and camera crew.

“There’s a saying in film: avoid water, kids and animals. We had all those three plus we had animatronic sharks plus it was all to be shot in 3D,” explains Kimble. “There were three challenges primarily: Getting the story right, getting the cast right, getting the crew right. Once we had that in place, the rest of it was a matter of getting through each day shot by shot. It was very daunting in the pre-production meetings. Normally you’d get all the way through these meetings, but we would only get half way through due to the challenges involved in making 3D. Everyone was sitting there like ‘how are we going to do this?’ I said, the way we are going to do this is just focus on one shot at a time and identify the challenges involved. This approach was less daunting as it meant that we worked on getting the shot done instead of worrying about the other challenges involved in other shots.”

Filming began in October 2010 at the Village Roadshow Studios on Queensland’s Gold Coast. The location was chosen because, as Todd Fellman enthuses, “There’s no better place in the world to make a film than the Gold Coast. The facilities and crew here are world class. There are a number of elements to the studios that were very attractive to the production, particularly the indoor tanks and the easy access to locations. We had very few location days, but they did include an ocean front shopping complex and a beach, which are literally just down the road. It was all very convenient in terms of an overall filming location, but the first class crews were the biggest draw. There is a lot of talent here in Queensland.”

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