Port Kembla - and a load of hidden references to movies and local bands - has been immortalised in animation via a new video for band The Dark Clouds.
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Eagle-eyed viewers will spot references to Proton Energy Pills, The Servo, movies like Mad Max, Bad Boy Bubby, Ghostbusters and Footrot Flats - even the tumbling Port Kembla stack.
The song - Cruisin' To The Nightlife - is about Port Kembla and film-maker Tyrone McCrystal said he'd done videos for other bands and The Dark Clouds approached him one night at La La La's to see if he'd make one for them.
"I was hesitant to do it because it's a four-minute song and obviously the longer the song, the longer it's going to take to animate," McCrystal said.
"But they convinced me. They said it's about Port Kembla and I knew Port Kembla hasn't really been portrayed in animation form before."
The animation is cut in with footage of the band performing the song at Dicey Riley's - largely to reduce the amount of animating McCrystal would have to do. But it still took two years to finish working in and around his job teaching film at Illawarra ITeC.
Peppering the video with in-jokes was a way for McCrystal to keep his enjoyment up while working on it for two years. Also, he'd done something similar for The Leftards' Knucklehead video and The Dark Clouds liked what he'd done.
"I like putting references in because it does keep me sane while I'm working on a shot for like two or three weeks," he said.
"I made that music video for the Leftards about three years ago and that had a whole lot of references and jokes in it and when The Dark Clouds came to me, they said, 'can you do what you did to the Leftards, but double it, in terms of jokes?'."
That video includes references to local bands like Topnovil, Man Bites Dog, Proton Energy Pills, Mutated Noddies and Tumbleweed - as well as nods to movies like Star Wars and Back to the Future.
One local reference that is impossible to miss in Cruisin' To The Nightlife is the falling of the Port Kembla stack.
That made the cut partially because it helped fill out the section where the song slows down for a bit.
"When they gave me the song, I went off for a little bit and storyboarded it because I didn't really exactly know what I was going to do straight away," McCrystal said.
"Where the song dips, I was having trouble. I couldn't think of what was gonna happen."
So the band suggested including footage of the stack falling.
Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
