Click on this link to download The Battle of Long Tan Fact Sheet (.pdf document).

Here is just a sample of some of the Facts & Figures:

A wounded Corporal Buddy Lea from, 10 Platoon, D Company in hospital shortly after the battle. He was shot twice while helping the injured Sgt Paddy Todd back to the D Company aid post.

NVA and VC

This is not to say that we haven’t been doing anything for the past 6 years having produced the critically acclaimed and award winning ‘Battle of Long Tan’ documentary and all the publicity around the 40th Anniversary back in August 2006 and of course much more behind the scenes!

On set on our award winning Battle of Long Tan documentary.

We now feel the time is right and that we’ve established enough of a basic foundation of awareness across the media and film industry about the story to now move things forward more aggresively.

We are currently pulling together the development, production and marketing plans along with timelines covering the next 17-21 months.

Most of what we do over the next 7 months will be behind the scenes from a financing and development point of view but we will be releasing key information on a regular basis as we move forward.

When I begin to feel impatient I remind myself of the nine year development timeline for the award winning Australian film, ‘Shine’ in which Geoffrey Rush won an Oscar for best actor and the film went on to take more than $100m at the box office and DVD. As they say, “Patience is a virtue”.

Onwards and upwards, Martin Walsh – Producer.

“Dave at Nui Dat Oct09” – Dave Sabben, former 12 Platoon commander at Long Tan, explains the layout of the 1ATF base at Nui Dat with SAS Hill in the background.

Dave has been interviewed for all the documentaries and books on the subject including the official Military History of Australia’s involvement in South East Asia, “To Long Tan”, and the recent highly acclaimed and award winning documentary screened on The History Channel, “The Battle of Long Tan“ narrated by Sam Worthington (Avatar, Terminator Salvation).  He has even written his own “faction” book, “Through Enemy Eyes”, which takes the perspective of the NVA commander in Phuoc Tuy Province when the ANZACs arrived.  It explains why there was a need to wipe out the Nui Dat base and the steps taken to achieve that aim.  (The book demolishes the so-called ambush theory proposed by some in the late 1980s.)

If you’ve seen the animated Powerpoint presentation on Long Tan, that’s Dave’s work too, and if you haven’t seen it, then it’s available for free download from his website.

You’d wonder what else he could do in an effort to inform interested Australians about the battle.  Well, last year a new idea came from an unlikely source – the Australia Vietnam Volunteers Resource Group (AVVRG).

“A Last Patrol” – Dave, with hand on head (in the old field signal for “come to me”) gathers the tour group members before moving off into the Long Tan rubber plantation.

The AVVRG is an Australian non-government organisation (NGO) – a community of volunteers registered and licensed to provide humanitarian aid to the people of Viet Nam, particularly those in what used to be known as Phuoc Tuy Province, where the Australian Task Force operated.  (See the AVVRG website for details of their other activities as well as for this tour.)

As a side-result of this fine charity work, the Vietnamese government appointed AVVRG custodians of the Long Tan cross.  Not widely known, the Vietnamese permit only two foreign war memorials on its territory – one being at Dien Bien Phu for the French and the other, Long Tan for the ANZACs.

In 2009, president of the NSW division of AVVRG and Viet Vet Kerry Phelan (unit, year) asked Dave if he would take a group to Long Tan and walk them through the battlefield, with the proceeds going to the AVVRG charity.  Dave accepted and the tour went in October 2009.  The 31 tour members included a fellow ex-6RAR Sgt (with his son), a serving officer and an NCO, several ex-service men, two serving police officers, a number of ex-CMF soldiers and a number of historians, authors and just plain interested folk, including several wives.  They spent a couple of hours on the battlefield, ending their time at the cross with a short service in the company of an ex-VC Colonel.

The tour was so well accepted that the AVVRG asked Dave for a repeat in October, 2010.  Dave agreed, but with one proviso – that the time spent on the battlefield walk-through be increased to four hours.  This was agreed, and the tour has now been now arranged.

Dave’s intention is to take the tour members to the western edge of the rubber plantation, where D/6RAR had lunch on 18 August 1966, and to then trace the exact steps of the Company in “real time” for the next 4 hours.  It was about half an hour after lunch that the first shots were fired and the last shots were fired three and a half hours after that.

In the four hours, Dave will take the group to where Bob Buick, Pl Sgt, 11 Pl, fired on a small enemy patrol, initiating the battle.  They will then trace the movements of the rest of the Company as it followed the 11 Platoon pursuit.  As 11 Platoon became pinned down, CHQ formed a base and sent 10 Platoon around to the north of 11 to support 11’s withdrawal.  The tour group will follow 10 Platoon’s steps to the base of Nui Dat 2, and their return to CHQ.

“Group at Cross Oct09” – Members of the AVVRG October 2009 Tour group pay their respects to the fallen at the Long Tan cross.

They will then move with 12 Platoon to the south to come in behind 11 to support their withdrawal.  Finally the group will close in on the 11 Platoon position, now marked by the cross.

During the four hours, Dave will stop every ten minutes and give a status report on the whole battle – thus letting the tour members understand what was happening at each platoon location and back at Task Force – the progress of the B/6RAR elements, the APCs carrying A/6RAR to the battle, the RAAF ammo resupply, USAF air support and the ever-present ANZAC and US artillery.

Says Dave: “I can think of no better way for anyone to understand the progress and development of the battle.  The trees in the rubber plantation today are the same age as they were in 1966.  The ground is slightly eroded in the northern parts but otherwise looks exactly as it did in 1966.  And the roads and tracks are in exactly the same places.  It all looks the same.  It’s eerie, really.”

AVVRG’s Kerry Phelan will be on the 2010 tour.  “This is something special in the way it would be special for the opportunity for someone to walk the Rorke’s Drift battlefield with Lt Chard VC, or to walk the cliffs of Gallipoli with a young officer from one of the Light Horse Brigades.”

“How else would you get to see where the opening shots were fired, advance with 10 Platoon toward known enemy forces, be where the ammo resupply was dropped, reflect on the site where thirteen 11 Platoon soldiers died as enemy assaults tried to breach their perimeter, be where 12 Platoon held the corridor open for 11 to withdraw and then to stand where no man stood for the final half-hour while human waves of NVA assaulted the final Company position?”.

Funds raised by the tour will go towards a three year project mounted by the NSW division of AVVRG to rebuild a kindergarten for 50 Vietnamese children aged six months to five years in the Nui Dat community. The program will also pay for daily meals, care, supervision and instruction on an ongoing basis.  It is one of the ironies of life that it could well be that the AVVRG charity will rebuild the kindy and it may be used by the grandchildren or great-grandchildren of the VC soldiers at Long Tan.

The Long Tan Trek Tour departs Australia Sunday 17 October 2010 for 6 days and 5 nights and is priced at $2699 per person, twin share, including Singapore Airlines international flights.  The tour will include 2 nights in Saigon and visits to the ALSG area, the old minefield and the VC sanctuary in the Long Hai’s.  If permissions are obtained, we could also visit the site of Operation Bribie and the site of FSB Coral or Balmoral.

For those with a taste for further battlefield experiences, Dave offers an extension tour of 9 days and 8 nights for $1949 extra, which will visit the sites of six more decisive battles: Hue (Tet 1968), the DMZ (1965-73), Dong Ha (Tet 1972), Khe Sanh (1968), Hamburger Hill (1969) and Dien Bien Phu (1954).  The group will also visit Hanoi and end with a 2-night R&R at tourist resort Ha Long Bay.

The Extension tour can be booked separately, but international airfares must be added.

A similar but even more extensive tour of Viet Nam battlefields  is planned for group bookings.  Called “The 12 Decisive Battles of the 3 Indo-China Wars”, this tour will be tailored for each group.  It will include Saigon and all the battlefields mentioned in the tours above, plus a visit to Da Nang, China Beach and the Ia Drang Valley near Pleiku in the Central Highlands (the “We Were Soldiers” battle).  All of these are considered the most decisive battles of the three Indo-China Wars (ref: John Pilmott “Vietnam – The decisive Battles”, ISBN 1-86155-673-x).

Flyers, dates, prices, a full itinerary and booking forms are available from the website of the travel agents, National Network Travel – visit www.nntravel.com.au or email judi@nntravel.com.au or phone Judi on (03) 9654 4000.  A 2-page Group flyer may be downloaded from Dave’s website.

A word of warning – none of these tours are typical “tourist” tours.  They are battlefield oriented and are aimed at those who want to see and discuss matters military.  However, they are not especially energetic.  If you can walk 4 Kilometres in 4 hours, you’re fit enough for these tours.

If you would like any further information, please ask.

Dave Sabben.

It was actually minus 3 degrees Celsius this day and Palmerston North had the worst snow storm in living memory the day before we scheduled to film these scenes. These amazing gunners actually did the scene recreations for the entire day in the freezing cold with cold water being poured over them from an Army fire truck!

Capt. Morrie Stanley who was the Forward Artillery Observer during the Battle of Long Tan was there with us while we filmed which really spurred on the NZ gunners!

The Artillery piece is a M101A1 105mm L1A1 Howitzer and it was firing blanks.

Just imagine that 18 of these artillery guns were each firing 6-8 rounds per minute for more than 5 hours non stop in a lightning monsoon storm in support of D Company 5km’s away in the heat of the battle!

• Gordon Paddison** – Principal, Stradella Road & former Executive Vice President New Media, New Line Pictures (District 9, Lord of The Rings trilogy, Snakes on a Plane, Austin Powers and many more & Variety’s Integrated Marketer of the Year” Award in 2005)
• Stephanie Bohn** – Director of Worldwide Marketing, Digital Distribution Warner Bros (The Dark Knight, Sex and the City, Hangover, Harry Potter and many more)

*SPAA – Screen Producers Association Australia

**Detailed bio’s outlined below.

To provide context to why we are doing our SPAA sessions, I have written a detailed blog post on the SPAA Conference Network website titled, ‘Can Australian Films Make Money?‘

Excerpt:

Can Australian Films Make Money?

It is a simple but very important question and in short the answer is yes they can!

If this is the case then why don’t more Australian films make money either domestically or internationally? As a consumer marketer & producer my professional view is that most of the Australian films being made are simply not the types of films the majority of Australian (or international) audiences will pay to see and filmmakers are just not in tune with what consumers and audiences want. Further, even when we do make films which should connect and appeal to audiences – Balibo is a great example – the marketing is either mis-targeted and or insufficient or left too late. This also then results in an inhibited release (very few screens) and a non-optimised distribution outcome (filmmakers largely focused on only securing a ‘traditional’ theatrical & video release).

Read full blog post.

Learn more and register for our SPAA Sessions here.

Making Movies that Make Money: Begin with the Audience in Mind

Wednesday 18th November 2009

Part I, 10:30am – More than ever before, reaching a niche or diverse audience is increasingly a producer and film maker’s mandate, not just the distributor.  But right now we are experiencing a moment of radical change across technology, consumer behaviour, distribution and marketing with seismic shifts in the way that entertainment is conceived, produced, distributed and consumed. Social Media, User Generated Content, Digital and Mobile Channels, Convergence and Diversity are no longer mere buzzwords or fads, but a fact of life. The day is coming when successful producers will be those who can realize the potential of a single extraordinary story across the widest range of platforms. How can we define, validate, inspire, energise and leverage the interactive participation of today’s audiences? What are the insights, trends and innovations that will shape our creative and marketing capacities as filmmakers? How can producers optimise their distribution plan to ensure their film successfully reaches an audience against an ever increasing competition for screens and changing consumer behaviour? A group of successful and respected entertainment marketers will come together to help you gain a more comprehensive understanding of targeted movie marketing, divulge inside tricks, techniques and trends, outline how and where audiences are consuming content and provide an essential perspective that will help reorient your approach to storytelling, distribution & marketing.

Part II, 1:45pm – We will take you through specific insight into today’s film audience behaviour and how to translate this insight into practical strategies & tactics. We will present a number of case studies from District 9, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Lord of the Rings, The Watchmen, Snakes on a Plane and Sex and the City which will illustrate how important understanding your audience is, how filmmakers can successfully tap into today’s digitally wired consumers, integrate across platforms and optimise their distribution opportunities accordingly. We will finish off with an opportunity for attendees to ask questions of our panel of industry experts made up of Christopher Mapp, Managing Director of Omnilab, (Executive Producer of Tomorrow When the War Began, Bran Nue Dae, Dead of Night & The Bank Job),  Gordon Paddison, Principal, Stradella Road & former Executive Vice President New Media, New Line Pictures (District 9, Lord of The Rings trilogy, Snakes on a Plane, Sex and the City, Austin Powers & Variety’s “Integrated Marketer of the Year” Award in 2005), Stephanie Bohn, Director of Worldwide Marketing, Digital Distribution Warner Bros (The Dark Knight, Sex and the City, Hangover, Harry Potter), Travis Johnson,  Managing Director, Universal McCann, Graham Cassidy, PR & Media Affairs Guru, Cato Counsel and Martin Walsh,  Digital Marketing Director, Microsoft & Producer, Red Dune Films (Battle of Long Tan).

My SPAA co-speakers:

Gordon Paddison – Principal, Stradella Road & former Executive Vice President New Media, New Line Pictures

Gordon has extensive experience creating cross-divisional integrated campaigns for over two hundred movie titles, including District 9, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, the Austin Powers and Blade franchises, broad hits such as Wedding Crashers, The Notebook, Boogie Nights, and Sex and the City, and genre product including Snakes on a Plane and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. From January 2000 to December 2008 Gordon was Executive Vice President New Media Marketing for New Line Pictures.  In this role he ran worldwide campaigns for Lord of the Rings, Sex and the City and Austin Powers to name a few.  Gordon is now the principal of Stradella Road an interactive marketing consultancy which has clients such as Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings, District 9).  Working on behalf of Peter Jackson in conjunction with Sony, Gordon has been the force behind the interactive campaign for the box office sleeper hit, District 9. Acclaimed as the interactive marketing pioneer for the entertainment industry, he is a well-known and highly respected executive with deep expertise in crafting business, marketing, and advertising models and managing nearly every aspect of digital media in the entertainment industry since the advent of the web. Stradella Road draws from Paddison’s recent experience as the head of New Media and Integrated Marketing at New Line Cinema and his oversight of cross-divisional national promotions and interactive marketing. Awarded Variety’s  Integrated Marketer of the Year Award in 2005, Gordon has served on the Time Warner Research Council, as a member of the Board of Governors at the Producers Guild of America NMC and the interactive peer group of The American Television Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Stephanie Bohn – Director of Worldwide Marketing, Digital Distribution Warner Bros

Stephanie is responsible for global business planning and marketing for the studio’s theatrical and acquisition film slate across emerging media platforms including digital cable, satellite, IPTV, game consoles (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3), mobile devices and the internet (iTunes, Amazon VOD). She also launched and leads the iPhone app publishing business. Stephanie oversees all business development activities including programming/content development, IP licensing, contract negotiations, developer relations, marketing and client management. Manage marketing relationship with third party mobile game licensees including Glu Mobile and Electronic Arts. Provide creative and promotional support to partners. In her previous role as Director of Marketing Warner Home Video, Stephanie oversaw the DVD release of theatrical feature films. Supervised the development of business plans comprised of volume forecasts, release date, targeting, pricing, product configurations and all consumer and trade creative, media, publicity, and promotions. Led cross functional teams and managed direct reports to execute plans.

Travis Johnson – Managing Director, Universal McCann

Across his media career Travis has spent time on both sides of the buying and selling fence. Beginning his career at DDB/OMD he progressed from an illustrious press checking role to managing a small team before jumping ship into a radio sales. During his four years at Austereo Travis worked across some of Australia’s largest advertisers enjoying all aspects of working in radio, in particular the creation of promotions, events and more recently digital and integrated solutions for clients. In late 2005 he went back agency-side to Universal McCann where he was initially Client Service Director across clients including Microsoft and Intel, then moving onto the National Digital Director role. Since April this year has held the title of Managing Director, Sydney and is responsible for approximately $600m in client media spend and an agency of around 100 strategists, planners and buyers. He’s most proud of working in an agency where there is no digital team & every person at Universal McCann has been trained in digital and it’s a part of everything we do. This year the agency has been the most awarded at the IAB (digital media) awards for 2009 and has the most finalists of any agency for this year’s Media Federation Awards to be announced in October.

Guests of honour will be:

Dave Sabben MG – Commander of 12 Platoon during the Battle of Long Tan

Patricia Amphlett OAM (Little Pattie) – singer who was 17 years old at the time of the Battle of Long Tan performing on stage at the Australian base in Nui Dat as the battle began some 4 km’s away

Col Joye AM – another singer who was performing alongside Little Pattie at Nui Dat as the Battle of Long Tan began.

I urge anybody interested in supporting our veterans and the very kind and hospitable people of Nui Dat in Vietnam (this is where the Australian Task Force was based during the Vietnam War) to attend.

Details are:

Date: Friday 14th August 2009

Address: NSW Parliamentary Dining Room, Parliament House, Macquarie Street, Sydney

Time: 7.00pm

Dress: Lounge suit, medals

Cost: $100 per person or $900.00 per table

More details and bookings here.

Here are some shots outlining the depth of the submission required:

 

 
Screen Australia is a newly established Australian Government agency operating under the Screen Australia Act 2008 (Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts).

Screen Australia commenced operation on 1 July 2008, bringing together the functions of the Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) and Film Australia Limited, as well as most of the functions of the Australian Film Commission (AFC).

Screen Australia aims to be a strong centralised funding body, encouraging greater private investment in Australian film and television and building on the enormous contribution the industry already makes to the Australian economy.

Our goal is to develop, produce, promote, distribute and provide access to diverse Australian programs, and support the development of the Australian screen production industry, so that Australian screen content is accessible nationally and internationally.

Screen Australia also administers the Australian Government’s Producer Offset incentive and Australia’s Official Co-production Program.

Emotional 60 Minutes story on the Battle of Long Tan from Red Dune Films on Vimeo.

Background

The background to this amazing story is a mini event in its own right! It took me many, many months of tough discussions and negotiations, some directly with the Vietnamese Government but also many conversations through the Australian Consul General in Ho Chi Mihn City, Mal Skelly and the Australian Military Attache in Hanoi, Capt John Griffith. Once I secured permission from the Vietnamese government to film in Vietnam, we tracked down the former Viet Cong commanders who fought against the Australians through some amazing local Vietnamese contacts Al and Ahn Davis based in Vung Tau. Ahn’s Uncle was actually in the Viet Cong.

It was an amazing and humbling experience to film in Vietnam as well as spend so much time with the very brave and hospitable Vietnam veterans of the Battle of Long Tan. We had representatives of the Vietnamese Government with us at all times but they were very friendly and very supportive. This great experience allowed us to pass on these contacts to the 60 Minutes team.

Producer Hamish Thomson from 60 Minutes had been in contact with me for some time after we announced the movie project back in 2005. In preparation for our 40th Anniversay activities, Graham Cassidy and I met with Hamish and John Westacott and agreed to organise a trip to Vietnam with two of the former Australian Long Tan commanders. After speaking with the commanders it was agreed that Dave Sabben former platoon commander of 12 Platoon and Bob Buick former platoon sergeant for 11 Platoon would go.

We also organised for a reporter and photographer from The Australian to go on the trip as well.

I won’t give away the ending of the 60 Minutes story, suffice to say it was totally unexpected and it made the front cover of The Australian newspaper the weekend before the 60 Minutes story aired. The 60 Minutes story went to air on Sunday 13 August, just 3 days prior to the premier of our documentary on The History Channel.

Postscript – August 2008

In addition, here is the 60 Minutes postscript from 17 August 2008. This story recaps the original story and also covers the recently announced Federal Government review and subsequent upgrade of the medals for the Long Tan veterans:

60 Minutes Battle of Long Tan Postscript Story from Red Dune Films on Vimeo.

First of all there is me, Martin Walsh! I produced the ASTRA award winning and TV Week Logie Award Nominated documentary on the Battle of Long Tan for The History Channel in Australia and New Zealand. I am also a senior marketing executive specialising in digital marketing and social influence marketing. You can see me in action below during this interview which I did for Sky Channel on the 41st anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan in 2007:

 

My other Producer is Charles Hannah who was Executive Producer on the acclaimed World’s Fastest Indian movie starring Anthony Hopkins and Directed by Roger Donaldson and has been behind many other films such as Newcastle, Unfolding Florence and Control.

The amazing Bruce Beresford who has directed great films such as Driving Miss Daisy, Double Jeopardy, Black Robe and Breaker Morant is Writing and Directing Long Tan.

We also have two awesome Executive Producers on board. Meyer Shwarzstein who co-produced Bridge to Terabithia and Peter Wetherell. They are both based in Los Angeles and bring many years of independent film financing, distribution and sales experience to the project.

We have also brought on an additional writer, Justin Monjo to help with the final draft of the script as Bruce Beresford is busy filming Mao’s Last Dancer.

And we also have the unique talent and experience of Graham ‘Syd’ Cassidy from Cato Counsel handling all of our media and PR for the project.

Sam’s career will explode this year with a starring role in Terminator Salvation and then James Cameron’s Avatar Sci-Fi film at the end of this year. Sam has also scored a lead role in Clash of the Titans.