In 1961 filming began with a cast of four and a crew including Sterling and cameraman Gerry Vandenberg. Filming took place near Alice Springs.[2] They had $12,000 in funds.[3] The plan was to film it on 16 mm and blow it up to 35mm. Filming was difficult - there was trouble with the camera, colour stock and sound track.[4]
The filmmakers did not have enough money to complete the feature film so it was recut as a documentary.[5][6] In 1966, when John Sherman died, Colin Bennett claimed he had seen three different versions and said the best was a 30 minute documentary version. However at that stage the film had not yet been released.[4]
