13 days till shoot!

Hello friends,

The weather is warming up. It'll get to 35 degrees in Mildura this week and that's gonna be HOT on the road (hitchhiking sequences), in the grove (orange picking sequences) and in our crew accommo too. I have a solution though. Cowboy hats. Cast and crew cowboy hats. Went out shopping for some new vintage summer clothes -- so I can look cool on set (my wife is moulding my fashion-sense beautifully) and found a store with DOZENS of cowboy hats. Now, they are a bit cheap -- they're made of some kind of paper I think, and spray painted a browny-colour -- but boy do they look good on!

I've been pondering whether the scorching sun and 35-45 degree heat, hitting the paper and sprayed paint might just cause the hats to COMBUST! Ouch. Like the crew are all out on the highway, wearing my hats and then suddenly EVERYONE'S HEAD IS ON FIRE!

Hmmmm, H&S I hear you you scream! I must look into to it. So, as of today I'm wearing my cowboy hat EVERYWHERE. It's the type of director I am. I'll take one for the team. ...At least I don't have a lot of hair to lose.

I'm off to pick up a keyboard now, Alies (composer) and I are working through the score. As a lot of music is to be used in-scene, it needs to be perfect and actually needs to be recorded prior to filming commencing, which is tricky, but gives us something very cool to work with on set.

Man, I wish i could play a musical instrument. Had years of piano lessons growing up, but was too lazy to learn how to read music properly, so just learnt by ear -- which although fun, stunted my progress. I can still play Sounds of Silence though, and the first bit of Stairway to Heaven. So after 6 years of lessons as a kid, I feel pretty good about myself.

Alex Dimitriades arrives this Sunday! Very exciting. He'll be whisked off to farmer school. Actually, Alex already knows a thing or two about the land and is gonna teach me how to ride a motorbike, which I'm pumped (and scared) about too. There goes our insurance! (again).

"Director takes spill on motorbike. His cowboy hat combusted as he fell. Has suffered bruised ego and scorched scalp." 

Publicist is going to kill me.

Ricky : )