Bigger than Ben who?

I started by trying to get a few good people together to make this movie. They in turn have attracted their friends, and suddenly there's a crack team to take this project to a very high level indeed. I'm not exactly sidelined but I've definitely been given my own little niche - which suits me fine - and let the knowledgeable people do their thing. For weeks it was: F900 or Red camera? do we have the budget for Red? probably not - OK, whose arm can we twist? leg can we pull? back can we scratch? (strange how these are all anatomic terms!) - to get the best deal on the best gear. Various favours and friends are called upon, and suddenly it's all done - we have the Red camera and the award winning team clustered around it. Super. Now what? Well, it's more production meetings and tying up of loose ends. Accommodation is arranged and sandwiches galore are planned, along with barbecues and salads. A beer sponsor is on the counter - yippee! and even a wine sponsor. Most people have waived their fees, which is great - all for the love of film and a week in the Blue mountains spinning yarns over a few red wines.

In the last few weeks I have made: two crossbows, about 15 Tshirts; ten coffee cups; three facial wounds; an orbital contusion (an early black eye), various envelopes, cards and photo's, and refined two monkey suits. Next week I'm going to get contact lenses - Yowies generally don't wear glasses. I saw a wonderful Yeti suit by Weta studios (check out 'NZ rescue yeti' on Youtube) and asked if I could hire it - a mere $15000 a week. I said thanks, I'll do my own. So far the Yowie suit's cost me about $1000.