PLAY OF THE DAY Fri 29 Feb

A day off for the crew! Play of the day went to Sarah for remembering to return the wood to the generous building site.

PLAY OF THE DAY Thurs 28 Feb

Went to the two lead actors - Cohen & Inge - for performing really well in a full on drama scene.

Difficult day

Right. So one of the biggest drama scenes of the film is in the can. Done & dusted. It was full on, but we think it worked extremely well.

PLAY OF THE DAY Wed 27 Feb

Martin our Austrian lighter is very handy with a machete...The Machetenator took it out today for his great work ethic and sprinting up hills at random...

PLAY OF THE DAY Tues 26 Feb

To Toa Waaka for his inspiring performance and telling it like it is. Big thanks to our spiritual advisor!

Challenging location filming

There's been a few spots that have been quite remote, hard to access, harsh conditions...yet absolutely stunning and very cowboy.

Beautiful Bendigo

Wellington cops a lot of slack for wind - which seems a little unfair after our experiences here in Central Otago! There is some serious wind action going on on the plains & hills around here. Makes filming just that little bit more challenging/exciting!

Cowboy feeding time

Feeding the cast & crew has been a big job. Filming has been finishing at dusk most days which is around 9.30pm so that by the time the cowboy crew get home for dinner it is late and they are ready for a feast! Making sure we have enough meat, fruit and vege to feed the hoards has been a challenge - but thanks to some great support from local butchers and farmers at our various locations we have been able to keep everyone well fed & watered. Loving the South Island hospitality and support!

PLAY OF THE DAY Sun 24 Feb

Went to Noel for getting back on his bucking horse! And a huge thanks to our Posse riding doubles for looking fantastic!

Cast member profile #1 - Red

The true star of the show. Without him we would probably still be trying to shoot the first 3 shots of the film. He has managed to completely throw the old 'never work with kids or animals' adage out of the window. Even on the days when we had 6 other horses on set he still continued to perform beautifully. For his fans who have requested more info: he's a liver chestnut quarter horse station-bred sport horse. What a dude!

PLAY OF THE DAY Sat 23 Feb

Went to Bex for her consistent and yummy poached eggs for brunch! Not an easy feat when you have to do about 35 eggs!

Sponsorship

As well as preparing costumes we have spent part of our day off trying to source some extra building materials for a set we need to construct tomorrow. Unfortunately Placemakers here in Cromwell was closed and we've discovered that Mitre10 doesn't sell wood. In true indie filmmaking tradition Sarah (our fill-in Production Manager)wandered onto a building site and asked whether they have any spare four-by-twos. Thanks to the lovely folks at NZ Engineering Supplies in Cromwell - we now have our wood. Thanks guys!

Looks like we'll be sending Sarah out this week to try and find some more generous souls around Cromwell! The crew keeps on insisting we need a vineyard behind the production...

PLAY OF THE DAY catch ups

Thursday 21 Feb's PLAY OF THE DAY went to Red (the horse) for being absolutely phenomenally patient during a very challenging shoot of being saddled repeatedly on camera.

Friday 22 Feb's PLAY OF THE DAY went to Inge for organising a fantastic house for us all to stay in in Cromwell! Settling into our new house with internet finally!!!

Catch up

Been very busy – posts have been a little light, so here’s a catch up on what‘s been going on.

Day 1 - Arriving in Tekapo we went to our first location at Sawdon Station. An epic location, but harder to get to than first thought. We got there in the end and the trailer is holding up well in the rugged terrain. Costume and Art department are looking fantastic. The first shots were amazing and after 2 years of planning it was surreal to watch it coming to life.

The second day we got the Posse riding doubles and it was breathtaking! Hard to believe we are in New Zealand – sure doesn’t look it! Looking really cowboy. The actors did their first drama scene and it went great (except for the face stab by Cohen).

Day three onto our next location at Maryburn station - one of Mike’s favourite locations. The crane (our self-designed and built one) went well and we got some spectacular shots. Cohen the male lead managed to throw up after chewing some real chewing tobacco for a few takes. His cowboyness was called into question but after a brief power chuck into the dust - got back up on his horse and carried on. His manliness restored. Unfortunately after a great shoot we discovered that Inge the lead actress had ended up in a wrong dress and we will have to go back and re shoot the wide shots.

Day four the river shoot and let's just say that Cohen managed to get more sunburn than necessary! And interestingly enough according to Justin our Soundie - Tekapo has no wildlife sounds after dark at all!

We started a PLAY OF THE DAY which went to Zoe and Rosy for making a fake chicken in 10 minutes that looked fantastic!
The weather has been completely consistant and absolute magic. Loving it!

In the valley

First drama shots captured. Images on the monitor look fantastic. Three days of blue skies.

Rabbit holes everywhere. One stunt double fell off his horse, but the rodeo/cage fighter posse rider (talented man that he is) expertly held it together.

Our lead actor accidentally stabbed himself in the face with a knife. So far only bandaids have been used from the medic kit.

First day of shooting!

Wow. It's finally real. What a day - what a crew! Off to a fantastic start. Managed to get all the scheduled shots plus some bonus sunset riding shots. Starting with a half day shoot was a brilliant idea as it gave everyone the chance to find their feet and iron out any hiccups. Red's a born movie star. He stole the day.

On our way

Made it to Christchurch! Just overnighting here then next stop Tekapo. A few hiccups along the way today - but thankfully nothing too major. Red didn't like the idea of getting on the ferry at first which was probably brought on by having the A-team theme song blared as we were loading the trucks! The team of people we have are better than we could've imagined - great vibe!! Getting an early night tonight for some more travel and the first couple of shots tomorrow.

Cafe L'affare rocks!

What an amazing town this is! In the true spirit of Wellywood Paul & crew at Cafe L'affare have come on board and sponsored us with more caffeine and fantastic quality coffee than we could have ever dreamed of! And to top it off - they're giving us the proper equipment to brew it to perfection. Legendary.

The Good the Bad and the Ugly

The Good

We now have sound, makeup and continuity sorted - Important as we leave in 2 days. Rebecca Rowe (our 1st AD) is outstanding on many levels - one of those being sourcing crew at the last minute.

The butcher in Geraldine has offered to open his shop on a Sunday just for us so we can get our meat down there to feed the crew. Important as Tekapo has no butcher. Jayne - head of our catering - read a great review on the net about his meat. On explaining this to the kind butcher his baffled response was: "You're joking!.. and I thought the internet was a waste of time."

We are having a BBQ tonight at our place with all available crew to do a send off. One of our cast Toa Waaka will be giving us a Maori blessing to send us on our way.

The Bad

The Department of Conservation has just informed us after months of dealing with them that they don't actually allow horses on DOC land - an important piece of missing information as we are aiming to shoot a western on DOC land. But there is hopefully a way around this and Hellen Robinson our Production manager is on the case.

The muster down in Tekapo has been brought forward so all our riding doubles have pulled out! Good times. Mark Kinaston-Smith - our uber experienced & connected Animal Wrangler has thankfully been able to sort this curve ball in less than 24 hours!

The Ugly

Our leading man Cohen Holloway just had his fake teeth fitted for the film - ugly yet beautiful.

living the dream

Instead of buying a house we've decided to make a movie.

We're going on an epic adventure - shooting a Western in New Zealand. 3 weeks in the South Island and 3 weeks in the North Island. After 2 years of planning we're a week out and completely committed. Full steam ahead - we're all in!! This is it. Bankrupt or boom town.

The aim is to update this blog as often as we can between the madness.

We have a script, crew of 18 and a horse called Red!