Author: Jenny Wood

Self employed eLearning consultant studying Bachelor of Illustration at NMIT. Life is on hold while I battle with breast cancer.

Second last Elindil’s Secret movie shoot!

Saturday was our 2nd last shoot for the movie. It was a looong day (13 hours) with lots of different shoots on blue screen.

The day started off pretty slowly with the washing of the kangaroo who had experienced a drowning in lamb shanks (don’t ask) and a missing hat which sent the Wardrobe person (me) to the opshop looking for an alternative.

We almost had the whole cast involved at some stage of the day, including John Capper who almost had to have his hair cut onsite (due to the over growth and continuity problems!!).

Luke took a dunking in Lilydale lake wearing another cast members clothing.

Rodney had his legs exposed on camera which is a real achievement for a Camera man!

Warren got a little nervous with his baby girl watching him which resulted in him having a bit of trouble with his lines. Girls have this effect on men obviously!

Thanks to those of you that traveled far for a small amount of shooting or who had to wait around with little to do. Thanks also to Mary for the lovely lunch!

Blue screen shoots can be quite mindlessly boring but a quick trip to Spotlight helped break the day for me. If it works…… do it.

Now that I have my ‘studio’ set up (Blake’s old bedroom) I am all set up to do this costume stuff properly. Not having the smelly costumes in my bedroom is a good thing.

Should we start again guys????

Yay! Graduation at last!

Well here we all are in our silly gowns…. the sole survivors of the Diploma of VET Practice and Diploma of TAA graduating students!

What a great bunch they areI It was a pleasure to get to know them and we won’t lose contact in the future as the networks are strong. After trundling off the the pub for tea afterwards, we had our final adjourning moments!

Apart from me being segregated from the group (in the naughty corner) during the graduation, it was a terrific night and all should be proud of themselves!

Pity we couldn’t throw our hats in the air lol!

More pics here:


Our Egypt tour re-union with the Habibi group!

It was fitting that our re-union came at a time when the coronors inquest was on for the bus accident that happened in 2006 in Egypt was on. Our agent, Egypt tours, Stephen Seif, has been to court this week over the this accident with the very same tour that we went on (Police and Firebrigade tour). (See this link for more info)

The re-union was great fun and we enjoyed catching up and sharing our experiences with each other, amongst much frivolity and nonsense!

During the night we phoned our tour guide in Egypt (Fady), it was great to hear his voice and chat to him!

Four people traveled form Albury and Arrarat and stayed in a Motel down the road. It was terrific that they traveled 4 hours plus an off beat taxi ride, to come and help make it such a great night.

We watched the DVD which I have put together in the ‘theatre’ (our lounge room converted!!).

Most people trundled home at about midnight after much ‘eating drinking and being merry’.

Take a look at my Facebook album to see the rest of the photos.

You can take a glimpse at some of our tour experiences in the clips below:

Colin Belly Dancing

Our day in Cairo

My brave experience with a lion

Ouch my hamstrings hurt (not from playing footy!)

Arrived home from driving myself home from Halls Gap and filming in The Grampians with Elindil’s Secret movie crew. It was CHAOS at home due to the fact that we are re-carpeting today and so the whole house is in turmoil. My undies are in the drawer on the front veranda, my shoes under the pergola and my clothes are in a big pile in the family room somewhere. Col said ‘just wear whats on top of the pile to work’……. which happened to be a summer dress!!

I was exhausted from going out Friday night for Sophies 19th birthday, getting up at 4am to drive to Halls gap Saturday, filming all day up in the mountains at The Grampians and driving back again yesterday. Then I had to help move furniture and make head or tail of the mess at home. Sophie was moaning that she had homework to do and the computer was off line. The costumes are still in my car (smelly smelly things they are too)

RE-CAP of the filming weekend:

The cast and crew met at Arrarat Mc Donalds early Saturday , morning for breakie and then continued on up to the Mt Zero carpark (collecting the Strempels on the way) to do make-up and wardrobe in the posh carpark setting. It was much much milder there than last time we went to The Grampians ( it was absolutely freezing) but I decided it would still be chilly up the mountain so I climbed Hollow mountain in my thermals and other layers which I progressively removed like an autumn tree all the way up. Once I reached the top I had to find a change room (a rock) to remove my thermals!!! Luckily I managed to do that without horrifying a member of the public. It was gorgeous up there (view and temperature) and some of us managed to catch 10 mins laying in the sun on a rock. What an awesome spot. At one point we had scones with jam and cream (thanks to Andrea!!) which was highly civilised for a bunch of film crew on a mountain.

Mark took over the job of making a ‘crash dummy’ (with one of my costumes!!!). It was a pretty odd looking specimen indeed. We named him Bucket Jones (or bucket head) as he had a bucket for a head. Poor Mark had to lug him up the mountain. We soon realised that Bucket Jones wasn’t going to be too convincing on film since his head came off and he displayed various other odd contortions on his way over the cliff. It was pretty funny anyhow so he made the grade as unpaid entertainment for us.

Our other hiccup was the random hikers who kept ‘appearing’ in frame while we were filming. We would then stop filming and wait for them but often they would want to ‘chat’ while they were there. Meanwhile that perfect cloud cover was disappearing!!

The fight scene was awesome and the guys were very realistic. Well done Dave and Luke!!! Especially realistic was Luke who nearly went over the cliff several times.

By the time we got to climb the second mountain my legs were getting pretty tired. The final film scene caused a bit of a spectacle with hikers but ended beautifully with an awesome sunset, complete with God rays. It was a fantastic end to a great day of filming.

You can read another account of the weekend on maxfactormama’s blog.

I just wish my hamstrings weren’t hurting so much so I could prepare for moving furniture again tonight…… and my next game of footy:)

NEWS FLASH: Thelma and Louise freeze at Mt Hotham
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Louise (Jennie) and I decided to make the most of starting our Elindil’s Secret film pick up shoots again this weekend. Our first shoot was located at Mt Hotham so we decided to make a weekend of it and stayed in Bright with Colin and Andy instead of going up and back in the same day with the rest of the crew.
We spent our spare time suffering in Bright’s very pleasant eateries, sipping red wine. Sunday morning we looked at the shops in Bright and Louise (Jen) and I (Thelma) purchased some lovely bits and pieces from a gorgeous shop. We are hoping to sneak back there some day. More filming perhaps??
img_1135.jpg Andy & Colin are no longer allowed to return to Bright after shaming us in the supermarket. Jen required CONDOMS to put fake blood in for the scene on Saturday. She sent the boys to the supermarket to buy them AND a roll of paper towel. Andy announced LOUDLY, as he walked into the shop, that he needed ‘ultra thin condoms which explode on impact’. Colin very quickly found an aisle to run to so he could preserve his dignity while Andy very loudly caused quite a stir in the shop. He tried to explain that they needed it for their make-up kit but that didn’t help at all. To top it off, Luke decided they didn’t need to use one after all. At least they were safe.
img_1147.jpgThe filming started Saturday at about midday, by the time the crew arrived and got into their costumes and make-up. The weather in Bright was ‘bright’, so we figured it would be quite pleasant up the mountain. WRONG! It was bitterly cold with an ambient temperature of one degree and a wind chill factor that made it even more chilly.
Some of the filming highlights:
  • Luke asking a male hitch hiker if he was going ‘all the way’
  • An actor sliding down the hill when he was meant to be dead
  • The lovely warm soup and hot dogs in the little dark shed
  • The fake blood which had a mind of its own
  • Getting the fake blood out of the shirt which had to be used again (YAY!!)
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Spending the weekend in style, certainly helped to make the weekend fun. Thanks Jen and Andy. Thelma and Louise rock again!

Get another perspective from Louise (Jennie) on this link: Maxfactormama

    Egypt dvd finished
    egypt-dvd-cover.jpgAt last the editing on my DVD of our Egypt tour is finished!
    Blake designed a cover for the DVD today which just finishes it off nicely (see pic).
    The DVD has still photos, music and voiceovers so it was quite a job to put it together. It is still an amateur result, but I am pretty happy with it. It definitely made buying a Mac worthwhile lol.
    Now all I have to do is wait for the re-union to show it to our tour group friends.
    We might have another DVD viewing night….. just for friends and family. Tickets are cheap and the seats are comfy (if you get there early enough!).
    Belly dancing and eating Arabian bread and homous is optional.

    Sisters 4
    the-four-of-us-copy.jpg

    Yesterday we had a random family day. It was quite spontaneous but strangely enough, there were only a few not able to come!

    At least the 4 sisters got to have a yarn, which doesn’t happen very often anymore. The only way I could convince them to have their pic taken was to allow sunnies! Margie left hers at home or she would have been in on the Mafia look too.

    It was great to see them all and the kids enjoyed themselves also. Thanks Susan (and Glenn)!

    Other photos can be seen on this link:

    http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=21330&l=63d50&id=561229505

    Car dramas

       Sophie decided not to go to La Trobe in Bendigo and do teaching this year so she is doing the Diploma of Childcare as a pathway to teaching, at Swinburne. She is at Croydon campus IN THE SAME CORRIDOR AS ME!!!! I can actually hear the class from my desk. This morning she was doing ‘activities’ in the middle of the corridor and I could hear her laughing.

    She is having a great time though and I am itching to do her homework so I am having to restrain myself. Tonight she is making a ‘sensory quilt’ and a fabric snake!!

    phone-pic-collage.jpg

    Anyway………. on with the story. Today I was about to drive Swinburnes new ‘Hybrid’ car (which I have not driven before) and my colleague and I were about to get in the car when I got a call from Sophie to say she had reversed into another car in the shopping centre next door. She was fine, but upset so I told her I would come straight over.

    Easily said…….there are no ‘keys’ to this Hybrid car, or ignition to turn over, or shift to change from Reverse to Drive etc. There is also no handbrake and a lot of electronic things going on.

    Do you think we could get that stupid car going????? In the end we got there and I couldn’t figure out how to get it in park or how to put on the handbrake (which turned out to be a foot brake) so I couldn’t get out of the car to go and comfort her. In the end I left it in neutral with no handbrake on and parked at an odd angle. The guy who’s car she hit must have been thinking “THESE WOOD WOMEN NEED TO BE TAKEN OFF THE ROADS”!!

    It was so hysterical, Deb and I laughed afterwards all the way to Hawthorn. Of course then when we got there, we couldn’t get her window up…… so we had to leave it down. Shhhhhh don’t tell our boss lol.

    Soph was a bit teary and has an even bigger hole in her pocket now (its called a CAR) but her car only has a little scratch. The other car is totally caved in! Her words of despair tonight were: “but I just washed it last night!!”

    Thelma and Louise

    jen-and-i-blog-size.jpgLast night I went to Louise’s 50th Birthday party with Colin. Her name is Jennie really but our nic names are ‘Thelma and Louise’. Jen and I acquired these nick names on the way to Bega recently when we went up for a weekend movie shoot for Elindil’s Secret. It was nothing to do with us burning along in the Mazda 6 singing into the radio for the rest of the convoy to enjoy. Nor was it anything to do with having Brad Pitt in the back seat. We didn’t drive off a cliff (like in the movie) so I dunno how we managed it!

    Jens party brought home my own childhood memories. Jen is the oldest of 5 girls …no boys (I am the oldest of 4 girls….. no boys). It was lovely to see her sisters get up last night and sing a song for her and to hear the stories and experiences shared during the speeches. Being a sister has its own special parts to it. The most special, is as Andy said last night, the ability for us to hold 50 conversations at once and still know what we are talking about!

    Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Louise, you really are a trouper and I have enjoyed getting to know you on the movie crew.

    You rock!! (and so did the band last night!)

    Re-Union for Egypt tours groups
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    If you were in the January 2008 Police and FBG Egypt tours group, you are welcome to come to our re-union on April the 19th at 7pm.

    We will be eating dancing and being very merry!

    At 9pm we will view the High Definition DVD footage (which mainly has the ‘Habibi’ group in it but you MAY find yourself in it somewhere). The DVD can be purhased for $5 Aussie dollars (no ……. 1 Egyptian pound won’t do!!). This will cover the cost of production.

    Be aware that the DVD was made for Col and I to remember our holiday and not as a Group Tour momento so it is largely from our perspective (and we are in it a lot!!). You can edit our faces out at a later date if you like:)

    Please bring a plate of food to share for tea, drink, photos, Arabian music and WEAR your Egyptian costume (no admittance otherwise!!).

    Please email me to RSVP and to get my address…… if I publish my address here will have gatecrashers and end up on the news the next morning!!

    HINT: It’s in Victoria, Eastern suburbs of Melbourne ……… but don’t let that stop you!