Blokes - A North Queensland independent feature film

In 2002 Heartlink Films filmed and edited a tongue-in-cheek documentary entitled "Gulf 2002" about the adventures of eight Australian blokes who embark on a 2000 kilometre fishing trip into the wilds of Far North Queensland.

That experience provided the inspiration for us to make our first independent feature-length film, a fictional comedy entitled "Blokes". The following production diary by writer-director Adrian Van Rossum charts the progress of the project to date. Enjoy.

2009 - December 3: Cutting, cutting, cutting. Hunkered-down in the editing suite for long days and watching the puzzle pieces of footage, music, titles and effects finally fall into place. Feels surreal actually, but enjoyable all the same. We have 10 of 32 scenes rough-cut and have been running some of the early edits by cast and crew for feedback. Months of tweaking ahead, but we enjoy the luxury of not being bound by a hard and fast release date.

Took a break from the liquid-crystal glow of the computer monitors at the weekend to record Nudge's .... sorry, Ron's ode to Barack Obama and blast it out into the nether regions of cyberspace. A dusty old tractor in a dusty old shed on a dusty old Burdekin canefarm made the perfect backdrop. Think the rustic charm of John Cougar Mellancamp merged with the refinement of that silver-haired mongoose, Michael Parkinson.

Hear that ? Yes, it is the hark of the film editing equipment which adorns the inner sanctum of the "Blokes" Bunker. Alas,I must disappear into the edit suite's electronic aura for another few weeks. Catch you in the New Year.

Ron Odgers and his ode to the new American leadership.

Off the beaten track .... and on the set of "Blokes"

2009 - September 30: Just one more scene to shoot and we've wrapped principal cinematography on "Blokes". Eight weeks of filming in the Burdekin, Ravenswood, Cairns, Cooktown and most places on the coast road in-between leaves us with more than 30 hours of footage to sift through over the next six months of post-production. We've added a 'Galleries' section to the website to give everyone following the project an insight into the experience, with both footage screenshots and behind-the-scenes photos. Many of the 'making-of' shots were snapped by our on-set photographer Rob Bagnall who went above and beyond the call of duty each and every day.

Personally, long shooting days and stunning locations made shooting "Blokes' enjoyable hard work, if there can be such a thing. Cast and crew take with them memories for life - from Ron and Rick entertaining the Thursday night crowd at the Imperial Hotel in Ravenswood with their singing, to Robert's specially modified 'cane-cutter' singlet, which he wore without notice for maximum shock value. And who could forget Nudge using the diesel black off the truck exhaust pipes to top-up his make-up. Classic!

The main hiccup on the shoot was that the fish were not biting in Cooktown, so we had to spend some extra days on the water at 'secret spots' to get shots of the guys landing some big barramundi. The actors already have a few fans and followers with people asking for autographs when we were shooting in Cooktown - one sight of the Red digital cinema camera and people assumed we were Hollywood, so we explained we were more the 'Ravenswood' of the film world with a smaller budget, but hopefully more laughs.

Looking forward to the wrap party after we record Nudge's voiceover. That will be the production arm's last big blast before hiding away in the edit suite for months on end with a bottomless cup of coffee. I set out to show moviegoers the memories of North Queensland that were on replay in my mind while living overseas, and so far I'm chuffed with the imagery we've captured so far. If some of the screenshots from the film don't make North Queensland enticing to travelers, I don't know what will.

2009 - April 10: Things are baking nicely in the "Blokes" campoven. Our actors have the final version of the script in hand and have started running lines and developing their on-screen personas. Rick put in a request for his own trailer on set, so we told him he'd be lucky to get a boat trailer! With the wet-season over, Robert's managed to get back out on the canefarm by day and by night Ron's blowing the dust off the guitar and amplifier for a return to the live music scene. Who knows, might be the 'Blokes' theme-song in the making?

In other news we've been compiling a "Blokes" workflow whitepaper as a result of months of camera and software testing. They say when you're on the bleeding edge of technology, you've got to bleed a little so we are recording all our findings to make life on-set as smooth as possible. The whitepaper is now 38 pages and growing. Well worth it to show you North Queensland's 'top-end' in all its glory.

Nudge (from left), Magic and Two-Bags take a break from

running lines to blow the froth off a stubbie or three.

The blokes who will star in "Blokes"

2008 - November 12: Struth Ruth! After more than two-months of reviewing the audition tapes, international phonecalls and e-mailing scripts, Two Burdekin canefarmers and an Ayr miner have landed the three lead roles in "Blokes". Miner and country singing identity Ron Odgers will play the role of Nudge, with canefarmers Rick Romeo and Robert Zandonadi accepting the parts of Magic and Two-Bags respectively.

Choosing the three actors from a wide range of contenders was the hardest part of the movie-making process to so far. I just wish I had a part for everybody who auditioned, but with just three blokes in the film this unfortunately was not an option. I reckon we have the right "Blokes" mix with Ron Odgers playing our narrator and family-man Nudge, Robert Zandonadi bringing his Burdekin Singers stage experience to our mild-mannered Two-Bags, with Rick Romeo exaggerating his ‘Rat-Pack’ crooner charms to bring our lothario Magic to life.

The consensus among the 'Three R's' seemed to be ‘How often does a chance like this come along?’ and we're glad they have accepted the thespian challenge with gusto. Robert Zandonadi brings years of theatre restaurant and Burdekin Singers experience to the table, with Ron Odgers joining us fresh from his time as an extra on the set of Baz Luhrmann's "Australia". If you are not familiar with Ron's Burdekin blend of country music, you can pick up his albums "Sittin' Sippin' Fishin'" and "This Land Is Not For Sale".

A fellow crooner who is no stranger to the limelight is Rick Romeo, who will draw experience from on-stage acting exploits which include "Les Misérables" and "The Full Monty" to name a few. As if he was not busy enough with growing sugarcane and treading the boards, Rick is a member of the singing trio Attori .

With filming in 2009 and post-production in 2010, our announcement of actors represents a mid-point milestone for the four-year production. All aboard the "Blokes" Express!

2008 - August 30: The last month was huge in the making of "Blokes" with several major milestones crossed on the road to making a feature film. We held auditions with actors keen to play either "Nudge","Two-Bags" and "Magic" in our bawdy boys adventure. Actors were thrown into the 'Suzuki' hot-seat and asked to deliver their lines while driving a 4x4 down a bumpy, dusty Burdekin canefarm headland and the Bohle motorbike tracks in Townsville. All the while I filmed applicants from the passenger seat to produce a swag of audition tapes to review as we shortlist the final three.

While auditions took the whole month of August, avoiding the traditional "cattle call" style audition meant I could meet the applicants one-on-one and this made the whole process far more personal. The multi-tasking (driving, delivering lines and not crashing!) proved a challenge and the candidates made a good fist of it. Emails from people asking for auditions kept rolling in thanks to excellent local media coverage, particularly by the Ayr Advocate and a live radio interview on the Burdekin's Sweet-FM.

Amid scouting film locations and talks with film sponsors and soundtrack musicians, our new Red One Ultra-HD camera arrived from America and we now have a full year to do screen tests and decide our post-production (editing) workflow. The Red One camera has been embraced by Hollywood, so much so it was used to film the new Nicholas Cage blockbuster "Knowing" to be released in cinemas in 2009.

'Realm' writer- director Dean Robinson on set with

'Natasha', one of film's key characters. Click the photo above to watch the "Realm" trailer.

2008 - March 23: With the script almost locked down, the search for our three central characters of "Nudge","Two-Bags" and "Magic" has begun. Casting for 'Blokes' will begin in Townsville in August, 2008. A casting call advertisement will be placed in the Townsville Bulletin and Ayr Advocate asking interested actors to visit this website for further information and to contact us to arrange a suitable 'audition' slot.

The quest for 'home-grown' music for the soundtrack has begun with former Townsvillian Dean Robinson hooking us up with contacts in and around Brisbane. Dean directed his own independent film 'Realm' which was shot in the Townsville area over four years and appreciates the trials and tribulations of making an independent feature-length film.

2007 - December 21: What a journey it's been so far. More than a year after coming up with with this crazy idea I now have an initial draft of the "Blokes" film script and have started farming it out to friends, family and industry insiders for feedback before I make the necessary changes. Our move to Ipswich, Suffolk in the United Kingdom, and the four months we spent touring Europe by car, have helped distinguish all the male Aussie mannerisms begging to be put under the magnifying glass of cinema. The result is a fictional, politically-incorrect comedy exploring the psyche of three North Queensland blokes as they journey into the wilds of Cape York.

My challenge for 2008 is to find three suitable actors from the Ayr, Burdekin and Townsville regions to fill the three main roles of Nudge, Magic and Two-Bags. It's a big ask - blue-collar blokes who can learn lines and act convincingly, and who can take a month break from their work and families to realize this dream. Filming is scheduled for 2009 with post production slated for early 2010.

"Blokes" will be filmed on the new Red One 4K camera that records at almost six-times the resolution of High Definition (HD), but at a fraction of the cost of its competitors. Ocean's Eleven and Traffic Director, Steven Soderburgh, filmed his two recent movies "Guerrilla" and "The Argentine" on the Red One.

The advice I've gleaned from the writings of known scriptwriters is "write what you know". I don't know much about law, medicine or engineering, but I know a few Aussie blokes and downright larrikins - so here goes .....