2010 - September 4: With slithers of ash falling from the sky, a crew from Just 4WD and NQ Crash in Cairns recently transcended upon the Burdekin sugarbelt for some well-earned R and R - and just as I finished the rough-cut of the film. Thankfully the panorama of ashy black gliders was not a realization of the petro-apocalypse portrayed in George Miller’s iconic ‘Mad Max’,  , but rather 'Burdekin Snow' - a product of the region’s canefires and beacon of the cane harvesting season and sickly-sweet sugar dollars that course through the veins of the North Queensland economy.

During their Burdekin vacation, the Cairns sponsors and a few miscreants from the film crew spent seven days at a tranquil beach hut at Cape Upstart south of Home Hill. The 'Cape' is arguably one of the district’s worst kept secrets among locals, but an undiscovered gem to many ‘Mexicans’ (as southern folk are dubbed by the local hombre). Undiscovered thanks to the fact it’s accessible only by boat rather than road. Yes that’s right, no road, so not a caravan in sight. Holiday nirvana!

Launching from the Wunjunga boat ramp and scooting north-east for 30 minutes takes one to idyllic bays festooned with leasehold and freehold beach huts and houses, most equipped with power, septic tanks (the sewerage type, not American tourists),  rain-water tanks and in this case, eight beds and enough beer and food to placate Townsville’s 1-RAR and a herd of  Tibetan yak.

Seven days of fishing, crabbing and general alpha-male shenanigans ensued with the unanimous consensus ‘this is the life!’. Thanks to the Viero family for letting us sample their slice of paradise yet again. Like a ringer an all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant buffet, we’ll be back for seconds!  An added bonus of the vacation was an advanced sponsors’ screening of the film's rough-cut, thanks to a projector and screen choppered in from our contacts on the mainland.  I'll confess I was pretty nervous showing the film to our backers, but they had a few laughs and reckon it’s a film that should strike a chord with most blokes, provided they have a pulse and shun metro-sexual doctrine with fervor. Whether that means blokes should leave the handbrake at home when they see the film, I’m not sure, but I hope sheila’s get the gags as well and hang about for the ending.

All agreed some of the jokes were off like a new bride's nightie,  but the intent was always to fight-back against political-correctness gone mad - and I think we’ve done it with a smidge more aplomb than than a drunken NRL football team out on ladies night. Let's face it - 10 years ago if you’d said a comedy about a plumber and toilets would become one of Australia’s highest grossing comedies of all time, you would have been laughed at and poked in the eye with a swizzle-stick, but look what happened with 'Kenny'.

It would be great if we could pull-off the same lighting-in-a-bottle stuff as  'The Castle', 'Clerks' and 'Kenny'. In the meantime we’ll work on emptying a few more bottles, and I’m sure the upcoming wet season will provide the lightning! But first, there's a bloopers reel and trailer to cut while we get the Brasso out and polish up this cinematic concubine of three years. By them we might even have a Prime Minister!

Ron Odgers and his ode to the new American leadership.

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. 

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

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

2008 - November 12: Struth! 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!