Our first day of filming got off to a great start. A beautiful hitch-free sunny morning on Curl Curl beach - everyone in very high spirits. After a fantastic lunch (the British contingent who are used to pretty average fare on their UK sets were very impressed with the food...) we moved to North Head National Park with our three lead actors (Scott Mechlowicz, Shaun Evans and Amelia Warner) to shoot Scott and Amelia jumping off the jetty into the sea.
The sea looked so inviting that Scott and Amelia, were only too happy jump in themselves. However, the atmosphere changed considerably when thunder clouds started moving in rapidly and the saying "if you don't like the weather, wait a minute" proved only too true as the sky turned black and lightning threatened to bring the shoot to a premature end. There was so much static in the air that Director, Ringan Ledwidge, felt his hair stand up on end at one point. Ah the joys of filming in the tropics! The storm passed and the filming continued, although the actors were considerably less enthusiastic at the prospect of a swim - so the stunt doubles did earn their pay after all.
Our second day started at the airport where we filmed the opening sequence for the film -Shaun's character Alex disembarking from his international flight. This was not too much of a stretch for Shaun as he'd only done it for real a couple of weeks prior. Then onto the infamous 'Cross', home to backpackers, prostitutes and junkies and for, the evening, us. As you can imagine, we were quite 'inconspicuous' filming a piggy back scene down Darlinghurst road and so not surprised by the attention of locals, including the police and their trusty sniffer dogs!
We spent the next day at the Cross and experienced some inspirational and quite hilarious improvisation at a nightclub before packing up and waving the city good bye for now as we spent the next couple of days in outer Sydney and the actors began, what will be, a beautiful and long friendship with their home from home - their trailers.
