Maxfactormama’s Weblog

Following a sensational 7 nights of performances in Christmas at Brockwell’s, Andy was asked to be Santa for the Creative Ministries Staff Christmas Party. He performed his duties very well and thrilled all of the youngsters at the party – even some of the bigger “kids” got to sit on Santa’s knee! Now all the official duties are over, Andy aka Mr Brockwell, aka Santa is enjoying a well earned rest before heading off to Kenya.

After the long months of filming Elindil’s Secret in outdoor locations, the shift to nightly makeup calls for the Brockwell’s stage production seems strange. It is almost a novelty to have the “luxury” of an indoor makeup studio and a team of assistants instead of working largely on my own and under a tree! Although I have not had to spend a lot of time in preparation for this production, the actors and other crew have worked for weeks, so it is exciting to see it all coming together now. The set design is awesome and the costume ladies have been sewing madly. Last year’s production was about a family of mice, so it is a pleasant change to be creating 1940’s makeup for people instead of doing animal faces and sticking on whiskers! Although the makeup is all fairly basic, we have a few actors who need “character makeup” to create an aged appearance and a few who need to have some quick changes made during the performance, so those will provide a bit of a challenge! It is an amazing commitment from a large group of volunteers to put on the Careforce Christmas Productions every year and everyone does an awesome job! This year there will be quite a different feel to the auditorium as they have reconfigured all the seating to include raised seating on three sides. First night went extremely well with the minimum of hitches and a great thumbs up from the audience. 1 down, 6 to go!

After days of anticipation, the golden night of nights arrived. There was no red carpet parade or paparrazzi to contend with but there was an awards ceremony which was graced by the presence of our very own Thong Boy and his very glamorous assistant, presenting the Golden Oscar for Best Director to Luke Oliver. There were many other humorous awards presented to cast and crew by Luke as well as a very funny Bloopers Tape. Geoff spent many hours doing video editing and creating a musical soundtrack to produce a stunning Behind The Scenes Video record for all of us to remember what we have achieved over the past 4 months. We also presented John & Rachel with a gingerbread house as a thank you for hosting the Blue Screen shoot days. The house came complete with Blue Screen wall inside as well as lights and, of course, packets of “shapes” for John! The following day we gathered at the McAlpin Reserve to celebrate with family members – it was a very hot blustery day but the kids enjoyed exploring the parklands as well as the small lake. Of course no aussie BBQ is complete without the traditional game of cricket, so there were a few energetic cricketers, while the rest of us just sat and watched, and continued the very important job of eating and drinking! Andy & Dave H did a fantastic job on the BBQ – despite the slow cooker, they produced a mountain of food for us to consume! Our AD (known as Thong Boy) will now have a new name – Onion Boy – after chopping up a bag full of onions and hardly shedding a tear. After such an intense period of work, it was great to be able to relax as a group with our families, to share memories and acknowledge what an extraordinary achievement this film project has been for all of us. I have felt very priviledged to be involved with such a talented group of people and made great new friends along the way. Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas and see you back on set in the New Year for pickups!