One Lady, A Parasol and A Pony.

#7 - Debbie Zukerman [Actor: Mercedes]

I think producers are up there with psychiatrists and air traffic controllers. For 5 months I kept having conversations with Kate where her voice would go up and up and up as she explained the latest outrageous miscommunication, or location that had fallen through at the eleventh hour. Every week something happened.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

About a year ago I was at a party and David Hawkins asked me if I'd like to be in an experimental Alice-in-Wonderland-esque no-budget film where all the dialogue is improvised on set. So I said yes. It's not really Wonderland-esque, but back then, before another 15 incarnations, that's what it sounded like.

I was in a major rut at the time. I'd come home from studying in New York and Paris, was severely underemployed, and had a stress rash all over my hands and my hair was falling out. Then BLUE walked into my life and my hair grew back. While Kate and Dave's hair fell out.

I spoke to Dave quite a bit over the next few weeks, listening as Mercedes went from frustrated writer slash bar tender to insecure nymphomaniac, and finally settled on being grief and guilt stricken. My background was in comedy, so all this darkness was a refreshing change.

Dave wrote a scene breakdown and it became apparent that about 50 actors would be needed. So this is a film filled with my buddies. Silvina (Mirrim in the flashback) really is one of my best friends, and I studied with the super spunky Hannah (Poppy) in New York. Such a pleasure to work with people you already have a connection with.

It might be time to throw the baton back to David so he can rant on about the epic casting of this little film, in the next tear-soaked episode of Making Of Bound By Blue (also known as - If You Don't Answer They Can't Tell You The Bad News).

Juggling With Chainsaws & Chipmunks

#6 - Kate Talbot [Producer]

I too have a morbid fear of actors; particularly ones in hot demand like Chester.

They are difficult to schedule as people, with far more power and experience than I, have them locked into scary and immoveable television and film contracts. This makes pinning actors down for rehearsals/costume fittings/shooting (the list goes on) nigh on impossible.

What was clear however was that we wanted Chester! He was the key to the project. With him on-board we could convince other 'in-hot-demand' actors to join our bandwagon of craziness. We needed to find a way to keep him as our lead actor, while adjusting to his ever-growing professional commitments.

And this is where Bound By Blue really began. Instead of an 80-minute feature centred around Chester and Frank we would create four separate 20 minute stories joined at the head and the 'tale'. This gave us several selling points. Firstly, Chester no longer had to commit to an entire feature. By our figuring 20 minutes of screen time was a slightly longer short film; not a huge ask really (or so we thought).

Four separate stories also meant that our lead actors would only have to be scheduled together for the opening and closing scenes. This also overcame the massive obstacle of Chester and Frank only being in the same state as each other for 10 days in six months.

We were quickly able to sell this idea to Chester and Frank and things seemed to be back on track.

What we hadn’t been bargaining on was how many support actors we were going to need. Lots and Lots of support actors; 48 to be exact! Our little production (which Dave was originally planning on shooting over 10 weeks with a maximum of 5 people on set at any one time) had suddenly taken on a life of its own. (Remember we had NO money!)

We also now needed to write three more stories and cast two lead actors. Enter stage right: Debbie Zukerman. A true gem sent to help us drag this lump of an idea kicking and screaming into production. Debbie became not only one of our four lead actors, but casting agent, location scout and personal masseuse to the producer.

But I'll let Debbie tell us her version of the story in the next installment of the Making of Bound By Blue (also known as – Is That Squealing Noise My Producer Imploding?).

The High-Wire. But Without A Net!

#5 - David Hawkins [Director/DOP]

As a cinematographer I have no fear of filming: The bigger the challenge, the more exciting the project. But as a wannabe director I had a major phobia. Actors. They terrified me. Cameras don't talk back.

So in an attempt to overcome this terror I put on my swagger and called in Chester and Frank for a rehearsal. But not just any old rehearsal; I took them to the local shopping centre for some Method style character development. Each of them had to 'perform' a lap of the mall emotionally reacting to their fellow shoppers and discovering how it felt to be their character.

This was actually a successful outing until we were set upon by a dogged elder lady who swore that she knew Frank, and continued to do so even after we told her that she may have seen him on TV. It took a random passerby weighing in on this conversation to convince the old dear that he wasn't a long-lost-grandson.

Alright checklist:
Two actors
One producer
One DOP with an ego complex
And a script idea
(oh yeah... and a victory over an Old-lady)
Practically finished.

Or so I thought until days later I received a phone call from Chester, whilst I was sitting on the ceramic throne (that's a toilet for anyone who suddenly thinks that I am the heir to the Caroma fortune). Heavy with guilt he proceeded to eek out that he could no longer be in the film as he couldn't commit the time needed.

I listened. I breathed. I think I screamed a little. And then I phoned my Producer.

My all-knowing Producer Kate can take over from here, in the next installment of Making Bound By Blue (also known as - Perhaps Working At McDonalds Is A Viable Career Option).