The stangest thing.

Allen and I went up to Quorn this week end with his sister and her boyfriend to visit his mom, freshly settled in her new house.

It is beautiful and situated in a very nice part of the country. She loves it, and the dogs love it too.

Nothing of this is strange. No. It's actually very nice.

On that saturday night, however, something weird happened. We were in the middle of games night - charades, pictionary, ect- when we decided to play the card game Spoons. You know, the one with the spoons in the middle of the table and you have to grab one when you get four cards of the same number...

So Allen goes and grabs four spoons out of the new drawer, in the new kitchen of the new house. He puts them down on the table, and then it happens.
One spoon is not the same as the others.


'Oh My God!!' I say. Everybody stops talking and just looks at me.
I pick up the spoon and realize it is a spoon from my mom's dinner set.
There is no doubt about it.
A million questions start flashing in my mind.
what? hun? how?
I don't remember actually PACKING that spoon in my luggage
I wouldn't take a snack to eat on a plane that envolves a spoon
How did it get to my mother-in-law's house after that anyway?
And how come she packed it with all of her stuff to move in the country with it??

How strange. To be sitting at your inlaw's table, a million kms away from your parents house, and somehow seeing a piece of your mom's cutlery on the table.

I took it home. I'll bring the mystery missing spoon back to Canada.

Récit du désert II

Je me souviens d'une journée curieuse.
Tout d'un coup, toute l'équipe de tournage a décidé de faire de moi une vrai australienne. Pendant toute la journée, ont m'a bombardé d'expressions étranges, manières de prononcer et faits divers amusants.

Une que j'ai bien aimé: Les expressions utilisées pour indiquer les degrés de colère de quelqu'un.

1- Spit the dummy
La presonne en question décide de s'exprimer sur un sujet qui lui fait monter la moutarde au nez.
(Comme un bébé qui tout d'un coup, commence à pleurer et crier. Dummy=suce)

2- Throw a tanty
La personne en question fait une scène, une crise.
(Tanty=tantrum)

3- Chuck a wobbly
La personne ne pourrait pas être plus en colère. Elle crie, elle s'agite et refuse de se calmer. (S'agiter= to wobble = becomes wobbly)

C'était bien drôle voir mes collègues m'expliquer tout ça.
Une fois ça d'appris, mon australienisation serait presque complète, m'a-t-on dit.

Nous avons bien rit.

Frustration of the dead batteries.

So here's the thing.
I am trying to take pictures with my digital camera and it turns itself off because of dead batteries. Fair enough. I put fresh batteries in. Still nothing. The camera tells me the batteries are flat. Ok... maybe these are old ones that I have mistaken for new ones so I go to the shop to buy a new set of batteries. I take them out of the packaging and put them into my camera. And what happens??
The camera turns on for a second, then shuts off telling me the batteries are dead!!

AAAARRRGGGHHHH!

This is beyond frustrating.
I don't know what to do now.

Any suggestions?

Ever herd of a Quandong?

Ah fellow cooks and culinary amateurs, here is something new and original for your tastebuds.

It's called the quandong.
It is a fruit found in some desert regions of Australia. I had the pleasure of eating some of it in jams and pies out at a beautiful little bakery and cafe in Copley, a small town a few kms out of Leigh Creek. Every sunday (our only day off), we would go down there for a nice cuppa, a bit of breakkie and a nice piece of quandong pie.

It is fantastic. They call it the desert peach. But it doesn't really look or feel like a peach. It is bright red and shiny. It tastes like a cross between rhubarb, apricot and strawberries. It's hard to explain. It's not too sweet and is very high in vitamin C. So it's all good.

My sundays are not the same anymore without my quandong pie.

I hate tax time, I love tax time.

Oh yeah. That time of year again.
See, you put it off for as long as you can, cause you just hate, absolutely hate putting all that paperwork together but then when the nice check arrives, you wonder why the hell you didn't do your taxes sooner cause you sure could have used that money.

But here's the thing.
When you work at one place, it's ok. You basically have one paper to find, what we call here a group certificate, whatever that means.
You get it by mail, you hold onto it, you take it to the tax guy.
Finito.

But when you are a freelancer with 18 different employers in a year, and a private business cause you are a film techician, and have loads of personnal expenses for your work, things get so complicated for a first timer like myself, it makes you want to stick your head in the oven.

Where are the group certificates from the people who employed me?
Where are all the accounts that I sent to people who hired me?
Was this film job on Pay-As-You-Go or did I put it under my ABN?(Australian Business Number...) Can I deduct this? Where did I put the receipt for this other thing?
And so on and so forth.

So here I am. Drowning in my sea of papers.

Oh, and moving house did not help either.(Hon, where did we put that box with the papers in it? No, the one with the enveloppes. And the accordeon file??........*sigh*)

So there. I bought a filing cabinet to never have to look for &?%$&?*& papers again.
I am identifying everything. Every little last thing, and I will have access to everything super easily, so flying-disappearing papers won't come and haunt me next financial year. And by then, I will have understood how Australian tax return works.

But for now, I am in my sea of papers, sitting on the floor of my would-be office if a tornado hadn't passed through.
I am not posting a picture. It's too sad.
I can see my mom shaking her head.

I hate tax time.

But I know I'll love getting that check, no matter how big or small it is.
(Be big, be big, be big, be big!!!)

Des photos du désert

Je vous en donne une ici, mais il y en a d'autres sur mon flickr.
Les plus belles sont à venir, moi j'étais trop occupée pour prendre des photos, mais il y a un superbe CD qui circule parmis les membres de l'équipe. Quand il arrive dans mes mains, j'en posterai plusieurs à couper le souffle.

Celle-ci, a été prise à Lockswell Beach, durant notre 2e semaine de tournage. C'était la dernière journée avant de partir pour le vrai désert.
Pour se rendre à cette plage, il a fallu descendre (et ensuite monter!!!!) 355 marches. Avec tout l'équipement. Ce soir-là, il n'en a pas fallu beaucoup pour que je m'endorme. Et le lendemain, mes jambes étaient très, trop, douloureuses...
Mais regardez comme c'est magnifique.

Les 355 marches en ont vallu la peine.

Récit du désert I

Voici un petit texte que j'ai écrit à la fin de ma première journée de tournage dans le outback. Nous étions à Coffin Bay, pas vraiment le désert à ce point-là, mais c'est très très isolé, très perdu dans le York Peninsula. Les meilleures huîtres viennent de là. C'est pour ça que le petit village pêcheur existe.
Nous filmions sur une plage déserte, à 1h de bateau du village. Nous partions le matin très tôt (il faisait encore noir) et nous revenions très tard (eh oui, il faisait noir...)

Voici.


"Première journée de tournage aujourd’hui. On a commence de bonne heure. Voir le soleil se lever lorsqu’on est sur la mer, ça fait taire tout le monde. On regarde, seulement. Et on respire l’air frais qui nous frappe au visage.

Il faisait clair lorsque nous sommes arrive sur la plage. Tous en pantalons de pêcheurs, nous avions l’air une bande d’idiots. C’était très drôle de voir tout le monde tenter de marcher normalement dans ces grands trucs qui empêchent de plier les genoux correctement. À 11h, le premier plan était dans la canne. Le premier. De je ne sais pas combien. Beaucoup. Beaucoup, beaucoup. Nous avons commencé un grand voyage.

L’heure du lunch venu, nous avons du marcher le long de la plage jusque derrière une dune lointaine. Notre petit camp était installé, et nous avons mange sur des tables en bois, les deux pieds dans le sable. Durant ma marche de retour (j’étais seule, j’avais du travail à faire, donc pas le temps de relaxer) Je me suis arrêtée. Le paysage était tellement beau, tellement paisible. Le soleil était timide derrière une mince couche de nuages. Des kilometers de plages de chaque côté et la mer d’un bleu translucide à perte de vue. Un vent doux vient me chatouiller le visage.

"This is my office" I told myself. I can’t believe it. I love my life."

No '-'.

So we walked up to the cinema for the premere.
Just walking in was surreal. Posters everywhere, the press, the critics, all waiting for the glamoured up cast to show up.
I was waiting for Nick to show up because he had my tickets. It took a long time for them to arrive, and I was starting to think that maybe we would not get in.
I was nervous.
I didn't know what to expect. The film happens in one day, so lots happen all at the same time. There was a million ways this film could have been pieced together. That was the beauty of it I guess, and also the challenge.
So after a few drinks at the foyer catching up with the cast and the few crew members present, exchanging news and congratulations, we were finally in the dark, bums on our seats and the screening started.
I held my breath as the logos appeared one by one. Kojo Pictures. Village Roadshow.

* * *

By the end I realized how much I had been wrapped up in the technicality of it all. How my focus was; which takes they decided to use, etc.
I think they did a fantastic job cutting it.
I didn't get into the emotional side of it as much as the audience did, because of course,I knew what was going to happen, I had already seen every shot. But I have to say that I was proud of the work we had done, how far this beautiful film has come and how the final product carries itself. The problem is (and we spoke of it lots after the screening during the Q&A with Murali, the director,and the cast) that the movie got an R rating. It was made for young teens going through their teen crisis, and they are not going to get to see it until they are 18, and that most of their problems have faded. And some of them will not live to see that day, having taken their own life at 16 or 17 when this film might have helped them not to go through with it.

The producers are trying to counter the R rating decision, and I wish them all the best. Because I think it is important that young viewers see this film. And I am not the only one with this opinion.

The film opens in Australia on August 17th. It will be distributed to a number of other countries. I know it will go to France, so Vanou, you can go see it, but we are still waiting to see if it will make it to Canada. I will keep you posted guys.

Oh, and you know how I was scared they wouldn't spell my name right in the credits?
Well, they didn't.
I am Marie Pier Labelle. No hyphen.
Ok, not as bad as if it were a typo like Marie-Peir or La Belle or something like that. I think the credits guy might have thought that Pier was middle name and that there wasn't supposed to be a hyphen. Oh well. I guess there is nothing I can do about it now.

I'll keep you posted on the film, how it's doing and if it will make it to Canada.

I will start posting more regularly now that I am back from the outback. Pictures of the Lucky Miles shoot will also come soon. Promise.

The Biggest Night.

Tonight will be one of the highlights of my career.
I am getting all frocked up and going to the premere of 2:37.
My first one. My first premere. The first real movie I worked on is finally finished, and I am finally going to see it!! My name on the big screen in the credits for the first time. Please, oh please, God, let it be spelled right......

The official website is now up and running, you guys can go see it, there are pictures and the trailer and everything...

www.twothirty7.com

I am so excited. It so official, so REAL you know? A REAL big movie. Its so strange. I guess with time you get used to things like that when you are in the business, but for now, I am all gitty, I cannot stand still.

I came back from the outback yesterday. Talk about good timing. It will be great to see the cast and crew again.
I'll tell you how it went tomorrow.
Wish me luck.