I don’t know why, but for some strange reason, I thought 2021 would be a heck of a lot better than 2020. I thought COVID would magically vanish on New Year’s Eve and everything would be honky dory for the new year. Not so. I do think it is better but this disease has really kicked the world right out of balance and it’s going to take a L O N G time to recover – if ever. 
As with most industries, entertainment has taken a beating. Lockdowns, closing of borders, both state and international (which I am completely in favour of actually – and NOT inviting debate on this) have all hit hard. I know a lot of production companies which were shooting films when lockdown started last year – and then just had to stop. Full stop. And only now they are gradually trying to get moving again but it is taking a long time.
And we haven’t given up – we are still fighting through COVID like everyone else in the world is. There have been a couple of times when I have been very close to giving up. I have to thank those extras with whom I have had regular contact – some of them have repeatedly contacted me to see how things are going and I THINK I have always been positive with them. Thank you to the above people and others for this.
Also a huge thanks to the two production companies which are collaborating with me on NLB. While I think both were wondering when and how NLB would ever be made (but, no, they were not giving up – they have NEVER given up) I felt that was more because we were trying to raise the funds and had some very good ideas about how to do this – but the timing was completely wrong. And again, I think COVID can be blamed fairly and squarely for this. I made a couple of executive decisions earlier this year and when I tabled them at my last meeting with the two production companies, the latter seemed a lot more positive about NLB than they have recently. They have just finished shooting another film, mainly in outback WA I think and are in the editing and post-production stages for that. After that, I believe they will be turning to NLB. Meanwhile, I am working on a list of potential sponsors and it is growing quickly. All of which is very positive.
As always, I am including some photos with this post – but something different this time as they are not of the outback. They were taken on a very cold, overcast and eerie Thursday morning a few weeks ago, when my friend and I tried to have our usual paddling outing. Overcast conditions and rain, sometimes heavy, were forecast and that’s exactly what happened. And it seemed that the river had flooded in places. On the whole, the water was like glass – superb to paddle on. And usually I would have, but I did not feel like being out in the middle of the river when the heavens opened up and down came the rain – and that’s exactly what happened to my friend. So I didn’t go out – I wanted to take photos of these unusual/eerie conditions and try to capture the feeling of that morning, but my friend did go out – but luckily for her, when the heavens did open up, she found a small cave in the river bank and sheltered in there. There are now two platforms for paddlers to launch on and off but the main one of these had been raised to try to keep it out of the water and the second one was partly submerged and the water was gradually getting higher and higher. The picture to the right is of a paddler launching himself from the larger platform with his kayak sitting on the smaller platform, which was becoming submerged.
Anyway, back to NLB. Things are starting to move a bit more positively now and at this stage, it looks like it will be made in mid-2022. It will still all be shot in WA, much of it in the outback. And we are still hoping to employ rising Caucasian and Indigenous actors from WA, as well as some bigger names from the east for the main roles. We have got some pretty ‘unique’ scenes planned too. Hopefully, a lot of fun and laughter as well as some major drama.
