Wrapping VINTAGE!

Crazy times!  Coming to the end of our trip here in AUSTRALIA!  Hanging with Fazzy and his girlfriend.  Our camera operator from the feature film, he feels like one of us and sucks to think we are having to jet set back to Oly and we won't know the next time we will see him again is!  Crazy.  This has all been in the midst of our time around Adelaide.  We jus filmed a 14 person production on KI with a celebrity that had helicopters and private jets and all sorts. Really quite a crazy experience.  It was busy.  Getting excited to head home to the small town of Oly where we grew up.  Not because I don't LOVE what we do to the max, but it is full on and there is a lot of behind the scenes work involved that one doesn't see with all the social media posts and the final edits.  Legal paperwork, film permits, sales pitches, treatments, scripts, contracts, revisions, heaps.  Luckily I love all the film work just as much as I do the wine and the travel.  Yet in the last couple years of doing this I am Learning more and more about how to approach it to get the most enjoyment from it.  We have done this whole Wineram doco and most of the feature while being Based here.  I'm excited for coming home because we can finally begin to see what these 6 months of filming will have produced in final content and also we can do PRE PRODUCTION for many of the following series and other  films and shows we want to do in the future.  I'm getting better and better at this job, and understanding more...which means MORE fun is to come.  But before we take off...we have one final visit to Tasmania we need to do...and maybe some 1987 hill of grace tmrw, might chuck a helicopter or a sailboat along with it, why not eh!?

WORK

I  do love my job.  I know I'm one of the more fortunate people out there and I am ÜBER thankful for that fact.  I get to do some amazing things, get some luxuries I would have never dreamed of, 5 star dinners, 5 star hotels for months on end, 5 star wines even!  Shit is good. Best of all I get to share all of this with friends and people who wouldn't get to otherwise and get to appreciate it just as much or more!  We even get to do crazy fun extreme sports and activities.  Yet everything in life has a balance. I work my ass off for it all and I guess it's just a look behind the scenes for some when I say this, because its not always easy. I'm running an easy 8-15 hours average work days for  7 days a week.   And sometimes there is a crunch time for budget and cash/ support, even meal plans become short and we do in fact become  HUNGRY FILMMAKERS. it happens, but fuck its worth it! This week is bloody full on. In every way.  Not to mention its been about 4.5 months of straight full on work.  1.5 months to go.  Heaps to do.  Not easy.  Sacrifice social life, dating life, relaxation and many things. Not 1 day off since arrival. 

 But like I said, there is a BALANCE.  We are killing it at the moment.  Killing it.  I know it's hard on me at times but I buck up, and look at all the AMAZING shit we see and do!  Top notch. Love it !!!! Who wouldn't?  Work hard guys.  I've been flat out for 2.5 years now, stoked that it is actually changing for the insanely better these days but the point of this post was to say it hasn't gone with no input.  Work hard, make dreams come true.  Keep a positive attitude and love what you do and look at the positives.  Up tomorrow to work hard, yet with some luck I may have news of something amazing and unbelievable by Friday. Anyways time to put the wine glass down and get some sleep eh, as u can see in the photo? Took a couple mins to myself eh!  ;)  Chur!

Colin

ROAD TRIPPIN 2 RADelaide!

Driving.  Cruising.  Working.  Producing.  Phone calls.  Sleeping.  Research.  Emails.  Rotten coffee gut.  Eating shit food from petrol stations.  Jamming out to Macklemore.  3 dudes singing together.  Almost running over 5 different animals species. Cracking out on red bull.  Yelling at Siri's shitty GPS skills.  Eating gross "chicken wings".  Speeding.  Overtaking cars.  Getting creative thoughts for episodes.  Blogging.  Annoying the driver.  Eating chocolate.  Day dreaming.  Blogging.

SKYDIVE CANBERRA & MOUNT MAJURA VINEYARD!

Shiiiiiiiit was I nervous.  I didn't realize it at first.  I was so busy working on post production of New Zealand's last episode, trying to sort us accommodation for coming back to Adelaide, writing script of the episode, making run sheets, working on managing celebrity talent for the SA episode, talking to more agencies for the WA episode and tourism associations blah blah blah you name it.  I was so distracted that I couldn't focus on the fact I was going sky diving.  When did I begin to focus?  That morning when we hopped into the plane and the door shut and I was sitting in a guy named George's lap.  And then the plane took off.  We were all very tightly smashed together, i looked and Frank the winemaker of Mount Majura Vineyard in the Canberra Wine Region was there next to me.  It took him 2 days to decide, and he had kids and a wife and he still came and did the jump.  I thought he was going to be the nervous one, he was well put together!!!

25 minutes into it...anxiety was building.  Views were looking AMAZING.  We got to fly over Mount Majura Vineyard which was sick.  And then we were skydiving right into the field in front of the Royal Australian MINT!  (This is where they print them amazing top of the line Australian Dollars....well at least they are the most sought after currency in regards to the bloody GFC going on right now! I actually wanted to dive into it and steal the money ;) ).  So at the 4 minute mark we were told to open the doors, stand up they strapped themselves tight to us....threw open the door and then it hit.  I'm sure the GoPro 3's in my face and on the wing were getting some good footage at that point, at least the one in my face probably had my anxious yawns/gasps for air and freaking out face!

Felt like a scared dog running from a growling bear.  The wind was growling and howling through the door and then I watched Frank slip his feet out and Curtis his skydive pilot pushed them off and out they went.  Thats when I almost began laughing at myself....am I really doing this!?  This f***ing nuts!!!  There is now way this is happening...slowly inching towards it.  Putting my feet on the bar, still thinking nothing but theres no way i'm doing it as its 100% suicide.  Next thing you know i'm literally doing flips through the air where it feels like we just missed the wing.

This was where the mood changed.  Now it didn't matter, we were in the air if it didn't work we were dead anyways so might as well love life.  Neck kinked back, feet and legs locked backwards with the free fall and hands to the chest till he told me to put them to the side.  Then it was screaming fun, flashing a few hang loose signs for the camera, screaming and cheering and falling at 200 km/hr.  YES!  SO COOL.  Some people have said that they didn't like sky diving...said it was boring.  The flipping out of the plane and the falling is probably one of the more adrenaline filled sports you could ever do.  Could only imagine what its like to get your own skydive license.

We hit the ground and had to slide on our bums.  30 km/hr slide on your ass haha.  Quite funny when you get up and your ass is soaked.  Frank the winemaker had his son and his wife there.  I looked back seconds later and saw him land and his 5 year old son sprinting to him screaming for daddy.  I don't think he thought he was going to make it, but hey he did ;).  Just a little WINERAM adventure around the world.

After that...we had a bit of a break for brekky.  The winemaker jetted back to the winery.  And now I've just interviewed him in the winery and he killed it like a natural.  We have checked out the limestone soils around Canberra..a bit of where they are at with vintage here now and even got to try some great wines.  Learned a fair bit about the influence of climate and soils have to a wine..something you guys will have to wait to learn till you watch the episode.  But overall it was another cracking wineram experience that we had in Canberra!

Good love for the Canberra Wine Region!!!!

WINERAM Australia! CANBERRA BOI!

So I just decided to start a blog tonight.  I love writing, or at least I love talking and typing too much for my own good so this is a great spot to do it! ;).  Its also a good informal way for you to get a bit more details on what me and my friends and film crew are up to around the world.

Tonight were in Canberra.  Staying in a 5 star hotel, about to goto the top wine bar and restaurant in town for a fully catered meal and wines.  Then tomorrow morning I goto the Australian Mint to meet up with a winemaker and go skydiving for this episode with the crew from Mount Majura Vineyard and Skydive Canberra.  Oh and we were just in fighter jets and helicopters as I'm sure if your reading this I've probably already told you or rubbed photos in your face a million times over.

Basically what I'm getting at is holy shit life has changed in weeks.  My good friend Casey Grant (Director for WINERAM and business partner for WEST-GRANT Productions) and I were flat broke, eating one meal a day, scrounging and working 18 hours a day for nothing only months ago.  Now its hard to believe whats going on.  I have a guest celebrity star coming on the episode to run around and do crazy shit with me and drink wine soon enough, and on top of that another huge celebrity and GORGEOUS MODEL was considering coming on WINERAM just yesterday.  The people who are supporting this and getting involved blow my mind.  I mean  SHIT son!  I'm not going to act like what were up to doesn't blow my mind once in a while.  But to be honest lately I haven't had time to think about it.  Were just starting to grow, starting to bring in a bit of cash for what were up to and so I'm just trying to keep my head buckled down and work hard producing, then jump off the comptuer and work mode to present and have some fun every few days and try and see Australia again while were at it.

None of all this would have been possible without the support of so many people.  I can't even begin to name them all.  But you all know who you are, so thank you.  Anyhow..some good food and wine await me at Benchmark Wine Bar in Canberra.  I'm going to go tear it up and get some sleep for skydiving tomorrow....Laterssssss!