THE STORY:

still in Darwin:

Now I am getting close to the shooting date I made ass well tell you all a bit off the story!
As most off you know, we are making a reality series for the Belgium and the Dutch market. More precise, we are making the exact copy off the USA version off ”Outback Jack”. A short description; there are 12 girls being cast, 6 from the Netherlands and 6 from Belgium. The intension is to cast girls witch are, lets say …. spoiled girls, who did never went on a camping Holliday and are used a luxurious live in the city. They must be single and all the girls know of is that they are participating in a sort of dating program, where they will meat up with a rich man somewhere in a big mansion.
It all starts in the Netherlands where they will meet in a big beauty centre where they will be spoiled and treated well before the girls will here that the mysterious hero they are about to meet is in Australia. So, immediate after the beauty centre the girls all travel to Schiphol in limousines and after that they all fly to Australia. (with Korean Air). There the girls, still thinking they will meet there hero in a luxurious mansion kind of something, end up on a small airfield where the girls here that there hero is in the “outback” off Australia (Kimberly area). In the mean time, there is a real Australian guy (single as well) being chosen by an Australian casting agency, who is going to be our hero. His real name is Luce, and he is the only one who knows the truth about the whole thing. He will get a sort off survival course in the outback and is awaiting the girls in the Kimberly outback area. The girls are being dropt from a plane with parachutes (tandem jumps) and end up in a complete unexpected kind of dating adventure in the middle off the nothingness. Then the reality really starts and the girls are up for some real unexpected camping tour. During (the shoot) the next 3 weeks the group will do various things al guided by our (Jack) hero witch will take the girls on many different adventures. Like catching crocodiles, canoeing, making camp fires, scared by big spiders and snakes all the girls have to live with minimum facilities. No electricity, bush-toilets, and so on. After every day, our outback hero has to eliminate girls, so eventually he will end up with one. In the original USA series, the hero ended up with one girl, witch he married to and now he lives in the USA has 1 child and became a policeman. Lol

This is going to be on television in the end off this year.(the series we are making now) Hopefully its all going to work out like planed, because there are still some problems to be solved. Last week, for instants, I spoke to the office in the Netherland to ask how the cast was going and they told me that there where 6 Dutch girls, but only 2 Belgium girls being found till now. So that’s hopefully not going to be any problem, since we have to start shooting in one and a half week. Lol (I am glade that’s not my department)
Its going to be fun if the girls will all be here. We have to keep them in some sort off reality dream, for the benefit off the program. That’s also why the crew and all other staff walking around is strictly kept separate from the girls and there hero. Naturally we have the reality camera team and other technical crew, who are around them, but I think I will only monitor them from a distance. Of course we have all kind off tricks up our sleeves to let them go thru a (controlled) hell. So that’s about the story! You can look up information, if you will type in “Outback Jack” on the internet and you will find thinks about the US version. (pictures etc)
It could be that you have seen one off these series, because it has been on Belgium and Dutch television (I think last year), but it’s not a program I would go and look at myself.


PROGRESS:
Till now thinks are running reasonably good. Aldo the money go’s very fast, I am trying to fill up my (production) bank account via the Netherlands, while on the other hand I am paying many bills and departments to start up and prepare.
Still working with now credit card, needs a creative way off working with out running aground. Most off the time, I pay cash or let transfers go thru Dutchyland. Still one off the biggest things to try and calculate is the distance from where all the stuff has to go to and come from. If I order a lighting-truck it may well be travelling 4000km’s before its where I want it to be. All this has to be paid for ass well, and the estimate km price here is 1.25 Australian dollar. So, up and down, that is 8000km’s roughly, so I have to pay the guy on km 10.000,- dollar alone. And then I did not pay the truck rental and the equipment and his salary jet. Just to give you guys an id. If you take a train in this country, to get from a to b, just calculate a day or 5. And driving at night is most off the time NOT DONE, because there are to many animals at night (also on the highway), like big kangaroos, wild buffalo’s, wild bore, and many other kinds. That’s why all the people here have these huge “bull bars” on all there cars, because you are in deep trouble if these things happen and you are far from a town or something. It’s a rough country and no joke, the strangest accidents happen here.
My art-department is buying a lot off stuff to take to the outback, to build camp-sites and make things look nice on screen. My camera-man is going thru the lighting list with an Australian Gaffer (lighting man), witch will travel 4000km’s up from Sydney. My location producer (Jesse) is in the outback now, doing recognisance tours of all possible locations and my local producer here in Darwin is communicating with the local people who we need to work for us, like croc guards, night watchers, animal handlers and the base camp owner, where we are going to stay with all off us (about 60 to 70 people in total), to make the last arrangements. And I am trying to keep an overlook and keep the money flowing.
Thinks are looking good till now, in about a week the first people start to arrive from the Netherlands. On the end off this week I will travel down myself. And then it all really starts. If all is being arranged correctly I want be so busy over there.
The problem here in Darwin is still that it is tourist season, there are hardly hotel rooms to find. This week I have the last chance to arrange all last payments, bank transfers and buy stuff to take and then we are off! (to the outback) There is a landing stripe next to my base-camp, but luckily I go by car, because I really look forward to drive thru the outback country side. Or do I ….. things change rapidly here. Lol
Now, this morning (Tuesday 24-07-07) I have a small disaster going on, I can’t log into my Kanakna web mail page! Witch is really not a handy thing in this face off the production. So hopefully it will be repaired soon, no use to call the Netherlands now, in the middle off the night (in Holland).
So, how to communicate with the them now….. cash flows go fast, time is running out! I need to go even more inventive now, communication is getting limited with the Netherlands, since we have a time different from about 7 and a half our.