• Little Diva Rising

    It’s a Wrap!

    One of the key roles in Little Diva Rising is that of Cadence Hayes, a young hotshot Hollywood producer who calls Ellie‘s parents (Maria and Vic) to discuss a possible movie role. I had an idea of what I wanted for Cadence: somebody loud and bombastic. In my head, she sounded like Fran Dreschner’s on-screen mother, Sylvia (Renée Taylor), in The Nanny. I don’t know why I heard it like that given I always thought she was going to be young. Casting discussions with Maria yielded the name of Andrea Solonge, a talented young actress capable of an American accent  I was wary. A lot of Australian actors adopt a…

  • Little Diva Rising

    Heavy Days

    It’s interesting as somebody with limited experience in filmmaking to watch experienced people do their stuff. Our director of photography, Stuart, immediately looks at a location for its potential to be visually interesting. That doesn’t mean it needs to be some breathtaking vista, contain beautiful décor, or to be aesthetically mesmerizing, but just that it’s not going to be bland and unappealing and have the audience’s eyes slide right off it. Our sound guy, Bil Chute, does the same with sound. An American ex-pat, Bil would seem so unobtrusive, but has a dry sense of humour and a hearty laugh. He organises the boom mics so that we can hear…