Meeting started at 7.11am, with grace from Sergeant Chris Dever, slightly delayed by some members taking the scenic zoom route via another meeting room.
President Elect Rhonda Wisbey welcomed Roger Goodman as a visitor and offered anyone who has had a birthday or anniversary recently congratulations from the club
Upcoming Events:
Karaoke Evening – Lynda updated us all on this upcoming event, at the Tauranga Club, on June 6, at 7pm. Numbers are limited to the first fifty to register so sign up soon. IMPORTANT: See footnote below
Guest Speaker: Rosalie Liddle Crawford (Introduced by Wayne Shadbolt),
Topic: Location scouting in the Bay of Plenty
To the accompaniment of an amazing slide show of beautiful, luxurious and quirky, indoor and outdoor venues that have been used for filming in the Bay of Plenty, Rosalie shared with us a behind the scenes view of her work with the International and National film industry, as Location Manager. Film projects as varied as Street Legal, Shortland Street and Pete’s Dragon have all made use of local sites here in the Bay. For every film location that Rosalie is involved with there is a complex, and time consuming, process of setting up that must occur.
Rosalie described her scouting, both in the digital world of Google docs and in physical locations all around the Bay of Plenty, the complex permissions needed, permits, road closures etc. that form part of the massive set-up for just two or three days of filming. And the ‘smoke and mirrors’ aspect of such things as making a hotel swimming pool into a cruise ship location! Often Rosalie works to a very small brief and it is her role to find the best fit to ‘Lake with jetty, boats” or “Bach, beach opposite, nothing in the way”.
Speaking specifically of locations for filming, which can involve anything from 100 to 150 staff, and which indirectly promote Bay of Plenty as a tourism destination, Rosalie described how she is always is ‘first in / last to leave’ with her responsibility for setting up and restoring every site. She also highlighted the importance, and sometimes transformational influence, of this liaison work with local communities, illustrated by her experiences in Little Waihi while filming ‘Frankie Jean’. Leasehold land was the starting point to a positive relationship that developed from extensive engagement with locals, with the outcome that the first screening of Frankie Jean will be at the marae in Little Waihi.
Rosalie also described the timing around the pilot for the ‘Chloe and the.....’ series, our first regional series, and the ‘skin of the teeth’ timing of filming in late March, as the Covid-19 lockdown loomed, with everything needed being accomplished (just) and the pilot due for release in June.
With International film makers desperate to get back to New Zealand, Rosalie will soon be as frantically busy as ever in her scouting role, (the travel for which she describes as relaxing!) and back to making a difference in communities like Little Waihi. In the meantime, during lockdown, in just the film industry dimension of her life, she has been writing screenplays, (I think a Rena based comedy, Sweaters for Penguins is among them), conducting on-line workshops on comedy writing and enjoying the enforced ‘time out’. Thank you to Rosalie for a fascinating insight into the creative industry that is film in New Zealand.
Sergeant: Chris Dever used his Sergeant’s role to regale us with cat facts (having first made a nod to dogs ‘they will miss us now we are back at work’
Examples of fascinating cat facts? First year of life = 15 human years, second=25, then the ratio is 1 to 7 after that (times nine I guess, since they have nine lives? Ed.)
They can rotate their ears through 180 degrees, hear five times better than us (but ignore us no matter how loud we call), spend 75% of their time asleep, 15% moving and are generally barely busy at all. They can’t see under their nose (who can?) can have up to 32 toes, (eight on each foot) and only meow for us, feral cats are silent.
IMPORTANT #1: Some members enquired as to when we might be returning to the Tauranga Club. The answer is 'We don't know'. They are still working around the many logistics but the do want us back. Be patient please
IMPORTANT #2: Don't forget to sign up for the karaoke evening
IMPORTANT #3
Make your breakfast and connect with your Rotary family from the comforts of your own home by clicking on the link below from 6:45am for 7:00am start on Friday mornings until physical meetings resume. Feel free to invite colleagues, guests, friends and family.
And finally....