Set Report from "Crackerjack"

By Clint Morris

Today Tosia and I spent the day on the set of new film "Crackerjack". It's filming in Central Melbourne, at a Bowling Club, with stars Mick Molloy, Samuel Johnston, Bil Hunter and Judith Lucy.

Most of our visit was was watching some of the scenes being filmed. The cast and crew were 157 Take's in by the time we arrived today, and it was obvious they were still filming some of the film's early scenes. The two most-worked on scenes of today that we witnessed were of Molloy's character, Jack, mixing with the older lawn bowler players. Then, Jack rolling a sorry excuse of a bowl right into the gutter. "Right in the Ditch", suggests Bill Hunter's character. Obviously, the older characters are taking the mickey out of the younger player.

Samuel Johnston ("The Secret Life of Us") also stars in the movie, and we had the opportunity to get to the bottom of his role and it's length. "I play Jack's best friend", he confirms. "It's a 17 week shot and we're filming here (at this particular bowling club) for about 3 weeks. We've only been here about 8 days so far".

Johnston says he is loving the experience of working on the movie. "We smoke ciggies and drink piss - when we're not filming what could be better", he jokes. He also gave us a bit of insight into what the movie is actually about "Crackerjack could mean either two things, it's a type of bowl polish, or it could be something to do with Mick's character being named Jack".

Johnston is relatively new to feature films, he has been working on TV and in dozens of commercials. "I'm overexposed" he jokes, about his endless run of voice-over work. He also drops some goss on what's going on with his TV series "The Secret Life of Us".

"There is 3 episodes to go until it winds down on TV here this season. We have filmed 22 episodes though, and are about to start shooting Series 2".

One of Johnston's co-stars in the show, Joel Edgerton, is about to become a little more famous. "He's playing Uncle Owen in 'Star Wars'", he says. "So he's only doing 8 episodes of the next season. He's going to be huge!", says Samuel. "He's also just filmed some $10 Million dollar thing with Guy Pearce. I mean he's the most popular 'Secret Life' star in the U.K".

It's been great weather for "Crackerjack", nice and sunny, which helps when you're filming an outside Lawn Bowls movie, but sometimes those damn clouds can hover in. Here's hoping for some good weather for the rest of the shoot. The film sounds, and looks promising.