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"Moulin Rouge" was another Australian managed, Australian produced film. It was a pleasure to work on the project with talented technicians and artists in an environment of co-operation instead of the usual Frustrated Incorporated and last minute kindergarten panic that accompanies American productions such as Matrix and MI:2.On Moulin, every opportunity was taken to include crew in all aspects of design, well before construction began on the various sets, meaning far better visuals, built on time and saving literally million$. This in turn left the creative team to explore many new and exciting ideas that would otherwise be "too hard" to do at the last minute.

No thanks goes to Fox Studios, which exerted rediculously unfair conditions on Moulin to get out of Stage 1 and 2, meaning both the Garden and Main Hall sets had to be demolished far too soon and well before any of the stylised motion control shots could be carried out. The official reason? To let Star Wars in. It was very satisfying to see these same stages sitting empty and earning no revenue for them for six months after Star Wars moved out after a very short six week shoot!

As a result, it was necessary to completely reproduce the entire outside of the Moulin Rouge in 1/5 scale to facilitate the MoCon shots, and extra millions were spent inserting the digital people that could otherwise have been included in real life on the main sets had they not been demolished. Let this be a warning to other productions intent on using Fox.. don't plan to overstay your welcome!

Some of this may sound a little strong, but then I have always been one to say it as it is.

Well done Baz, and Well done Australia.

This humble device (not the girl, the thing behind her!..) originally known as Nicole's Heart (for obvious reasons) has an
interesting Artist Electronics history. It was originally designed by the Design Team and built in three days by the
Metalwork department from carefully cut steel segments using a full size stencil as a guide. It didn't take long until
it was held up in front of Yours Truly. "Can you put a light on each of these diamonds??"...

Oh for goodness sake! They have GOT to be kidding!! This thing was built entirely of steel wire and there was absolutely
nowhere to hide the massive wiring loom that would normally be needed for such a job. Insulating it would be virtually impossible. "Forget it!!" I remarked.. it will take a week to do and cost an absolute fortune!!

"How much"?

"Thousands. And you want it in two days. Forget it!". Still, I'll see what I can do..

Late that night (LATE..) in bed (as usual) I had an idea.. a method of building which I had not used since I was in sixth grade and building spaceships out of cardboard boxes. Searching through catalogues the following morning found what I was looking for.. and they had enough in stock!. With the help of a same day courier it was on my bench in St Marys a few hours later and armed with a coil of 2.5mm copper wire and a photocopy of the stencil, I got to work.

That afternoon, as I began the second row of Nicole's Diamonds and slaving over a hot soldereing iron the call came.

"Forget it.. They've decided on something else"..
"Does that mean you dont want it? No go?.. Ive already started it.."
"Yep that's right. We dont need it anymore...stop working on it."

But my instinct said otherwise. With no order number for the job..I think I finished it about 7am the following morning, having only stopped for dinner the night before. Seven hours later (after a sleep.. after all I am a responsible driver..) it was in the workshop and being placed atop the steel frame. Not surprisingly, it fit perfectly. A bit of gold paint and you couldn't see a single wire. Total Cost? Somewhere around $900 from memory.

"What is that? I thought we said we didn't need that lit up now"
"Well you've got it.. so there.."

And sufficed to say the rest is history.. Baz loved it. The last time I saw it was in the Fox hall of fame. Hmmm...