He writes to the Post to express his thanks to the people he recently encountered while shooting for his independent production – Love is Now.

WE started the journey of making our independent feature film Love is Now on the road in Bigga, NSW. Sheep country. Land of rolling hills, hidden valleys and one of the largest granite rocks in the southern hemisphere. 

A place where the locals start wandering into the pub at about 9:30am and will drop what they are doing at a moments notice to take apart the trailer hitch on their own vehicle to fix yours. Where the woman who runs the service station insists on pumping gas for you while wearing curlers in her hair. Where Denise, who runs the pub, is also the first responder to any and all emergencies, day or night, and will take an angle grinder to a no-parking sign if you don’t like how it’s dressed into your shot.

Here is a taste of the glory of Bigga. While location scouting about a month ago, I had a beer with Errol at The Federal Hotel (The financial, social, medical and spiritual hub of this gem of the heartland) and was looking for a specific bit of landscape.

“I know every rock, tree, bird and river for a hundred miles,” said Errol, “so just tell me what you’re looking for, and I’ll point you in the right direction.”

“Okay,” I said, “I’ve got a challenge for you Errol,” I grabbed a piece of paper and drew what I was looking for… A hill, with a single tree on top of it. “Tell me where I can take a picture like that.”

Errol took a sip of his beer and thought about it for a second or two, “I know quite a few hills that look like that,” he said, and then raised his voice and spoke to the room with the well practiced art of entertaining a crowd, “I’ll just grab my chainsaw and cut all the other trees down.” 

Needless to say, we were sold on Bigga as a film location after that trip. We were even willing to sacrificed a half a day to travel to film there, despite being advised that it might be better to find something closer to Sydney.

For those of you who have not worked on a feature film, each day of production can feel like a year. A hundred conversations an hour. A thousand decisions by lunchtime. You don’t have time to attend to things you take for granted. Such as doing your washing, making breakfast or even reading the morning paper. It must be a little bit like sheep shearers feel during crutching and sheering time in the farms around Bigga. If you’re lucky, you get a few hours of sleep at night before you wake up, shake the stiffness out of your joints, and do it all again.

But those shearers would also understand, that even during crutching season, you can find the time for what is important. Such as taking the time to write a letter to a town that is hard to find, but put you on the map.

Thank you Bigga.

You brought our ragtag tribe of misfits together, in a place where if you don’t stick together you’re as good as a no parking sign or a second tree on the horizon. You were warm and inviting in a frost bitten landscape. You opened up your homes, jump-started our vehicles, and made twenty-five odd strangers understand the value of working together.

The fact is, we went to Bigga looking for landscapes to shoot a film, but we found community, love and friendship. We found a new family in Murray, Leanne, Sam, Denise, Errol, and Helen.

You helped us give birth to Love is Now, and we will never forget where we came from.

* Love Is Now is an independent Australian feature written and directed by Jim Lounsbury. It stars Eamon Farren, Claire van der Boom, Dustin Clare and Anna Torv, and is currently shooting for five weeks across Sydney and various other New South Wales locations including Bigga, Crookwell, The Hunter Valley, and Maitland.