Roger Hagelaar

8/14/2019 Roger Hagelaar

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Round Trip To Oz

By Craig Miller (Photos by Craig Miller and Genny Dazzo*)

Part 3

I haven’t mentioned the weather. It’s cold here. Genny would say it’s freezing. It’s

winter down under and here in Canberra it’s in the mid-50s during the day and in the

mid-30s at night. With occasional rain which, so far, has mostly comes down like aheavy drizzle. Not every day but often enough that I’ve taken to carrying an umbrella

most days.

Monday we had the day free for sightseeing. Donna had her daughter, Erana, call and ask

if she could take us to Questacon, the science museum. That sounded like fun and she

soon picked us up and away we went.

Questacon is really cool. It’s very much aimed at kids but it’s a pretty terrific sciencemuseum. Virtually everything is hands-on and lots of stuff done in a “game” style.

There’s a gravity/weightlessness exhibit in one of the first galleries. They have you takeoff your shoes, put on a jumpsuit over your clothes, and climb up to the top of a two-

story-ish tall platform. There you grab hold of a bar (like you or someone might use for

chin-ups) and lower yourself out a window until you’re hanging from the bar. You’rehanging over a giant slide, only the first, say, story and a half is back from you. Then

they have you let go. They claim there’s a sense of weightlessness as you drop. Genny

screamed pretty good as she was dropping down. Then you gently come in contact with

the slide and it’s pretty much like a playground slide only you’re going fast enough youtravel about 20 feet or so along its horizontal length. I, of course, was, ahem, far too

much of a gentleman, cough cough, to do it myself and show Genny up by not screaming.Yeah. Uh-huh. Really. Cough cough. But I did get a couple pictures. One of Gennyhanging there and one as a speeding blur. She said it was great but the girl in her mid-20s

who did it just before Genny said her heart was still pounding. And there was that

scream…



Genny on the “weightless slide” at Questacon. The slide is actually a couple feet behind you as you dropand it comes out to meet you several feet down.

Anyway, we had a great time exploring Questacon for a couple of hours and then wecaught up with Erana and her 18 month old daughter, who’d been in the Extremely Little

Children’s part of the museum. After a trip through the gift shop, we all walked down the

block to the National Library. There we bought Erana lunch (and had lunch ourselves).

In the Bookshop of the National Library we confirmed what we’d been told earlier: booksare really expensive in Australia. Significantly more than in the US.

Then it was off to Old Parliament House, the former building that Australia’s Parliament

stood in. It’s now in a larger, grander building immediately up the hill behind OPH. (OldParliament House was built with the idea it would serve for 50 years, at which time it

would be replaced by a better building where New Parliament House is. The planworked, but it took 61 years. We took a tour with a terrific guide. Lots of amusing

stories and a great knowledge of political structures in Australia, the US, and Great

Britain.



Old Parliament House

Close up of the 3D official crest of Australia, the kangaroo and emu crest. Youcan see it in the upper right of the preceding photo of Old Parliament House.

While we waited for the tour to start, I was taken by the fact that Australia has a House of

Representatives and a Senate. Shortly thereafter, Bob, our guide, told us that, much tomy surprise, Australia didn’t become a united country – a Federation – until January 1,

1901. 1. Before that it was separate states, acting on their own. When they joinedtogethe – with much backroom dealmaking as to where the capital would be, how the

government would be structured, etc. – they chose the US model. With some British

overlays – like a Prime Minister who calls elections when the mood arises. But their Senate has an equal number of senators from each state, and their House has

representation based on population. And powers not expressly given to the federated



government by their constitution reside in the states (unlike the UK, where powers not

given to local areas reside in the central government).

The building, originally built in the late 1920s, is terrific. Lots of hand carved wood

paneling, ornate moldings, etc. And different colored carpeting and upholstery – Green

for the House side and red for the Senate – because red was more expensive and reservedfor the “upper house”. Bob was full of stories about the people who occupied the various

offices and reasons for this, that, or the other thing. Some of it just a tad scurrilous.

Erana and Yumi

Erana and her daughter Yumi wandered the building with us but left before the start of thetour. Yumi was getting tired.

After we finished the tour, we went around and took a few pictures. Then we went out

and got a quick look at the “Aboriginal Tent Embassy”, used by Australia’s Abos to

embarrass the government into granting them rights, etc. The government tore it down afew times but the Aborigines kept rebuilding it. Their fight for rights is apparently on-

going. While the government is no longer taking aboriginal children away from their

parents, a great number of the Aborigines are living in poverty and the Australian

government makes a big show of helping them without accomplishing much. At least sosay the papers (and the Aborigines).



Part of the Aboriginal Tent Embassey

More shots of the Aboriginal Tent Embassey

After that, we walked back to our apartment. The first part of the trip took us through

part of the National Gallery’s sculpture garden.



In the National Gallery’s Sculpture Garden

In the pond of the Sculpture Garden

From there we walked along the lake (a man-made lake in the middle of the city), andthen along the road. It was a Long Walk. Several kilometers, longer because it had

gotten dark and colder. Especially for Genny, who’d accidentally left her gloves inErana’s car. Eventually we got home and Genny made us dinner.



Part of the man-made lake in the middle of Canberra

More of the lake, as we continued our walk home, now getting dark. Black swans and some type of gull.

A little while later, Donna appeared at our door. She’d picked up Genny’s gloves from

Erana (who works evenings as a nurse, so was now at work). She was off to see her

mother, who’s ailing after some minor surgery. She invited us to come over to her houselater to watch TV.. We gladly accepted and about 8:30 walked the two blocks over to her

place.

Donna has a lovely home, a townhouse of sorts, she shares with her 12 year old son.

(She also has three kids in their 20s, two daughters who live in Canberra and a son wholives elsewhere.) She made us hot tea something we’re drinking a lot of here, far more

than we drink at home.. Even inside most people’s homes, it’s pretty cool. Energy costs



are even higher in Australia than in the states, so imagine that’s why they have their

thermostats set down low.

Not counting cable and satellite, Australia seems to have four channels of television. And

whenever I’ve looked at it in the room, there’s nothing on but football/soccer or reality

shows. I know they have other programming – some native, some they buy from us – butI’ve yet to find it. Donna suggested we watch a DVD, and after she browsed through her

many drawers of DVDs (mostly science fiction, horror, and Jane Austen), we ended up

picking The City of Lost Children. A truly bizarre movie. Genny has a feeling she’s seenit before but I can’t imagine having seen it and forgetting it. Forgetting details of the

plot, sure; it’s pretty hard to follow. But not the film itself.

Afterward, we walked back home and to sleep.

Tuesday morning, Andrew picked me up and we dropped Genny off at the Australian War

Memorial, to sightsee while he and I went back to work. The War Memorial is a large

place; somewhere almost everyone has said we should visit. I’m hoping to see it later this trip.

Andrew took me out to the production office, which I’ve mentioned before. It’s an on-

line editing, duplicating, and other facility, with several racks of burners and two rooms

with, I think, three Avids. It’s on five acres, with his large-ish house off to one side, and

the production building off to the other. A large front yard with what would be aswimming pool-size pond if they weren’t in the middle of a multi-year drought, and four

dogs and a cat in between it all. In back is the majority of the land, with several horses.

Roger’s horses, out back of the production office. The dogs are saying “For the love of God, let us in

where it’s warm”



Anyway, we were to be off to Sydney this afternoon, so Andrew and I worked on last

minute prep for our rehearsal/photo shoot day tomorrow. Script changes, storyboards to

check, and work on the series bible/presentation for the layout folks who were going to be turning it into a fancy-schmancy document to help them sell the show internationally

and raise some additional capital.

Roger’s dogs are saying “For the love of God, let us in where it’s warm”

Once again, Roger Hagelaar, the owner of DiskTech, the post-production facility, ordered

us all hamburgers. Andrew says Roger lives on burgers. The first time he did this, he

didn’t ask what we wanted and they came the Australian way: with “the lot”. With

everything. And their everything is a lot more than ours. Lettuce and tomato. Cheese.Bacon (though they mean more like Canadian Bacon or Back Bacon, not the kind we

have in the US). Grilled onions. Pineapple. A fried egg. And beets (or, as they call it, beetroot). Ugh. Much peeling off of unwanted items ensued before I ate mine.



Roger, at work in the back room of his facility, while we

monopolize the front

This time, I asked for just bacon and cheese, lettuce and tomato. In what Andrew and

Roger described as a typical Australian way of listening to orders, the burger came with

the lettuce, tomato, and bacon. No cheese.. Plus beets and onions. *sigh*

Mid-afternoon, we headed back into the city. We dropped off some stuff for printing

(Roger had run out of paper) then picked up Robert, our still man.. Then it was off to theapartment to get Genny, who had just arrived. She’d walked back from the War

Memorial and misjudged where it was and how much time it would take. She’d thought

it was closer than Old Parliament house, which we’d walked from the other day. But it

was further.

After getting her and our suitcase (we’re staying in Sydney for a few days afterward), she

piled in and we went to get the printing then hit the road for Canberra. It’s a three hour drive on the only highway that connects the two cities. About a 3+ hour drive. Along the

way we saw highway markers warning of wombats crossing the road. We saw nowombats, but we did spy herds/troops/whatevers of kangaroos in the fields to either side.

We stopped on the outskirts of Sydney twice. The first time was to pick up a small HD

video camera and a light package. Then we drove on and stopped at one of Andrew’s

favorite restaurants, with the striking name of “Ribs and Rumps”. You can probablyguess what they serve.



Genny and I ended up sharing a rack of lamb ribs. We’d first had lamb ribs in Kansas

City a couple years ago at the suggestion of local friends there and thought they were

great. I haven’t been able to find them in Los Angeles. Once again, they were reallygood.

Then it was off to downtown Sydney, across Harbor Bridge, with a view of the SydneyOpera House at night. We spent the night at the Marriott. After a brief meeting with

Andrew, I came back to our room and we went to sleep.

The next day, Genny went off sightseeing in mid-town Sydney while Andrew, Robert,

and I headed over to the studio stage that had been rented for the day’s work. Genny

went to St Mary’s Cathedral, which she said was impressive. But the Pope is coming to

Sydney in a couple of days for World Youth Day (a five-day long “day”; I guess it’s partof that how long are the “six days” of creation thing) and the Cathedral is being

refurbished to make it spiffy for his visit.

We’re staying in Sydney with our friends John Maizels and Lorraine Toucani. She’s anAmerican who moved down here 15 or so years ago. They live in the northern suburb of

Chatswood but Lorraine was in town for a dental appointment so in the mid-afternoon, picked Genny and our suitcase up and they drove out to the house.



Lorraine Toucani and John Maizels

Meanwhile, we had our “teenage” cast in. (Teenage by Hollywood standards; they range

from 13 to 22.) Additionally we had Jane Badler, Diana from the V series, who now livesin Australia. She’ll be playing the mother of one of our teens. Her role in the pilot film is

small, but she’ll be recurring in the series. And she’s a major part of the promo reel we

were to be shooting this trip but will now be shooting when I come back in (tentatively)

August.



Left to Right: Andrew Dillon, Gemma Pranita, Jessica Smith, Kain O’Keefe, Alycia Debnam-Carey,Cooper Drabsch, Adrian Lee, Craig Miller

During the course of the day, we did several things. We rehearsed the scenes for the promo reel with the cast, which was cool. The auditions had all been when I was in Los

Angeles, but they provided me with videos of it all, so I was involved with selecting the

cast. But this was the first time I’d met them face to face. Or was able to work with

them on the undercurrents to the scenes. They all seem really nice, really good kids andall are talented. A couple seem like they could go on to major careers. Our youngest

actress, Alycia Debnam-Carey, is particularly good.

Additionally, we had hair and makeup people there and we got them into costumes for publicity photos. We used the camera package to record interviews for use on our

website (in progress) and DVDs (to come ((we hope)) ). We used mostly the samequestions I’d written for interviews with the two adult regulars that we’d shot back in

Canberra.



John and Lorraine have a large and beautiful house on a quiet street. Dinner was

delicious and we talked at length about the world in general, our plans for while we were

in Sydney, etc.

Eventually, we went off to the guest room and to bed. I had a meeting at an animation

company in Sydney scheduled in the late morning but other than that, the next few dayswere to be dedicated to sightseeing.

That’s all for this chapter. Return to this theater next week for another exciting chapter of

Australia Calling.

Craig.

Roger Hagelaar

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