Taking the Plunge

Chapter 2 - 'Plunge' and taking the...

... some actors and crew had been found (see right- more about that in their own pages...), and the biggest question was now how to afford to make the film...

Max went to Cannes, got interviewed, met some important producers, ate some good sea-food and came home.

He had been told to wait. But wait for what? Max went out to look for some actors, found them and started rehearsals.

Someone suggested The Lottery. Max had another plan: if this was to be a real film about a real adventure made by real people, then real people might well want to come and see it. That being the case, why not get real people with real money to take a punt on it, too?

In three-and-a-half weeks, they'd banked £9, 500, with promises of £20 000 more. There was no time left if the autumn light was to hold: they had to go.

They booked some static caravans down near the beach and Max's mother volunteered to send them daily food parcels and they pre-assembled in Max's little kitchen in London one rainy day in October.

It was 6.00am and Max was making the surfers' favourite: bacon sandwiches. It was also the first time many of the cast and crew were meeting one another. Then Kate Winslet arrived.

She was going to join them for the day. She had just finished Titanic and had heard good things about the rehearsals from a friend on the cast. It sounded fun: did they mind if she travelled down with them for the day? Very few of the crew recognized her. She had hair extensions in for her next part. She was also mucking in, tying-up rubbish sacks and taking them down onto the street as Max washed-up coffee mugs.

Two days later, Kate rang back from London and asked if she could be in the film. She didn't want to do it for the money. (She didn't know there wasn't any.) She wanted to do it because, she said, she'd had a wonderful, wonderful day...