Hello everyone.
I started at Crawford's in February 1983 in Casting. I had been in Australia for a year, and although I had been in the industry in London, firstly as a performer and then as a PA to a Theatrical Agent, I was not able to get a foot in the door as I did not know anybody. The Australian entertainment industry is really based on who you know, not what you know. A friend of mine gave me a list of agents and casting directors and I wrote to them all. I had a couple of "we will keep you in mind" letters and then I had a call from Di Howard inviting me in for an interview. I had written to Bunney Brooke and as Bunney enjoyed opening her own mail, had read my letter at the same time that the Casting Assistant had resigned, and asked Di to call me in. I did not meet Bunney that day as she had a guest appearance on "Carson's Law". Di seemed to like me and asked me to start a couple of weeks later. I worked with Jan Russ, Jo Rippon, Inese Vogler and Nikki Longstaff. We all got on really well and had some great times. I was talking to Jan the other day at Grundy's and we laughed about how they had to inform me about Bunney's sexual preference. I thought Bunney just liked me. It appears she liked all of us! I had a great time and when Jan was invited to work on "Prisoner" I took on her role. That meant organising the audition lists and filming the actors while Bunney worked with them. She was a wonderful teacher to those that she felt had talent and workshopped them. I felt very blessed to see so many wonderful actors walk through those doors and being both a performer and an agent, knew how they felt.
I eventually got into production working as a Production Co-ordinator on "Special Squad", "I Live With Me Dad", "Whose Baby", "My Brother Tom", "The Henderson Kids 2" and many episodes of "The Flying Doctors". I have had the privilege of working with many wonderful crew, producers, directors and actors over those years and have many wonderful memories. I had a coffee mug that had the words "We can't get FIRED! Slaves have to be sold." written on it. Hector did one of his famous walk throughs and saw it. He laughed!
I went freelance in 1988 and finally left in 1990. Since then I have become a freelance Line Producer mainly working on offshore productions in Queensland but came back to Melbourne a couple of years ago. I work between both states but as my partner of the past decade works in Special Education in Yarraville, I prefer to be in Melbourne. But as all of us freelancers know, you go where the next offer is regardless of which state.
I missed the reunion last year due to work commitments (quite good during this current climate) but really look forward to the next one.
Kindest regards
Gina Black
1st Feb. 2006