Filming has been continuing with a new group of fascinating people taking their place in front of the camera to talk about their experiences of the man Franz Stampfl.

It was an early, slightly chilly May morning when the A Life Unexpected crew arrived at Melbourne Girls Grammar School to set up for the next block of filming.

Passing the odd jogger on the street outside gamely running up the infamous Anderson Street Hill (about which we would hear a lot more during the day),  one by one the team arrived, greeted by the wonderful Deputy Principal, Lynn Broadway, as the sun began to peek over the trees on the banks of the nearby Yarra River.

Before I write any more, I would like to officially thank all our fantastic crew who were present on the day.  Tim Egan (Director of Photography), Saraj Alkemade (Gaffer), Tim McCormick (Sound), Jo Fletcher (Make Up & Hair), Christoph Ziegenhardt (Stills Photography), Marg Woodlock-McLean (Unit Management), Billy Smedley (Production Assistant) and Ben Steel (my indomitable producing partner and “Making of” Director).  You are all such great people and so brilliant at what you do and I am very glad to be working with all of you!

After a quick breakfast, we were setting up and a couple of hours later, the interviews began.

I would like to thank all our interviewees for sharing their memories and thoughts about Franz Stampfl with us, and I am delighted to be able to add the following people to the growing list of eminent and fascinating individuals that it is my honour and privilege to meet and interview for this project.  Our new members of the A Life Unexpected club are (in alphabetical order):

Mike Edwards OAM
1962 Commonweath Games (Hammer Throw), former National Event Coach for the Hammer Throw, Foundation Member of Athletics International & Franz athlete

Robert Lay
1964 Olympian (100m), 1962 Commonwealth Games Athlete (100m), Australian & Commonwealth Record Holder (100 yards) 1965-Present. President of Athletics International 1997-2012. Current General Manager Sport Australia Hall of Fame

Rosemary Leffler
Wife of Richard Leffler (Franz athlete – hammer throw), current Director of Leffler Leathers and previous board member for O’Brien Institute (St Vincent’s Hospital)

Ondine McGlashan
1984 Winter Olympian (Downhill, Slalom and Giant Slalom skiing), coach to Zali Steggall (Olympic Bronze Medallist 1998) and Franz athlete

Yvonne Row
Former Lady Mayoress of Melbourne, Model of the Year, wife of Irvin Rockman.  Co-founder griffin+row (skincare) and founder Passionfoods, friend of Franz Stampfl

All these people were delightful to interview and made great interview subjects for the film.  We are very grateful to all of them for taking the time to sit down with us and being entertaining as well as informative!

Thanks must also go to the wonderful Lynn Broadway and her team at Melbourne Girls Grammar for making us so welcome and taking such good care of us during the shoot.  They have been great supporters of this film and we are very grateful to have them in our corner!

And now we move into the next donation round to enable us to continue filming up the East Coast of Australia in the ACT, New South Wales and Queensland, before returning to Melbourne for our final group of Australian interviewees.  Then North America, here we come!

A new video showing snippets of this latest Melbourne shoot will be online soon, so keep watching!

‘Till next time …

Sally McLean
Director/Producer
A Life Unexpected