Pre-production in full swing!

One week to go and lots of arranging to do. We have all our cast chosen now, the extras in place and the locations nailed. I must say Kevin and the staff at the City of Winnipeg have been fantastic in attending to all our street closure, permits and other needs. The crew is all set and schedule in place. It's a very exciting time - the goal is to have no unforeseen surprises and then hope that the one thing we can't control - the weather - cooperates.

The Winnipeg Paramedics are volunteering to appear in the commercials and the Winnipeg Police have a couple of volunteers too. Kari Casting did a great job of finding candidates to audition and I'm really pleased with our choices. Great acting makes a significant difference in something like this. Eric Olson did such an incredible job on the storyboards.

A debt of gratitude to Cinematographer Adam Sliwinski who is doing all he can to make this a huge success. I can't thank him enough.

Quite a lot goes into a production of this magnitude and each and every person who is involved is key to the final product. Will post lots of production photos after the fact.

In the meantime, great news from Sunrise Credit Union who have approved all the new plans and creative for the upcoming year. Thanks Dennis DeLeon and Lori Dyck for a job very well done. And thanks Kaydee, Tim and Harry for your continued trust in Picante.

And I'm now working on an exciting project that will bring Kevin Costner and his band to Portage la Prairie in August. More on that soon.

Congrats on your promotion Steve!

Was thinking I could use a pair of roller skates today. Began with a lovely send off for Steve West. Steve has been such an important part of the Just Slow Down campaign and he has moved on - over and up - to head all communications for the City of Winnipeg. Chief Keith McCaskill gave a wonderful tribute speech to Steve and it was just a perfect send off to a great guy. We know we're still going to be seeing lots of Steve but it was just terrific being in attendance at an event where he was so well recognized.

Then, it was off to Midcan where Ben Wytinck and Norm Foster worked hard to help me work on Urban Harmony. We're in the home stretch now.

Zipped over for a lovely lunch with the equally lovely Jamie Heiser - Marketing Director for Grant Park Shopping Centre. We really enjoyed our patio lunch at Hu's. Great food. Finally, as if I hadn't been treated enough for one day - we headed out to Red Lobster to celebrate my beautiful daughter Shea's 17th birthday.

Felt like a full day but there's no question....it's a WONDERFUL life!