Over the years, I have heard of - and taken part in - some interesting ceremonies prior to commencing shooting. In India, a film cannot start without a blessing of the camera and the film, a wonderful celebration with a priest cracking a coconut in front of the camera lens, the cast and crew garlanded. In New Zealand we have the traditional Māori welcoming ceremony, the pōwhiri, performed at the beginning of shooting a New Zealand film.

Today, with the first day of shooting at the Gypsy Rose caravan at Morere Hot Springs, we had a ritual of a rather different kind. Marie Lepper, the owner of the caravan, offered our leading actress Kristel Day, a genuine palmistry session which Kristel later told me came very close to the truth.

An interesting side line was that Marie felt I had made a casting error and that Kristel was morse suited to the role of the soothsayer in the film!