The oft-quoted W.C. Fields line that you should ''never work with children or animals'' obviously doesn't deter Rachel Griffiths.
In a patch of bushland near Donvale, the Australian actress is blocking a scene on the ABC3 children's drama Nowhere Boys and the first-time television director has half a dozen attentive adolescents to arrange while a two-dozen strong crew follows her lead. Any animals will have to wait their turn.
''It's really good fun and the kids are fantastic. As the director it's unbelievably creative and it makes for great kids' TV - it's a bit like Doctor Who meets Charmed,'' says Griffiths, 45, whose three episodes will air in November as part of the show's second season.
Griffiths returned to Melbourne several years ago after establishing herself in Hollywood in TV series such as Six Feet Under and Brothers & Sisters and was keen to direct for television. She had previously made two short films.
All it took was a chance conversation with Tony Ayres, the filmmaker (Cut Snake) and television producer (The Slap) who created Nowhere Boys, to get the ball rolling.
Her guest role on a handful of episodes of Channel Nine's House Husbands allowed her to study the production process from conception to editing, although she still had a sleepless night before her first day as director on Nowhere Boys.
"It is very technically demanding, but I've had the very best mentors and support," says Griffiths.
"Directing, especially in television, is a team effort. It's insanely fast, so you have to know what shots you'll be on for what moments."
Griffiths has immersed herself in local television and film production: she was an unhinged hospital matron in the horror film remake Patrick and played a magazine editor in the ABC mini-series Paper Giants: Magazine Wars. Her upcoming television roles include the WWI drama Deadline Gallipoli and Stalking Julia, in which she will play former prime minster Julia Gillard.
"It's going so well that I don't want to jinx it," says the mother of three. "My kids see me go to work from nine till five, although effectively it's five till five. I come home, we have weekends, we're not traveling, I get to stories and bed at the end of the day, and it's all got this lovely normal quality."
What hasn't changed, according to Griffiths, is the innate quality of Melbourne's creative community. "I grew up seeing Geoffrey Rush in Gogol's Diary of a Madman and knowing as a teenager that it can't get better than that," she says.
"I never undervalued the actors and filmmakers in Melbourne. I never had the attitude that I had to go to America to find people who really knew what they were doing.
"There's still some great undiscovered talent in this town."
