I had a near Oopsy-Daisy moment yesterday. Remember Notting Hill (yes the film)? The scene where Anna and Will are entering the communal garden where they have to climb over that fence to get in?

The park for the “the whole world is in love” scene

Well yesterday evening I nearly did the same. We are seriously location scouting now and one of the locations we need is a park. My producer happens to live in Notting Hill, and better, she has this huge communal garden (a garden shared by a number of local residents) behind her flat and we need a park for SweetArts so we had a look. This garden is of the same type of the Notting Hill film, locked away behind a gate, only access for people who live around it. I am amazed that London has hidden private gardens this size.

We still need to ask permission to use the garden for my beloved park scene, but since it is a private garden we only need to ask the house owners committee. We don’t need to go the long and winding road to get permission from the council. Not only is that much more of a hassle it will also be very expensive, as we would have to pay the council in order to shoot in a public park. So cross your fingers that the house owners are fine with it, if so, one location less to worry about.

And not only does this garden look great, it is HUGE. And it has benches. And it is in Notting Hill. Actually not too far from the Notting Hill garden! And it has evergreen bushes so it won’t look too depressing even when we film in November (which is looks like now).

Dan’s apartment

Dan’s apartment is confirmed too. On Saturday I will visit it with producer and potential DoP. (She is still not officially on board but is very interested, it’s depending on the availability of paid work for her. She is an award winning DoP, so cross your fingers we get her on board and the film is going to look great, I am sure of that).

Literary agent’s office

My work let’s me use our office. With a little bit of set dressing, this might just be fine for a Dan’s agent’s office. And yes my two directors (company directors that is) are very supportive!

Art school and June’s art studio

The art school has been visited by both my producer and potential DOP, and they liked it. Now it is just a matter of negotiating with the art school about a price and when we can shoot there. A part of this art school will also feature as June’s art studio.

What’s missing?

A book shop (M is in talks with Daunts Books), a place the Daily Telegraph calls “The most beautiful bookshop in London”. Well, why not aim for the best. I would be delighted if they said yes, but am not counting on it. Clearly we will shoot outside their opening hours if they do agree.

A video shop (I am not too worried about that just yet), a shopping street area (challenging) and a a living room for June (doable).

So it is going quite well with the locations.

The major problem I can see at the moment: we don’t have any actors for the leads yet. But we are looking and there still is some time.

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Crowdspring is still going strong with some new designs submitted. Have a look and see what you think, it will close for new submissions on Monday.

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