New York state of mind

I have three questions to you today dear readers:

• 1. After how many pages is it allowed to decide not to read the rest of the book? I recently stopped reading a Zoe Heller novel just because it bored me to death. Should I have hold on or is it OK to stop reading?
• 2. Which novels do I simply need to read? I am looking to take some books to New York next week. I need books that hook me from page one. Have you read any good books lately that you can recommend?
• 3. What are your favourite things/best tips to see in New York?
  I am preparing for my trip and want to make a list of things to do and sights to see.
  (Even though it snowed in Central Park this morning, the weather looks fine next week. Cold with some sun.)

Wall-E - what do I know?

I know it has been a while.

Apart from a flu I also had some serious thought about closing the doors here for a while. I have no inspiration whatsoever at the moment. There is not much exiting to write about and it feels like the plot is seriously lost on this website. I also know I am stilled pissed off about my film crash and it somehow blocks me in writing a new script. I know I need to get over it.

But then …

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Daniel Craig in Quantum of Solace

** Possible spoilers **

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I am looking forward to your cards already

We did it last year.
And the year before.

And we are going to do it again this year. Or at least I hope we will. Are you in?

For every card I receive from you this year I will donate £1 to Oxfam.

Current card count: 14.

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It's supposed to be hard

This is not going to be my favourite post ever, on the contrary I would imagine. But while things were really taking shape with SweetArts (my short film) I got an email on Saturday morning from my producer telling me that she was starting another job this Monday. Not the best way to start the weekend.
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Bill Nighy as Quentin in the Boat that Rocked

Very. Groovy. Indeed.

Update: I reshuffled the design a bit an incorporated the new logo. It’s not completely finished yet but far enough to use it. I have called this design “Quentin” - very appropiate I think.

I am not so sure about the background it seems a bit wild, but for now - wild is good.

Just a quick update in list form:

• Here is my new logo. I love it, it is simple with nice colours and it works well on both a dark and light background. I received 125 entries for this logo and must say that many of them were pretty bad, but there were a couple of them pretty good too. This one jumped at me the first time I saw it. It is designed by Jamie, I think she did a great job.
• My short film has now a DoP attached. I had a meeting with her today, we went through the script to make a list of shots, and the storyboard I made a while ago really proved its worth. We simplified certain scenes and some scenes have just been hugely improved and are now funnier. (I hope!) The bad news is - for several reasons - we are moving the shoot to January. Yes it’s again a move ahead in time but I think things will be better for it. I also have seen head shots of two actors who are as much Dan as I can expect someone to be. Hopefully one of them will do it.
• Three nights until the premiere of The Quantum of Solace. Daniel Craig is everywhere now, in Sony commercials on the telly, on red London busses, on moving screens at underground stations, in radio and telly interviews, in newspapers, on covers of magazines and on my wall. Yep.
• I am going to a tv-2 concert on Saturday and will meetup with some Danish people I haven’t seen for a while. I have been to around 80 concerts with them, and have not seen them since I moved to London more than two years ago. I wonder if their magic still works on me.
• I planned my Christmas and New Year. I will spent Christmas with my mum and grand parents in the Netherlands, and New Year with sheep, dogs and my good friend in Ireland.
• If you like Viktor the Vampire, the new trailer for Underworld is out. Mmm Viktorrr.
• I wonder if I should do one of those xmas card exchanges again? OK, OK I will do the Xmas card exchange again! I will have a think about this year’s theme and post the official announcement in a few days.

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?

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Chewinggum actually

Yes it has been a bit quiet and I also sometimes wonder myself if this film ever gets made but things have started rolling again now. I had a production meeting yesterday and while we still haven’t found a Dan yet we are now also working on confirming locations. We also know that the shoot will take 4 days, which will probably be a part of the weekend and some working days. Finding Dan is probably going to be a nightmare (there is only one Bill Nighy in this world and he is way out of our league and also the busiest man on earth) but let’s see.

There are so many loose ends to this film at the moment that I just try to take it one day at the time and trust that my producer knows what she is doing. She does because she is good. I relax while thinking about how I want to shoot things and drink tea, lots of tea. While nibbling on a Jammie Dodger.

I’ll keep you posted.

Apart from the film, I am trying out Crowdspring because I want a decent logo for a business card and other purposes. Crowdspring works as follows: you pay them the money you want to spent, you set a time limit (next Monday is the expiry date for mine) and designers around the world can submit their design. I pick the one I like best, designer gets paid - simple. I like the idea of it, the fact that people around the world can submit their work.

Choosing one I like is more difficult than I thought though. Actually there aren’t many that I really like just yet (I am quite picky) so I hope some more suggestions will come in. If you want to give your opinion (please do, I could do with some second opinions) have a look at what has been submitted so far.

And the Chewinggum actually, well what can I say. Love is all around.

Oh, and Stephen Fry on Twitter will brighten your day if you like the man. He is currently in Africa filming Douglas Adams’ book Last Chance to See as a documentary. If you are on Twitter too, let me know, I would love to follow my readers. You can follow me here.

Lawrence - Bill Nighy - The Girl in the Cafe

Will she ever stop? I don’t know. I have recently received email from new participants from Spain and the UK, so people still seem interested. As long as she is comfortable traveling, I will let her do so.

Several people have written reviews, step inside to read them.

If you have no idea what I am talking about - please go here.

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Filmposters, West India Quay cinema, London

The (cinema) film meme.

Lots of questions, lots of film titles »

Love Sneakers

It’s true. Girls buy new shoes when they have an off day. I am no exception. And how appropiate are these, actually?

If that photo looks like I am skydiving, I am. It’s very good for inspiration. And yes that are my shoes and jeans.

Have a good weekend. If you are looking for me - I will be in the Caffe Nero on Fulham Road hoping that Dan and June will join me. I might watch a film in the nearby cinema too.

Just in case you thought I am going through this whole make-a-film-process with 2 fingers in my nose having nothing to worry about - it is not like that. It’s tough, it’s difficult, it’s hard work and some days I want to give up. Today is one of those days.

Did I write that my script was ready to shoot yesterday? I take that back.

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The Script

No they are not really pink! But they have been read out aloud by two actors. It went well. Apart from some minor changes and a change to the opening scene, the script is ready for the shoot.

A script supervisor and a potential (not confirmed yet - but award winning!) DOP attended too. If this sounds like things are taken very seriously then I can only agree. That’s what happens when you are lucky enough to get a person like M to produce your film. Me - I am trying to just follow along while all those things are happening.

We are seriously working on getting a cast on board now, which is a bit of a challenge. Mostly because we are trying to get some people who are a bit known.

Next production meeting is tomorrow in Notting Hill. Yes there are a lot of meetings, but there is a lot to organize. There are a lot of balls in the air at the moment, and we hope that we can catch some of them so things start to fall into place. End October/Beginning of November shoot is still on. It’s a busy time.

After 4 hours in the Electric House I got send off with some home work and now I have the rest of the weekend off. Nice. The home work consists of compiling a list of festivals I am going to submit the film to. At this moment Cannes and the UK Raindance festival are the two major ones we have in mind but I will have to do some research. Yes M is taking all this very seriously, I better start to do that too.

Oh festivals by the way, here is how it works: you send your film, you pay them a fee (Cannes f.ex. was 75 Euros last year), they will look at your film, you cross your fingers and hope they decide it is good enough to be shown. So it has to be pretty good.
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The return of the pink pen ...

If you can’t stand reading about my short film you are going to have a tough time, it will probably be the most written about subject here, mostly because I want to document for my self how this all came about. If I don’t write it down now, I will forget how things went. So bear with me if you want to read about other things, November might be a good time to come back.

But: Things are really starting to happen now.

Apart from my next meeting with M on Saturday morning, I now also have a script readthrough appointment on Tuesday.

M has invited two professional actors over who are going to read the script out loud. There are two reasons why we need to do this:

• we need to time the script. We need to have a fair idea of how long the film is going to be.
• it will tell me as a writer if the dialogue I have written works, if it sounds right, if the sentences are natural to speak for an actor, all that kind of stuff. I will probably be cringing hearing my own script read back to me, but it will be a major learning experience. I will make notes of the actors’ comments and improve the script after that so it is in tip top shape for the shoot.

So that is all very exiting.

Just as exciting is that I have my first cast member confirmed! It’s for one of the minor roles but he is very experienced, he has done a lot of film and tv work and he is very, erhm, handsome! So all good news!

Brideshead Revisited

or How not to attend a film premiere (More at Empire).

Now it wasn’t Leicester Square okay and thank goodness for that. As Leicester Square is normally packed with hundreds of people and the red carpet is really long. No this was Chelsea which posh level suited a Brideshead premiere better.

I was there in good time and found the man who was going to hand me the ticket. He was standing opposite the cinema and handed me a golden envelope. There were some policemen in front of the cinema and there were a lot of press mosquitos. I opened the enveloper, checked my ticket (front row seats - wow) and read the letter that accompanied it. Welcome to the premiere yada yada - Dress code: lounge suits.

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Love Seaweed actually

After five and a half week I got the results of my operation today, it’s good news I am fine. And relieved. And after having it nagging about in the back of my head for that long it might take a while before I get used to not worrying about it anymore.

And to celebrate it I just got an email that I won two tickets to the Brideshead Revisited premiere, which takes place tonight at 6.30pm at the Chelsea Cinema, Kings Road. The film stars Emma Thompson, Matthew Goode and Ben Whishaw, all of whom will be attending the premiere.

I have never seen the TV version which I think is a part of becoming a true Brit. I hope watching the film will give me some points towards that too though. I look forward to this film.

I have one spare ticket, any takers? You have to be able to be in Chelsea tonight around 6.15pm.

Hello, ain't I cute!

One of the other things we did was a Seafari trip in the bay of Kenmare. Recommended if you ever get to that area as it was fun and we got to see seals very close by. Apart from that - they served an orange lollipop and tea the milky way with biscuits on board - so what more do you want.

More seals, and some sheep, actually »

Davy Jones in Ireland (click image for larger version)

Yes OK, so he wanted to come along to Ireland, and seeing as both me and my friend are quite fond of Davy (and the man behind the tentacles) we took him out on several trips to show him some bits of Ireland.

(Click the image for a larger version)

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