Lightning was tutored by Julian Doyle, who has worked on a wide range of things, from Monty Python to Terry Gilliams Brazil, and also on Kate Bush music videos. He had a lot to say about lightning, showed a lot of examples through film clips and some films will never be the same after he told us how they have done some light effects and also how they have tricked a lot of scenes. It was, again, very interesting.
Not all courses are good. Actually, the scriptwriting course I attended yesterday was crap. Even though the tutor had a lot of experience writing scripts, he didn’t reallly now how to teach. And in stead of learning us what to do when writing a script, it ended in discussions about film. Cool, I like discussions about film, but not when I have paid a lot of money to learn about script writing.
So I was pretty angry and disappointed about having wasted money and a whole day when I left the course. I took the train back to London, and there was only one place to go that could make me feel better. The Cafe indeed. It’s All I Need.
Even though London is extremely overcrowded with tourists at the moment, The Cafe is always a nice and quiet place to be. My favourite seat was available, I ordered soup of day, with a cup of tea, and read my Empire magazine. It was nice.
It was extremely busy though in Denman Street, which is rare, because it is so well hidden behind Piccadilly Circus and normally a quiet spot in the heart of London. And while I for a second hoped that all those people were demonstrating to keep the Cafe open, there was another reason.
Patrick Swayze has just made his debut on the West End. He plays in “Guys and Dolls” at the Piccadilly Theatre, which is about 40 meters from The Cafe. And at the time I was in The Cafe, the matinee show had just ended, and loads and loads of people where waiting to catch a glimpse of him when coming out of the theatre. I better get used to London being a celebrity crazy town. I didn’t leave my seat in The Cafe to go look for him though.
Filmschool is waiting. It’s Directing and Light today.
3 things before I go to sleep:
1. It’s exactly 5 months in London today. Hurray !
2. I am officially someones girlfriend. He is Italian.
3. Davy doesn’t want to speak to me – at all.
Now, don’t worry, things are not what they seem. But it is going to be a hell of a job to convince Davy that he still is the one. More about all this later, but don’t come and say that life in London is boring.
Tomorrow I am off to Beckenham all day, for a scriptwriting course. This is not a part of my film academy course, I just thought I could use a bit extra in that area. And on Sunday it is film school with half a day Directing and half a day Light.
Why are weekends so short? I can’t even sleep longer this time.
Enjoy yours.
I have found my bookshop. I buy loads of books in the charity shop around the corner here in Croydon, where I can buy a bag full of books for only a few pounds. Most of them are just 50p per book, which gives you 8 books for the price of one in Waterstones. And they happen to have excellent books over there too. I have seen The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Nighttime several times there already, for 50p. Bugger, I bought it for ?7.
A cafe just around the corner in Page Street
My flatmate decided that Africa was more interesting than London, and after a few weeks there, she has decided to leave London for good. That means that the other room in our toplocation appartment is going to be available for a new lodger, and we have to find a new person to live with. Well, this is interesting.
“We need to have a talk Davy” I said to him when I came home.
(Now with pathetic filmclips)
I wonder.
I admit it, I am not especially in the target audience for Stormbreaker (official site). This is a young version of James Bond and the newspapers love the idea of main character Alex competing with Harry Potter about who is going to be the most popular teenage idol.
Lawrence (Bill Nighy), at the G8 in the Girl In The Cafe
For all the people writing, calling, texting, buzzing me (I love you all for it thanks! Keep sending me mails about Bill it makes my day!) here we go one more time (with the risc of jeopardizing my own project).
I did already write it here but it doesn’t hurt to repeat it, if you live in the Netherlands:
If you don’t live in the Netherlands : sign up here and have the film delivered to your mailbox.
Enjoy !
How did I suddenly end up having 2 weblogs about Bill Nighy? Tomorrow, or tonight maybe already, a review of Stormbreaker, and after that I promise to Cool Down a bit on the Nighy front. Maybe. Probably.
(Trafalgar Square)
I told Davy that I normally never complain about the weather. I love sunshine and rain, snow and storm, and everything in between. But this heat, I have problems coping with it.
He jumped from the window sill, took my hand and said “Come with me, I know what you need”.
He did indeed.
I really don’t understand women who go shopping for clothes when it is 35 degrees (C) in London. I mean come on. Women who are actually willing to stand in a queue in front of the dressing rooms to try out some t-shirts and the accidental pair of trousers, when the sweat is running down your back. You have to be insane.
This is not a ramble about Bill Nighy, or maybe it is, or maybe not quite.
I was so amazed to see those pictures (they got send to me and I simply had to put them up) that it is worth a post.
And since I am warning you in advance, you can’t really complain, now can you. You can just ignore the rest of the post you know, no one is forcing you to read it all. So – what’s it gonna be …
Very nice suit Kevin.
He was just standing there, with a can of beer in his hand, unstable, lost track long ago. His clothes dirty, his shoes worn down and his voice filled with drunkenness. She tried so hard to talk him into reason.
She told him to get on bus 24.
Did he have his bus pass ?
He showed it to her.
She checked, and saw that this was just a card he had picked up from the street, it wasn’t valid anymore.
“You have to buy a bus ticket” she tried.
“I have no money” he said, and took a sip from his beer.
She told him to stay there and wait at the bus stop, while she was going to get him some money.
She came back a few minutes later, and gave him exact money for a bus ticket.
“Bus 24, remember it now” she said.
He nodded, and was staring into his own world, far away from ours.
The bus wasn’t there yet. They waited.
Finally the bus came around the corner. It was busy, a lot of traffic, and it would take a while before the bus would reach the bus stop.
She looked at him, worried, and anxious to get him on this bus.
The bus opened it’s doors, and people started entering.
“Here you go” she said.
But there was no answer.
She turned around and he was nowhere to be seen.
Bill Nighy Art III – Bill goes Blur
Even though I only saw him a split second yesterday (on the loose indeed, together with Alex Pettyfyer, and Alicia Silverstone, and Ewan McGregor(!)) it was enough. Enough to have me forget the things I should have been working on (the list is long), and enough to have me drawn to my drawing pad and pen and spent the rest of the evening and the early morning hours on “Bill goes Blur”. I must be insane.
I apologize for the inconvenience.
I love his glasses though.
(Detail of a poster for the Science Museum)
I love working in a hi-tech enviroment, and I am a gadget geek. And our office really is the center of technology.
In our mailbox today:
Something to remember in the Kitchen on the second floor: it’s on the same circuit as the server room, and the circuit seems to trip if both the dishwasher and kettle are on at the same time.
So if you put the kettle on, try and make sure the dishwasher is off…
…and vice-versa.
And someone hadn’t remembered that today, and guess what happened.
Lots of time for a cup of tea.
If Yak himself asks you if you want to make a short film with him, you would be pretty stupid to say no. So I said yes! And it is such fun, and I am learning so much about filmmaking. We will keep you up to date about this project, and you can ofcourse read all about it over at Yak too (in Dutch).
Here is a first trailer, indulge it. Any feedback is highly appreciated !
Update:
this is the second version of the trailer, it has been updated on few places, also with new pieces of film.
A part of the storyboard
It was a long, and not the least hot day but it was so cool.
This is a kind of resume of my first day at the London Film Academy. I mostly wrote it because I want to keep track of what we have been doing, and how it has been. It might not be that interesting to you, and it is quite a long story too. Be warned.
