Coping Strategies was special and touching and I am happy I saw it. I saw the first of only 2 cinema screenings and the cinema was filled with people who either were connected to Yarrow or had been involved in the making of the film itself. The film (28 minutes) is about Shahid, a young man with learning disabilities, who breaks free from his doting mother for a new life of romance, independence and indulgence. Bill Nighy makes a short guest appearance as his social worker. The film was both funny, touching and surreal.
I find it incredibly cool that Mr. Nighy is involved in things like this. I know he has a very busy schedule, but it must give him pleasure to change from the multi million dollar set of Pirates to a very low budget production like this where he works with children and non professionals. Yarrow mentioned that his commitment is invaluable for them. Here is someone with his heart on the right place, I love him for that. He is a remarkable man, very inspiring.
(Listen to a great interview about this production, if you’re into Bill)
Today I had another plannings meeting for the short film shoot on Sunday. We made a story board and I think we are as ready as we can be. On Friday we will meet our actor for a script run through. I wonder why I am not nervous about all this yet, I feel strangely confident that all is going to be fine. We will shoot in Southwark. And yeah – it is very exiting!
Tomorrow I have to do a presentation at work, about the project I have been working on since I started there. So what – you might think. Well fact is that I somehow during my entire working career have managed to steer away from doing any presentation. I absolutely hate it and I can’t imagine anything more scary than standing in front of people doing one. But I can’t get out of it this time, so the only thing that keeps me from not going mental is the thought that it can’t be worse than this experience.
Talking about that experience, I am back on track with that one. Have repaired most of the problems (it’s amazing what you get done when you don’t switch the TV on!), had a quick email check with my tutor last night about some new ideas, so now I just have to come up with twenty more pages. That sounds easy but it is tough, not the least because those twenty pages are the problem area of most movies – the middle bit of the film.
If you are a movie buff, you probably know which movie the title of this post comes from.