WALL-E and a lot of fingers crossed!

The very good

First a recommendation: WALL-E. Go see it. It’s a 10/10 film. It’s clever, funny, very actual, and it’s a roboromcom! Wall-E is such a cool character that I took the bus from the cinema to Hamley’s and brought him home with me. See how much a film can say without any dialogue. Great for both children and grown ups. Go see it! Go! Go! Go!

The maybe good

On the short film front – Sunday was a day of location hunting.

I came back with a couple of leads:

Art school
When I walked from Hampstead to West Hampstead I accidentally stumbled upon the Camden Arts Centre. I had no idea it existed, and it’s a perfect location for an art school. I got the phone number of the manager and I need to give him a call. Cross your fingers. (Update: Called him, have to call someone else again who is in later this week.)

Bookshop
I did check the bookshop in West Hampstead, and even though it looks cosy and nice, it is too small to shoot in. As an alternative I now have the contact details of the manager of the West Hampstead library. Lots of books there too, and it might be a good alternative for a bookshop seeing as the only action taking place on that location is the two main characters picking books from a shelves and bumping into each other. Cross your fingers here too. (Update: Called them, but libraries are council building which means that this one leads back to Camden council, the people that charge too much money to film makers. Will give them a call, but think it’s looking bad.)

Video shop
June has to buy some DVD’s halfway down the story. No video shops in West Hampstead but they did have a nice Oxfam shop with a second hand DVD section. Doesn’t make a lot of difference for my story, I actually quite like to shoot in an Oxfam shop (they have such great ambassadors and it is so linked to The Girl in the Cafe). So, I spoke to the shop manager, she asked me to send an email with all the details of my film and she would contact Oxfam headquarters. Understandably Oxfam wants to know about what their good name gets involved in. The shop manager thought it wouldn’t be a problem. So – fingers crossed.

Dan’s apartment
Found. Done. No need to cross any fingers here anymore.

June’s living room
Still looking.

Supermarket
Still looking.

Park
Still looking.

The not so good

• I already lost my newly acquired assistant due to some misunderstandings about what commitment and sticking to appointments means. So I have just placed two ads on both Shooting People and Talent Circle and hope to find someone new real soon. It is too much work to do on your own.
• Camden is charging way too much money for film makers to shoot on their streets. It’s this same old question of shooting without permission and risking being send off or paying a lot of money. Mmm.
• Still hoping to do auditions on Saturday, but it all depends on finding an assistant first.
• Haven’t heard back from Sony yet, regarding lending a camera. Worrying!

So, keep those fingers crossed for a while longer. And go see Wall-E!