Category: Projects

SweetArts: Up is Down

thegirlinthecafe 2 Comments

Up is Down is that great moment of revelation in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. What? You haven’t seen that film? What are you doing here, go watch it, go, go, go!!

But Up is Down is also very appropriate when it comes to making a film. Some days you are up, and the day after you can be so very down. I have decided to write about the both of them, just so you don’t get the impression that things are easy. They are not. Today is such a down day.

The good

I had a very good talk with the casting director yesterday. He was very friendly, understood that I wasn’t that experienced yet, and generally he was just nice to talk to. He is off finding actors now, and with a little luck, we will have auditions on Saturday.

The bad

It seems simply impossible to find a producer/production manager. I have had talks with 4-5 of them now, they are all nice, they all like the script, but when it comes to it, they decide not to come on board. I can’t quite grasp what it is that goes wrong every time, but I am getting pretty desperate about it. I can’t do the film if I can’t find a producer/production manager. Simple.

I have put in another ad, have asked the people I know if they know anyone and now I just have to wait and see if something will come out of that.

I am close to giving up today, but let’s see if it also works the other way around, as in Down is Up.

Random notes and thoughts on the film making process

thegirlinthecafe 5 Comments

I know that this is starting to look a bit like the diary of a film maker. Well it’s important for me to write up this process. One year from now I want to be able to read back what an insane time this has been and how things went. So the coming time the focus of this blog will be on the making of SweetArts.

The other thing is that I won’t have any time for anything else in my life for a while. Here are some random notes and thoughts again:

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SweetArts

thegirlinthecafe 12 Comments

Bob called me while I was drinking a juice in the Caffe Nero in Hammersmith. I walked out and tried to spot him. He told me to walk towards the tube station. I walked and looked. He was in his car he said. I scanned the area. Lots of cars around Hammersmith. I saw a man with sunglasses in an MG convertible with open roof. Funky car I thought. I scanned further while talking to Bob. I didn’t see him. I had a closer look at the MG. Really nice car. I looked at the man inside it. He was on the phone. A closer look revealed that his lip sync with the man I was talking to was near perfect. Wait a minute …

“Do you happen to sit in a funky MG?” I asked Bob.
“Yes!” he said with a friendly British voice.
“I am on my way to you now!” I said.

A split second I thought – am I actually going to step into a car with a man I don’t really know? Bob seemed reliable, and a car like this with an open roof, I could always climb out. I jumped in. We drove off, the wind trying to blow the worries out of my head.

And that’s when I met Bob.

Here is your regular short film production update. And really, I can’t quite believe all this is happening either.

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Right day, right time?

thegirlinthecafe 2 Comments

If there is one thing I learn it’s that nothing is as unpredictable as the process of making a short film. It might be back on track again now, and I am again aiming for a shoot at the end of August. If all goes well, I am going to take a week off there and shoot it five days in a row.

But seeing the nature of this project, tomorrow things might look completely different again.

For those not knowing anything about the film:

Dan (50’s) is an award winning romantic novelist, an expert on romance – in books.
Being a master with written words – Dan loves corresponding with June (50’s).
Until the day where June invites him over for tea.
Having a severe stutter, Dan has refused dating women for what seems like a life time.
Will he lose June or is a Jammie Dodger going to save the day?

More detailed short film talk for those interested »

WALL-E and a lot of fingers crossed!

thegirlinthecafe 6 Comments

WALL-E and Billy Mac

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.

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Bond in 60 seconds

thegirlinthecafe 10 Comments

OK, do you remember I worked on a short film this spring? And do you also remember that you still had not seen the result of that hard work?

Well the wait is over!

May I present to you: James Bond in 60 Seconds!

No it does not have Daniel Craig. But it has a villain, a Bond car, explosions, underwater stunt scenes, locations as exotic as Hong Kong and St. Petersburg, speedboats on the Thames, a very handsome James Bond, and all that in 60 seconds!

We made this 60 seconds short for a competition where you had to remake an existing movie in a 60 seconds version.

Fasten your seatbelts and don’t blink – you might miss something.

Ladies and gentleman, find your popcorn and Coke: Bond in 60 Seconds!
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INT. ART SCHOOL CLASSROOM – NIGHT

thegirlinthecafe 11 Comments

Art class

When I walked to the toilet yesterday I passed a woman at the shared washing up sink. She was cleaning brushes. Not just a few of them, loads of them. A closer look revealed that she had a small cart filled with glasses with brushes, and palettes filled with paint. I walked on.

But then my brain started working and it said to me:
Scene 25
INT. ART SCHOOL CLASSROOM – NIGHT

Oh! Wait a minute!

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If inspiration hits you, don’t go home

thegirlinthecafe 5 Comments

Storyboarding

Storyboarding

So while you surely are at home, having a nice dinner, enjoying the weekend – I am still at the office. I am the only person in the office. And I am not working, not on work work anyway.

But I found a new song today, I am going to write a bit more about that at some point, because it is a nice story in itself, and that song made me pick up my pencil.
At last, I hear you think.
Yes at last.
I found 2 loudspeakers which I plugged into my (RED) iPod so there is great music.
I have Yorkshire Tea The Milky Way.
I have a pack with 4 3 Twix bars.
I have my Cookie script.
I have Bill keeping a weather eye on the horizon, making sure I am not going into too deep waters just yet. Or eat too many Twix bars.
I have a pencil and paper, and most importantly – I have inspiration.

I don’t know how long I am going to stay here, drawing, but it might take a while. This is good. And – where would we be without music to inspire us.

May you have a great weekend.
Don’t feel sorry for me sitting here, the kick of inspiration hitting you like lightning is nearly as good as, erhm, you know what. Really.

Back on Planet Earth

thegirlinthecafe 5 Comments

Me and my sneakers back on planet earth

This is just a short post to say that I am back on Earth. I think. Travelling in space messes up your mind. But here is a short list of things I have to say today (will write proper posts soon, I promise):

  • It’s day 42 today. Use it wisely. I know I will.
  • It is exactly 2 years ago I set foot in London for a week of preparation for the big move a week after. In that week:
    Cafe, Dick and Jane, Bill the Cat, Underworld Evolution in a London Cinema, and I learned how not to be a Londoner (this goes all much better now).
  • I finished my second 60 seconds action packed feature film yesterday. It has been extremely hard work and it is a miracle that we could still find things to laugh about while things were at their worst. I know you want to see it, but we can’t show it just yet – it has been entered into a competition (which will end in March) and we might send it in to some one minute film festivals too. The thing is that publishing it on the web might spoil our chances of getting into some festivals, so please be patient.
  • We will soon publish the poster and some stills and a teaser trailer and write about how we have made this film on a zero budget. Stay tuned.
  • Today is the first day where I don’t have to think about finishing the film. I am having the day off to catch up on my writing. I am in big trouble, I haven’t had any time to work on my feature script and it needs to be handed in latest Wednesday evening. The work I need to do on it can’t possibly be done in that short a time. So I am still very stressed and very busy to give it my best shot. The thing is that being locked up in an editing studio for a long period, I just want to get out and enjoy the lovely London weather. In stead I have to be disciplined and lock my self up in my room to write.

    I have decided something, as my red laptop is lovely, it is simply too big and heavy to drag around to cafes. I want to be able to write in cafes and have my eye on a Apple Macbook. Not the least because Windows Vista is pissing me off beyond reason, and also because it’s such a beautiful designed machine, and I am sure we will be happily ever after. And Final Draft will run on it nicely.

  • Films: Juno is fantastic, go see it. Definitely Maybe is OK, but don’t let the “From the makers of Love, Actually and Bridget Jones” fool you, it is far from that good.

SO expect some irregular and messy posts until somewhere after the weekend.

After next weekend my life should be back to normal. Well not too normal I hope, that would be too boring.

I hope you are all well out there.

Bill Posters will be CCTVed

thegirlinthecafe 10 Comments

OK, not a lot of time, so – memo style post with lovely picture.

  1. I am quite shocked by the sudden death of actor Heath Ledger (28). He was extraordinary in Brokeback Mountain.
  2. Where are we with the 60 second action feature you wonder? Well after another long night of mad movie making on Yorkshire tea the milky way, chocolate and pizza we are quite hopeful. I found myself moving a mini Trabant on a kebab stick in front of a green screen at 11.30 pm yesterday. How’s that for being a film maker.
    We nearly have a picture lock, which means that all the timings in the film are locked. Which also means that the sound track composer can compose his music on the exact second. Timing is a huge issue in a short like this. And being very creative in the edit is a huge issue too. I think we are doing fine. We need a break after this but rest assured that we will return with a new project to work on.
  3. There is a networking evening tonight where writers meet producers. I don’t want to go (being shy and self conscious) but I am going to force myself to go. While I tried to convince Sam that I had nothing to offer – he convinced me that I had – I had a first draft of a feature script, which is more than all the people saying they are writers without having written a complete script ever. So OK then, I have my feature script. And I will have to actively go and talk with people I don’t know, and tell them about it. Scaring the willies out of me that does.
  4. I will try to prepare a short run through of the story in stead of the several hours (felt like) session Bloglily had to go through.
  5. I will tell them about my Cookie short too, you never know.
  6. I will see if I can talk to some female producers as they might be more interested in a rom-com than male ones.
  7. I have a big stack of red business cards with me which, beside my address and website info carry the tag line of TGITC “Love can’t change what’s wrong in the world, but it’s a start”. How’s that for a rom-com writer.
  8. I’ll let you know how it went. It’s a first time for me on an event like this, so I don’t expect anything at all to happen. But making contacts is good and necessary in the film industry. Without it you don’t get anywhere at all.
  9. Bloglily called me good looking and my script “marvelous”. I didn’t pay her to say that. Does it encourage me – yes it does, the marvelous script bit. The good looking bit I don’t believe.
  10. I have such an insane week this week that I don’t have time for a cinema visit at all. I was happy to read that DIRL won’t disappear from the cinemas just yet, it has just been extended for a week. Good. As there is no Bill film in sight in the very near future (I truly miss him) Dan is getting me through January without going completely insane.
  11. Go on then, CCTV me.
  12. I hope you are well out there too.

Shooting day II – what a day

thegirlinthecafe 6 Comments

We did it. We shot all the insane scenes we wanted to shoot. We have been incredibly lucky with our actors as they were all very motivated, patient (when things took a bit longer than expected), talented and up for it and it has been a very busy couple of days. We now take 48 hours off, to let the dust settle a bit and to catch up on a lack of sleep. Then we will start the edit.

It has been an amazing couple of days, a roller coaster with little sleep and long days, but it has been so much fun and a learning experience too. Shooting on a no-budget forced us to be very inventive and creative but we didn’t want the film to look cheap and home made and I think we succeeded quite well in that.

Would we do it like this again? Well we might do a 60 second movie again but probably not one with such a short deadline (18th of January!), as it really wears you out rather quickly to have long days like this. Watching the rushes on the screen quickly makes you forget how tired you are though, as did the “It was such a pleasure to work with you girls” from one of the very experienced senior (he’s on imdb!) actors and our male lead wants to be in my rom-com feature, so generally everybody was happy and had a great time.

Here is just one of the many things that happened:

In the middle of London (WC1) we had to shoot a short scene which implicated the following:

  • shooting on the streets of London (not allowed without permission and we didn’t have one)
  • parking the car (which was a part of the scene) on the pavement (definitely not allowed!)
  • in front of the car on the pavement a bed with a man and a woman in it, the man being bare breasted (don’t know if that’s allowed, but at lot of people (women!) who passed found it very amusing, because he was a very handsome guy (we know how to cast)) and the woman scarcely dressed. And big up to our actors because it was a clear but freezingly cold day!

Do know that there are CCTV camera’s everywhere in London.

And it didn’t take long before a police car stopped to find out what the hell we were doing and if those two people in bed had any clothes on. In other words, were we shooting an X rated movie or what? The police man was not the only person who asked us that question, lots of men seemed to be amused to stumble upon a scarcely dressed beautiful woman in bed on the pavement in the centre of London.

So in a desperate attempt to save our set I tried to explain the whole setup to this police officer.

Guess what he said.

Short film – Shoot day I

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I was home at 10.30pm. Yay! That means that I can get a close to normal night sleep.

We were all very tired today, which was noticable in the lack of laughter outbursts, but maybe that was for the better, having the actors around. And things went very well. It was clear weather, cold but with sunshine which was perfect.

It’s pure magic to see a pencil drawing we made a bit more than a week ago come to life in front of you. It makes all the hard work worth while, and it makes you forget how tired you really am. The actors were amazing, they all delivered great performances and we have been very lucky getting them on board.

There are some fantastic scenes (I think) and sometimes it’s a pity we only have 60 seconds to show it in. The good thing is that we are learning a lot which can all be used on any possible next projects.

I will take some still pictures tomorrow and if the actors are OK with it – will post some of them here. I am sure you can see which film we are making, and why!

Time for bed. Call time tomorrow: 8am. Location: Toothing Bec.

A last (long) day of shooting.

New Years day in London

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Trabi on Tower Bridge – Click for the whole picture

I bet you spend your New Year’s day relaxed. Visiting family and friends maybe, or sleep longer after a party yesterday.

Mine was a bit different. If you are tired following the 60 seconds action feature story, come back later.

A list of what we have done on the first day of the year:

  • If you want to film in London (outside on the street) you need permission. Getting permissions is a long process that involves filling out forms and a lot of patience. So we dropped it. We took our camera and filmed one of the most secured building in London without any permission but with fear that soon a police officer would tap us on our shoulder. It didn’t happen and we were genuinely relieved.
  • I crossed the Thames over the Tower Bridge in a blue trabant (check how the blue colour of the Trabi matches the blue of the bridge!). That – was so cool. Oh, the Trabi’s name is Alice, and I am not making that up.
  • We did some camera tests in Brick Lane.
  • We needed to check if the shots we invented in the script actually work and were possible to film, and as we don’t have any actors available just yet, we shot most of the scenes with ourselves pretending to act. It looks so stupid and daft that we might make a Dumb and dumber version of our film too. It has been incredible fun though.
  • We got 26 responses on our quest of finding a composer. I guess our soundtrack is pretty likely to be made.
  • We got no responses on our quest of finding an animator though, which is a bit worrying. But let’s see.
  • Making a film with someone you absolutely click with is still hard work, but it is tremendous fun too. I need to refill after having lost lots of tears caused by hysterical laughter.
  • I really need a holiday soon.
  • And I could do this full time. No doubt about that.

I want your Love, Actually on a postcard

thegirlinthecafe 19 Comments

It’s that time of the year again, and you know how I feel about it.

But the question is are you up for it again?

I will design a brand new Girl postcard, which I am going to have printed in a card shop in a special very limited edition. It is not going to be your typical Christmas card, there is no Christmas tree on it nor any other Christmas references. It’s probably going to be more of a New Year card to be honest, but I am not sure yet. It can be anything.

It will be a double card in full colour and there will probably be a quote of some sorts, you know the style. It is not going to be the image you see on the top of this post by the way.

Now, you want one of those extremely-limited-edition-due-to-be-a-collectors-item-cards won’t you?

Sold out!

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Sneak preview

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Sneak preview

We made a film. It is not finished yet, we need to edit it, but yesterday we were out in the beautiful weather London is offering us at the moment and I found myself directing actors, composing shots and generally feeling more at ease doing all this than I ever thought I would.

The actors couldn’t have been more perfect, they were great and so nice to work with.

We will edit it hopefully this week, and yes, yes, yes we will upload it as soon as it is finished. Overall it was a great experience.

I just got a mail from my film partner, and the rushes seem to look “promising”, which is good!

It is only a 60 seconds film, so nothing major, but it is something I seriously have contributed to. I meet a lot of people who say they want to make short films but never do it. We did it, and however the end result is going to be, I feel good about it.

I took the above picture yesterday. I know there isn’t that much to see, I do have some nice stills from the actors too, but I need to have a talk with them first to ask if it is OK to publish them.

And I can’t wait to make the next one.