A new logo

thegirlinthecafe 11 Comments

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.

SweetArts, Crowdspring and Chewinggum actually

thegirlinthecafe 13 Comments

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.

The Girl in the Cafe around the world

thegirlinthecafe 1 Comment

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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Love my sneakers, actually

thegirlinthecafe 4 Comments

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.

SweetArts: It’s not fun all the time

thegirlinthecafe 7 Comments

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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SweetArts: Script readthrough

thegirlinthecafe 2 Comments

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.

Tea time

thegirlinthecafe 2 Comments

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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SweetArts: Script readthrough and first cast member confirmed!

thegirlinthecafe 8 Comments

Rewrite

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 – premiere Chelsea

thegirlinthecafe 6 Comments

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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All clear and Brideshead revisited premiere tonight

thegirlinthecafe 13 Comments

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.

Must love Dogs

thegirlinthecafe 7 Comments

A dog's nose

I do love dogs, which was good as I spent a lot of time with two of them during my holiday. I shared a house with M&M for ten days and this nose was the first thing I saw when I woke up. This one, and the nose of her sister, sniffing and wagging their tales trying to persuade me to get up.

Get up! Get up! We want to go to the beach – now! Get up!

More dog pictures »

Snapshots of Ireland

thegirlinthecafe 6 Comments

Snapshots of Ireland

I am back in London after a wonderful long week in Ireland.

While Ireland is famous for its rainy weather, and I did in fact arrive in rainy weather, it all changed on Sunday and I had a week with marvelous weather, lots of sea, beautiful scenery, tea in bed and full english every morning, two lovely dogs to walk, light houses, yellow shells, sheep, black berries, seals, beautiful flowers, Davy Jones and the good company of my best friend.

It was incredibly peaceful and quiet and on our daily morning walk to the beach it was absolutely silent, no sounds at all. The step to a crowded London tube was nearly too big.

Ireland is to be recommended and some more photos are on their way. Now it’s back to working on my short film.

Off to Ireland

thegirlinthecafe 1 Comment

My bag is packed and I am half in bed typing this. I will leave for Ireland tomorrow, flying from Heathrow to Cork where I will be picked up. From there we will drive to Coornagillagh (Kerry).

It is a very quiet area on the south west coast, 4 houses and a pub, that kind of quiet. There is no internet connection and there won’t be any computers near either (so no response to emails for a while). But there will be good company, two dogs, books, notebooks and pens and loads of rom-com DVD’s. Oh, and ScraBill.

I think it is going to be good. I will be back in London on Monday the 22nd of September.

Be good while I am gone.

To ContemPlate

thegirlinthecafe 3 Comments

Dear readers!

I just want to give you an update on the plate as I am even starting to get emails from very friendly people around the globe about this.
People I don’t even know! The wonder of the internet.

The thing is that I have been thinking. Yes I was very attached to this plate.
Because I bought it in London.
Because I came to London with two bags of clothes and nothing else and this was one of the first things I bought starting a new life here.
Because I’ve always had a weak spot for Peanuts and Snoopy.

And then it slipped through my fingers while doing the dishes and it shattered.

I have been thinking if buying the exact same plate on eBay (overpriced and shipped from the US) would somehow work as a replacement.
And I think the answer to that question is no.
No because it just would not be the same.
The plate I dropped can not be replaced, as it was much more than just a plate. It was my plate.

So thank you for all you concern and tips on how to get the same Snoopy plate back but I will leave it.
In stead I will look for a replacement plate in London.
In one of the many charity shops.
Who knows, they might have another Snoopy one.
Or a red plate.
Or a white one with red hearts on it!

A new plate is out there somewhere waiting for me and I am sure I’ll find it.

Contemplate
verb (contemplated, contemplating) 1 to think about; to go over something mentally; to meditate. 2 to look thoughtfully at something. 3 to consider something as a possibility

(PS1 I am still on a write break but felt this needed clearing up! I will return after my holiday, where I hopefully also finally know the results of my operation. The waiting is exhausting me. No bonus points for speed for the NHS in this case.)

(PS2: Did I simply forget the most important thing? The new QOS trailer is online. As in yummy.)

Shattered!

thegirlinthecafe 10 Comments

I really really loved that plate. It was one of the first things I bought after I moved to London. In the charity shop in Croydon. I was really very attached to it. Am sure it is impossible to get the same one as it is rather old.

Bugger.

In other news: I am going to take a short break from writing here. I hope to return latest after my holiday which will be around the 23rd of September. I might twitter a bit though now and then.

Be good.

Sweetarts: finding the right production manager

thegirlinthecafe 4 Comments

Where have you been?

Yes, sorry Daniel. It has been quiet here for a while. This is mostly to blame on my writer’s block which I think is caused by me waiting for the results of my bearaBill operation. I haven’t heard anything yet, which is a good thing. But the waiting kind of drains my energy and creativity and I am mentally exhausted. I have never slept this many hours before.

Today however, something sparked me into action: I have finally found a production manager for SweetArts. YAY! Not only is she very experienced, she is also the nicest person and she is really cool too! She is slightly older than I am and I feel so very lucky to have her on board.

I had spoken to her in the beginning in August, but my schedule seemed to clash with hers which is why it ended there. She suddenly called me last week to ask me how things went, we talked again, and she said that she loved the script and the project so much that she is going to squeeze it into her calendar. A shoot in October is now more than likely to happen.

I have spoken to a lot of experienced producers/production managers the last couple of weeks. It amazes me how interested (feature film) experienced people are in short films. I was about to settle for paying one to do the work and they don’t come cheap, but I just wanted to move on. And I also really want to pay the woman who I recruited now, but she doesn’t want any money – much better to put the money in making the film better – is what she said. See – she is such a great and generous person!

I need to start pick up things like casting, and finding the last 2 locations again soon. I will try to see what I can do before my holiday, but if all goes well I will have a good rest in Ireland and will come back ready to go and make it really happen.

If there is something I learn in this process – it is to be patient. I am so not patient by nature, but I am glad I waited for the right production manager to come along.

Oh, what is Daniel Craig doing up there you wonder? Nothing in particular. It’s just something nice to look at, and if you want to see more new stills from the upcoming Quantum of Solace, then here you go.