Will be back soon!
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.
To Monkey about
I sit down behind my computer at 10.00 am Saturday morning. With the best intentions, really. I need to produce pages. Here is a report on how my other self tries to procrastinate just that. (true story)
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love+rock: Everything you said amazed me
Because it’s a beautiful song:
Audio no longer available (Snow Patrol – Warmer Climate)
Because it’s weekend.
Because this is the visual interpretation of voicilicious.
Because he’s back and that’s exactly what he is.
Enjoy your weekend.
you are the cry that turns to laughter,
you’re the hope that ends disaster.
The Meeting with The Actor
Not That Actor, but the actor who is going to be in our short. It was a joy to meet him as he turns out to be incredibly nice, very relaxed and laid back and very perfect for the role he is going to play (which is a posh distinguished City business man). He has a great voice too (very smooth and voicilicious) and a spot on English accent for this role.
There are things to say
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.
More about the short shoot and giving a presentation »
Standing up again
We have received 10 responses from 50+ aged actors with gray hair who can raise and eyebrow “Roger Moore” style, and who want to be in our short film. Don’t you just love a job description like that.
We will see some of them to check that we can work with them and will then pick the one best suited for the role.
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Nobody said it was easy
I was extremely nervous to have my work (the famous 30 pages) read by someone else and to get comments on it, but that was what was going to happen this weekend. If you like to know how my writing is going, step in. If not, come back tomorrow for something else.
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Things that make my Friday
I don’t know if this is going to be a returning post kind of thing. I do know that I try to stop running every now and then, to reflect a bit on life and appreciate the good things, however tiny they are.
- We are casting for our short (1 minute) short. Here is some detail from the description:
“Our ‘City Gent’ is aged 50+, distinguished / greying and MUST be able to raise one eyebrow (Roger Moore style).”
I bit my tongue to not say that the reference to Roger should be replaced by a reference to the master of eyebrow acting (I am in therapy, can you tell). We already got four responses, and tough job to read emails from actors with photos attached. Now you understand why I want to be a film maker.
As my Cookie film has a protagonist of about the same specs, I am more than interested to see what responses we get. Dan might be among them! We will shoot this short short next weekend, the 21st of October.
- There have been some new sign ups for The Girl In The Cafe on tour and both of them are from the state of New York, one from NYC and one from Ithica. Apparently the project has been spoken about on the university of Ithica, which was the reason Michele signed up. She also told me what her professor has said about the project:
My professor is teaching a class on the emotional and personal effects technology has on people. We brought up social networks such as geo-cacheing and wheresgeorge.com. Then she added that she had heard somewhere (she couldn’t remember where) about this great film that was being passed around the world. She thought it was neat that it created a new forum for people to discuss movies and world issues. She also said that projects like yours and post-secret are the future of social connections in an increasingly technological world. Basically, though, she thought that the fact that this movie can reach even areas where movies are usually unavailable is one of the few productive and positive effects of the new digital era.
Things that makes my Friday. Ithica is a nice reference to this, I hope her road is a long one indeed.
- Bill Nighy reads Eric Clapton again tonight on BBC4, 9.15pm. Tune in and rock on. Missed it last week? Here you go. Next week the new Charles Paris starts, to celebrate that I found the previous Charles Paris files and fed them to my iPod. What can I say – things that make my Friday
- 33 days to New York.
- When you get great news, and I mean roaringly great fantastic news, how do you react? Do you grab your iPod and start dancing? I do. I did that yesterday and danced the night away. I know you want to know what that great news is, but I can’t tell you just yet. Also because it is not 100% sure yet, but then, what is a 100% sure in life.
- I had a breakfast of Tea with biscuits this morning.
- I just downloaded the new Radiohead album. (At last, it was impossible to get through to the website the last few days). The rhythem in “15 Step” plugs directly into my heartbeat. In a good way, I love that song. Go download it, you can set your own price. It is currently being played in our office. (Things that make my Friday)
- I have slowly started to look around for a potential new cafe. I was going to visit the Regency Cafe which is literally around the corner where I live, but their opening hours are a bit weird. They are closed between 14.30 and 16.00 and I was there, of course, at 14.35. They are closed on Sundays too.
In stead I went to the Astral Cafe which is diagonally opposite Regency Cafe. This is not going to be my place either (both Regency and Astral are too close to where I live) but I will return there for food. You can eat things like Spaghetti for £4 and a cup of tea is only 80p.
- Al Gore wins the Nobel prize.
- It’s nearly weekend and this weekend I will be in screen writing class again. I look forward to get comments on both my Cookie script and my 35 pages of feature film.
And how is your Friday going?
The Castle revisited
I survived a couple of hours of “assemble IKEA furniture” torture (those are the moments where a man could come in handy I admit) and now I am sitting close to Jonas, and that’s very, ehrm, comfortable. I didn’t know I missed him this much until he got here, now I am sure I won’t ever let him go again.
You already knew how one side of my castle looks like (the large images are gone because of a genius thing I did. Not.) Today Jonas came, and the other side of the castle now looks like this.
When I moved in here my walls were empty and white. The wall you are looking at here is my “good memories” wall. I admit that Dr. Who doesn’t really belong there (but I like David Tennant, and this was the very first thing I hung up, because I didn’t have anything else), but the rest of it is either theatre flyers and some postcards from films. There is a bit (or 2) of Bill, a pic of The Cafe, Kevin is there and John Simm, Tom Hollander and Michael Palin is there somewhere too.
On my desk there is Bob (and inside Bob there is Bill!) and Daniel (Craig) if you look closely.
I can hear you think – that’s not a lot of Bill on the wall now is it? No it isn’t is it. So maybe I am not as crazy as you thought anyway.
What? A picture of the other 2 walls? Can’t do that mate.
Rock ‘n Roll heroes
There are several options here.
- You can wonder why I have just spend a whole evening creating this. But hey, if you don’t know be my now, you will never ever ever know me.
- You can guess who they are if you don’t have anything better to do.
- You can click here for a larger version.
- Or you can play a bit yourself. If you do, please put your link in the comments because we wanna see it!
Sleep tight.
Don’t let the bed bugs bite.
Things I noticed today
- When I was standing in the bus this morning listening to my iPod, it suddenly occurred to me that most people I saw walking were walking in pace with my music. I can tell you that that was a very weird experience. The song I played was “Girls and Boys” from Blur. And the avarage pace of Londoners in the morning is, as you now understand, high.
- I also noticed that listening to music changed my mood from “incredibly annoyed over having to stand in the bus” to “I don’t really care I am happy anyway”.
- Google has bought Jaiku. I think that is quite interesting. I like Jaiku, having internet access on my phone I often post something while waiting for either bus, train or film. My Jaiku’s get posted to Twitter automatically. Even though Twitter seems more popular, Jaiku is more slick. And Twitter not accepting user names longer than 15 is ridiculous …
Let me know if you are on one of them. - I am tired of waiting for things that might happen but probably won’t.
- Art lovers fall into Tate’s crack (and that’s on the first day of opening. I better check out this new awesome piece of art before more people fall into it and they fence it off.
- I was in the church this morning. My believes don’t fit into any of the existing religions but I enjoy(ed) the serene silence in this huge and mysterious building before I throw/threw myself back in the morning madness of getting to Victoria station.
- You can download Radiohead’s new album for free from their website (or pay what you want to pay). Rumours are that Oasis and Jamiroquay are going down the same road. The reason I can come up with for doing this is: this completely whipes out illegal file sharing, and would make up for the astronomical prizes you have to pay for concert tickets nowadays.
I don’t consider myself a huge fan, but “Subterranean homesick alien”, “Everything in its right place” are in very high rotation on my iPod, and have been for a long time.
- Control (official website) is an awesome film. The story about Ian Curtis (who comitted suicide when he was 23) is tragic, the music of Joy Division is pretty depressive. But it is beautifully shot in black & white and the acting is amazing.
And love, love will tear us apart. Again.
- I bought a ticket for a very British play (Rock ‘n Roll) that will be performed in a very non British city (New York). I look forward to it, as it features a lot of music and both Bob Dylan and the Stones are represented. Tom Stoppard wrote it. And it’s in 45th Street. Seems like I will end up going there anyway then.
I love Rock ‘n Roll,
So come and take your time and dance with me.(oh I can feel a postcard coming up already)
Love+Rock: Change the world
(Her legs seem to be growing, she is unconsciously turning into a lanky girl. Nothing wrong with lanky people though, on the contrary)
Blame Bill for reading Eric. And Eric for singing this song.
I saw And when did you last see your father with Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent this weekend. This is one of those movies where not that much happens but it gets to you anyway. Jim Broadbent is playing Colin’s dad, he gets terminally ill and the film is about the last period of his life. About looking back and talking about things that have been left unspoken for a lifetime.
Dear Britons
You know I love you
I always will
My mind’s made up
By the way that I feel
There’s no beginning
There’ll be no end
But there’s one thing
I don’t understand!
Look at this picture. This picture is taken in the toilet of a cinema in Chelsea, but trust me, I could have taken it lots of other places too. At home for example. Or at work. Or in a cafe.
I feel stupid, because I don’t get it. Here is the issue that has been mindboggling me more or less since I moved here:
Why are there 2 separate taps for hot and cold water?
And why are they so far apart that you have to move your hands from burning hot to freezingly cold?
I accept driving on the wrong side of the road, drinking tea the Milky Way, bangers and mash, I even accept Marmite – but this I don’t get. Please help me out here.
Once (8.5/10) – review
If you think that music is not that powerful a medium think again. I saw Once tonight, at last.
Of course I am a tragic romantic to begin with, I had no real idea what the story was about, but I already cried during the second song. There is so much beautiful beautiful music in this film, the story is nearly secondary to it. It’s about meeting someone at the right time on your path through life.
Hear and see Falling Slowly on youtube, buy some tickets for you and your (boy/girl/whatever) friend and watch the film in the cinema, the music alone will make you enjoy the film.
What I also find interesting about this film is that it has been shot in 17 days for a budget of about £75.000. That is impressive. Yes there is shaky camera work. And yes the acting is not always as sharp as we are used to. Nevertheless, I think it’s a great little film worth seeing.
Something that really amazed me while watching this film was the fact that the woman sitting in front of me was filming the film with her handheld video camera. This film is part of the Raindance Film Festival and I don’t know how stupid she thought they were in the cinema, but she got stopped filming during the film. And there was a rather large welcoming comittee waiting for her at the end of the film. How stupid can you be?
Back to music, Anton Corbijn’s Control (rave reviews all over here in the UK) is lined up for this weekend as well and thanks to Bill reading his autobiography: I am now pushed into an Eric Clapton revival too. This weekend will be filled with 2 songs. The above mentioned Falling Slowly and Eric Clapton’s If I could change the world.
I would be the sunlight in your universe
You would think my love was really something good
Baby if I could
Change the world
Oh baby, if I could.
10 things that make my Friday
- DP loves SR
- The fact that I saw Kahlil Ashanti yesterday. See him here on youtube and then buy tickets to his show where he portraits more characters than you think is possible in this hilariously funny, but also dead serious one man show. Tickets only £10-12 for a show in the beautifully located (beside the Thames, near Hammersmith tube station) Riverside Studios. Go see it! It’s the best I have seen in a long time.
- The sun is shining. I wouldn’t call it an Indian summer, but the light is beautiful in London.
- My script page counter says 42. 42! The best number ever invented. The problem is that I have the first 30, then there are gaps and here and there some scenes, but I do have the end scene. I can do 90. I have to. The first 30 will be delivered this weekend. It is so hard to expose yourself with a new story. I hope they are gentle.
- 42 -1 nights until New York.
- The aftershave of the man who sat beside me in the bus this morning.
- Filmshoot is planned (for the short short) on the 21st of October. This will be a 60 second movie clip which will be uploaded for an online competition. Yes, I’ll let you know when it is up.
- The fact that I could order a desk from Ikea without having to drag myself to their horrible shop. Ordered online, and will be delivered next week. Finally a decent spot to write at home.
- Bill Nighy reads Eric Clapton’s autobiography on BBC Radio 2 tonight (9.15pm) and the 5 following Fridays. Sigh.
And Bill Nighy returning as Charles Paris (As ever, seedy, middle-aged actor Charles is his own worst enemy: a lush who can resist anything except temptation – especially in the form of women and alcohol. His intentions may be good but, somehow, the results always go wrong.). If you like him just a tiny bit you have to hear that, he is brilliantly voiciliciously irresistable as Charles Paris. Even more sigh. - The fact that I can put on my coat, step into the sun and wander around on Portobello Market for lunch in 10 minutes from now.
Questions for you:
1. What makes your day?
2. Any interesting blogs I should read? I often visit my Google reader (and yes you are all in it!), but often, when I most need it, there seems to be a collective lack of updates. I need more good blogs to read. And I also hereby promise that I will be a more regular commenter on other blogs.
I feel so intelligent all of a sudden
Sorry, we had tears rolling down our faces while watching this:
and after that, watch this:
I’ll vote for her if she runs for president.
The Girl in Brazil
The Girl is still travelling, and is currently staying with Andy in Brazil. (Brazil: lucky girl!) Andy is about to send her off to the UK and has just written his review. Yes I know it is in Portuguese, Google helps a bit translating it into some form of English (Babelfish does a much better job! Just enter the URL) which I am sure loses all the details of the article. But looking at this language I do not understand, looking at the picture of Bill and Kelly in a place that still is dear to me in this post surrounded by words and just the fact that this crazy idea made it this far around the world already, well that makes me happy.
Do you want to see the The Girl In The Cafe film ?
Join the queue: TGITC – on tour project.
See also: Where is The Girl now ? (Check the world map)
I will be madly in Love again
Yes this is my organiser, and yes I really drew the girl in there.
And yes, I did it. Cause I believe in Love power.
Here’s to looking at you kid
I saw Casablanca 65 years after it came out, that’s pretty amazing in itself, and I liked it. It is impressive to see what they accomplished in a time where CGI and special effects were science fiction, and where films were shot in black and white. But here is proof of what a great script can do.
He is not the coolest actor on the planet (we all know who that is) but boy is Bogey cool in this one. He has the looks of a true classic film star. The same goes for Ingrid Bergman, with whom I share the first name but unfortunately not much more than that. I sometimes like to think that I am named after her, but I know that is not true either, as I am named after a bloody apple! How unsexy is that.
Anyway Casablanca is worth seeing, and it was great to see it on the big screen, so many years after.
While we are at film, I also saw Michael Clayton. There is a lot of hype around this film, but it lived up to it this time. George Clooney (still too beautiful and that is not in a I-fancy-him kind of way, because I do not) is absolutely fantastic as Michael Clayton, and Tom Wilkinson (wouldn’t mind drinking a cup of tea with him though) is always a delight. Just before you think that this is just another lawyer-action-thriller, well it is a bit deeper than that. Really worth seeing if you ask me. (8.5/10)
News from the lets-do-something-ridiculous-for-a-change front:
I wrote a letter to someone I truly admire (no he is not an actor). If I get an answer I might share it with you. Or not. Let’s see what comes out of it.
And I am busy with several things:
- planning and developing the short short
- I am doing a small job for a company who wants some drawings of The Girl from the postcards. So the Girl now has a sister wearing a red dress.
- I have to send in my 30 pages on Friday, and while I do have 30 pages which I think is some sort of accomplishment, I need to do some editing before I send them off to super Sam.
I guess this means I am quite busy.
How are you doing out there? Have you seen any movies I should see lately?