Tag: shoot

A Groovylicious Sunday: Bill Nighy on set of Statuesque

thegirlinthecafe 4 Comments

While I am in the middle of getting very exited about my upcoming trip the the USA, yesterday made September even more magical. I knew BIll Nighy was going to star in Statuesque, a new short film which tells the story of a love triangle between two living statues and an admirer who observes his object of affection every day among the Christmas shoppers – but is unaware that he too is being watched.

It is a silent short film written and directed by Neil Gaiman, who wrote Coraline and Stardust. Statuesque will be broadcasted on Sky around Christmas.

Neil Gaiman twittered and wrote on his website that he was going to start shooting this movie in London, and actually wouldn’t mind people to come down and watch the process.

I didn’t need much encouraging to push my pack-my-suitcase duties aside for a while and get on the London overground to Watford yesterday. When I arrived, Bill was already dressed up and ready for his scenes.

He looked pretty marvelous in his 60’s style Chicago gangster suit, his dark sunglasses makes him a perfect Blues Brother, but in the scenes he replaces his dark shades with some normal ones which turns him into a quintessential British gentleman with umbrella and all.

It was fabulous to watch him “at work”. And special, I have only seen him perform “live” on stage in a play where everything is rehearsed and goes smoothly. But here he had to improvise a bit, do the same scenes a couple of times, and think about continuity and things like that. Absolutely Intrigueing to see him at work.

His scenes took a couple of hours after which they moved on with other cast members. I am sure that he will be shooting more scenes, but don’t currently know when these will be shot and where.

September has started off in a major way having the chance to watch this, and I think I will continue to smile throughout the rest of the month.

I took some more photos, warning: very long legs … »

Blue Monday

thegirlinthecafe 4 Comments

As if there would be a chance that I would leave a Bill behind ...

  • You know you are not a Brit when you totally did not know that yesterday was supposed to be the most depressing day of the year: Blue Monday. Willy-nilly.
  • In stead of being depressed I was busy figuring out what you need to do in order to get permission to have some children as extras in a film. Trust me, the Brits are truly a one of a kind when it comes to making unclear rules for things like that. I still don’t know what paperwork we need to fill in and who to contact but I hope to figure it out soon. I now understand why people always warn you not to write children and animals into your script. The hassle of it. But hey this like being at film school, the difference being that I actually get paid to learn this.
  • And hassle or not, nearly two years ago I was boring myself to death behind a screen coding silly computer programs, now I am actually preparing for a film shoot. In Wales. In February. Quite a change. Nothing to be depressed about.
  • Oh, and I had that meeting with that other filmmaker on Saturday. And we already have an idea for a short so that’s another short film in the making. It’s something completely different than I have done before (no dialogue), it is going to be quite arty and symbolic, but I think it is going to be a very nice and warm little film. (Length: about 3 minutes, which is 200% longer than anything else I have ever made – and we will just plant it on YouTube, so you can have the premiere on a computer screen near you not too long from now).

    If I survive the coming three months of madness successfully I will have made another 4 short films and I will finally feel it to be justified to call myself a short-film maker. That would be a result I think I will be a little bit proud of.

  • I also saw the interview with Meryl Streep in the BAFTA building on Saturday. She must be one of the most normal and down to earth Hollywood actors around. She is really funny too. And humble. And very entertaining to listen too. And she looks great for someone who is 59. They showed clips of the highlights of her work, and wow, has she made a lot of good stuff. Sophie’s Choice (which I only saw once, because it is so harsh to watch), Out of Africa, Bridges of Madison Country (love that film) and of course The Devil Wears Prada in which she has genius comic timing are just some picks from her long career. Soon Doubt is on its way (with Philip Seymour Hoffman who is also a great actor), for which she is already BAFTA nominated. Meryl Steep is cool and a great example of being 59 while still being very young.
  • Still Blue? This will brighten your day. I wish I was there when they made it.

Rain from my brain

thegirlinthecafe 5 Comments

Piccadilly Circus in the rain

I am struck by a severe (blog) writers block (and wondering who is interested in reading all this crap shit stuff anyway), so a couple of notes and then I am off.

When I took this picture 2 days ago (without having an umbrella at hand but not minding the rain) I focussed on the reflections on the pavement, I am annoyed now that I did manage to cut off the top of the umbrella on the left.

Some words about the Oscars:

I was very pleased to see Marion Cotillard winning the Oscar for best actress. La Vie En Rose was one of the best films I have seen in 2007 and she is to blame for that. Fantastic performance.

I was also pleased to see Juno win best Screen Play. Appreciating films like Juno with an Oscar is encouraging, Juno has been made on a low budget, and it proves that it can be done: making a great film on a low budget. Have you seen it yet?

I don’t share the hype about No Country and have not seen There Will Be Blood (not in the mood for a film like that).

Some short film reviews:

  • The Bucket List, even though a bit too Hollywoody in some places is wonderfully uplifting, despite the fate of it’s two main men. Jack Nicholson is funny. And, as you know, I love actors who can act with their eyebrow. Jack is a master.
  • I thought Jumper was crap. Hayden Christensen doesn’t have any on screen charisma, and the story was so bad I left the cinema before it was finished. Only high point in this film is Jamie Bell.
  • Be Kind Rewind. I so looked forward to this one, the trailer looked great, Jack Black is spot on for the role, and I love Mos Def. And I loved, loved, loved Michael Gondry’s The Science of Sleep. Be Kind Rewind has a great premise, and the parts where they “swede” existing films is great, but the story was messy and unfortunately I have to say that overall I didn’t like it very much.

March is going to be a train travel month. With film shoots (for work that is) planned in places like Oliver Lucas’ Shropshire (I strangely look forward to that, even though the man is a made up character in a play!) , Exeter (a visit to England’s beautiful Devon and close to south Coast at last) and Edinburgh (mmm yeah talk Scottish to me). I will try to plan the shoots in a way so I can stay over for the weekend and see bits of the country. Not the least because I desperately need a holiday as my head is on the edge of exploding.
More about this soon.

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.