Saturday 29 December 2012

Obsessed with "Girls"



I can not believe it took me so much time to start watching it, after all the raving reviews I had read. I guess what put me off was that 1) Lena Dunham, who writes, co-directs, produces and stars in it is my age and 2) I loved Sex and the City too much and feared a low-cost Sex and the City

So, it is a low-cost Sex and the City and that's why it's so good. Thank God someone finally speaks about how f....ing hard it is to get started in life. No more parent's money, no more direction after uni, and the pressure that "these are your best years and you should make the most of it".

And Adam is so sexy. 

It's back on TV in January. Finally a good reason to stop watching homeland. 

(pic from dailybillboard)

Friday 28 December 2012

How to write dialogues?

Good question. I am in the middle of writing a play, and am struggling enormously with my fake-sounding lines. So I went back to this interesting Guardian article on writing convincing article. 

How to write fiction: DBC Pierre on convincing dialogue


I find the "beat around the bush" one the most difficult. 

Thursday 20 December 2012

A shooting day




That day we planned on shooting 3 hours in a cemetery, 1 hour in a church and 3 hours at my home. We had it all: the storyboard, the call sheet, the awesome cast... - what could possibly go wrong?

Meeting point is the Brompton cemetery's south entry at 8.

8.00 James arrives
8.30 I arrive
9.00 Levi is lost
9.00 James and I figure we should take establishing shots of the cemetery      while waiting for the others
9.05 The camera says "full battery"
9.15 The camera says "no battery"
9.17 We figure it's better to turn off the camera
9.30 I receive texts saying "On my way"
9.35 Levi finds us
9.45 The actor arrives
9.50 I go for a run around the cemetery because it's sooooooooo cold - did I mention it is the coldest day of the year?
10.15 We prepare the mike, the tripod...
10.17 The cemetery's guard tells us that if we get caught filming in here, it's a 5,000 pounds fine
10.30 Our actress arrives
10.45 We hide our bags
11.00 We start shooting, as discreetly as possible
11.15 We are so running out of battery, we can't even turn video mode
11.17 Our actor does a "working dance" with the battery to make it work again
11.18 It works!
11.19 It doesn't work
11.30 everybody is freezing
11.45 James says he's gonna go home and charge the battery and come back. We plan one hour and a half f waiting time
12.00 I rehearse a dancing scene in the cemetery with our actors and really, they're beautiful
12.05 Our actor reminds us that he has to be at the other end of London in 2 hours
12.30 We sit in a cafe and eat chips and drink tea. 
13.15 The camera comes back - slightly charged - The actor is supposed to leave in 30 minutes max
13.20 We shoot our planned 2 hours in 30 minutes, hiding from the guards and running from one scene to the other
14.10 Our actor can finally go - thanks Sid!
14.15 No more battery so James goes recharge it in a beauty salon
14.35 We're waiting
14.50 We shoot our last scenes
15.13 We can't manage to get a proper shot of the scene when she gets hit by a bus and we almost die
15.30 Shooting over! We can go and give the equipment back to the school
17.00 We go to my place eat humous and watch the takes, only to realize the most important ones are blurry

Despite the cold, it was actually a really cool day. I had a lot of fun, I guess thanks to the beautiful location, our funny actors and my super efficient and focused team. It's cool to know that we will shoot again.