January movie playlist

• The Sting
• Deathproof
• The Girl In The Park
• Cinema Paradiso
• Ichi The Killer
• The Thing
• Hansel & Gretel
  
• It Happened One Night
• Rec.
• 30 Days Of Night (though turned it off after less than half an hour – which is rare for me – because I was disliking it so much)
• Gone With The Wind
• A Bout De Souffle (PCC)
• Daybreakers
  
• Driller Killer
• Bande A Part
• Xanadu
• Three Extremes
• Gozu
• The Funhouse
  
• Reservoir Dogs
• Sukiyaki Western Django
• Fudoh – The New Generation
• Rio Bravo
• Phenomena
• Run Fatboy Run
  

favourite celluloid moments

Have had this song in my head all weekend.

auditions, part 3

So the guy we've been counting on to be our Pinky - the lead character, basically - keeps faffing around and then more or less drops out. We're up shit creek - our own fault for putting all our eggs in one basket, and we know it, but it still doesn't help.

I make the mistake, during our panicked conversation, of mentioning to Cici that Simon Bird (who is ideal Pinky material) is currently working/based in my office, just a few feet away from me. She begs me to ask him to be in it. Properly begs. I laugh her off, don't even consider it. "What have you got to lose?!" she counters. My pride, dignity and possibly my job? "Oh, we can build them right back up again, it's fine!" Of course I wouldn't even dream of it, but then do get the giggles when I run into him in the kitchen. He doesn't know how close he's come to Cici trying to storm the building and confront him.

Anyhow. Friday evening, many complications and location changes later, we end up holding what we hope are our final auditions in Le Pain Quotidien in Notting Hill Gate. No, it's not exactly an ideal audition location. Yes, we were at our wit's end. It's a pretty grim Friday evening after a verrrrry l o n g week. Cici and I both get a large glass of wine (seriously, it's that kind of day) and run through a couple of business things before the first guy turns up. He's very sweet but not quite right for the part. I'm starting to panic a little. If this last guy doesn't get it either, it's totally back to the drawing board, and possibly rescheduling the shoot. He's been househunting and is running super late but turns up, sits down - and nails it. Like, pitch fucking perfect. I know it, Cici knows it. This is our Pinky. We check his availability and try not to smother him with affection, but as soon as he's left Cici grabs me, beaming.

The evening has been saved. The shoot has been saved. We cut it close but we're now fully cast. AMAZING.

First class this evening of the Raindance Director's Foundation Certificate. Decided right before Christmas to do it as it's not super expensive and I think it'll give me a little more confidence with this film. Forget to double check the address before I leave work so have to make a guess as to which door it is (I do at least remember the street). We're down in a basement rehearsal room - and the class is much bigger than I expected. The last evening class I took was the Euroscript script editing one over a year ago, and before that it was script reading, both of which have a class size of about 10. There are more like 40 people or something here, which takes me by surprise. I sit quietly to the side (wallflower? me?), watching people: the dominant personalities come to the forefront very quickly. We spend the class analysing introduction scenes from Thelma & Louise and Brazil, breaking down the characters and coming up with backstory from what's implied in their descriptions. Very interesting.

Walk home from class, running things over in my head. Hard to tell from one session how much it's going to be worth. Get home and have catch up phone call with Cici about auditions and the like; round off the night with The Funhouse, which is a totally different film than I imagined it would be.

favourite celluloid moments

Have had this film on my mind all week. If you haven't seen it, this scene definitely contains spoilers. Takashi Miike's "Audition":

auditions, part 2

I take a half day as some auditionees can't do evening audition slots. Cici can't take the time off work so newly-promoted Associate Producer Laura comes along as well. The schedule for today is meant to be busy - a bunch between 3:30 - 5, then a couple between 7 - 7:45, then Cici and I are meeting Cara, the camera operator, for a big tech meeting.

Of course it doesn't go to plan - a couple of bails and a couple more no-shows - and we end up only seeing two auditions all day. Luckily we both know after seeing them that they're right for the parts, and the rest of the time we chat about the project, I give Laura a twitter lesson (it somehow just eludes her), and I manage to find time to get my bangs cut.

Tech meeting goes well; it's great to finally meet Cara and hear the technical side of things, what kit she's got and get hold of, what crew she can assemble, and so on. After a week ago, feeling like we were going nowhere fast, it suddenly feels like it's all systems go.

auditions, part 1

Two weeks until the proposed shoot dates. We have our schedule all mapped out for this week - meet with the camera person, auditions, callbacks etc, but that's all shot to shit when Cici's attendance is suddenly required at a shotgun wedding.

Some diary-juggling later, and auditions end up being Monday and Tuesday. We've put together a provisional list of who we want to see and I email everyone with allotted times. Some people can't do what we've given them, others just don't respond. Much scheduling and rescheduling later, it's Monday night, and Cici and I are at our temporary production base (*cough*her mum's empty flat in W8*cough*) waiting for our first auditionee. I've emotionally blackmailed my sister to come and be our assistant - getting the door and so on - and it works out well with the three of us, as we all take a role in the script and read the whole thing through with the guys.

At one point we have a half hour break between people; we're sat around the table, talking over the script, drinking tea and eating mini eggs, and realise we've gotten a bit too sugared up when we've all got the giggles over the most ridiculous things we could ask people to do in the auditions - "Get them to stand up and sing a song." "To audition in the style of Julie Andrews," "-or as Hitler!"

The good thing about working with people you've grown up with? You know how to make each other laugh. The bad thing about working with people you've grown up with? You know how to make each other laugh. It descends into hysterics (for no very good reason) and we attempt to sober up before the next guy turns up, worried we'll end up giggling all through his audition for the wrong reasons. Luckily we get it under control and finish off the night with the lovely Dewi Evans, before all splitting back to our various parts of London.

We only end up seeing three people on Monday night after a no-show and couple of last minute bails, but it's a good learning curve and quite nice to ease into as the schedule for Tuesday is a bit more manic.

favourite celluloid moments

We've posted our casting call. What with all this unpaid work debate going on on Shooting People and so on, was rather worried we would be called out or harassed or just not get any responses but already had a good lot through from mandy.com and even some from SP. No union harassment yet, thank the stars... Now to sort and arrange auditions. Onwards and upwards, as they say!

No-budget short being shot end of January in west London needs FOUR MALES, EARLY TO MID 20s.

We follow four lads - housemates - going to a costume party as gangsters; on their way to the party they accidentally rob a shop and are then faced with the dilemma of taking the money and running or owning up to what's happened.

We're looking for the four guys:

1 - Alpha male, bit of a bully
2 - Not the brightest spark, thinks he's a tough guy but he's got a soft heart underneath
3 - A little bit of a sheep, not as cool as he thinks he is
4 - The runt of the litter, puts up with being picked on, and the only one with some integrity.

As we're no budget I'm afraid it's expenses and DVD copy only. We're shooting on HD with the intention to submit to festivals.

Been sleeping so sodding badly these past few days. Too much stuff on my mind, just can't ever switch it off. And now, when I actually do manage to fall asleep, I keep having really weird, vivid and rather horrible dreams. Last night's was about a zombocalypse - slow moving ones, that didn't have much sensory awareness, so you could kind of sneak through them if you were careful. I remember a scene in a supermarket when I and other survivors were trying to stock up on food but the place was full of gory zombies and we had to sneak through them without touching any of them. For the most part we were alright but there was this one zombie, a guy with weird hair, who grabbed my wrist as I was trying to get out and I had to shove a spike through the roof of his mouth to get him to let go. A small group of survivors ended up banding together and hiding in the storage area kind of under a stage - there were a couple of little kids as well - and it was terrifying when zombies finally entered the room and we all had to sit so still and quiet and hope they wouldn't notice our hiding place. And I remember the guy who'd grabbed me in the supermarket was there again too and I was really surprised before remembering that the only way to really get rid of a zombie is bash their brains in.

The one the other night was about a haunted house - no wait, haunted isn't right. It was a big, shared house and someone had been playing pranks on the people that lived there but then they got out of hand and it turned into a serial killer movie. It’s not even like I’ve been watching horror/zombie movies lately, so no idea where these are coming from.

Okay, this is it. Last week was the "ease back into work" week. This week, we're getting things done. My resolution to myself to be organised to the point of almost giving myself a schedule kicks off this week. I have movie dates a couple of nights but otherwise my plans are gym-dinner-writing and/or preproduction. All the way. I need to get some Adderall. Or just train myself. Perhaps I should draw up a nicely-coloured timetable for myself. That’s always a good way to procrastinate...

I’ve had the Stacked Deck story on my mind quite a lot recently - the more I think about it, the more I want to try and get that shot pretty shortly after Playtime's Over, while we've still got the crew and momentum - so re-read the initial feedback and make some notes for the redraft, which I think will actually work way better.

Later – get email from Laura about the new Playtime’s Over ending, and realise I’ve been totally misinterpreting what she was trying to say. The way she saw the other guy dying was to completely cut a beat out, not change it as I had been doing. This actually makes way more sense and makes it a lot cleaner. Plus, she totally understands my Clark Gable crush: “It’s TOTALLY understandable to be in love with Clark Gable – he’s a cad and a hottie and from a bygone era where men were men and none of them owned GHDs…good times!”

Shun off gym – just can’t quite face it tonight – go home and crash out for an hour then it’s productivity a-go-go. Redraft PO as per Laura’s now-understood note and send it out, then sit down to tackle the total redraft of Stacked Deck. With minimal procrastination.

I have been lured to my sister's under false pretences. There is NO COFFEE in the house. I am grouchy. She makes up for it by driving me home (I am so over winter right now) where I coffee up, watch Heroes (ummm...) and mostly fail to really get much work done. Had high hopes for this weekend's productivity but it's been rather an epic fail. Annoyed at myself.

My sister, Fi, convinces me to go stay in Finsbury for the evening as both her roomies are out (she's so bad at spending time by herself!) Laura is still in when I get there so we have a quick catch up about the latest draft of the Playtime's Over script: she has some valid points about the Madonna speech in the first scene, and then brings up again the point of a different character dying. She’d mentioned this in her script notes in December and Cici and I had both loved the idea and discussed it in a meeting, but couldn't quite figure out how to make it work. Laura’s pretty strong on this point that she thinks it makes the whole thing more poignant so it's on the back burner all evening while we're watching Gone With The Wind (Clark Gable, I love you) and as I'm lying in bed a new ending comes to me.

I am now a company director. Doll Parts Productions Limited is a fully registered company with Companies House.

Send the draft location release over to one of my lawyers who has said she'd be happy to check it out for me, she gives me a call and we talk it through and there's only one slight amendment to make. Send the release over to Cici to drop in to the off-licence over the weekend.

I started the week just feeling like we weren't getting anywhere fast. Cici's job is obviously far busier than mine and takes her AFK a lot more, so it can be quite frustrating sometimes, waiting for a response. It felt like wading through treacle. Then finally the phone calls yesterday, which felt like a massive jump forwards, the confirmation from both Cara and the location, and now today with it all becoming official... very exciting.

Finally hear from Cici; she calls to let me know she saw Cara last night who is totally on board - and can borrow any kit we need from university (amazing!). Cici also likes the script, approves it and agrees we can lock it down now, so top priority for this weekend is to break it all down. *Still* no answer from Hair of the Dog but the manager is apparently in from 3pm so she's going to try them again then. Fingers crossed. We agree to try and sort out a brief meet with Cara next week before Cici goes to Germany so we can all discuss what we're going to need and so on. The ridiculous lack of reception in this building kills the call but we both end it feeling positive and finally feel like we're actually getting the ball rolling.

Later: off-licence all on board. Huzzah! I now need to draft a location release for Cici to take in this weekend.