Hang-man

The wedding was awesome.

I'll post some pictures later, because words cannot describe how amazing Tove and Anna looked in their costumes. I even had a great time, which had a lot to do, I think, with the consideration they'd put into where to seat me, considering I was the one person at the wedding who didn't know anyone else. They seated me with the crazy group of friends in the middle (The group which produced two awesome girls who, when it became time to walk up front and give a speech or read a poem or something, sang karaoke to "A whole new world" instead. The group that, when everyone else sat horrified and in shock as said girls proceeded to sing, very off-key, instead sat laughing and clapping and then demanded "One more time!")

I got an email from Josefine, producer on "Århundradets brott", half-way through the evening saying that I was needed the next day after all. So any crazy notion I might have entertained about staying up all night dancing quickly became moot and I really had to catch the last bus into town. Even then it was about one o'clock when I finally got home. I had to get up again at five.

The next day was spent in a kind of blur. I felt feverish and dizzy for most of it. But I did get to ride on the moped, though. Fanny, the actress who plays the main character, gave me a ride to the train tracks where we were shooting the first scene of the day. It was scary as hell at first, but once I realised I wouldn't actually fall off, it was awesome.

Yesterday it seemed I had a lot to make up for, because my energy was all over the place, and of course I couldn't be there for the last half of the day, because there wasn't room in the little electrical car thingy for me, so I had to stay behind at HQ with a couple of the others who were made redundant for those particular scenes. I quickly became spastic with pent-up energy. Even with the FAD's little dog to play with.

So I made Filip (C-foto) play hang-man with me (I won), and when Charlie (actor who plays the male lead) wrapped his portion of the scenes, he joined in as well (he cheated), but it didn't last long before the game was put aside and we started geeking out about movies and actors instead, which we continued to do all the way to the station and the entire train ride until the two of them got off, much to the dismay of Lina, who tagged along to the train, and who normally works for the Stockholm Film Festival and is therefore generally fed up with movie talk..

Got to sleep in this morning. My head feels sort of cloudy, I think I might have slept too long. But I need to get ready now. Second to last day of shooting this short film. Then it's back to juggling reality with my own projects. Yay.

Just stuff

So, I don't think this blog has ever looked so hideous. I guess that's what I get from being lazy and thinking "what the hell, I'll give this new template thingy a go this time around instead of tinkering with the codes..." -- Obviously not a permanent solution. Someday soon, my blog will be stunning. As will the website that I'll also own by then. But for now, you'll just have to suffer the site (haha)

Production meeting today. Thought I'd get some reading in before I have to leave. Tove finished the new draft of her screenplay yesterday, so I thought I'd give that a read-through. Also I should read the screenplay for the film of today's meeting, which I still haven't, just the production description with synopsis and director's vision. Sounds really cool, though, so I'm sure the screenplay will be as well.

Summer days drifting away

Editing "Varma Mackor" has been a joy. I have a rough cut of the film finished now, after a couple of insane all-nighters that pretty much went like this: I'd get to the editing room at Filmbasen at around six or seven in the evening, get startled by the alarm on my mobile at five to eleven (that's when the alarm is automatically turned on, and you have to go outside, wait for it to turn on, then disable it again before you can go back inside), get back to it and suddenly realise the sun is up and it's five in the morning, at which point it would cross my mind that "I should get home and get some sleep...", a healthy thought, no doubt, that was unfortunately quickly followed by "I'll just finish doing this first..." and in the blink of an eye, it'd be noon, and only then would I stumble home like zombie, squinting in the bright daylight, wondering if the fact that my brain feels like a wet cake is a sign of permanent damage or not, but also feeling decidedly pleased with my night's work and quite in love with all my actors.

Now I'm letting it rest for a while. I'm waiting for Anja to get back into town so that I can show it to her and recieve her brilliant and unforgiving feedback. Meanwhile, I've been planning three other productions for the coming year with Tove and Anna. I'm helping them both cast their respective films, and I'll also be both of their assistant director, as well as play the main character in Tove's film. And the third film we're doing is my own, of course. I've just finished the first draft of the screenplay (it's called "Begrav mig på bakgården", which means Bury me in the backyard) and I'll be working on that alongside the casting process, as well as reading and giving Tove and Anna feedback on their screenplays. And also, whatever Anja needs from me as well, but we haven't talked about that yet, but she's making her film "Agnes" this year, as well as a documentary.

In the beginning of August I'll also be working on another production as a scripta (just went to look up the english work for that function and bristled when I saw that it was "script girl" or "continuity girl" according to tyda.se, definitely not condoning that, so you'll just have to make due with swedish on this one...) with Tove's and Anna's wedding crammed in the middle of the shoot.

Then at the end of August, Tove, Anna and myself are renting a car to go on a weekend trip down south to look at some locations and possibly hold a casting workshop at a school.

And, believe it or not, I'm also going to try and get some hours in with the temp agency so that I'll be able to pay my rent and bills. One thing's for sure though, I'm not making it back home for another visit before the summer is over.

Rain, rain, rain

So I gave my blog a layout make-over, I felt it only fair since I've had about a hundred since the last time I changed it. Also, I felt it was time for a new title of blog since "coffee, cigarettes & conversation" hardly applies anymore since I quit smoking, and this blogging thing isn't really conversing either, is it? It's more of a monologue, and barely that. And also, I felt the title wasn't pretentious and obscure enough, hence the new title being "Metal, rain & yesterday's coffee"... much more in line with my current life situation.

Got another film gig today, stepping in for Caroline as casting assistant next week. Approximately two hours work, hopefully in the same day, greeting and reading with three different six-year-olds. I even get paid, which is awesome, since I've been stressing out about money lately. Being busy with my own short film, I haven't work anything this month, which means I'll be completely broke come next month. But maybe, hopefully, I'll manage. If I can just get the student loan people off my back during the summer, I'm good. The odds of that happening, though, are slim at best, since they've been hounding me since 2008... I could apply for a course again, but apparently they're not too hung up on details like that anymore, since they wanted me to start paying back my loan in May, when I was still studying up until mid-June, so basically, I got my last payment only to hand it right back. Ridiculous.

Meeeh, I hate talking about money, and thinking about money, and worrying about money. It'll work somehow, it always does. Worst case scenario, I'll be hungry this summer too. No biggie.

Oh, yeah, and it's raining.

Busy bee, busy bee, busy beeezzZZ

I'm back home visiting my parents now. So far, so good. Although my diet is already suffering.. Other new developments, that would be of some kind of interest to you (even though I'm sure that my diet will now be the topic of your conversations for days to come...)

On my way here, as I was waiting for the train actually, I got an email from the producer I did my internship with last term, asking me if I'd be willing to translate the dialogue of one of her films into English for the subtitles for when she sends it to festivals, and I'll get paid for it and everything! Yay for paid work!

I finished the synopsis and Director's vision and my film CV, for the pre-production package for the short film, now all I have left to do is the mood board (saving the most difficult to last) and then we're all set to apply for funding and whatnot, so film people, ideas and moral support for the mood board-making, please...

What else... went with my mum to this theme day at CFL yesterday, it was quite interesting. Lectures/discussions about Vision work and Sustainable development, within the municipality of Söderhamn (my home town). I got some great creative inspiration and a film idea out of it, too.

Oh, and I got the room in the commune! So I'm no longer homeless-to-be! Which is a load off my mind and shoulders, now I can focus on my mood board and my assignment for school tomorrow -- I'm supposed to write for television in a group this and next week, my group just had their first brainstorming meeting, via crappy chat program on First Class, although we didn't do nearly enough brainstorming for my taste, it was more focus on agreeing on semantics about what the assignment actually was, and having not read the schedule or the assignment at all, I got rather restless, once we'd decided which idea we were going with, I wanted to start brainstorming for real, come up with ideas for sub-plotlines, key scenes, underlying themes, character developments and archs and relationships and all that stuff... but we decided that we're supposed to brainstorm on our own respectively (...) and chat again tomorrow morning -- I don't know when I'll have time to go to the neighbouring town Bollnäs and apply for a new passport at this rate, but I'll have to think of something...

Now, before I start brainstorming with myself... I'm going to give Anja a call and talk casting.

It never ends

The theology student who owns this flat just phoned and woke me up to say that he won't be renewing my contract at the end of May after all, because he's decided to move back on the first of June instead of at the end of summer like he first told me. So now I have to find a new place to live as well.

If I had money, I'd pack my big backpack and head to the UK. But I'm broke on top of everything else. I'm going to see about that other temp agency for schools today, and then I'm going to swing by my brother's place and see if I can score some coffee (mine is running out at home)

Good news is that I'm only one sleepless night away from finishing the fifth draft of the script, I have the third act written out in notes (got that done when I worked for four hours yesterday) now I just have to sit down and type it up.

After work yesterday I met up with another freelance film-maker who is making a music video for this metal band and I'm going to be his FAD, it doesn't pay anything, but it's another cred at least.