Thursday, October 29, 2009

Keeping busy

I'm getting on the stressed side now... We shoot in less than two weeks, more like one week. But at least we've had some stupid luck in terms of finding stuff quickly; yesterday we went and for an oxygen mask and a tube (like an IV tube) from the doctor's office near the school and the nurse gave them both to us for free and basically no questions asked, and on the way from there to the school in town where we were heading to listen to the producers of the Nordic film competition awards (the Finnish producer was the only one not there, and from Sweden the director was there as well as the producer -- Lars Von Trier, surprisingly, wasn't. But his producer was. And she was rather cool...) and as we were on the metro, Kalle called the number for the junk yard thingy for cars on death row whatever that Azigza had found and he got another number to call, and that guy said, Sure thing, just swing by next week and see if you can find a car that you like! And we even get to smash the windshield of it, which means we can use the same car for before and after the crash! *fingers crossed for finding a good one*

On the downside, just to balance things out, we had a look at the studio while we were at the school, and realized that it's not going to work very well at all. So now we still have to find a flat with a spacious and nice looking bedroom!

And we have to do a storyboard, find actors and have a casting session (it was so much easier being on the other end of this, you wouldn't think so, but it is!) and besides all the production stuff in school, I have the audition for Teaterhögskolan on Monday! Which is not even a week from now, it's a weekend from now!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Audition and full night's sleep.

Movie-watching day in school; two great documentaries, one is called "Videocracy" and the other "Bananas" and they were both great. Unfortunately the guys who made them didn't make it (that sounds as though they died in the making of the movie... they were supposed to show up at our school for a discussion and Q&A afterwards, but they had to cancel.)

Brief production meeting afterwards. We were missing our third member, though.

After school, I had my audition for that folk high school short film. I pretty much prepared it on the bus. The scene was basic enough, but I was still nervous because it's the first time I've auditioned in Sweden and kind of the first time I've really actually in Swedish since theatre school in 2004... and the guys threw me for a loop as well - I'm used to the whole enter, say me name, jump into it with a reader next to the camera... well, they wanted to do an italian read of the scene first. The director is also playing the other character in the scene. We did four italian reads, each time they wanted me to speed it up. Then they wanted to start working on the scene together and try different things, and then they wanted to improvize around the script, and then they wanted to see the version that had been my initial reaction, three times...

I had a headache by the time I got out of there. But it didn't go too badly, I don't think. Good first try at a Swedish audition I'd say, good warm-up round for the theatre school audition. But the tension from being nervous, plus smoking and not eating, left me feeling a little less than fantastic when it was all over, plus you guys (who are actors) will now what a strain it is on your energy to do an audition, or act a scene! But it feels so right, though. This is definitely what I'm meant to be doing (Mum.)

Here's something crazy: when I got home I crawled into bed immediately because of my headache, and I was feeling nauseous as well, and lights were hurting my eyes... and I actually fell asleep around eight o'clock and I slept all through the night until my alarm went off just now!

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Oh, the funny scenes from the trailer wasn't in tonight's episode... but it was still a good episode though. I want a little doll of my own.
Every time I remember I actually have a camera on me now, it's in the middle of the night or evening and I'm by myself, walking down the street, so all the pictures I've taken since my mum leant me the camera are of blurry street lights.

New episode of Supernatural tonight. I've got crisps and cactus drink. And I'm giddy as the fangirl I'm really not usually (but the trailer last week looked wickedly funny, so I've been looking forward to this episode!)

But first, rewrite script. No Supernatural until work is accomplished. I'm actually disconnecting my internet after I've posted this so as not to be tempted to procrastinate any further! I swear!

Also, I've lit a candle for you Cesar (that is not as ominous as it sounds, it's my way of sending you positive, healing vibes.) I hope you feel better soon!

wine.

Did not manage to get to sleep this morning, well yesterday morning, and at five I decided to Hell with it and stayed up. Had a fairly productive school day - we got sorted into our groups of three for the upcoming film project - and then after school I was lured into socialness by Anja and Min with the temptation of wine-drinking. We hung out in town for a while, got stuff to eat and talked a bit, then Min got ahold of a friend who would have us over for movie watching and wine drinking and so we went, although I was the only one who actuallt drank any wine (I've decided this does not count as drinking on my own, since other people were present!) and we watched half a movie and talked a lot and laughed a lot, and then it was midnight all of the sudden and me and Anja needed to be on our way home. I got to talking to a (probably drunk) lady on the bus about being creative and a feminist approach to the capitalist, pariarch world, etc, etc, and I was mildy entertaining and I missed my bus stop... she said, well hopefully you got some pointers out of the deal, but she was a scorpio so I'm hardly going to be taking her advice anytime soon... and then of course I got lost and walked around in the cold rain for way too long before I made it home at about two-ish, it's ow three and I'm still not sleepy! 34 hours and going strong... I need to rewrite my script and email Kalle and Azigzag who are n my group, but I should probably save that for the morning... I might have been talked into agreeing to an outing on Sunday as well. Swimming. At a bath house. I'm very likely to bail on that one, but we'll see... I had a good time tonight.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Held back a day.

Was very unfit for school this morning after having tossed and turned all night with fever and stuffed nose and aching back and other such lovely things. So I decided to stay home. I slept until five in the afternoon... I guess I was more exhausted than I thought!

Feeling a bit better now. Back is only "I did yoga"-sore, not "why the hell did you walk around in the cold without proper clothes on"-aching, so that's a good pain, not a bad one. Can definitely live with that. Fever gone and nose functioning. Should be fit for school again in the morning!

One more thing; guess what came in the mail today!? The letter from Teaterhögskolan (The theatre school)! My audition is scheduled for the 3rd of November at 8:30 in the morning! It's official! It's happening! I'm so excited! Wish me broken legs!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

I just watched David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch for the first time, and I loved it. I also ventured into Täby earlier and located that gym/health club with the student discount on the one year membership and I got one. I feel healthier already. I'm catching my first class tomorrow night after school - Power Yoga! - and then in the future I thought I'd also try and catch Monday night's core classes as well, so that way I work core strenght along side my yoga every week, but next Monday I actually have an audition of sorts, so I won't make it to the gym.

I talked to the photographer in Uppsala finally. I told him that I wouldn't have time to come up for any photo shoots until Christmas holidays, just to keep my options open. Now, I only have four more people to contact. One old friend and three prospective new ones. I shall keep you updated on that.

Now I have to try and get a hold on tomorrow's schedule so I know where I'm going. Have a good night, everyone.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday night flu

An old childhood friend contacted me and told me she's in town and invited me to go out with her and a number of her friends tonight for "a" pint. I have agreed and am now dolled up accordingly and ready to depart. I'm not meeting them for another two hours, but I figured I would put my mother's camera to good use before she returns to claim it and so am making an impromptu photo shoot on the way into town. Expect autumn leaves and fading daylight a mass.

Took some photos!



The rest at my Flickr!

Friday, October 09, 2009

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

thoughts on images and stories

I feel like I'm better understood here, I don't know if it's a language thing or a culture thing, but the type of stories that I want to tell and the type of ideas that I get make more sense to people here, or some people I should say, but I think in general I feel more at home in the European, and Scandinavian in particular, film culture, and I think my stories fit better and would be more accepted here.

But maybe it's because they also think in images, these people that understand what I'm trying to say or do, as well. That's something I've realized lately, well I've always known it of course, but it's become clear to me that it's the root to some of my problems with misunderstandings and difficulties expressing myself, because I think in images and I struggle first to put those images into words that make sense to myself, and then I have to try and translate those words into new words that makes sense to the person or people I'm explaining it to, and most of the time I don't get my point across at all and it always frustrates me, but that's something I've just got to work on I guess, putting words to my images. It's really weird, that. Because I usually don't have a problem with that when I'm writing, at least not when I'm writing prose, but I guess that's because I've already processed the images enough by the time someone else reads it so the translation is already made, whereas when I'm trying to tell someone of an idea, that's where the problem starts. Half the time, when I've had an idea, I've been convinced it's not complete or good enough or something, and so I've abandoned it, and that's just because I've become so frustrated with myself for not being able to express it the way it looks in my head.. but at the same time, the other half of the times, it's been the opposite, where my idea really benefits from the discussion that erupts from the misunderstandings or confusion when I can't explain it properly, so it's not always a bad thing. But I think I still need to practise expressing myself, or at least practise not getting frustrated with myself when I can't get a point across immediately!

We're doing scriptwriting this week. I'm itching to start, so far though it's been a lot of talking, but it's the first day, so that's valid, but I was getting really restless, because all of last week was all seminars and introductions and theory and film viewing, and I just want to do stuff, I'm crawling out of my skin with pent up creativity! Which is a good thing, I suppose, or preferable to having no ideas or inspiration at all, but it's also frustrating when you don't find the time to do anything. My mum was visiting this weekend, so I hung out with her

(we spent all of Saturday at the Modern Museum, and then we got crisps and soda and went back to mine and watched The Green Butchers in my room, and on Sunday we went for brunch at this vegetarian restaurant that she'd discovered at some point that I hadn't been to before, and it was awesome by the way, and then we window shopped in the pouring rain until she had to catch her train..)

and during the week I've been really out of it when I haven't been busy with school stuff and trying to get some sleep. But tonight, I've decided, I have to finish my novel. It's like an albatross about my neck.