casting hot mamas

I feel so happy today. Not because of all the bad things: phoneline temporarily broke, prof didn't show up for class, working papers are apparently "out of order", fresh paint in my hallway really stinks, miss my boy and my friends...but for the good things:

Actors!
They are appearing, slowly but surely. Today I met 4 little girls- the last two were adorable irish twins. They had a really unique aura and clearly big imaginations, which is what the character needs. Plus, their parents are video artists. And I'm getting other actors responding to my announcements too- which is very, very good. no really old ladies though. i always need old ladies...

Paris!
Okay it SNOWED and is ass-cold, but I'm liking it more and more. I saw fun music with friends. I visited the Catacombs, hopefully a location in my film. It is the most amazing and creepy maze of skulls with dripping wet walls and cages and stacks of really old bones.

OH MY GOD:


Movies!
I went to this place called "Maison du Film Court" which reminded me of the San Francisco Film Arts Foundation, which I love. It appears there is after-all some support for new filmmakers. They have racks of actors headshots and helped me post an announcement on their site. I'll be going back for sure.

Plus...
I can't hide my excitement over future visits of my boy, tina, phoebe, ed and who else...?

Last, but not least, I'm shooting a movie in my apartment on Saturday. Oh la la!

cineminera

Ah, what a day. In class this morning I finally got a wonderful girl to commit as my Assistant Director, another as a head PA. Then I went in the afternoon to the Cinemateque Francaise, where I've been seeing lots of movies. Today I finally went to their museum part. If you go, don't go on a weekend! It was lovely and calm today. The Renior/Renior exhibit was okay, the problem was that it was too bright for the films and too dark for the paintings; still, one got a sense of how Pierre-August passed down his wonderful eye to his son Jean. But the real treasure of the cinemateque was the permant exhibit on the history of cinema. I could spend hours there! It shows how cinema really has its roots in magic and magic shows. One can see and play with all sorts of "magic lanterns", spin old-fashioned flip books, look through lighted paintings and see all the orignal materials- Muybridge, Meliers, Lumiere....it's truly a heavenly place.

To end with I went in to their Mediateque. Filmlovers paradise...One can sit in a carosel and watch 1000's of movies, or read any of the film criticism magazines from around the world, or sort through stacks of books on theory and practice. All this cinemaphilia has me wiped out and feeling feverish...which is why I'm off to a movie, Woody Allen's latest, "Match Point".

Over 200?

Little Film has past the 220 viewers mark? How is that? Even with myself accounting for lets say 100, my parents another 50; that's almost 75 non-related visitors?!

Who are you?

Can I just say I am horrified by the cover of Newsweek Europe today: a picture of a frightening looking burning car, presumably in Paris, with the headline:
"Memo to Europe: Ready to Change NOW?" Which I think implies, "Ready to become more American NOW?". I personally think the US media is having a field day pointing out the French have some problems of their owns, na na na boo boo.

The truth is France does need to look at it's racism problems carefully. I go to schoo l in the suburbs of Paris, the streets are full of black and north african residents, yet the public, "for the people university" has classrooms that are majority white. Yesterday our Ultra-leftist professor showed a film about violence in the suburbs and then asked, " who is from these Paris suburbs, who can comment on this?" No one raised their hand. Why is that?

I teach in a University for future school teachers, almost all female and white. Why is that?

If ever I have seen a case for affirmative action, here it is.

Chateaux chez moi

Paris is extremely cold now. It reminds me of Minnesota, except that the
woman here continue to wear high heeled boots and little fur wraps, quite
dissimilar to the down parkas and moon-boots of my youth.

I am sitting on a train, returning from a night in "the chateaux" where a
family friend lives. Literally, the real deal, with endless rooms, entire
guest houses, big lion statues, electronic gates, and pink marble floors.
The evening was hilariously aristocratic, complete with much talk of the
problem of finding good workers. While it was ridiculously nice it also
immediately made me long for my 18 square meters in central Paris. I think
I'd always rather live in some tiny place with second hand furniture in the
heart of a city than a massive place in the country. Of course, the
chateaux made me think of all the movies that could be made there, about
little princesses and crusty rich hermits and dukes and duchesses falling in
love.

In movie news, I have finished a treatment for a feature I'd like to write
this year and finally translated my script into french and showed it around.
I plan to begin the casting search soon. Then it's location, crew, money,
money, money, equipment, etcetera. The thing that I've finally learned is
by the time you shoot the movie, as much as you've accomplished, you're not
even halfway done. Postproduction and distribution is the hardest part,
almost something you have the least control of.v

Visiting little monkeys:


Pretty metro or possible movie site:

Pros and Cons

Realizing that I have been in Paris over two months is quite shocking. Where has the time gone? I finally feel like I am back to the level of French I spoke at 16, which dwindled downwards ever since. I sit in on my classes at the University here and miss a good 25 percent of the lecture...but alas, the professors seem to ramble quite a bit about nothing in the part I do catch.

This week I learned I had the opportunity to make my thesis film as part of an undergraduate "final projects" type class. In a few months the professor will pick one lucky group which the school will finance the film, in 16mm. I learned this about 3 weeks after everyone else in the class. So there I was, attempting to pitch my script to a bunch of fairly inexperienced undergrads, most of whom are committed to other groups already. I finally managed to secure 2.5 people to join my group, and handing the professor a poorly translated version of my script (a lot of babelfish was involved) I got on the list for a project. My script is now one of four that may get the lucky pot of gold, the school funds. The school hires a professional DP and Sound person and pays for all the film and processing and equipment. This seems like a great opportunity if I get it (odds aren't that good), but it comes with a price- not having as much control of my project, having to work on the school's schedule instead of mine, using a less experienced crew, ecetera. I suppose there are trade-offs attached to all money. Of course, if one of my blog fans wished to send me 10,000 euros than I could just hire my own damn DP and rent a beautiful camera to boot...Or if 10,000 of my blog fans each sent my 1 euro that could work too...

Paris is NOT burning

The strangest thing is when I look at BBC or NYTimes website I get the feeling that there is rioting in the streets of Paris and huge fires everywhere, but when I listen to French radio I get the feeling that the port workers strike in Marseille or the French-Aussie rugby match is of far greater importance to the french people. The French media is definitely trying to downplay the violence, rarely discussing the causes of this mass unrest in the suburbs of Paris (distant northern suburbs far from where I live). But maybe they are right to do so, to not fan the flames...

Anyway, I am safe and sound at the moment. And busy working on translating my script into French.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4405822.stm

des photos!

Yes, I finally have dsl chez moi which means I finally have the patience to upload pictures which means pictures for you!

french colors are fun, an entirely different palette than Americans'

my school corridors are hideously color coded, endless mazes of dark green and purple, like this:


and a cool car:


enjoy the pictures. follow the links and see more on my flickr page too...