Homecoming

I'm typing on the airplane. I have a horribly long day- ottawa-
montreal-frankfurt-paris....why why why? Still, I feel very calm and
peaceful and now I am on my montreal-frankfurt leg and very grateful to have
an empty seat next to me and a smooth ride thus far. Sadly, the two movies
are "must love dogs" and "ocean's 12". Though I have seen neither I really
have no interest in seeing them either. Oh my special meal is here. This
looks soooo much worse than the food coming from paris, which was deluxe.
Well, a glass of wine and a cheesy movie should knock me out for the rest of
the flight. This dumb movie is making me cry. Why do I love john cuzack
so? It must be the altitude.

Okay, now I'm back in my apartment. Oh I feel groggy and jet-lagged. Why
can't you people work on teleportation? This whole
time-zone-jet-lag-flying-thing is getting old!
It's new year's eve and I'm hoping to stay awake till midnight, go to some
fun parties, and drink too much (Real French!) champagne (as opposed to the
normal 4.99 trader joe's sparkling wine and share a midnight kiss with my
love. I'm hoping to run into my number one blog reader Gabrielle on the
rues de paris...

kulture shok

I faked sleep on the last leg of the flight, Chicago to Minneapolis. The two guys next to me discussed various topics- going to Sturges, riding in a hummer limo, hunting, rifles, water heater repair, the various bases in north and south dakota, the "Jack Daniels Girls" ("easy on the eyes"), and metal versus plastic pipes. Guy number one paid for the drink of Guy number two- just being Midwestern friendly. I faked waking up and explained my exhausted state of flying in from France and the three hours stuck in O'hare. Guy one, "Paris, huh? They're not really on our side right?" More factually stated than a question.

No, non non. Life is surely different here. As my dad correctly summed up, everyone at the airport looks like they just rolled out of bed and wearing their pajamas. While slurping their 40 ounces of Starbucks coffee (4 starbucks stores alone in terminal 2B, as soon as you had passed by one the next was in sight).

But then I get into my beautiful old house in Minnesota, freshly coated in snow, the temperature hovering around zero farenheit, delicious food awaiting, newspapers and the entire year's back issues of New Yorker's waiting on me, and I feel quite happily home. Plus I went swimming and I only had to share the lane with one other person and it was so clean and friendly and wonderful.

So, two weeks to focus on relaxing and writing and then back to the gray sky and drizzle. And beautiful people and warm croissants and menus that read like poetry.

Ca va bien

I'm quite pleased at the moment. Yesterday I held a fairly miserable audition- only 4 actors showed up and I have yet to cast a single role....yet I am moving well ahead with my crew. The most exciting thing is the addition of a kick-ass DP, Armel Hostiuo. He is a graduate of La Femis, the top french film school, winner of several awards, and loaded with talent. His sense of imagery and creativity is amazing, and I think he gets my story. In addition, for no good reason whatsoever, I seem to have attracted a tiny but wonderful little gaggle of young ladies helping me raise money. They are off filling out "Dossiers" for grants and making sure I don't have to go into massive debt on top of my already massive film school debt.
So, even though I've yet to find my little starlette or old lady, I feel things are very much on their way.

Plus I'm flying to Minnesota tomorrow and will soon see my darling sister, dad and stepmom....yah!

sabotage and princesses

I've had a very long and stressful week- and it's only Wednesday!
Today in film class I met with my prof and he had some good suggestions for my script, and some harsh criticism- which I am open to. I think he is quite a wise old man...but also I have been working on this forever and he doesn't know me at all and my professors back home are more aware of where I am at. The themes seem to be shifting from foreigness into image and representation. I'm not sure what I want really, and think image/representation may be a clearer theme. It's very hard to say what makes one french if you want to avoid berets and eiffel towers and baguettes and wine (though these are all so totally french!).

Anyway, that's not the juicy stuff. The prof continues to be encouraging and even said that some students shoot in super16mm and blowup to 35mm. On school funds! Nothing is certain yet though...
After my meeting with the professor a girl in the class came up to me and said she had read my script and wanted to join my crew. How cool. She's going to help my already great assistant director. In France assistant director seems to me a lot more than yelling "roll sound", much more like a producer role....
But thennnnn, the lovely new girl pulls me aside and tells me she heard that some of the other students in the class are upset that this "masters" student is hanging out in their "license" (undergrad) class, possibly funnelling their class resources (money) and these students are going to complain in the program office. In Paris it is strange because I am neither officially a graduate or undergraduate student- just a non-diploma exchange student.
Well, the other members of by crew assurred me that these other students can just buzz off and if the prof supports my script, then that's that. Still, I'm really nervous because I can just taste the possibility and would love to do it this way...

Aside from that I've been auditioning lots of pretty princesses. All the children and moms have been exceptionally nice, but I am shuffling from one to the next and not finding the right thing. Where is the introspective, curious, wide-eyed starlette I want? Who are all these 6 year olds who know more about fashion than I do? (most as it turns out).

blog shout outs to:
gabs! maman took me to the best chocolate chaud.
sis! Older, bolder, lovelier than ever
p! Come home from Oz! and happy birthday. hope you got good socks.
my love, see you in 44 hours.

i think i'll do a weekly blog shout out to check who's reading!
oh i just saw "L'enfant" tonight- pretty good film.

Is gerard depardieu in every french movie?

Just a question. He seems to be...

Today after working at my job (teaching english to primary school teachers) I stopped by Au Bon Marché for the first time. All I want to know is who shops at that place? I walked around and looked at 250 euro hats and 60 euro gloves and 1000 euro fur mini-skirts. Sorry, my cher friends and family, but no one will be getting anything from that fine place. It made me feel poor and depressed.

In less depressing film news, I have 3 little girls and 1 old lady scheduled for auditions this week, about 10 middle-aged men for next week...so progress!

If anyone has any advice on HD finish from Super 16mm versus 16mm to 16mm film out, please email me and we'll chat!

Now, off to a film, "Lonesome Jim"...or do I just stay home and fall asleep watching Gerard Depardieu on the tube.?

action!

Yesterday I shot my second film in Paris. I wrangled up 3 people from my school to be the crew- one of whom had a nice HDV camera that we used, and 4 actors, including a little boy. The shoot went really fast and had a total budget of 20 euros- spent entirely on wine, crackers and salami for the after party. The entire purpose of the shoot was to practice shooting in Paris. I think of filmmaking kind of like a sport or an instrument- it really helps to practice before your big game.
I find it really fun to just go out and shoot something. It's a bit stressful because I want to have a plan and make sure everything runs smoothly, but in the end, everyone enjoyed themselves. Somehow it feels easier to do it here in Paris than in SF. Maybe I became stagnant there and just needed something new....

In casting news, I'm a bit dissapointed because the twins I were thinking of casting are not interested. It's okay, better to know now than later, but still. I have been running all over Paris meeting little girls and their parents- hard work but quite fun. The hardest is telling their parents that they're not right for the part. All the girls are terribly cute but that doesn't mean they have what I'm looking for. I have three more girls lined up this week...we'll see.