stop time

The film seems to be moving ahead without me- we shoot in 7 weeks and I still have to find 3 more actors, an art director, gaffer, permission to shoot in lost-and-found, a bolex to sneak into the catacombs and a green screen. I feel a bit overwhelmed by it all- especially since I've had a yucky cold all week. Paris is so cold and rainy that I just get sick every 3rd week...though perhaps I caught this cold in snowy italy. Yesterday, my assistant director and I went to Eclair- one of France's biggest labs. We negotiated a 50% discount on their 200% over-inflated prices...winding up around a sort of half-way point between Fotokem and Monaco labs. In France it appears you have to stick with one lab from beginning to end- not like the states where you can piece together labs for processing, telecine, blowup, etc... Well, the whole thing is quite stressful because I really need to choose a lab that my school will approve and pay for, as well as choose a pathway to go from my super-16mm film to a final print and/or video...it's all very complicated and I have a million prices swirling in my head and it is not always evident which route to follow.

In other news, French olyimpic coverage is so wierd. I was all happy to be watching figure skating and drinking my tea. They were playing it live, not cutting for commercials and not doing any stupid biopic things...but then after 15 minutes, before any of the top skaters had gone, they just stopped- end of show. Time for the news- which plays on like 50 channels and is endlessly boringly chatting about the bird flu...arghh. Where is my toe-to-toe ice queen cut-throat competition? Where is the tear-stained sequined russian princess? Where are the flowers falling on the ice? ah non, c'est l'heure du journal, patinage est fini apres 15 minutes, tant pis pour vous...
zut.

okay...it's later this evening and I would like to make a withdrawal of previous statement- my ice skating will be on in 5 minutes and you can ignore my previous complaining. Except I would like to add that I am not as wierd and obsessed than this may seem. I'm quite focused on my filmmaking and this is just my guilty pleasure since i"m sick and my boyfriend went to a bachelor party and i'm alone drinking tea. bonne nuit.