Endless auditions

Sometimes the process feels like it takes forever, but it's worth it because then when you find the right people it feels fantastic. This afternoon we auditioned someone for Bates for Aaron's movie that we both liked a lot. There are still a couple of other people to meet, but it was so nice to finally meet someone who really could work.

For me, I've got the first set of callbacks tonight. Here's my problem, the guy for tonight, who I've worked with before and really like, has been sick all week. We've exchanged some emails to see if he could just skip, or come in but be less prepared than he wanted. Now we're at maybe one of the Sunday guys will swap with him. But that's short notice for them. If it works that's the best solution, if it doesn't I'm not sure how tonight will play out.

It's turning into a big pain in the ass, but I think it's worth it. There's not much that people get for working on student films. If you want to work with good people it helps if you're easy to work with. Sometimes, often, you can't be accommodating. So when you can, you should. People notice and appreciate that kind of thing.

This week on British Cinema

We watched zombie movies. Shaun of the Dead and 28 Days Later, both films I actually own. We didn't entirely finish 28 Days Later, and apparently we may or may not finish it next week, though I hope so. We were just getting to the good bit. So, clearly I like them both even though generally speaking I'm not a fan of zombie films, and even less a fan of the horror genre as a whole. But Shaun of the Dead is as much comedy as anything else. And what's scary about 28 Days Later is not the "Infected" but the survivors.

I'll be interested to see what the professor says in the discussion next week about these films. The first part of this week we were talking about last week's film Sexy Beast which was a gangster film. It was an interesting discussion about how misogynistic British culture can be, which is a sweeping generalization as that doesn't apply to any of the British people I know. But you see it in a film like Sexy Beast where the women - of which there were only 2 out of more than a dozen speaking roles - were so oppressed that they were entirely dismissed. The heart of the film was not the actual heist that finally gets committed, but the power play between the pip-squeak, middle man crime lord and the want to be retired heavy. Can Ben Kingsley frighten Ray Winstone into returning to London for one more job? The answer is yes, but he doesn't actually win. The women barely even register.

So Sexy Beast ended up being more interesting to watch than I was expecting, but I wouldn't recommend it to you. And I was much more entertained by what we watched tonight.

Oscar Shorts

Last night I went to a screening of the Oscar nominated shorts. It was almost a private screening. A couple showed up toward the end of the first one, stayed for the second one, and left at the start of the third one. I think they just wanted to see Martin Freeman. I wanted to see the best of the genre, the thing I should be aspiring for. Here's what I learned: Even the best shorts are sometimes too long.

Putting together a team

I've had great teams when I was doing films in DC, but we all had day jobs. So while I think we did fantastic work, it was a hobby, especially for everyone else. Now I'm pretty much building a team from scratch. No one from previous Heron Media films is likely to work on Ghost Tours. But they're all in film school so this is their job, so to speak.

Guests on my fire escape

I noticed when I came back from winter break that there was a tear in my screen for the kitchen window. Over the weekend I discovered why. When I woke up there was a squirrel clinging to the screen on the inside, between the screen and the window. When I knocked on the glass he ran off to the fire escape, but then he just stat there staring me down. I went and got my phone and he just looked at me for quite a while before giving up on my letting him have the window back.

Then this morning I was making tea and heard a noise and thought the squirrel was back. It is quite possible the squirrel is now dead because what I found was a hawk. He stayed long enough for me to get a good shot too.