Bring Me Sunshine

Wow. Being sarcastically positive really works.

Today the sun shone, shone, and then shone some more.  In fact it shone so much, I managed to get all the shots I needed - plus quite a few additional ones - of my three very busy little girls.  They looked perfect, did as they were directed and ate ice cream afterwards with aplomb.  We even had time to hit the paddling pools to cool off a bit before lunch.

Today completed the 'shoot' part of my short: now for the edit and my nose being firmly pressed to some random grindstone. Crikey m'lord, we're nearly there.

Busy, busy. Stop.

A pretty manic week to be honest as I have been desperately trying to tie up the last few exterior shots for my short.  These are dependent on the availability of three young girls, and if their social agendas are anything like The Kid's (sounds like they are) then getting them in one place, at one time for two whole hours is really going to be nothing short of a miracle.  It also needs to be a sunny day - hey ho - but let's stay positive, eh?  Let's tick all those darned boxes, goddamit. Let's lift our dreary chins up to the bright sunny sky. Let's smile out loud. Yup. Yup. Yup. Hallelujah!

Anyway.

The Kid now has a rash and a continual drippy nose thanks to his MMR jab but that didn't stop him from pushing his own buggy for half a mile following Mummy doing another recce. I did offer to push him in it, but he flatly refused. T'was a fair deal after a year of me doing the pushing, I guess. 

So here we are, another Friday and another video to ease you into the weekend. I beg you to cast aside your shoes with impromptu nonchalance, divulge your relief in the most verbose fashion, and make merry with sheer frivolity.  

Ok, just have a good weekend, then - I really hope none of these are you...

Free Falling

At least, that's how it feels. Mad? Tick. Exciting? Tick. A revelation? Tickety-tick-tick.

Whilst most of my learned cyber-buds were soberly sanctifying their scriberly souls (ahem) at SWF, I decided to throw down the gauntlet and set myself a little challenge.  Or perhaps that should be: I threw a great, heaving, metal gauntlet at myself and it hit me in this guise:

Swarovski has teamed up with Tank to search the creative community for the freshest film directors around. The Three Graces competition, which launches today, is an open call to filmmakers and creatives working with the moving image to develop a short film to accompany one of three exclusive tracks we’ve commissioned for the project.  Submissions will interpret the myth of the Three Graces, who symbolise the qualities of radiance, joy and abundance.

After reading about the competition in Saturday's (28th June) Shooting People Filmmakers' Bulletin,  I spent the best part of yesterday storyboarding, setting up test shots, checking light levels, filming, chucking together a rough edit and thoroughly enjoying every single darn second of it. After very little sleep (editing becomes strangely obsessive, y'know), I woke up exhausted but buzzing and ready to get going on my plans for a second day of filming drop-ins and cutaways which will complete the shoot.  

After editing and perfecting (ha!) the current material, this will be Entry Number One.  Whether I have the time to devise/shoot/edit Entry Number Two, Three and so on is another situation entirely but I do have lots of ideas kicking around - what happens to those remains to be seen; however, if I don't do something with at least one of them, that gauntlet is going to jump up and choke me. Fingers crossed it doesn't!

For all you out there who wish to have a punt, full details are here.

Good Luck & leave a comment if you are entering!

Greater London?

Had a great day out in Boris' London yesterday.  

The tubes ran on time, sun shone on the South Bank, people smiled & laughed, the crowds veered slowly en masse in Covent Garden, strolled casually in Leicester Square and swaggered in Regent Street, and all the time The Kid clapped, waved furiously and beamed his infectious two-tooth grin at every passer by.

After buying Hamleys and then circumnavigating the rest of London for a tube station with pushchair access (there really aren't that many centrally) we decided Bond Street would do - even a grand amount of stairs didn't dampen the spirits - and headed home.  All tube connection timings were just perfect.  No delays. Even the possible moments of mortal embarrassment as The Kid repeatedly lurched towards the man on the seat behind and tried to remove his toupé, became quite the funniest thing everyone on the tube had seen. 

Ahhhh.  There really is no place like London in the sun, especially when it all runs like clockwork.

Boris please take note.

Oops, nearly forgot.  May the 4th Be With You.  ;)