Ah, being 19 again...

Life-management tips I learnt from my 19 yo classmates

Be on facebook. All the time. Use capital LETters randomly.

Iphones are too expensive and Samsung rules. 

Everybody 3 years older is OLD.

It's ok not to pick up your phone if you're supposed to be at school. If you are hanging out with your friends tired, take some time off and come back when you feel better!

Take acid and watch a movie. Then, you will "know the structure of the world"(sic)

Do follow your school's twitter

Speak about penises and add LOL just after.

Talk enthusiastically about all your school projects. 

Don't forget to mention how X didn't lift a finger LOL.

Make movies about consumerism, schizophrenia, depression, how the mind works... Not about mafia or revenge.

Stalk your friends on facebook. It's called friendship. 

What, Google +?

Discover sex and get a lot of it.

Don't come out yet.

Don't use emoticons.

Go less and less to school. 

Eat more and more liquid stuff until your diet stabilizes at 2 pints per day. 

Buy gifts for your friends with your parents' money. 

Be more mature than expected.

Be less mature than expected. 

Tarantino is bold

It's all about Tarantino these days. Though those who have seen it already say it's not that good I can't wait to see Django Unchained and I keep reading as much as I can about Tarantino until the 19th of January. So, this list of Tarantino's boldest moments made me laugh... I agree with the Melanie thing, but still unsure that it is a good idea for him to be in his movies... I don't think he is in Django.

Art is theft*

For Christmas I received a book about the creative process: Steal like an artist. It is Austin Kleon's collection of advice - 10 of them, beautifully presented - on how to be creative. Stuff he learnt the hard way, and wishes he had been told when he was 19, basically. It's interesting because it doesn't only apply to the art world. Definitely useful for brand valuation too. 

The two things he says I loved - and agree with! - were:

-Steal like an artist. In my school, they call it "research, research, research".  Good to know that even in the art world talent is nothing without hard work. 

A few quotes about that: 

"Steal from anywhere than resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination" Jim Jarmusch

"What is originality? Undetected plagiarism" William Ralph Inge

"The only art I'll ever study is stuff that I can steal from" David Bowie

-The second thing is that apparently being angry and curious is a good thing (that's hidden in the book, you need to read it through too see that). Being angry pretty much all the time, I say this is a good thing (James disagrees)

He also suggests to write fan letters to the artists you love, so I am going to write to Lena Dunham.

Another book about the creative process, more detailed, is Julia Cameron's The Artist Way. Basically, it's the creatives' self-help bible. It's not only that she used to be Scorsese's wife or wrote for Miami Vice**. She also worked a lot with blocked artists and created a "path to become unblocked". 

She had two great tools, the morning pages and the artist dates, that are detailed here. Yes, it looks all spiritual and hippie but it works!

*It is not me who says that, it's Picasso. 

**1 episode - apparently she then made enough money to independently finance her movie "God's Will"...

An afternoon with Mike Figgis

Not long ago, a girl at LCC organized a lecture from Mike Figgis, who happens to be her uncle, to raise money for her major project (note for later: that girl is smart, and it is a good start to be the daughter of someone. Would my doctor uncle interest anyone?). 

I didn't know the guy (on my defense, he describes himself as "getting down the Hollywood food chain"), but managed to sneak in anyway. He spoke about his life, and gave good advice on directing. So here are the few things I learnt from him:

-Learn how to use a camera, "it is your brush" (also known as: There is a love affair going on between the actors and the camera crew and you want to be involved)

-Get music education

-Understand light. Take a day off, go out and make some shots then look at them

-My favorite: No comfort food at lunch time during shooting. Noone can focus after fish and chips

-And the one, truest and scariest: you are not here to be loved. Sometimes, you will need to be diva, and you will be loathed for that. 

Now, having been fed with the "two brains is better than one" and "we're all in this together" philosophy during my business years, I find this very hard to make mine. I should write later on that. 

And finally, a quote he started with:

"I thought: it can't be that difficult. It wasn't".

Obsessed with "Girls"

I can not believe it took me so much time to start watching it, after all the raving reviews I had read. I guess what put me off was that 1) Lena Dunham, who writes, co-directs, produces and stars in it is my age and 2) I loved Sex and the City too much and feared a low-cost Sex and the City

So, it is a low-cost Sex and the City and that's why it's so good. Thank God someone finally speaks about how f....ing hard it is to get started in life. No more parent's money, no more direction after uni, and the pressure that "these are your best years and you should make the most of it".

And Adam is so sexy. 

It's back on TV in January. Finally a good reason to stop watching homeland. 

(pic from dailybillboard)

How to write dialogues?

Good question. I am in the middle of writing a play, and am struggling enormously with my fake-sounding lines. So I went back to this interesting Guardian article on writing convincing article. 

How to write fiction: DBC Pierre on convincing dialogue

I find the "beat around the bush" one the most difficult. 

A shooting day

That day we planned on shooting 3 hours in a cemetery, 1 hour in a church and 3 hours at my home. We had it all: the storyboard, the call sheet, the awesome cast... - what could possibly go wrong?

Meeting point is the Brompton cemetery's south entry at 8.

8.00 James arrives

8.30 I arrive

9.00 Levi is lost

9.00 James and I figure we should take establishing shots of the cemetery      while waiting for the others

9.05 The camera says "full battery"

9.15 The camera says "no battery"

9.17 We figure it's better to turn off the camera

9.30 I receive texts saying "On my way"

9.35 Levi finds us

9.45 The actor arrives

9.50 I go for a run around the cemetery because it's sooooooooo cold - did I mention it is the coldest day of the year?

10.15 We prepare the mike, the tripod...

10.17 The cemetery's guard tells us that if we get caught filming in here, it's a 5,000 pounds fine

10.30 Our actress arrives

10.45 We hide our bags

11.00 We start shooting, as discreetly as possible

11.15 We are so running out of battery, we can't even turn video mode

11.17 Our actor does a "working dance" with the battery to make it work again

11.18 It works!

11.19 It doesn't work

11.30 everybody is freezing

11.45 James says he's gonna go home and charge the battery and come back. We plan one hour and a half f waiting time

12.00 I rehearse a dancing scene in the cemetery with our actors and really, they're beautiful

12.05 Our actor reminds us that he has to be at the other end of London in 2 hours

12.30 We sit in a cafe and eat chips and drink tea. 

13.15 The camera comes back - slightly charged - The actor is supposed to leave in 30 minutes max

13.20 We shoot our planned 2 hours in 30 minutes, hiding from the guards and running from one scene to the other

14.10 Our actor can finally go - thanks Sid!

14.15 No more battery so James goes recharge it in a beauty salon

14.35 We're waiting

14.50 We shoot our last scenes

15.13 We can't manage to get a proper shot of the scene when she gets hit by a bus and we almost die

15.30 Shooting over! We can go and give the equipment back to the school

17.00 We go to my place eat humous and watch the takes, only to realize the most important ones are blurry

Despite the cold, it was actually a really cool day. I had a lot of fun, I guess thanks to the beautiful location, our funny actors and my super efficient and focused team. It's cool to know that we will shoot again.