signs

Apologies to anyone who still expects posts about scriptwriting (ha!) but now is think-time until the weekend pow wow when everything gets thrashed out and I stop faffing..

Meanwhile noticed a few strange little signs from the universe - all occurring in a short space of time..

Firstly, this morning at around 5 am I looked out of the window to see a young woman (outside the house across the road) skipping or rather jumping on the spot with a skipping rope. Unusual at that time, (in the half light) but nothing too out of the ordinary. Exercise.

Then about half an hour later, my daughter came running up to tell me that she could see a man lying asleep outside our house, on the stoep. I must have missed him before - but indeed there he was - fast asleep outside. 'Moving people on' is hub's job - so he did that and the man went away. No fuss. All the while, the girl across the road continued to skip.

Then as we all left the house for the school run, my daughter pointed out a loopy 'm' (or 'w' depending where you stood or maybe it was even a number '3' on its side) drawn in yellow chalk on the ground outside, directly opposite the front door. She hadn't drawn it so I guess the man who'd been asleep outside did.

Hmmm.....

this and that

A meandering post, this one. The script is now re-written, polished, tweaked, combed and edited as thoroughly as I can manage and ready for the off sometime this week.

I've been considering whether to overhaul the blog - either that or link to a web page of professional stuff etc - something fairly low maintenance. Maybe I'll first put up more information in my profile and then make the transition bit by bit. Any ideas?

The other day I went to the dinner launch of the Parliamentary Film Festival. Before we ate, they showed a fascinating 2 hour-long documentary by Egyptian filmmaker Jihan El Tahri - Cuba An African Odyssey which first I thought was going to be a bit heavy, but ended up being riveted by the tragicomic story of Che Guevara's military campaign in the Congo and his numerous disguises. Being more drawn to fiction than documentary, I thought this whole little known segment of Che's story would make a brilliant movie in itself. Anyway the fish was delicious and some twist of fate found me seated at the same table as the prodco whose job I'd stepped off - earlier this year. Bygones perhaps..?

Last thing I want to ruminate on today is contracts. The big jazz one hasn't yet arrived which means other plans have to be postponed. However, the contracts for the next two scripts have - but major issues still need to be resolved. Hmmm. Sometimes I prefer to work on an ad hoc basis - than be tied into difficulties very early on.

Let's see.

plans...

Now that things are moving forward at a rapid pace once again (isn't it funny how life can just stodge up for weeks on end with not much happening apart from the rain) the big trip can be planned. Too soon to try and make it during the next school holidays here - so it looks like I'll be back in Blighty & Brum for 3 weeks just before Christmas coinciding with the big 'summer holiday' here and maybe even go to NY on the end - (all part of research of course.) Cor - not been back for 6 years. Had lots of visits here from family and a few friends and even imported my mum in the meantime (ha!) and now my sister and new hub are due over here in the next couple of weeks or so. Even so I'm wondering if I'll have a bit of culture shock - what with everything having gone up so much in the meantime, or maybe I might not even want to come back again. That's the worst thing about moving so far way for so long: estrangement from close friends. In an ideal world I'd spend the SA summer here (Nov - April) and then the rest of the time in the UK. Although that's not an entirely impossible scenario, it would require a considerably higher income (!).

Another plan involves storage - getting a built-in floor to ceiling shelving system thing up one wall of the office. Hub probably has around 3 million photo stills (negatives mainly) but for the last 5 years everything has been stored on CDS and DVDs which now amount to hundreds of discs and tons of ring binders - stuffed into every available wardrobe and cupboard and shelving in the house - in no particular order. I once worked at the Ronald Grant archive (and Cinema Museum) in SE London (I wonder if he's still around? - update: blinking heck he is - just found this on the web - have a look:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnLsvLPGZzA
nice little job where the assorted bunch of blokes spent day after day rummaging through filing cabinets stuffed with classic Hollywood film stills and memorabilia whilst keeping up an never-ending thread of lurid celebrity gossip. That archive seemed to have absolutely no system of organisation whatsoever and just relied purely on memories & instincts of the dedicated staff to locate requested stills. I sat in front of an Amstrad one day a week and typed up invoices and then posted them. (BTW on the vid everything now looks a lot more ordered than it used to)
So anyway organisation is pretty high up on the 'to do' list at the moment...

In other news - I saw a big hairy eyebrow of a caterpillar crawling across the floor to hide under the fridge.