Thoughts for the day

Impressed

It would be fair to say that I have been very impressed with the motivation of the team over the last few weeks. Chop may just be a 20 minute film, but that we have written, thrashed out, rehearsed and filmed something has meant a lot to all of us. Some I’ve been surprised with, pleasantly surprised. This leaves me full of confidence going into a rather important ‘meeting’ on Wednesday, which is more about impressing somebody then being an ‘actual’ meeting. A lot could ride on it, and it helps to know I’ve got a full team behind me. It would seam we are getting closer to our goals, aims and dreams.

Support

I sat down with my brother over the course of the weekend, whilst he has always been supportive, he has sat on the fringe of the film company, putting in a few good suggestions and for the better part just watching and making sure everything is okay. I asked him to do a script writing course this year, which threw him completely out of his comfort zone, to start with he hated it. However as the course has progressed he has become more committed and motivated by it. I do have to point out that Jon Spira is a fantastic tutor, which is half the battle. The thing is Barrie has written an excellent script that Simon has talked me into filming, with a provisional date in early September. Beyond that though, is that I think Barrie can see this working and now wants to be a big part of that. It will be a little tough at times as he has always held the ‘Alfa’ role being the big brother that has always looked after me. In the film business that is my role, though I feel he will be poised to do much of the Production stuff. Time will tell.

Excitment

It’s been a really tough couple of years, financially difficult and emotionally draining; I can now see the light breaking though the clouds. One of the things recently that meant a lot was when Sonic saw the rough cut of Chop and honestly said that it was better then he expected. Much better, and that whilst he hoped that we could pull it off, he suspected that it would not be all that good. After all a lot of people talk about making films and how they would do them. Well we did it. I see holes all over the place when I watch it, but as a first attempt, I think it’s pretty bloody good and most of the feedback says the same. And if we can do that with £800 can you imagine what we could do with more? And once that has happened, once we get our first feature done, then one would hope that we will be a real film company and the level of achievement will be huge.

Coming along for the ride

It’s got to be worth a punt, I know we can all do this.

Laters,

Chalkster

No Rest

So I finished my first rough edit last night around midnight, I then lay in bed and didn’t sleep, whilst I went over and over in my head what now needs to be done. I need to to a bit of tidying up and to change some of the shots, but overall for a rough edit I think it looks pretty good. Tom has his work set out though with getting the sound and the colour up to scratch, not to mention rebuilding my edit from scratch, which is his preferred method of working, which sounds fair enough to me.

I’d feel better

If Bella had not decided to get us up around 6 this morning though, I’m already shattered and the day has not even begun yet. I’d feel better, but the little bitch is fast asleep on my bed again. she will most likely sleep through the day with fits of ball fetching. still at least I got the rubbish and the bottles out on time this week.

Ah my bi-weekly feeling of loneliness

Ah dear reader you will most likely get fed up with me harping back onto this subject, but I had a visit from the ex again on Sunday, it’s become a regular every two weeks without fail, followed by the promise that this time she will come and see Bella more frequently, which will only happen if I force the issue. I won’t, again not because I want her back, but because I always get left feeling lonely. Sometimes you just want to share things, which to be honest we never did, well other then Rugby, which I’ve now developed an intense, immature and all encompassing dislike for. I can’t help but feel it’s a homo-erotic sport played in the large part by people in denial. Nothing wrong with it if you are not in denial. Some of the stories I’ve heard of late about the Oxford Brooks boys drinking white wine and beer pored off each others genitals, I mean, white wine really?

The 3 Male Teams I know

In Oxford are, The Oxford Brookes ‘Suckers‘, Oxford City [Mens [best not say too much about them as some are palls, not Jerry of course]], and the Oxford Harla’Queens’. The first we know a little bit about and I’ve had a few run-ins with some of them. The one that pisses me off is this little bloke who with all his meaty mates behind him runs amuck, standing on tables in pubs getting his ‘boys’ to sing along and create havok. He even tried to grab my balls as a stranger then when I threatened to hit him, he disappeared behind one of his ‘Forwards?’, I think that I recognise his position by two things both a lack, one of brains and one of neck. The Oxford city boys are mostly right by me, they still like to be offencive and get their bits out in public and have very little respect for their female counterparts. Having the female team for them is a challenge, one how many they can sleep with and two, how many they can turn, I don’t think it’s out of turn to point out that the girls team is made up of a number of lesbians, they admit it, so its fine. I have a healthy dislike though for a number of them, mostly brought through out of jealousy and stoked paranoia but some with good reason, which is for another day.

What about the Harla’Queens?

Well, I really know very little about them from contact, though I’m told I have met some of them, I suspect that I felt uncomfortable. They are possibly the worst, because they sit just outside of professional sport. They are led to believe that they are almost gods and some believe they are. All I’ve seen is utter arrogance, which is something coming from me! It might not just be Rugby that this attitude is stemmed from, I’m pretty sure its not, a young man put on a pedestal and given lots of looking after, being told that they are incredible, women love them, they get to grab their fellow men’s genitals and shower with them without their sexuality being questioned, it’s not really surprising is it. However if their is a suggestion that they actually have any tendency’s they are ostrasised by their peers who always hope that its not them swapping places.

Now don’t take this too far

I’m not a homophobic, and I’m sure that, in fact I know that not all rugby players are like this. But a huge amount are, even the married ones [have you ever heard of a beard]. I also know it is a game of skill, and I have been known to enjoy watching a game, though my playing career was cut short by somebody grabbing my balls in a scrum that I really did not understand [it was expected that you already knew about the games so your teachers never bothered to actually teach you], which I noticed was happening a lot. I’m surprised that Cedric and Sylus did not enjoy themselves more! As it happens I was pretty shit at football too, softball and basketball worked for me, both I was tought outside of school first, by somebody that actually gave a shit.

So what about footballers?

You do get a bit of the same thing though the ones that tend to cause the havok are the more professional ones, not the standard ‘around town’ or semi-professionals. It seams that the more professional you get in Rugby, the more controlled you are, and the opposite with football. I happen to think this is down to money rather then the sport. If Rugby had as much money in it as football it would be the same I suspect. But one thing is for sure, I know not of a time that I’ve seen a football team player talking to a woman with his balls out in my local.

Blimey it would appear I’ve just spent 20 minutes ranting!

Laters,

Chalkster

I Had to take a break

From the editing that is, if you look at something to hard it just becomes more difficult to do, so step away. I start again today with a fresh outlook and new ideas. I did show some people some of the work so far just to gage opinion and see if we are doing this right. We seam to be, most of the questions are the questions we want people to ask, and are answered by the end of the piece. Some were just stupid ones that people ask when watching films, and generally come from those people that are not capable of making them, so it’s okay. And some feedback made so much sense that I’m going back into that edit to fix it. Overall, very good.

BBQ

I had my quietist BBQ in years on Saturday, it was arranged more as a get together with the Lodgers and friends then a ‘chalky doo’ though as it happens, the two girls fucked off anyway, and Dave only stayed as he felt guilty, so I wash my hands of it now. I’ll invite all my friends next time and not give a shit about the others. Only a fraction of the people I invited turned up anyway, so I’m left with a huge amount of food that I won’t eat as I’m a veggie, and there is not enough room in the freezer for it. Burger anybody?

The Stig

So it turns out that I have found the true identity of the Stig! And now it does not surprise me that the said person destroys so many perfectly good cars.

But Please don’t tell anyone!Laters,

Chalkster