21/09/2017

Calling From A London Phonebox

(Beep)

(P.s. i am not in a phonebox, i just thought it made a cool title and i have seen quite a few round london)

It's 9:22 and I'M ON THE TRAIN! Haha, whenever someone answers the phone on a train they shout that line, so seeing as i'm leaving you a message, i felt i had to do it too! I am on my way to london, so me and my cousin can go to a rooftop cinema to see ferris buellers day off! I am then staying with her, and coming home tomorrow (wednesday 20th september). If you know me, you know that i plan everything, and in my mobile mind updates, things go wrong when i don't plan. However, this little trip hasn't been planned at all. I have no clue what time i am meeting my cousin, going home, what i am gonna do in london (apart from the cinema thing), ANYTHING! One thing i need to get better at is coping without a plan, so that's the challenge i have set myself these 2 days. I am hopefully not gonna cry in a corner, haha! The plan so far is to arrive at euston at 11:50, walk to the british museum, meet a friend for lunch, explore the museum, and then that's where the plan ends. Lol help. I am excited to see what happens, and hopefully i come out the other side. If not, you will never read this. Oh. Haha.
10:35 i have eaten 2 bags of crisps. I don't know how i feel. I should probably eat healthily for the rest of the day.
15:37 it's been a lovely day so far! I got off the train fine, found my way to the british museum (passed rada, and it was my childhood dream to go there), and met up with my friend hollie! I met her at the bastille gig at uniom chapel a few months ago in london, and said that she didn't have work til later so she could meet me for lunch. Opposite the main gates to the museum was a starbucks so we went there. I had a mozzarella, tomato and pesto sandwich and it was alright, the cheese was a bit too stringy! Haha! We spoke for about an hour which was really nice to catch up, and then we parted ways. I headed into the museum. I hadn't been here since about half way through high school to see a shakespeare exhibition with my gran, so i couldn't really remember it. I am currently sat on a bench in the entrance by the way. So, i walked in and explored as much as i could. There were some cute lil exhibitions on clocks as well as lgbtq history which was interesting. I just looked up at the incredible ceiling and wow. The history that's jam packed into this place is amazing, i know i am small, but i feel so tiny compared to our world. My cousin rang me a while ago to say she was on her way to meet me, so i might go and buy 2 postcards to send to some friends i am going to be penpals with whilst they are at uni. It's been great so far, and apart from the walk from euston to the museum, i haven't really felt anxious at all!
15:53 they don't sell postcards.
19:21 i am now with my cousin, sat on a rooftop in peckham, with a pepsi and some headphones on waiting for the film to start. The view is incredible. Seriously.
23:17 we are back at my cousin's place. It was cold but we have warmed up whilst watching great British bake off. The film on the rooftop was a beautiful experience. I think ferris bueller is one of my favourite films, so the fact i could see it in such a cool setting was brilliant! If you aren't future anna and haven't seen the film, WATCH IT! As it got darker, it was lovely to see the city light up around us, and bring the city in the film to life. Thank goodness they provided us with blankets though because it did get chilly! I haven't seen the new bake off yet and it's a bit strange not hearing mary's voice.
0:18 i am gonna sleep now. Night.
8:14 morning! I couldn't really sleep last night because even though i have slept here before, i haven't slept where i did sleep before and it always takes me at least one night to get used to somewhere new. Anyway, i am here alone (i think everyone has gone now, who knows haha) until about 1ish, and then we are going to go to camden for lunch! I am super excited as i have never been to camden before! I think i am just gonna chill this morning, until my cousin gets back.
13:51 my cousin has just got back from her morning at uni, and whilst she was away i did some tidying, videochatted my friend hannah (heyyy hannah!!), showered, ate some tiger bread, and just listened to music. It's been nice! Now we're going to get the bus to camden.
14:17 change of plan, we are getting tube instead. I am on the tube right now. Hello!
17:41 just walked to euston from camden. camden was great! I had never been before, but i am so so so glad we did! It was beautiful and there were so many countries in one place. There were so many languages and foods and glorious treasures to be found. I am currently sat on a bench outside euston with my cousin. We have a little while before my train so we migh go to a cafe. As i was saying, camden allowed me to travel the world in just a few hours, it was lovely. I also had some orange juice which was basically 10 oranges squeezed into a cup and it was so refreshing and orange and wow, i hope i can visit again soon.
17:53 we decided to pop into cafe nero. I have purchased a regular hot chocolate without cream and i have some tap water as i felt i needed to be refreshed and a hot chocolate wouldn't do that for me. There is a sign on the door saying to keep it shut as the pigeons will come in and i think me and my cousin are the only people who are taking this seriously! Haha! No one is shutting the door behind them. How ridiculous!
18:30 i have waved goodbye to my cousin, and i am on the train as it was ready on the platform even though it won't leave for 20 minutes. I am joined by my 256 song Spotify playlist and a meal deal from whsmiths. Always have to have a meal deal on a train, and i guess this is my tea. I chose a simple cheese sandwich, some crisps and a bottle of water. I was going to get a small bottle as it is easier to carry around and i know i won't finish it all, however the man at the till said i should get the biggest bottle as it's the same price and i get more for my money. I laughed and said i was alright with the small one but he insisted so now i have a massive bottle of water with me. At least i won't dehydrate.
21:10 i am nearly home, the struggles of getting the slow train, ay. I have listened to most of my music collection on the way back, and even though i have a book with me, i just found mumford and sons a little more exciting! I haven't actually eaten any of my meal deal. I just haven't been hungry, and i haven't opened my water bottle either, haha! My phone is on 20% battery and i don't have much data left but at least i have my giant bottle of water, and i should be home soon enough! I am very excited to go to sleep.

Hello, it's 19:37 the next day (thursday 21st september), and i have just finished eating my tea after getting back from a day in manchester. I think going to london has been my favourite part of this week so far. Infact it has been my favourite, no doubt about it. I always love exploring london so the fact i did a few bits on my own and without any plans, i am pretty proud of myself for coping quite well. When i think back, over so many trips and days out, i experienced severe anxiety, i just didn't realise it had a name. Now i am so glad i do. (Does that make sense??) I can make these steps to a happier life where i can travel somewhere on my own. Maybe one day i will go abroad alone, but i ain't there just yet, haha! Keep making small steps future anna, i am proud of you.


(Beep)

15/09/2017

mobile mind #2

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i should be editing my short film, but instead i have written an updated mobile mind whilst i watch a mix of peep show and rick & morty!

it's been going ok. like really ok. i think i started my last update like this, but that isn't a bad thing. anyway, i filmed a new short film, went on a little family holiday, had a few days out with my friends, and just been enjoying what's happening really. firstly i will update the moving to manchester situation. it isn't all go just yet, but i still want to do this! i wanted to move before i see lorde in manchester in the last week of september, but i don't think that will happen, but that's ok. hopefully the right place comes up soon! in some other blog posts i have spoken about how fun and happy i was on the holiday and whilst filming. however on the last day of filming i felt a little drained because i had spent 2 days fully surrounded by loads of people, and i like to have my time alone to think and ya know, just be alone haha. but i hadn't had that in a few days, but luckily everyone was pretty tired so it was ok!

some things that have stressed me out in the past few weeks have been:

  • on the morning of our little family holiday, i couldn't find my hairbrush so i had a bit of a breakdown. lol welcome to my life. i am still trying to learn to not get so angry and stressed in stupid situations, but it's taking a while. i also got stressed because a cupboard door wouldn't shut, and there was a problem with the bath taps. yeah, hopefully one day i can learn to control my brain, until that day, i will argue with my family and then apologise forever, haha.
  • i also have a note i wrote on my phone so i would remember to put it in, but i literally can't remember what it was about. i wrote: 'thursday 24th stressed because times keep changing', and if you know me, you know i like to PLAN PLAN PLAN, so when i can't or times change, i get stressed. i don't know what this was about, but it happen pretty regularly. i am still working on becoming calm in situations like this, but hopefully it's soon because it's actually ridiculous what annoys me. lol.
so i guess those are the biggest things that my mind has been through the past few weeks. i think the thing i am most proud of myself for doing is going to meet friends, and organising things on my own, because i used to not be able to do any of those things. i have even planned to travel down to london next week on my own to meet my cousin and see a film at a rooftop cinema which i have always wanted to do. i hope this new confidence keeps appearing, and i can't wait to see what happens next. i just need to get less stressed and stop being so angry. small victories though, they are what keep us going. until next time :)

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11/09/2017

Bonjour, je suis au téléphone!

(p.s. the title is 'bonjour, i'm on the phone' in french because the film is called 'je m'appelle' and uses bits of french)

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hello hello hello! I am currently catching up on the new season of twin peaks and converting some video files TO EDIT MY NEW SHORT FILM!! AHHHH!! Yes, between Friday 1st September and Sunday 3rd September, I filmed a short film with a few others which hopefully will come out at the end of this month/start of next month. I have been meaning to post a little production diary like i did with my other film 'the best days', but i just haven't gotten round to it til now. So, here is my lil production diary:

Friday 1st September

so this was going to be the smallest shoot day of the 3, because we just had the main actress for the whole day, and then 2 other actors (they had slightly smaller parts so were only needed for half days) coming (one in the morning, and the other in the evening) to film their scenes. It's weird because i wanna explain everything but i don't wanna give too much away, hahah! OK, the first scene we recorded was actually the last scene, and for this, we walked to the local village hall, set up, and began filming. Seren, who plays the main girl in the film, was a little late, so we played on the playground and practiced shots/camera angles. When she arrived, we began recording, but then i realised that she would need to be in her school uniform costume. As the village hall was closed, and it had began raining slightly, we ran to the post office and just hoped that they would let her change. luckily they did, then we ran back and filmed. I was really happy with how it turned out. we then headed back to my house (where the rest of the film was going to be shot), and had lunch. In the afternoon, we filmed a few small sections where we see Seren's character walk to different places, before we filmed the scene before the final scene which we had filmed that morning. does that make sense? Anyway, the actor i had originally asked hadn't got back to me about dates, so i asked if my dad would step into the role. he was more than happy to help, however when we did a quick line run, we were all in fits of laughter because of how he pronounced some of te lines. then when we tried to film, none of us could stop laughing. It was so silly, but it was hilarious! luckily, we managed to film it all in the end, and we were done for the first day! woo! i still had a few last minute things to do before tomorrow, but they were small things so i managed to get them done. even though pressure isn't great, i prefer to do things closer to the time they are needed because it pushes me to finish it, rather than procrastinate. anyway, onto day 2...

Saturday 2nd September

day 2 started well. i had breakfast, got everything ready, and then people started arriving! I had a few more crew members, and Adam as well as Seren for my cast! we spent the day filming the first half of the film, so all the magical garden bits! luckily, rain wasn't forecast, however the sun kept popping in and out, which made it difficult to know if we were coming or going, hahha! continuity in films is reallyyyy important to me, so i had my friend simon look after the props, and make sure everything was the same every take, however it's difficult to organise what the sun is going to do! we got it done in the end though. i had always planned the film poster to be the two main characters in the garden from above, so whilst we were all in these positions, i took some photos. to do this, i hung out the window of my brother's room, and again the sun interfered, so we had to move around a few times! when i was happy with my shots, and james was confident he had all he wanted (my friend who was filming/ doing sound bits), we stopped for lunch AND OMG WE HAD CHIPS AND PIZZA AND WRAPS BUT I HAD A CHIP WRAP AND I CAN TELL YOU THAT IT WAS BEAUTIFUL. truly it was. That afternoon, we worked on the montage section of the film, and we started with a bit where the characters are lying down, looking at the sky. AGAIN THE SUN WAS SHINING BRIGHT LIKE A DIAMOND THANKS RHIANNA, so we moved positions, but this meant i also had to hang out of another window to get the shot. the window we chose was in my sisters room, but the window doesn't open all the way, and there is a dressing table in front of it. let's just say that if i didn't have my friend beth to hold onto me, i may have fallen out of that window to get the shot. hahah! the rest of the afternoon filming was really really fun, especially when seren put cake in adam's face! I can't wait to edit that section. Day 2 was done, yet we still had day 3 to do, the biggest of all the days as it included filming the main scenes, and we would have nearly everyone who worked on the film coming to help. i was excited, yet a little nervous. i also told my mum to book a restaurant for sunday so i could take my family out for tea because i had taken over the house for the weekend and rearranged a load of stuff, so i thought it would be nice. thanks family for letting me make my crazy ideas become real.

Sunday 3rd September

so today was the final day of filming. i was feeling a little tired because i stayed up late and woke up early, and slightly drained, because even though i like spending time with people, i need to have my own space to allow my brain to think, however i hadn't had that in a few days, so was a lil spaced out. however everyone seemed to be a little tires so it was alright ahah! i had my crew, i had my cast (after a few wrong satnav directions and miscommunicated (is this a word?) texts) and today was the day we had to get it all done. luckily i had looked at the weather forecast and saw that today was gong to be rainy and windy, which is why i planned to film the last scenes inside. well they were already scripted to be inside, but i had planned to film those 2 this day, am i making sense?? probably not but what's new?! on this day, james from saturday and another friend i have called james (we called them glasses and sandals on the day so people wouldn't get confused haha), looked after all the cameras and tech stuff so i could properly direct and organise things. For the last 2 days, i had organised cameras and tech stuff also, so it was really nice to pass that onto someone else. it hit me in the morning that something i had written was coming to life. i thought i was going to cry, lol. it just made me emotional for a second, but then i got back into the swing and lived my dream. it was really funny, because during one part of the morning, all of us, minus 3 (harry, liv and james) went out to film something outside of the house, however liv and harry didn't know james was still there. i looked at my phone and saw 2 messages from liv saying she was scared and that my house was haunted haha! we went back in and i said i was sorry that i didn't realise james was still there! IF MY HOUSE WAS HAUNTED I WOULD NOT NOT NOT BE HERE OK LETS STOP TALKING ABOUT GHOSTS NOW. we finished the first scene of the day and then stopped for lunch. i had another chip wrap with ketchup BECAUSE OMG YES AND EVERYONE ELSE TRIED ONE AND FELL IN LOVE TOO SO YEAH IT'S APPROVED GO AND TRY IT. please. after lunch, we filmed the final scene of the three days. i was a little worried we wouldn't get it all finished on time BUT WE DID YES!! this was the scene filmed in Liv's character's room, and we shpt it in quite a large bedroom, however with all the lights, stands, and people, it quickly became quite crammed. beth who was helpung me out on set, and i friend called nathan had made a song for this scene, and for some of the crew, it was their first time hearing it. i am so so proud of them for making it kinda last minute, and i can't wait to edit that scene either!! i love this scene because it's like me and my sister. we go from loving each other to arguing and repeat that every 2 minutes for our entire lives. if you have siblings, you probably understand. i really wanted a shot of seren from above when she is on her phone, and the only way we could really do this was standing over her. the ceilings in my house a quite low, so i said i would do it as the 2 james' are quite tall. as i stood over seren, you can probably guess what kind of jokes were made for a good few minutes. thanks guys. we finished, i started transferring files and hings, and then everyone went home. i was already at home, so i just stayed where i was. i sat down on the sofa, looked at the script and smiled. i couldn't believe i had got to live my dream yet again. first the best days, now this. wow. i went out for tea with my family (had my most favourite dessert ever which is red velvet/cheesecake cake and i put a picture on my instagram because it's beautiful and really rare), and came home to tidy up every room, and go to sleep. i also told my mum i would vacuum nut i never got round to that haha!

so that was my little production diary for filming Je m'appelle. like i said, i am only just getting started with the editing so it should still be a little while before it's ready, but i am very happy with how all the filming went, and i hope i can do it again and again and again in the future, however not in my house again because i have used every single area i could possibly use for filming haha!! thank you so so much to my amazing cast, crew and family, and anyone else who has helped in anyway, shape or form, and hopefully we can work together again in the future! That's all from me, i am on the second to last episode of twin peaks: the return, so i will carry on with that now, ok bye!

check out @mechchickmedia on instagram for more bts pics!

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