“A dream is an idea of the heart.”
– Me!
Unlike Cinderella, I believe dreams can be made fully awake; there is harmony between heart and mind in its creation. Whether you realize the dream is up to your actions…
What ideas are in your heart right now?
Cheers & a good shoot to you,
Deb
Longest shoot day I’ve been on was 23 hours long. Naturally, we saw both sunrise and sunset ing the course of that day.
With the summer solstice coming up this week, I got to thinking about how many hours of daylight is there between a couple of potential shooting locations. Who gets the best deal in sunlight for the summer next week (according to the Daylight Hours Explorer)?
Hollywood, California = 14.3 hours
Vancouver, Canada = 16.0 hours
Glasgow, Scotland = 17.3 hours
Reykjavik, Iceland = 20.4 hours
Honolulu, Hawaii = 13.3 hours
Auckland, New Zealand = 9.5 hours
Hmmm… looks like my longest shoot day would still have seen at least one sunrise or set during the day!
Cheers & happy summer shooting to you,
Deb
In honour of my two year anniversary F.I.L.M. blogging, I thought I’d bring together older top posts – especially for those of you who may not have been here since the beginning:
Pumpkin Carving Contest on Set
I instigated the contest… to which there was a surprising winner!
Inspiration at the Movies: Harold and Maude
You’ll never look at a field full of daisies the same way again… I know I don’t!
3 Things I Learned About Filmmaking from… My Grandmother
(1) If you can’t do it, keep trying
(2) Make and eat dessert
(3) Always wear clean underwear
… and they really are relevant to a film career!
Free Film Budget
Nothing compares to getting a full budget template to refer to and learn from! Thanks, Deke.
And thanks to you for the great feedback I’ve received over the years! Here’s to more F-un, I-nspiration, L-ife and M-anagement to come!
Cheers & a great shoot to you,
Deb
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Do you know about Deb’s appearance in Toronto on May 27 and the “Toronto Area PM101 Facebook Challenge (for a free book)“? To learn more, click here: http://on.fb.me/hEdmNg
The Royal Wedding has me thinking about that pre-wedding dilemma some of us go through… to change the last name after the marriage ceremony or not. The choice is, of course, personal, but in this industry there are some extra factors to consider.
If you change your last name…
… and you work freelance… How are you going to inform your network? As a freelancer, it takes up precious job-searching time for your network to learn you’ve moved from one job position to another, and think of you in the new role. How long will it also take them and to reconcile you are the same person now that your last name is different? Plan to spread the news of your new last name for multiple times, using multiple channels and over an extended period of time to ensure people know who you are.
… and you have a website using your birth name… What are you going to do with your domain name? You could have two, with one automatically forwarding to the new one for a few years as people get to know you with the new name.
… and you choose to use your birth last name for work, but your new last name for home… How are you going to deal with social networks that overlap work and home life? If you use your Birth Last Name on LinkedIn whereas your New Last Name on Facebook, you’ll be able to keep your home social network more separate from your work network, but you’ll still deal with confusion about what label to use for yourself and when as work and home networks overlap.
… and you hyphenate your last names… Will you use a hyphen or a space between the ames? You’re bound to run across mis-spellings and mis-filings that will make it that bit harder to find your name, but depending on the two last names could make your new name more distinctive and easier to find.
And – though no one wants to consider the possibility at time of a wedding – if you get divorced, are you ready to go through what’s necessary to change your name back again to your birth name?
Considerations, considerations. Whichever choice you make, ensure it’s the right one for you.
Cheers & enjoy the coverage of the Royal Wedding,
Deb
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Do you know about Deb’s appearance in Toronto on May 27 and the “Toronto Area PM101 Facebook Challenge (for a free book)“? To learn more, click here: http://on.fb.me/hEdmNg
I have slept at the Palace of Versailles.
I have been an extra in an IMAX movie.
I have piloted a passenger ferry in Sydney Harbour (Australia).
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Two of the above facts about me are true, and one is not. Which is the false one? If you guess correctly… you win; if you don’t… I win the game. Plus… if you give a reason for your guess when you guess correctly, you’ll win a PM101 Budgeting Pencil (honest, no April Fool’s joke here!).
Actually, instead of an April Fool’s day joke, I thought I’d share this a social game with you. This game could work as an icebreaker game at a preproduction party or as a segue at the end of the final production meeting in prep to a social gathering afterwards.
In the last week of prep the crew is expanding rapidly. Some people will be meeting each other for the first time, while others will have known each other for years. Next week – once the camera starts rolling – this new team will be working together intensely, so it’s nice to get to know a bit more about the individuals on that team early in the production.
You’ll find that much conversation ensues between the group members after this game… so don’t use is prior to the preproduction meeting! The more creative you are with the facts, the more interesting the game… but in this industry, creativity shouldn’t be a problem.
So…which one of mine do you think is not true?
…and good luck with April Fool’s day today.
Cheers & a good shoot to you,
Deb
A further thought… to adapt this game to make it useful for developing second language skills, allow each person in the group to ask one or two “yes-or-no” or clarifications questions about the “truths”.
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Do you know about the “Toronto Area PM101 Facebook Challenge (for a free book)“? To learn more, click here: http://bit.ly/fGP0fq
My (very British) grandmother was born on a Wednesday… and Wednesday’s child is full of woe. So when she lost her budgie, it was just another standard crisis. What was unusual about this event, though, is that the event revealed a great truth.
She looked everywhere for the budgie: up and down around the house, in the back garden. She enlisted a neighbour to help. She asked the nearby chip shop to post a notice in the window. All to no avail. Panic was rising.
Then the neighbour suggested the natural next step: “Now dear, let’s sit down and have a nice cuppa tea.”
Reluctantly my grandmother agreed and so they went back to to my grandmother’s house. They set to making that cuppa tea: boiling the water, warming the teapot, placing the sugar bowl on the table, sharing friendly chatter amid worry. Next my Grandmother opened the fridge to collect the milk. There he was – the budgie – shivering slightly on the jam jar. A moment passed as they regarded each other.
The budgie realized he was rescued, stretched his wings and flew out of the fridge to safety.
My Grandmother realized a truth: stopping for a cup of tea can solve anything.
And she’s right! Take a break for “a cuppa” no matter what your rising panic is: the stress of the production or of looking for freelance work. At the very least you’ll take a few minutes to clear your head. At best… something about that break could solve everything you’re worried about.
Have you ever had a serendipitous cuppa?
Cheers & have a great cuppa tea,
Deb