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Thursday, February 15, 2007
Josh and charlie at ford models party
Another great recommendation from Karen and Jason. I raced across town to catch the (free!) staten island ferry and duely gawped from the window as the statue of liberty came into view. Even through the fog she looked familiar and unreal all at the same time. TRied hard not to feel like an extra from 'working girl' but it's hard not to refernce the many films that have been made here.
I then made it on the subway to meet up with the last third of Cactus3 - Julie after I had met Caroline and Krysanne the night before. I met Julie originally at Britdoc and Cactus3 are partners in my next project with Tigerlily films. It's incredibly exciting as I will shooting the pilot part in America and I love waht their company has worked on before - Darkon, Alexis and the pixies film loud quite loud or quite loud something. Anyway they were lovely hosts and it was great to hook up with themduring my stay. The project feels mch less abstract, much more a reality now. I think when you spend a lot of time planning and discussing work, then suddenly get the go-ahed it can be odd to make the transition but i am so excited about this one.
Some observations about NY
Tipping is complicated
Food is amazing and very varied
The city really doesn't sleep
The empire state building is populated exclusively by British teenagers
Cabs are cheap but don't always want you
It's English but not as we know it
No one knows addresses, it's all about the intersection.
I repeat me tipping is complicated
young gay men take approx double the amount of time to get ready than women do and take better care of their skin.
My accent is very difficult to understand at times.Labels: new york, sight seeing, snow, staten island ferry
posted by Jeanie Thursday, February 15, 2007 | 1 comments
Empire state - from below and from the top
posted by Jeanie Thursday, February 15, 2007 | 0 comments
all trains to grand central
I then went on a tourist classic and climbed the Empire State building, stopping off briefly at the chrysler building enroute for a wee nosey.
Labels: empire state building, new york
posted by Jeanie Thursday, February 15, 2007 | 1 comments
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
just like friends and seinfeld and unmade beds and sex and the city and so on
The ignoring the jet lag game worked just about OK but I got up around 7 trying to fix my blogger - successful - and phone connection - eventually. A potentially dangerous thing; a working phone in another country.
Breakfast with Jakes room-mate at 'Ciao for now' of delicious and virtuous oatmeal, oj and erbal tea (erbal it's HERBAL!).
Regan then took me on a 'cute stores' shopping trip - going via Patricia Field (shut, sigh), down Bleeker to Marc Jacobs, tiny boutiques, a brilliant antique toy shop called second childhood - the owner could not understand my accent at all but happily posed for his photo. Next was the Magnolia Deli of SATC fame which had the most amazing frosted cupcakes and mini cheesecakes.
Then my subway initiation - it's very metallic - and a stop off at Grand Central station. Hearty recommendations from my sister, Karen and David meant that a trip to Grand Central was inevitable and I wasn't disapointed. It's simply stunning from the star decorated ceiling to the marble lined walls. I then forewent the oysters and champagne as recommended by my sister in a moment of out of character frugalness and opted for a budget slice of pizza pie at the dining floor. Again the food and service was excellent and put the surly 'baguette of the day' ladies in Hockley to shame.
Labels: grand central station, new york, shopping
posted by Jeanie Wednesday, February 14, 2007 | 0 comments
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Distracted driving and losing my virginity
Monday evening
3 films, a very smooth flight (thank you virgin), one polish taxi driver and I made it to Jake's appartment in alphabet city in one piece. I got a yellow cab straight from JFK to Jake's door - my Cabbie doing the obliging tour guide on the way. It's hard not to think about the hundreds of films and TV programmes that have been filmed here, which make the experience so weird. I know the iconography so well but have never set foot on American soil.
It's late but my approach to jet lag is always to just ignore it and pretend that there hasn't been a change of time. There's always the inevitable ' I feel like I'm on a ship' motion feeling, but it passes. By the time I arrived it was about 4am UK time, 11pm local - so we went out to a local diner for THE most delicious burger and rice, and a quick tour of the neighbourhood. EVERYTHING was still open and there were loads of people out and about. Jake told me about the East Village are and that about 10 years ago it was much rougher but that in recent years gentrification had seen the area become safer and more diverse. There seem to be community gardens and playparks everywhere and it has a really vibrant community feel. Just as we left the diner about 4 fire trucks pulled up, just to add to the excitement to deal with a (very smelly) gas leak. Fire trucks, like most things appear, are much bigger in America!
No sign of snow yet, although it is rumored for today.
posted by Jeanie Tuesday, February 13, 2007 | 0 comments
Monday, February 12, 2007
My name's Jeanie and I'm a USA virgin, but not for much longer!
Teenland is premiering at the Big Sky Documentary festival, Missoula, Montana on Thursday 15 Feb at 3.40pm so I'm making the long trip out to the home town of David Lynch for 5 days, stopping off in New York for a couple of days.
An 11th hour funding confirmation from EMMedia has made the trip even better as being broke I was starting to regret my rash tax rebate spend on flights.
In preperation for my trip, I spent a fraught Friday playing out a new master of Teenland. What should have been a simple job took all day as at first I had the leads connected wrongly and made a silent master, then the edit had a 'bad frame' and kept spontaniously switching itself off 40 minutes into playout. So illogical - led to much "final cut logic' discussion by Sheil and Bushy as to how to second guess the edit suite. VERY frustrating.
The reason for the new master was to subtitle Scott's thick Clifton accent into English for North American ears, after my brother's Canadian fiance and her friend told me that she found Scott very difficult to understand. This is a point that we orginally fought with the BBC ( as they had wanted it subtitled for British viewers) and at the time I was pleased but as I read through the transcript I realised that (British) Barney had misunderstood much of Scott's speech, so it may have been advisable all along. No matter, I now have a subtitled master in beautiful émigré Adderville.
On Sunday I met my dad half way up north for the Betsy handover - she's staying with gran and grandad for a week while I'm away. We met in a gloomy travel lodge car park for the decidedly dodgy looking child exchange - all witnessed by an onlooking car passenger tucking into her tupperwared sandwiches. Betsy, dressed up for the journey in crown and jewellery, ah she is my daughter like a stick of Brighton rock.
In my haste to get back - I hate driving when I have things on my mind - I completely missed my turning and ended up stuck on the A1 and ended up in Grantham. My 45 min journey turned into a 2 hour diversion. Childfree I started packing and then realised that my hasty train booking 6 weeks ago had only left me around 60 minutes to get across London to Heathrow before bag check in closed I hastilly rescheduled a place on the 10.30 train and will have an over cautious 2-3 hours to kill in delightful terminal 3. I hope that this is not an omen of things to come. I should just relax but I much more fear of catching flights than premiering my film.
Anyway, I am on said train and am hoping to find a wireless spot at Heathrow where I will blog diligently.
posted by Jeanie Monday, February 12, 2007 | 1 comments
