An interesting time was had by all. Good to get a better idea of how it works out there.
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More good news... While we were enjoying a luxurious holiday out in Bergerac last week, I got two pieces of exciting news! First good news was that Daniel and I were awarded the UKFC & Film4's cinema extreme this year & hope to be shooting Daniel's next short film BABY in early autumn this year. The second bit of good news is that I qualified for the European Producer's forum at the Open Russian Film Festival in Sochi - which means I am flying out to Russia on Monday! Emily at the UK Film Council suggested I apply with our Murmansk project as within the forum they will introduce us to Russian financiers and film industry and explain procedures and how to apply for local funding etc.... The one caveat seems to be that I get my visa sorted this afternoon which has proven to be trickier than you'd think (seeing as I've been invited by the Russian Foreign Ministry & all). But of course 'easy' is a dirty word in the world of production, so I am unphased and excited regardless.
My first film Cannes was really great. The weather was hot pretty much all the time, the flat we were staying in had a pool (though it was out of order - hors d'usage or whetever the sign said) and it was near enough the city centre that we could walk everywhere. 6 of us shared the 3 bedrooms & living room sofabed and the sharing worked really well. I would definitely hope to get something similar next year. Well done Dawn Sharpless!
Our first night we all went out to dinner at a lovely seafood restaurant and sat next to Francis Ford Coppola.
I am sad that I hardly took any pictures. Particularly at the Nowhere Boy party, which must have been the party highlight of the week, with dancing all night and celebs to keep the paps busy flashing all night (Paris, Peaches, Ryan Phillippe etc...). In fact Kirstin Scott Thomas danced all night too. When the party was over, we thanked the DJ and he told us to follow him to his next gig. So we did, avoiding the sea of paparazzis that swallowed poor Paris up in the middle of the Croisette, and followed him through the narrow streets and into the next venue.
The club was great, but when the show changed over and men dressed as lampshades started filling the stage and the music changed we got a bit suspicious. Sure enough a foxy lady sat on stage knitting while a man cat pulled at her yarn until her jumper unravelled and two red heart-shaped nipple coverettes were all that was left. We thought maybe it was time to wander home!
Overall the festival was a busy time and a great opportunity to meet non-London based people you don't get to see often, Russian & Australian producers, people from the UK Film Council in short sleeves and pretty dresses, people you forgot you knew and obviously a lot of interesting people you would never otherwise get to meet.
Of course a lot of rose wine was consummed and in fact one of my more pleasurable afternoons was spent drinking too many bottles to mention in the lovely presence of Sarada McDermott from Liverpool and Rob How from London.
Al Morrow was invited to a Slumdog Millionaire party by a crazy man who lived in a millionaire's mansion. Of course we never went.
Helen Grace was busy with her horror film Colin which was made for £45 and became a great Cannes success story saleswise. Although I haven't heard the whole story yet, so I hope it remains a great success story.
Of course there's much more, but it's probably unwise to go on as it makes it sound like it was all too much fun.
So I am now getting ready for my stint in Cannes. I'll be going from 15th to 20th May. Daniel and I have met the cinema extreme deadline, so we can forget about that til June. Next Daniel has to get his Advance Party II treatment in to Sigma Films within the next couple of weeks and we need to concentrate on the treatments for the 3 feature projects Daniel has been writing.
I've been keeping busy this past couple of weeks firsting pop promos with HSI director Douglas Hart. 
Apoa and Kiloh think this is way more impressive than making washing powder ads or short films about suicidal teenagers (actually on second thoughts they might think that was pretty cool too...).
The first promo was an 8 minute track called Sea Within A Sea for The Horrors which was basically all live performance but with a psychadelic projection that made the whole piece look pretty cool.
The second was for Last Of The English Roses by Pete Doherty and involved shooting Pete and a five a side football game outside. I'm sure the temperature had fallen below zero that day and in fact might have contributed to the playback breaking down almost as soon as we started using it!
Heather, our production manager, resorted to chasing the camera & Pete as we paced the football court, with the track playing off her laptop! 
Well it worked thankfully! But we were all relieved when we had to move inside to shoot the final lip-synch inside and standing still!
Kiloh was desperate to miss school and help out on set to be near Pete...
This is the doughnut & coffee that greeted me at Rotterdam airport on Thursday 'morning' after our last night of the lab. I finished reading The Road and set my sights on flying back to London.
Back in London & it is snowing. In fact looking out my window it looks like it might even be sticking around through the night. Daniel flew back from Cuba on Thursday as well & in fact we were heading back into town about the same time. I missed him on Friday as he was still very preoccupied with all things Una Noche . He has been startled by how pivotal a role he has had in his sister's film and feels torn about being away from set. But today he had to fly over to Denmark to meet with Lars Von Trier and the team from Advanced Party 2 before they start the workshops in Berlin next week.
I still have a few things to put together before being in a position to apply for the development funding for our URP project, but it looks like I have a week to get it all together in order to catch Daniel when he gets back. Ideally I can get a few meetings lined up before he has to head back to Cuba again. Of course we have the cinema extreme workshops to fit into February too.
Hopefully I will also be able to fit in working with the Wilson Sisters on their cinema extreme project too, which they were hoping to shoot at the end of February...
Here are a couple of pictures of our dinner on the last night of the lab. Hank with an 'e', Helen, Corey, Ilse, Lisette, Tristan & Piccollo. Before completely immersing myself in reality it is with a warm smile I remember this crowd. I hope we will all keep in touch. In fact Zoe set up a Facebook page and I hope people will upload some pictures. I didn't bring a camera & only have rubbish mobile pics. I know there are a fare few pics out there, so please send them on!
The dinner was at the glamourous Hotel New York where the Rotterdam FilmLab took us for lunch, but hid us away in a room at the back with a few stacks of sandwiches, so we felt that we'd missed out on the experience. We took an exciting James Bond style speed boat ride to get there & it was a great start to a great & memorable evening (albeit a little messy by 6am!).
What a wonderful surprise to find Osama here at Rotterdam! Osama was selected for the CineMart but was not able to attach a producer to the project in time. So he has brought his project here after all with posters, pamphlets and a short promo film he put together which really brings the project to life. After coming in to the cinemart drinks session, he had a crowd of interested producers around him. It won't be long now before they are fighting over the project! Maybe even Patrick Cassavetti...