Good good good. The mystery shop holiday with the cast of Cocoon already feels like a strange dream. There was a possibility I wasn’t gonna be able to make it around the filming so I’m glad it worked out. We woke up this morning and straight down into the spa for a steam. It’s dry up there – they superheat it all for the OAPs. I wanted to be in wet heat for a change.
Checked out in the morning, but stayed on site to pirate WiFi while Lou filled all her forms in. I loaded up envelopes and sent them all over the place, shifting more Magic cards, turning them into money. We finished at more or less the same time and then it was our wondrous Valentine’s Day four hour drive to Brighton.
Three hours non stop I can do without issues but after that I like to zone out into something academic or philosophical so I can compute the roads without my noisy brain getting involved. With a decent podcast I can then get lost for another four or five hours, but you can’t really do that with a passenger so I just got a bit impatient and scratchy. Still we made it to Brighton pretty well despite the God awful Friday night traffic on the M25. I dropped a pack of magic cards with some guy in Brighton up at Seven Dials. He had given me excellent instructions on how to get in. Sometimes things just align. It’s nice having the eBay ticking over and will continue to be so until some fucker finds something to moan about.
Back up to London tomorrow but for now it is Brighton and the things of Brighton. So we bought a hot Thai meal from Kemp Thai – they actually do it how it should be, rather than just let it see the chilli. It’s HOT. I’m writing this while I digest, thinking I’ve just had a weekend and now it’s the weekend. I’ll be into my lines again tomorrow, just drilling drilling drilling. Never waste a shot flubbing. It’s not shot on film as it turns out – duelling cameras and digital. A touch less pressure, but turning over fast. Teams of people helping change the lens etc, all very much run by one incredible fellow you’ve heard of. He doesn’t give acting notes much… Like some theatre directors I love, half the battle is in the casting and then, if you don’t get any notes you can just assume you’re in the right ballpark. Notes’ll just be tweaks, unless you’re getting them all the time in which case you’re either doing something you need not do, or you’re you’re standing in the wrong place.
But… Brighton means cosy warm fabrics and low light. I’m gonna sink into this and think about all the filmy related joys and concerns later on. Should be asleep by ten. zzzz
AlBarclay 