Aya Adventures - Coming at you LIVE from Los Angeles!

Remembering to breathe...

2010-03-31T19:10:00.000-07:00

I don't think that I have ever been so busy in all my life. There have been so many changes and things since I last wrote! I apologize for the lengthy sabbatical I took, however it really came down to write a blog entry or get a few hours sleep!

Lets see… Maybe I should go down a list of what is going on – both to clarify my mind as well as get you up to speed!

GALLERY

My friends Caroline and Kristen are starting a gallery in Little Tokyo!

My cultural Ambassador Helen Kim (who on a side note is abandoning me to move to Texas for Grad school) invited me to the Little Tokyo Galleria Mall a few weekends back to see some art and meet her friend Nancy who is the mastermind behind this GREAT gallery program. Due to the recession, the mall has been having a tough time keeping shops open and thus there are quite a few empty storefronts. Therefore Nancy has started a program in which artists can “lease” a storefront for free and use it to exhibit their art etc until someone wants to rent out the space! Therefore the mall has turned into a little artist colony with frozen yogurt, grocery stores and restaurants in-between! Such a great idea! We are hoping to have our place painted and ready to open in a week or so.

Nancy was also gracious enough to invite us to her live/ work loft a few blocks away.

She is a full time artist and has lived in her AWESOME space for over 30 years – it was truly a treat to go and ogle at all her beautiful things!

TAXES

Yup – I am doing them on April the 9^th with a new accountant that we have never used before. We tried doing them ourselves but it has gotten to the stage where it is simply too complicated and it looks as though we are going to owe the government quite a bit of bling – HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? Ryan and I both make no money so we are mightily confused (and a tad angry - grrrrrr)… In the mean time its all about making a crap load of excel sheets - oh how I wish to be 8 again...

MRS. KIM

My latest short film “Mrs. Kim” is one of the final 8 short films in the Los Angeles Magazine Film Competition – you can vote for it until the 2^nd of April and then the winner will be announced on the 16^th… FINGERS CROSSED – GO VOTE!

http://www.lamag.com/citythink/getla/finalist/finaleight.aspx

EVOLUTION

Ryan’s best friend OP knows the agent/ manager for writers and directors at Evolution Management. Unbeknown to me, he zapped over my short films etc and I now have an interview with the Manager on Thursday of next week – SO EXCITED!

35MM SHORT

I am still without script for this one (Anyone? Buler?) – One of the best writers from the Your Big Break competition (Les) has offered to write me one and we have been playing around with some ideas that I think will work so I am keeping my fingers crossed… that being said it is cutting it awfully close as we want to start shooting (well We HAVE to start shooting) by May – eek!

ANIMATION

A friend of mine who saw “Mrs. Kim” forwarded it to her friend who is making a documentary on African American kids at this school in San Diego. She saw Mrs. Kim and loved the animation so has hired me to do a wee animation for a segment of her documentary!

UCLA

My good friend Mischa and I have just inked a deal with UCLA to make a documentary on 5 UCLA students who are making short movies that are being funded by Bill Gates. I can’t really give much detail on this one yet as the first production meeting is not until tomorrow – but I will keep you posted!

FORD FIESTA

You know me – professional competition entererer, and the latest one that I entered was for the launch of the new Ford Fiesta here in the US. Ford is choosing directors from every major city in the US to create a commercial for the new car. I entered my pitch and supporting material but apparently forgot to hand in the actual application (epic fail). Nevertheless, they e mailed me yesterday and asked for it so I am hoping that that is a good sign??!! I should hear about this competition in the next few weeks…

FILM FESTIVALS

I have decided to enter “Sweet As” into four film festivals. Why not more? Because IT IS TOO DAMN BLOODY EXPENSIVE??! Who knew! Most of the festivals have a $50 - $80 application fee, then you have to get dubs of your movie ($10 - $250 depending on what format they want it in) and then you have to insure mail everything to them ($10 - $80 per entry) meaning that 4 entries is going to cost my unemployed butt $875??!! I am trying not to think about it and look at it as an investment into my career (better damn well get an Oscar before I die eh!).

MOVING

Ryan and I have been wanting to move into a new place for over a year now. I think that it is quite taxing for us to be in a studio – especially seeing as we have such different schedules. We were looking all over town but we really can’t bring ourselves to move from Hancock Park. Then we realized that prices had dramatically dropped in our building – a one bedroom is now the same price as what we pay for the studio that I have lived in for over 7 years now??!! Therefore we are moving on out (and up) to the 5^th floor, into a south facing one bedroom! The official move date is April 16^th so expect an invitation to an apartment warming very soon!

PHEW - the above is the reason that I have been so MIA… I don't have time to breathe and although I like being busy, its just too much at the moment and I cant wait to get move, taxes, animation, film festival and Mrs. Kim off my list so that I can concentrate on the next short…

PS I joined LA Fitness on Sunday –

I am getting fat… really fat and I am not sure why (not eating any different to usual). After replacing a lot of carbs with salad and not seeing any difference I decided to get my ass on the go and see if that changes anything… we shall see!

PPS My Easter package from my mother just arrived –

have I ever mentioned that it is by far my most anticipated/ loved, cherished package that I receive each year? I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Easter package… firstly because my mother makes it so darn cute and always puts little things in there that make me smile. Secondly because it is the only time of year that you can get the most mouth watering “Spotty Migros Eggs” that I love

and lastly because I never really know if I will get it as a few years ago I received the box with egg wrappers and no chocolate as the postal workers must have eaten the contents… how rude! THANKS MEEEM FOR MAKING MY DAY!

Deja vu?

2010-03-21T23:39:00.000-07:00

I just found out that a short little film I made when I got back from NZ has been chosen as one of the final 8 shorts of the Los Angeles Magazine Short Film Competition! It was funny as I had some free time this afternoon and though “I wonder whatever happened to that short I made” and went to the web site and thought “huh someone else made a film called “Mrs. Kim” – automatically assuming it was not mine as I had never heard back from them. I clicked on the link and WAIT – IT IS MY MOVIE??!! I almost had a heart attack! So much so they I had to watch it a 2^nd time before it really sunk in – at this point I screamed and Ryan came running over to see what on earth I was shrieking at!

HOOLEY DOOLEY – I totally was not expecting it as I thought the judges would see it and think what on earth is this girl taking… I want some! However I guess they kind of sort of got my sense of humor, as they chose it as a finalist – hurrah! The winner will get their film screened at a major movie theater here, get meetings with an Agent and/ or Studio head as well as get a spread in Los Angeles Magazine (woot woot)! I think that this would be a GREAT next step for me so don't be shy… hop on over to http://www.lamag.com/citythink/getla/finalist/finaleight.aspx click on Mrs. Kim - watch and click on the “Vote Now” link if you think it is worthy!!

I am still on a high from finding out…

Where did I leave off last? I believe that it was Tuesday? This week has been such a blur… but a good one. I met up with my friend Dan Mcfadden on Larchmont for coffee Wednesday morning to catch up…

have not seen him since Inception wrapped so it was great to fill in the gaps etc. Dan is a really talented photographer so I am trying to help him out with some connections and he is super connected in the film world so he was scratching my back too – so great!

Then it was off to Mandy’s house for Americas Next Top Model Night…

that's right folks, I am not ashamed to admit that I LOVE LOVE LOVE ANTM and am out and proud about it! This is also a blessing for Ryan as now he does not have to hide in the dressing room as I watch it! It was great to see Mandy and I took LP with me who fell head over heels in love with Maki one of Mark’s bullies – they made out for hours!

Thursday was also another fin packed day! The day was spend with Mischa as we hiked Runyon and then picked up Justin to have lunch at Tender Greens (SOOOO DAMN GOOD)

and Frozen yogurt (sooo damn good too)! Nothing like eating more calories than you have burned after a hike! Mischa and I talked some shop as we are currently in negotiations with UCLA to co-direct a project for them… it is still up in the air as they may not be able to afford us (which is lame because we are damn cheap!) – fingers crossed folks!

Thursday night was at the Mansion with Tom, Whitney, Tara and Phil.

At IHOP the other day we discussed the movie Selena and Whit and Tara were shocked that Tom and I had never seen it. Seeing as it was the month that Selena had died (over 10 years ago), we decided to pay homage to her with “Selena Night” where Whit bought the DVD

and we ordered Mexican food and had Margaritas.

IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!! So much so that we are going to try to do an RIP night every month… I believe next up is the Jackson Five....

Friday was spent cleaning and writing (zzzzz) – looks as though I am not going to get this script in on time as I am TOTALLY not feeling it. I really am not a writer – It pains me to write… I need to find someone to partner up with as I have plenty of ideas… we shall see…

Then Saturday I got a call from my cultural ambassador Helen Kim (none other than my BFF/ daughter of the now famed Mrs. Kim who stars in my latest short movie). She told me that in the Japanese Mall in Little Tokyo

there are several storefronts that have been empty for quite some time. Therefore they have started a new system where artists can get the key to an empty store front and use it as a space to showcase their art and sell it etc – HOW FANTASTIC IS THAT??!!

We went and checked out some of the art (none of it to my taste but who cares?) and also scouted some of the spaces. Helen’s sister Caroline (or as we call her “Calorine” is an artist as well as one of Helens friends so we thought that we may all go in on a space together – so exciting!

Then today was the Larchmont Farmers Market. I met up with my friend Polly who I have also not seen since Inception wrapped.

She just finished her thesis film and has been offered more film and the use of all equipment to make another – she is a very talented cinematographer and asked if I would be interested in directing something for her to shoot – HIP HIP HURRAH! Now racking my brain for the perfect short…

Also on the shelf is another competition (I am after all, a professional Competition Entererererer - CE for short!)… it’s for the band Pink Martini who want people to make their next music video. Problem is you have to MAKE the video and it may not get chosen but at this point I think that it would be a great addition to my reel and I have a cool idea for one of their songs so the next week will be spent thinking how I can pull this off… PHEW…

Oh oh and I cant forget this evening! It was Justin’s Birthday (Happy Birthday Justin) and we all went over to his favorite restaurant “The Cheesecake Factory” in Beverly Hills.

It was 13 of us and we had a bit of a wait but it was well worth it – so much fun and lots of laughs (even the waiters got in on it)!

Oh and I HAD to shire this epic fail that I did a few days ago (poor Anna was on the phone with me when the disaster struck)...

Fail!

where to start?

2010-03-16T18:17:00.000-07:00

Blogging is truly a discipline that I have yet to master. If I don't blog each day, I loose the desire to do so and then I think about the fact that I really don't have anything to write about. Then I get hate mail from my mother (this seems to be a recurring theme in my blog entries) and then I get back on the band wagon to realize that my life is in fact not as dull as I make it out to be because I am always stumped as to where to start writing.

So that this does not become an epic, biblical proportion entry, I shall start with my weekend...

Saturday March 13^th, 2010

One of the thing that I LOVE about living in Southern California is that even in mid March, it is warm enough to out on a pair of shorts and a tank top, sit outside and soak up the sun with a book. Did I do this? Nope – Ryan and I tackled 6 loads of laundry that we had been putting off for 3 weeks (agh)! Not exactly exciting stuff, but luckily my friends Sarah and Jesse are in town from NYC at the moment so they managed to whisk me away (with the Pig) to Larchmont for a coffee and a catch up – so great!

The remainder of the day was spent folding said laundry, reading, and writing before I had a hankering for grilled cheese and tomato soup. Therefore I whipped up a batch of yummy soup and called it a day!

Mind blowingly interesting stuff - I know!

Sunday, March 14^th 2010

My friends Whitney, Tara and I all worked on the movie “Funny People” together and have been fast friends ever since. We try to meet at least once a month for brunch... Anyhow, my friend Tom from Europe, worked on the movie “Get Him To The Greek” (coming out later this year) which Whitney and Tara worked on too so now our threesome has become an awesome foursome! Why am I telling you all of this?

Well Sunday, Tom dragged my but on a hike to Runyon Canyon again – and again, I hated getting there but ended up really enjoying it (sigh – when will I learn?). He brought along his friend Brandon who worked on “Greek” with him and we all huffed and puffed our way to the top.

We then went to white trash IHOP (International House Of Pancakes) which I KNOW is nasty, but it holds a deer place in Tom and my heart as it was one of the places you hear and see from over seas as the pinnacle of Americana and therefore we still get a little tingle of excitement at the “endless pancakes” and salads that come in industrial sized mixing bowls (all for the low price of $4.99)!

Anyhow, we met with Whitney and Tara there for our feast of fried food (delicious) and caught up with everyone’s news. Whitney is the assistant to Jonah Hill,

Tom the assistant to Russell Brand, Tara the production secretary on “Bad Teacher” (a new Cameron Diaz movie) and Brandon does EPK (behind the scenes for movies) and is working on the new “Battleship” movie that is going to start shooting in Australia soon.

We talked, talked and then talked some more (we may hold the record for being able to hang at IHOP the longest – I believe that we were there for about 2 hours Sunday)!

Monday, March 15^th, 2010

Ryan’s Birthday – Hurrah! Well not really seeing as he had work from 7am – 5pm and then school until 10:30pm (waaa). Therefore I grabbed the pig, went over to Alia and Sabrina’s and left for a road trip up the coast to Leo Carrillo beach where they have caves, rock pools and great beaches. I wanted to explore this area as my friend Helen Kim had been a few weeks before and her photos looked great. She told me where to go etc and low and behold, when we got there I knew EXACTLY where I was as we had shot several scenes of the movie “Inception” right there (duh)! Naturally whilst I was working I didn't really have time to explore the rock pools and caves so it was great nonetheless!

Before we ventured, I had picked up some delicious macaroons from this great French Bakery called “La Provence” in Beverly Hills

(as this is where I also pick up Ryan’s Birthday Cake every year)! We found a little cave by an empty stretch of beach, laid a blanket down, ate macaroons,

played in the waves,

explored the rock pools and ran around

Starfish

Crab

– what a grand way to spend the day!! I was sure that Little Pig would over heat and threaten to die, but he was in fact fine with little rests in the cave!

I will definitely be going back there as it was a little paradise!

On the way home we stopped at the Malibu Kitchen and got some sandwiches and drinks – it was so yummy.

It was then time to go home so I could prepare Ryan’s Birthday dinner etc.

Tuesday, march 16^th 2010

Today was up and out of the house early with my friend Mischa to go to USC

for a seminar presented by UCLA and USC on “Transmedia, Hollywood: Selling/Telling the Story” (phew)! I was not really sure what to expect, but spending the day with Mischa can never be bad so went along!

Mischa picked me up at 8:15am, we hit up Starbucks and then were on our way. The first panel was kind of interesting but I just felt like they were stating the obvious. Therefore Mischa and I played hooky for the 2^nd panel and went off to the little farmers market down the street for lunch (best idea ever!).

We had a great time sampling everything and then decided on Mexican for lunch (yum)! Afterwards we went back for the 3^rd panel and actually skipped out of that one early as well as it was a little dull. We went for food again (aka back to the farmers market for some REALLY yummy berries) and then drove back to Hollywood!

I am home now, and ready to get back to writing as I storyboarded and wrote a whole bunch of other stuff during the seminar (woops!). I am also going to Google how the hell to get beetroot stains off my hands as I just peeled 3 of them and look like I have committed some serious murders – agh!

Professional Competition Entererererer

2010-03-11T21:01:00.000-08:00

My dear friend Helen Kim is threatening to leave Los Angeles to go to grad school in Texas – I told her that she is being very selfish if she does this as she is not thinking of me and what on earth I would do without her! Helen is that person that always has her finger on the pulse about anything and everything that is happening around town. I feel if she left, I would be culturally void and possibly the most uninteresting human being (so sad).

My cool friend Helen Kim

In any case, it was dear Helen who told me about…

THE ASIAN PACIFIC ISLANDER SHORT SCREENPLAY CONTEST

Given that now I am a full time, professional competition enterererer, I decided that I should enter it. I hate writing, I have plenty of ideas but would much rather hire someone whose writing I admire to pump the scripts out for me. Having said that, being poor, I cannot afford such a luxury and therefore I have to rely upon myself (grumble grumble).

I have decided to write a 15 minute short called “Damn These Slanty Eyes” – its an idea I have played with before, but now am thinking live action (rather than the animation I made). It’s about Asians seeing in wide screen and white people seeing in TV aspect ratio – it's a comedy (duh!) so we shall see…

Aspect Ratios - its funny... trust me!

With my new competition entering profession, it would be really easy to wake up late, drink coffee, walk to Larchmont and stare at the trees. Nevertheless, I have been trying to keep my days really structured in order to keep sane (or what little sanity I have in place). Therefore I wake up around 9am (still late – I know!) and then have breakfast as I check my e mail (this is really riveting I am sure) and then start work on whatever it is I am working on (aka today it was my script). Then I allow myself one adventure a day – weather it be going to Larchmont, having coffee with someone etc. Today it just so happened that my outing/ adventure was to…

DOUGHBOYS!

Now this I am sure means nothing to most of you but it is in fact one of my favorite places to eat in Los Angeles. It closed down over a year ago because of insane rents etc but has just re opened with the EXACT SAME MENU (oh dear – there goes any hopes of loosing all this weight… sigh)!

I was introduced to the place by Mischa so what better way to get back into the wing of it than with Mischa, Justin and Mandy…

Mandy and Mischa

Mischa and Justin

Justin trying to be a Japanese tourist - he wishes!

I had the famous French Onion soup and Doughboy salad (yum)

while Mandy and Justin went with the Tuna Melt and chicken noodle soup.

Mischa had something that looked… well a little strange but he seemed happy! It was delicious and what is great is that it is right next to “Chateau marmut” where all the fancy dogs go to get groomed so its like watching a little doggy parade from your table… though I think this one may have been a polar bear…

We were all good and steered clear of their famous “Red Velvet Cake” – though now I am wishing I had some… waaaaa

In sad news, Corey Haim passed away yesterday.

It was such a shock to me as just the other day when I was thinking who I could get to write me recommendations for my HBO application, none other than Corey’s name came up. My good friend Noah has been his neighbor and friend for years and said that Corey was willing to do it for me. I had said to hold tight as it looked as though Judd Apatow and Mark Romanek were going to come through and the next thing I heard... Corey had passed away in the night. So so sad… in honor of him, Justin, Mandy, Ryan and I are off to a midnight screening of “Lucas” tomorrow…

PS in totally different news, in a strange twist of things Mark Romanek never ended up writing my recommendation? Not sure what happened as he said “yes” and that he loved my short etc and then never got back to me? Never replied to my last few e mails etc… Mark – if you are out there… I am worried… are you ok? It turned out all right in the end as my savior Mardie (the Louise to my Thelma) managed to get our friend Massy Tadjedin to write one for me. Not only is she a kick ass female director (her next movie starring Keira Knightly, Sam Worthington and Eva Mendes “Last Night” comes out this year), but she is also a writer and an awesome person – THANK YOU MASSY and MARDIE!!

Chiara outshines the Oscars!

2010-03-08T21:05:00.000-08:00

Ryan, Alia, Sabrina and I had a blast at the midnight screening of “Alice and Wonderland” Saturday night. We pre purchased VIP tickets to the sold out screening at the El Capitan Theater and it was well worth the steep $25 price tag.

What I love about going to the movies there on opening weekend is that it is usually the die-hard fans that make up the audience. People dress up and go all out and to be a part of that ride makes the experience that much cooler. Not only that, because the El Captain is owned by Disney and Wonderland is one of their movies, they had great prize give aways at the beginning and the entire theater was decorated according to Wonderland! We had free popcorn and drinks with our price of admission and Sabrina had brought along mini chocolate mushroom cookies to munch on and to go along with the theme of Alice in Wonderland – so thoughtful!

Anyhow, I enjoyed the movie (despite its giant flaws), and was plagued by horrid dreams of Jabberwockies (sp?) etc. Thank god I did not have that much time to stay asleep, for Sunday morning it was my good friend Clio’s daughters 2^nd Birthday party.

Seeing as my nephew Nayou is so far away, Chiara is like my surrogate niece and I love her to death.

She is cute, cheeky, smart, did I mention cute?

It was a great gathering in Clio’s backyard with mostly adults that have all helped in babysitting and helping out with Chiara. John (Clio’s husband) manned the grill with Ryan.

I concentrated on devouring everything in vast quantities (Clio is the most AMAZING cook I know)! It was a lovely afternoon and I can’t wait for Chiara to turn 3!!

This is the great party store down the street from me. I got these two "walker" balloons that you can drag behind you and it is as though they are walking behind you. Chiara is really into balloons at the moment!

Blowing out her candles!

Opening her presents!

Chiara and her cousin Rena

Rena having cake for the first time!

Lucy and Dan

It was then off to West Hollywood to my friend Mandy’s house for the Oscar party. We had ballots and I was late so hastily filled mine in and now have to bare the shame of knowing I voted for James Cameron to win best director when in fact I KNEW I should have gone for Katherine Bigelow – how exciting to have watched the first woman receive her best director award. It was a great night – some of my friends I had not seen in quite some time so it was lovely to catch up!

On the way home I was thinking, there is only one “best Director” category so why on earth are actors divided up into men and women? In all honesty the whole thing is a little strange as it is not a level playing field. If we were to truly judge who is the best actor, they would all have to play the same role, in the same film etc. That being said, seeing as that is not possible and each actor is judged for the movie they made and the role they played – why are there separate categories for men and women? Shouldn't there just be a “best Actor” category? The Oscars are always harping on about the ceremony going too long, why not drop the separated categories and go for one? Just a thought…

PS Not sure why I have no pics of Sarah and Mandy from the Oscar party? Perhaps my camera is sexist?

The Independent Spirit Awards - yeee harrrr!

2010-03-06T13:02:00.000-08:00

I have been to award shows before, but none that I really connected with and none that made me say “I want that” at the end of the night….

The Independent Spirit Awards was fun, heartfelt and entertaining… I was seated at a table that was in the 2^nd row from the stage and I had Ryan (my husband) to my left and none other than John Powers

(film critique for Vogue magazine) to my right! Seated next to Ryan was Susan King

(film writer for the LA Times) and the because we were at the New Zealand table, we also had Phil Keoghan

and his wife (host of my favorite TV show “The Amazing Race”), Barrie Osborne and his lovely wife and a few members of the Tourism NZ team! Great company and great conversations!

The room was packed with A list celebrities, up and coming film makers and industry pro’s and want to bee’s (aka moi) but it all just felt like a level playing field. Ego’s were checked at the door and acceptance speeches were long, but heartfelt with lots of “Thanks” given to family members and LOTS of tears (it put me a little at ease for the horrid flashbacks I keep having from balling before my screening of “Sweet As” in New Zealand – its normal… I’m normal… Hurrah!).

Anyhow, the night began with me having a freak attack over what to wear! Now I know that this is normal in many women’s lives – not mine! I usually take a maximum of 20 minutes to get ready for anything (that includes shower time), but the problem was that I have gained weight over the past few months and therefore could not fit into any of my clothes (agh!). I finally decided on a white, eye lit dress by “Ghost” as it was a little dressy but still casual. I put Ryan’s outfit together and he wore it despite the fact that he said he felt like a Jonas Brother (though secretly I think he liked it)!

We then drove downtown to LA LIVE where the event was being held for the first time (it used to be at the beach) and everyone pulled up to the VIP/ VALET entrance in their limo’s and town cars - we did in my little Alfie (my mini cooper) who I believe has not been washed in over 5 months (agh)! Not to mention the fact that I also have a pirate flag that flaps proudly from my rear antenna – a sight to behold!

We skipped the red carpet and went straight up to the “cocktail” hour.

We spotted Andres at the New Zealand tent so we went over there and “ohhed” and “ahhhed” over the films playing (it was so cool to see my movie up there)! The reception for “Sweet As” was amazing!

Great to hear people talk about it who have no connection to me what so ever and for them to say it is fantastic without knowing that I made it – I know that you should not have to rely on outside validation, but it is always nice!

I was then asked to have some pics taken… I never realized how awkward I am in front of the camera (hence that I am behind it!), but I felt like I was posing for my high school yearbook photo… I really hope that they don't use any of them as I can only imagine what they look like! On a more casual note, Barrie’s wife Carol Kim was nice enough to offer to take some pics of Barrie and I in front of my movie so we snapped away which was great…

I was then whisked off to the press tent where I walked past Elton John (what was he doing there? I ask myself the same question… but it was cool so who cares!) and then was sat down to do an interview for Empire magazine.

With my backstage, press pass!

It is an article that is going to be predominantly about Andres but they wanted to chat with me too, which was great. I cracked them all up and then they compared me to such directors as “Guy Richie”, “David Fincher” and “Tim Burton” – I almost DIED… with the exception of Guy Richie (though he is one of Ryan’s favorite directors) I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE (there are not enough “LOVE” words to describe my LOVE) of Fincher and Burton… WOW WOW WOW! I have had a silly smile on my face ever since!

It was then into the HUGE tent for the event and dinner. Each round table had a table number

and a nameplate so you knew exactly where to sit. In the middle were a HUGE bottle of champagne and a HUGE bottle of whiskey (must to Ryan’s delight). Dinner was salmon on rice with green beans (Ryan ate mine as I am vegetarian) and then dessert was little tarts, cupcakes and strawberries. The food was so so (but who on earth cared!). We also had HUGE goodie bags sitting on our chairs – I had to restrain myself from ripping it open to see what was inside (naturally it was the first thing I did when I got home)…

The Awards show was great – we were right next to the “Precious” tables as well as –Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters (Ryan was in awe) as well as Matt Dillon and Ethan Hawke.

Two tables away was Adrian Brody, Maggie Gillenhall and Jeff Bridges blab la blab la… it was exciting!

I also ran into my neighbor Sharon Lawrence (the actress) who is the head of Women in Film.

She was so excited about the movie that she gave me her card (she has never done this before) and also info about a finishing fund that they have set up… now I just need to start a movie so I can finish it! I have promised myself that I am 100% (full time job) going to search high and low for the perfect script, story etc to make into a movie this year… MUST MUST MUST!

What was also exciting about the Spirit Awards was that there were quite a few women that received awards (including best director)…. How exciting! Especially when the number of women in film has in fact declined over the years instead of the opposite (specially in principal positions such as Director, Producer, Cinematographer etc)… must turn that frown upside down!

Ok ok, so after the show it was off to the after party. We had a few more drinks (for me that means diet coke) at the New Zealand tent and then went across the street to party like rock stars.

To be honest, the after party was kind of dead… no one was dancing (though that did not stop us from busting a move) and there was no food (we were STARVING) with the exception of what I call “White Trash” candy (Twinkies, hoho’s, twizlers, raisenetts)…. It was cute, but I was hoping for some cheese and crackers!

We danced, we ate Twinkies, we had a drink and mingled and then it was time for Ryan and I to retire.

Busting a pose with the host of the night Eddie Izzard

We walked back to the valet stand to get Alfie and had a chuckle as they brought him around, pirate flag a fluttering as other guests of the awards piled into their chauffeured, black cars – awesome!

What an amazing end to what has been an amazing experience. I now need to up the ante. I have applied to several fellowships (one for the ABD/ DGA Directing Fellowship) that Barrie Osborne was kind enough to write my recommendation for (though I don't have a good feeling for some reason about getting accepted into that program) and then Monday I will be mailing my application to the HBO/ DGA directing fellowship (which you needed working, professional directors to write you recommendations for – this was a HUGE challenge but thank god I was able to secure one from Judd Apatow

(the director of “40 year old Virgin”, “Knocked Up”, “funny People” etc as well as Mark Romanek

who is probably the most famous music video director with such gems as “Michael Jackson’s “History”, Madonna’s “Rain” and “Bedtime Stories”, Weezers "El Scorcho” not to mention the feature film “One Hour Photo” with Robin Williams). In addition, my champion, BFF, advocate, agent, manager, super star friend Mardie looks to have an additional trick up her sleeve for me (we have to wait and see!!)…

Now we have to keep our fingers crossed! Tonight I am off to see Alice in Wonderland (Tim Burtons latest) in 3D with Ryan, Alia and Sabrina…

I CANT WAIT… what an amazing few days I have had… SO LUCKY!

Snip Snip Snip

2010-03-02T00:06:00.000-08:00

Every time I think that it could not get any worse, I remember that there was once upon a time Freshman year in college where I had to edit an episode of Gunsmoke on the old Steinbeck machine and physically CUT film (I have the scars to prove it).

My face now that I have been staring at my computer screen since 9am!

This gives me a second wind to sit back on my stool and keep cutting (agh). I am writer, director, cinematographer, sound designer, dialogue editor, color grader, producer blab la bla for this little project I am working on… one job I did manage to outsource (and thank god I did) was the VO (voice over).

I am lucky to be surrounded by really talented friends and it just so happens that my friend Mischa is a professional voice over artist (among many other things)! It also just so happens that he was fresh of a plane from Germany en route to San Francisco, so despite the fact that he had the bubonic plague and a barely audible voice, I sat poor Mischa down and made him belt out a couple of lines of dialogue for me.

I am pretty sure that I owe him my right ovary at this point – THANKS MISCHA!

The remainder of the day (it is now tomorrow – does that even make sense??!!) has been spent editing (agh!) and tomorrow I am hoping to be able to wrangle my friend Tim Zimmer (editor oracle) to work some magic on my shortcomings (and there are plenty of them).

Wednesday is when this is due and then I can get on with my life (hurrah)! Just in time as I have a lunch date with my old friend Jonathan Beckerman (www.jonathanbeckerman.com) who is now a photographer on Thursday, then Friday its off to IKEA with Clio, Friday night its the midnight screening of Alice in Wonderland with Alia and Sabrina, then Saturday night it is the Spirit Awards (yeee harrrr)

and then Sunday it is Chiara’s Birthday party followed by the Oscars (woot woot)!

Ok, back to editing I go…

Oxoxox

PS Is it just me, or does everyone have major doubt about themselves and their work when it is almost done? Without exception, I get to the end of something and begin to convince myself that it may possibly be the silliest, worst, mot embarrassing thing ever created??!! Geesh…

And the winner is...

2010-02-28T15:49:00.000-08:00

Well not our dear Little Pig – not even best smile or best legs (which we all know he has)… then again, maybe he did and I am just a bad pageant mum, because Aunty Alia and I got hungry and therefore missed the crowning (woops!).

That being said, what a spectacular day we had! I first peeled Little Pig out of bed at 8:30am (remember, he usually does not rise before noon) and packed him into Alfie the Mini. We then drove off to pick up Aunty Alia in Brentwood. After a quick caffeine stop at Starbucks, we were off to Seal Beach for the annual Bulldog Beauty Contest (yes – that was not a typo, there is in fact an annual Bulldog Beauty contest).

It is actually a fund raiser for dog shelters and adoption NGO’s, and over the years it has grown so large that they average around 400 bulldogs entering for 3 coveted prizes – overall beauty, best smile and best legs (all of whom win a years worth of food and treats).

As cute, funny, so ugly they are cute the dogs were, the owners were just as amazing to watch! A lot of them wore matching outfits to their dogs (AMAZING!) and then others just had fab outfits… if only there had been a way for me to snap secret pics of them…

Litte Pig kissing a friend

Little Pig cleaning out a friends ear (eww!)

We ran into my friend Morgan and some of her friends wich was great (I had not seen Morgan since we wrapped Inception) and then it was time for Little Pig to do his “Walk” across the stage and impress the judges.

The Pageant was judged by Mrs. Long Beach and other beauty pageant winners!

They also had plenty of doggie spectators!

Unfortunately, he was sandwiched between the two cutest frenchie puppies (agh),

Sooooo cute!

it was tough competition but I still have no doubt that he should have (maybe he did??!) won best legs…

After all that excitement, Little Pig was pretty much falling asleep on his feet so we hopped in the car and came back home!

Other doggies were exhausted as well...

He is now sitting next to me having lovely puppy dreams (and being a lot more appreciative of his pageant mum, as she does not dress hi up in weird costumes…)!

ummmmm...

2010-02-27T19:09:00.000-08:00

My mother called me today to warn me of the end of the world that was coming my way (aka the tsunami warnings, which in fact I had no idea bout!).

Then she followed that up with “Why have you not updated your blog – ahem”! Well there are two reasons for this. The first that I have genuinely been busy this week, and then secondly, I feel a little self-righteous continuing with a blog about my life when in fact there is really nothing going on…

Therefore I take this opportunity to apologize to all who read this for film and arts news and are now being bombarded with what I ate and what time I went to bed. Feel free to take an “Aya Adventure” hiatus and I can let you all know when you should tune in next (if ever!).

With that out of the way, let me tell you what I have been up to mum!

The last time I wrote I believe I was getting my ass in gear thanks to Tom and his dictator like powers over me. Thank god he has been summoned to Iowa or some god-forsaken place by his boss and has therefore left me to continue eating my way through Los Angeles!

Wednesday was a busy day in that I was prepping and shooting scenes for a little side project I am working on. I had wanted my friend Helen’s mother to be in it but she was having none of it. Then for some reason, she had a change of heart so I jetted over there and took advantage of her opening her home to me (hurrah)! She was so great and also insisted that I stay for dinner (yum!).

Thursday was spent getting all the footage logged and putting the finishing touches on my application for the Disney/ ABC DGA Directors Fellowship – for some reason this REALLY stressed me out and when I went to mail it, the lady at the post office told me that there are 2 guys in the neighborhood who put their applications in for the same fellowship every year (they have been doing it for over 5)… how depressing (fingers crossed everyone – what a shame it is not chosen by votes eh!).

In the evening my work husband Carlo and I went to dinner and to see my friend Norman perform his one-man show at the Noho Arts Center.

It was so great to catch up with Carlo and we were even able to share food as whilst in NZ I discovered that I actually now like Beetroot (which is one of Carlo’s favorites) – yum yum!

Our Yummy Beets salad with pesto and arugula

The show was really touching; it was a solo act in which Norman wrote all the music etc. I know Norman from the bookshop on Larchmont and had NO IDEA that he was such a great performer!

This was his “coming out” so to speak and every night he is sold out (bravo indeed)! I am so proud of him!

Then on Friday it was back to editing, but not without a lunch break with my good friend Callie. Callie is on her way to Chicago today to start work on a new FOX TV pilot but will be back in 2 months. Little Pig has a HUGE crush on her and was so delighted to see her…

Today I would not have left the house if it were not to take pig out to pee. Seriously – it is now 7pm and I am still in my pajamas editing (sigh). It is not at all how I want it to be and not having money, a crew, postproduction facilities etc is rather sad (waaa). All the more reason to make it to the top…

Anyhow, tomorrow is another big day as Little Pig is entered into the Long Beach, International Bulldog Beauty Pageant (that right – he is running for Mr. Los Angeles). They have about 400 bulldogs in competition and all the money raised goes to animal rescue and shelters. Should be a laugh so will be sure to post photos tomorrow!

Sweet As is on line!

2010-02-23T20:40:00.000-08:00

That’s right folks - "Sweet As" (my baby) is finally up on line for you to all ogle at and give feedback

www.your-big-break.com

is where you will find it along with the 4 other finalist’s films. To be honest, its going to be a tough decision for Peter Jackson as they are all so different but it will be interesting to see how it all turns out.

Speaking of which, it has been quite depressing sitting here with no mandatory work to distract me from the impeding winner decision. My friends have been really great at filling up my dance card and therefore I have had quite the time catching up with everyone since my return.

Tom pointing to where he is going to make hike too...

Yesterday I was hijacked by Tom (a dear friend from way back in the day). I had suggested that we go get food; he suggested that I get my ass in shape and therefore made me go on a hike. I always HATE going on hikes and then once I am on them I love it and wonder why I don’t take advantage of all the trails that surround my place more often...

Trying not to pass out!

We then went back to Tom's place to watch a short movie his friend has just made. It’s called "Summer Solstice" and is fantastic (though super depressing). I can’t remember the director’s name (will have to ask Tom) but it is worth checking out (though not sure where one rents/ gets short films - really is a sin)!

Then today, it was off to Clio's for lunch. Clio is by far the best cook I know - she just "throws" things together and they are delicious. She has her sister in law Korisa and Korisa's 9-month-old baby Bella staying with her so it was a little girlie get together.

Clio and Chiara

Chiara and Pig playing in the new veggie garden boxes Clio had made!

Clio made a delicious omelet, lemonade and an orange, vanilla cake with orange blossom syrup - aghhhh SOOOOOOO yummy!!

While I was at Clio's I was also lucky enough to get a mail from none other than Barrie Osborne with a recommendation letter attached! I had asked him for one last week but had not heard back so thought that was that but low and behold there it was! I am so chuffed!

With that, I am now prepping to go and start shooting my mini documentary on Mrs. Kim (my BFF Helen Kim's mum) tomorrow - I am both excited and nervous as tomorrow will determine weather or not I will have what I need to cut together my short for next week (eeek)!

Fingers crossed!!

PS feel free to leave all your comments and feedback (good and bad) for "Sweet As" here, via e mail (aya_tanimura@phobicfilms.com) or on the Your Big Break site!!

Shudder Island?

2010-02-22T13:48:00.000-08:00

Yup - I went to see Shutter Island (or as I have re named it "Shudder Island") last night. The good part? I was able to catch up with my BFF's Jay Bender (who is one of the best editors I know and did such wonders as the trailers for Avatar and those damn Twilight movies)...

Jay and I back in the day at Coachella!

and Tim Zimmer (another fierce editor who refuses to be in photos!). We had not seen each other in quite some time so it was great to catch up...

Bad part? Well the movie really - don't want to go into too much detail for those who have yet to see it, however the ending was way too easy and obvious and I just thought that they could have made what ended up being a mediocre movie, a really great one with a little more effort. That being said, I did shriek in a few parts and I thought that Leo did a great job so it was not a total waste of time...

Last but not least it was raining so Little Pig refused to go for a walk (nothing new there) but we did manage to go to the tennis courts and on the way home I discovered a grapefruit tree in an abandoned lot so decided to help myself - delicious!

Who said nothing in life is free eh (watch me get arrested today)!

Last but not least... to round up what I can only describe as the most riveting blog post ever was that Ryan and I made one of those "Crystal Tree's" (did anyone else do these as kids?).

Maybe it is our lack of cable TV or our need to get a life, but we were most excited to discover later that evening that the tree had grown - how exciting!

At this juncture I am really open to anything and everything that will get my mind off the impeding Peter Jackson judgement!

Lazy Saturday...

2010-02-20T20:09:00.000-08:00

And Lazy it was indeed! Little Pig and I slept in until 11:30am (yup – I am not ashamed to admit that I channeled my inner teen and slept past a respectable hour… people keep telling me that I will hit 30 and I will no longer be able to sleep past 9am but I will have to see that to believe it – I LOVE TO SLEEP!).

Ryan was up before us and started work on one of his papers. He was supposed to do school work all day, so I thought that this was a great excuse for me to stay in and work on some of my own projects.

Ryan and I are really not great at working together as we are great at finding reasons that we have to abandoned what we are working on and do something else. Therefore at around 2pm, I decided we both needed some fresh air and therefore totted on over to Larchmont for a coffee…

There is nothing like a little Coffee Bean to make you feel happy to be in Los Angeles (ahhhh)…

It was then off to the bank to yell at them for allowing people to siphon thousands of dollars from our accounts (we got new cards, changed pin numbers, lowered daily limits etc) and then it was a quick stop at Chevalier Books and home again…

We worked some more and then I cooked Soba for dinner (I had green onions that were about to turn and it was the only dish I could think of that uses a lot of them!).

My chopped green onions in the bowl I made at pottery class with Helen last year!

It was really yummy and even little Pig got in on the fun…

It was then time to take the pig for his evening romp at the Hancock Park tennis club, but sadly it was not as long as it usually is as he seemed to hurt his little paw (eek)!

Lets hope that he can sleep this one of eh!

I am going to get back to the drawing board as just started trying to put my initial idea for this short movie together and it is TOTALLY not working (grrrr) – really keeping my fingers crossed that Mrs. Kim changes her mind and wants me to make a mini doc on her!! HINT HINT HELEN’s MUM – please to be saving me and helping me become a famous, credible director!!!

How can you say "no" to a face like this?

Freaky Friday

2010-02-19T21:20:00.000-08:00

Ok ok, so it was not freaky at all - just sounds more exciting to start it off that way.

Actually, to be honest, I had to check that it was in fact Friday as I have lost track of days!

Today started off with a trip to the Valley (Burbank to be precise). I had asked my good friend Helen yesterday if I could do a mini documentary on her mum (her mum was having non of it) but we did realize that we both had nothing to do today so decided a trip to IKEA was in order (I needed candles and she needed curtains).

Viet finding bargains on Craigslist - he has mad skills!

Helens boyfriend Viet lives in Burbank so we met at his place and then walked over to IKEA where I saw this gem in a window...

and started our day with a hearty 99c breakfast of Swedish pancakes with elderberry sauce (or as Helen called is Legoberry!) - YUM!

Swedish Pancakes with Lingonberry Sauce and Elderflower Water (YUM!)

Sadly they did not have the curtains Helen wanted, but I scored well in the candle department (being the good friend Helen is, she talked me out of purchasing a throne for Little Pig that I was convinced I needed)!

From there I hopped back in the car to go home and meet Alia and Sabrina. They came over were we hung out before walking over to Larchmont get some food (our favorite past time and apparently what I do all day long... hmmmm).

We went to the Larchmont Bungalow (out regular hang out) and were fortunate enough to meet one of the cooks there who I jokingly pretended to be disgruntled with over the fact that they never have a vegetarian soup option. He then said, "well what do you want?" to which I said "tomato soup". Low and behold about 15 minutes later 3 large bowls (and by large bowls I can only describe as "buckets") arrived with the most delicious tomato soup!

People kept passing on the street and asking what it was and wanted to order it but were denied (he he he). He then tried to send out free dessert but we were already having a tough time getting up off the bench so politely declined and walked over to Chevalier Books.

Little Pig got his treats (which looked suspiciously like human cookies - so much so that Norman who works there thought they were and helped himself to some??!!). Speaking of Norman, he has what looks to be an AWESOME one-man show coming up on February 25th - 28th at the Noho Arts Center (becomingnorman.tix.com). Anyhow we completely lost track of time so what was originally going to lead to a trip to Target soon became a hightail back home so that Sabrina could go do some volunteer work!

I dabbled at some short film ideas before cooking Yakisoba for Ryan and I (why is everything I write about food??!!)...

oxoxo

Aya

PS can we talk about the fact that I am going TOTALLY insane with analyzing my short movie? Wondering what is going to happen, what movie Peter Jackson is going to choose, why he will choose that one bla bla bla... need to be able to turn my damn brain off!! agh!

Me on my bed watching "Sweet As" for the ?? time!

Show me the money!

2010-02-17T22:05:00.000-08:00

Geesh - the real world kinda sucks!

After waking up from 12 hours of blissful sleep (thank god I have the worlds laziest dog - he slept for 15 hours meaning even after 12 hours sleep, I still had 3 more hours of getting life sorted before having to take him out for his morning (ahem 1:30pm) walk)!

Anyhow, my point being that in the mere two and a half weeks that I was away, there seemed to be a whole lot of crap that happened. First was that a check I wrote to a friend and mailed must have been intercepted and cashed by some asshole (excuse my French) because my friend never received it and yet it was cashed. a minimum 90 day investigation is now open with afidavid's having to get signed etc - geesh...

Whilst I was dealing with the above shenanegans, I also notice that there was over $2000 missing from my personal account and another $1000 from my joint account. All were taken out of ATM's which is strange as
A. they were done while I was in NZ
B. they would have had to have my cards (I had them with me in NZ)
C. they would have had to have my pin numbers
people are telling me now that there are things that people attached to ATM's to steal this info - I wish to say to whomever did this that I curse the day they were born...
Another 90 day investigation and I SHOULD get my money back... AGH!

It was then onto calling my car insurance company to ask why on earth they decided to up my insurance $50 a month for no reason followed by another call to my health insurance to ask why, after being insured with them for a mere 2 months with NO claims have they decided to up my rates 40% - seriously folks.. what is going on here?

After that, I was hungry and realized that my husband Ryan (bless his heart) does not know what a grocery store is (this is fine as I have a secret obsession with grocery stores and LOVE to do the shopping), but this also means that there was NOTHING to eat in the house as I have not been here to refill the cupboards. One trip to the grocery store ($150 later), I then got on my next "to do" item which was to deal with a $250 bill I received from the NZ hospital I went to when my eye decided to become a softball sized puss pod (ewww). When I was there they said because I was an Aussie that it was going to be free - guess that was a big fat lie as there was the bill waiting for me. Still have not figured that one out as it would seem because I have not lived in Australia for quite some time now I am not allowed to use Medicare which means I may just have to pay the damn $250, but given that I am currently unemployed, have had most of my funds drained from my bank account and have rent coming up... it may have to be placed on the back burner for now...

PHEW! So what does a girl do in times of stress? She makes some fried food is what! Thats right folks, I busted out my inner Asian Martha Stewart and decided to cook some Japanese food. Ryan had been hanging out for what he calls Japanese Friend Chicken (to the more refined it is called "Karaage")

and consists of marinating chicken (and for me firm Tofu) in a mixture of soy sauce, grated ginger and Mirin for a few hours...

Then putting them in a bag with corn starch to coat them...

Then deep frying them in vegetable oil...

Then eating them hot with a dipping sauce that consists of Soy Sauce and White Rice Vinegar...

YUM! It is also important to set aside some chicken and just plain boil it for your four legged friend...

Now we are both having water wars as we are having total salt overload but it was totally worth it! We walked off out dinner with Little Pig and ran into one of our neighbors who is not having such a great start to 2010. I offered to bring some morning tea over to her place tomorrow so have to start planing that now... (notice that I am trying to keep myself super occupied so as not to think of the impending Your Big Break announcement??!!)... In fact a friend just forwarded me another competition for a Los Angeles competition to enter (for this one you actually have to MAKE a 3 minute movie)... perhaps this is what I shall do in the coming weeks! Although not lucrative, I may become a professional competition entererrrerrrer... is there such a thing? Can I get sponsored? hmmmmmm...

Home "Sweet As" home!

2010-02-16T16:47:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to say that I have arrived back in my concrete oasis safe and sound! Unlike my trip to NZ, I was not sandwiched between two Christian Crusaiders, but instead had three seats all to my very self (hurrah!). I lay out, passed out and did not wake up until someone poked me to say that we were starting our decent into Los Angeles!

It was then the Super Shuttle (Ryan was working and I did not feel as though I could ask any more of my friends after all they have done while I was away), and I felt right at home when the dispatcher with only 3 teeth spat "maam, it will be as long as it damn well takes" when I asked how long the van was! ahhhh good old America!

I have since tried to sleep but Little Pig was having none of it (strange as he spends 23 hours of his day sleeping) so I walked him to Chevalier's Book Shop (a local book shop that I love) and had a quick natter to everyone there about my adventures.

I am now back home, and seriously delirious. I am off to bed but promise a good, proper, funny, with photos update tomorrow when I am more human! The adventure is just beginning folks (even if that adventure is just me going to the supermarket... don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up just yet... No studio executives left messages for me while I was away begging for a meeting - how strange??!!)... ha ha ha

PS Before I go and pass out - It appears that Peter Jackson (or PJ as the cool kids call him) will be watching our movies on February the 23rd (New Zealand time) and we should find out 24 hours from then if we are the winner (though honestly folks... as nice as it would be, I can't imagine needing more than what they have already given me... I still can't believe that I made my first movie, in NZ, produced by Oscar winning Barrie Osborne... WHAT??!!)

THE END or THE BEGINNING

2010-02-15T01:18:00.000-08:00

I am having a tough time typing this. Party due to the fact that I am physically and emotionally exhausted, but also due to the fact that I am balling like a baby whist typing this (not to fret – they are happy tears).

I am pretty sure that I have not cried like this since Macaulay Culkin died in My Girl, or maybe when ET gets left behind by his people – either way, my tears are of epic proportions and it started when I was asked to say a few words before my screening…

Lets rewind a little to the beginning of my day… Started off normal in the sense that I got up, had breakfast and went to Park Road Post. Once I was there it was straight to the Mixing Room 3 (AMAZING) where Tim, Tim, Chris and Dave were getting all the different elements of sound for my movie ready to mix. Everyone knows that Park Post has all the state of the art equipment and is quite stunning in terms of architecture etc. What they don't tell you is that it may very well have the most comfortable couches in the world! I took full advantage of this, made a “nest” and proceeded to bark orders from what I self titled “Aya's Throne” for the remainder of the day. Why none of the guys did not slap me is beyond me…

Anyhow, it was very interesting to watch it all unfold. I have NEVER been in a sound mix before, let alone one for my own movie so it was a HUGE learning curve for me. SO interesting (I now have a new found appreciation for sound – these guys are INSANE). Tim, Tim, Chris and Dave built an entire world through sound and it is FANTASTIC. I was a little worried about today as both Tim and Kristi who had gone before me were very stressed on their final mix day as they said there was not enough time. Well, in typical Aya fashion, we were mixed and done an hour early (how does this keep happening?!). I had kept my “hissy fit” card in my back pocket to use for this very day and was slightly upset that I never got to use it (though Dave did say that I could throw the phone at him!)…

Trying to get the levels on the music right during the montage sequence...

Therefore we deiced to use the spare time for the benefit of everyone… we went and had some drinks (hurrah)! It was then that people started to arrive for the screening. Helen, Kate and Luke (who are in the movie) arrived first – it was so nice of them to be able to come and see the end product. It was then a flurry of activity as Park Road employees (ones that I have become quite fond of over these few days) as well as friends and everyone who worked on my movie arrived.

It was then into the theater and cue the water works! I started off quite chipper and then took a serious nose dive when I mentioned making movies with my dad as a kid and then moving onto wanting to direct so badly (sob sob) and then onto how I was almost about to give up when this opportunity arose (gushing tears at this point). From then I pretty much don't remember anything (convenient no?). I know that they rolled the movie and there was lots of giggling, laughing and reactions happening. Then I vaguely remember clapping and then someone saying “Again?” and then they rolled again. The lights then came up and people started talking to me and I had a silly smile on my face the entire time but again remember very little!

I think that Juliet said it best when “Its like giving birth to a baby and then having to leave it at the hospital” as the next thing I knew Jonno and Reiko were driving me back to my hotel. Jonno and Reiko are SO nice, they offered to take me out to dinner so as not to spend my last night alone in my hotel but I declined as to be honest, I am so tired that I wanted to pack and then sit and stare at the wall for an hour or so…

My packing is now done, I have written my final blog entry for the Your Big Break site and once I upload this I plan on hopping into bed and staring at the ceiling and re living each and every moment that has transpired since I heard the news that I was off to NZ to film “Sweet As” – what an adventure indeed!

There are SO many people who have contributed to get me here that I feel that it is important to give a little thank you shout out. The only thing that scares me here is that I am no doubt going to forget someone and that someone will probably be the most important person of them all… I am delirious at the moment so if you are that person, please no not take offence… be happy as you can remind me of what a horrid person I am and then I will write a whole blog entry on just you!! Hurrah!

Catherine and Jill thank you for your amazing support and patience – I know that there were times when you wanted me to stop coming up with “ideas” (at least expensive ones!) – thank you for never loosing your cool with me! James my calm, cheeky DP – thanks for sharing my vision and teaching me so many new things… your unyielding support and can do attitude was definitely what got us through those two crazy days! Joe my fearless AD – thanks for keeping us in check and for being tough when I needed to hear the truth and calm when I needed reassurance. Ken, what can I say? You are AMAZING and your ears must be ringing as each and every one of us (directors) cant stop talking in awe about you! Gary my sidekick production supervisor – thanks for going above and beyond with my movie, I know that I talk a lot and you had to be on the receiving end of most of that! Last but not least from Queenstown was my homeboy Daz – you crazy location manager you… thanks for introducing me to the best “burgers” in Queenstown and for making me laugh, cry, laugh some more. Even though you abandoned me on day 2, I still love you!!

Bare with me folks – Tony, every time I eat a snake, milk bottle, Jaffa or pineapple thingy I will always think of you. Thanks for keeping me high on sugar and for your constant positive energy! Jonno you film cutting, tea making, bass thumping extraodinair (sp?)! I could not have imagined a better editor, not to mention friend – thanks for taking care of me here in Welly and for making my movie what it is (fierce and fabulous!). Katie and Daizo, your graphics and Roto skills are a force to be reckoned with – thanks for being so kick ass! Matt, your coloring of my movie was truly like watching someone paint a beautiful picture – thanks for making it look so damn good! Alison, you mother hen you! Thanks for being such a great positive force of energy and for always looking out for me! Dave – wow wow wow, I am still thinking I will wake up and realize that it was all a dream… HOW THE HELL DID YOU COMPOSE THAT MUSIC, I am in awe of you and your talent and cannot thank you enough for all that you did for me (specially those damn trumpets – I LOVE THE TRUMPETS!). Tim, my sound effects man – you are so much more than that! Thanks for adding a little more humor and cheek to my movie, every time I hear a car horn, an egg timer, a cash register etc I will think of you! Chris, my amazing dialog man – thank you for doing such an amazing job with my dialogue, as I know it was not easy. Also your idea for the smooch was really the cherry on top – thank you! Juliet - I guess none of us would be here without you! Thanks for being so supportive and patient with my credits (I know I am a nutter!). Barrie Osborne - thanks for fighting the fight regarding granny and nannas homes, I got what I wanted and I think it made "Sweet As" what it is. Thank you for your time, your advice, your wisdom and guidance!

Back home there is also a troop of AMAZING people who picked up all my loose ends and made everything better while I was away so that I did not have to worry. Callie, OP, Uncle Todd and Justin – thank you so very much for loving and taking care of Little Pig. You know how precious he is to me and knowing that you guys were there to depend on was a lifesaver – I will never be able to repay you! Alia and Sabrina, my PR agent, my sisters, my babies Aunties - I am trying to think of a way that I can re pay you for all that you have done for me and it is going to take several life times - you guys are truly amazing, giving, generous, kind and I don't know what I have done to deserve you in my life. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Clio my translator you – thanks so much for re writing everything that I write in gibberish to make it sound professional and not like it has been written by a bi-polar person with a 2^nd grade level of English! Marissa, Anna, Jessie - thanks for being my rocks! Can't imagine what a fruit cake I was like in NY but you guys were there for me. I love each and every one of you! Sarah and Jesse - you have championed me from the beginning - LETS GO MAKE FLAIR A REALITY! Carlo - my beloved work husband... your little notes and photos throughout this experience have really gotten me over some humps. Thanks for being so thoughtful! The DeVito's - you have been there for me through the good and the bad... thank you so much for all the love and support, I am getting you that damn Yankee season box if it kills me! Mardie my partner in crime, thanks for kicking me up the but and making me reach for the stars - I hope that I can hire you as my producer some day (soon!). Lucy my killer west coast rep - thanks for spreading the love!

Last but not least is my family. Mum is going to have to go to rehab starting tomorrow as she is a bonafied YBB and Aya Adventures addict. She has rallied behind me from when I was born and threatened everyone with horrible things if they did not vote for me in this competition… guess what mum – it worked! Thank you! In addition, thank you to my father who encourage me with such gems as “your eyes are in your heart like a Samurai”! The best sister in the world – Hana (possibly the most talented person I know – she can draw, animate, write, sing… ok well maybe not sing but sister has mad skillz as she was the killer animator behind “Sweet As” not to mention the fact that she replied to each and every freak out e mail I sent her way and talked me through everything over Skype… not only that she also made me a Your Big Break mix for those lonely moments in my hotel and I TOTALLY needed it)! My brother Taisuke who helped me upload my video (special needs Aya had trouble with it). My Aunt Rhonwin in Australia who diligently wrote me notes on my blog each and every day to keep me going and last but not least my beloved Ryan who has always supported and encouraged me to go after my dream even when it is not easy for him - thank you for allowing me to be me!

Music to my ears!

2010-02-13T22:53:00.000-08:00

Outside of Park Road Post

I cant believe that the end is so close – it seems like just a few days ago I received the news that I was going to be shooting my very own movie in NZ! I guess now I can say, that I HAVE shot my very own movie in NZ (and its not too shabby if I do say so myself)!

I gave a rough copy to my sister, brother and husband to get some feedback and it was interesting. I am sure that they are all being polite and supportive but everything was great (except my husband did say that it felt like an episode of Malcolm In the Middle – I took offence to this, even though he thought it was a good thing… specially seeing as it was on the air for 10 years!).

Anyhow, it was picture locked 2 days ago so no turning back now! Today was spent waiting (nail biting) as Dave worked on my sound design, Tim worked on my sound effects and Chris worked on my dialogue. There was a line that was re written during the edit, so we had Luke Hawker come back in a record it (this in film nerd jargon is called ADR).

Luke recording the new line in the ADR studio

I stepped into the ADR room and almost had a heart attack as it was so damn nice (not to mention the size of my entire apartment!). Luke was fantastic and Chris was amazing so combined, it took about 10 minutes to get it all done (hurrah!).

It was then back to nail biting as I had to wait until the end of the day to hear what the guys had mixed up for me. There was only so much Facebook looking I could do, so I took it upon myself to take a stroll down the street to get some afternoon snacks (aka bags and bags of sugar) to eat and take back for the others. I had forgotten how great NZ/ Aussie candy is, not to mention the cheese and VITA WEATS (yum yum)… it was by far the highlight of my day prior to getting to listen to what my home boys had cooked up (I am clearly too white to be using the term "Home Boys" as I don't even know if it is one or two words??!!)!

Across the street from Park are Tim and Chris' studio's

At 5pm I waltzed over to Chris who played me the dialogue – it was really great but one line was really bugging me. At first I thought that it was the level of it, but then Chris pointed out that it may just have been that take – he was right! We changed the take and the whole thing just fell into place… perfection!

Tim's playground!

It was then off to meet with Tim in his playground of fun noise making toys! He had been trolling away at getting all the great sound effects for the cars, the beginning and end sequence as well as the edit swipes etc. FANTASTIC does not even begin to describe this mans work – it was awesome!

Then it was off to visit the fearless Dave… I had no idea until he told me this afternoon that he is in fact NOT a composer and usually just does sound design (and by "just" I mean not "just" - if you get what I mean). This blew me away as he has composed now for Kristie’s movie and will start on Raj’s soon… DAVE IS A MUSICAL GENIUS! Seriously, who knew… Anyhow, I pushed the poor man to his limits today as I asked for a little brass number (pretty sure that he wanted to punch me), but he came through for me and it sounds AMAZING! When and if I ever make it, Dave is totally going to be on my team…

It’s an early night for me now, as tomorrow we go through everything and also do the final mix before screening it at 5:15pm…

Wish me luck!!

Did I get the grade?

2010-02-12T23:54:00.000-08:00

Why yes yes indeedle I did! Today was spent grading my film. For non-film nerds – this entails going through your film (pretty much frame by frame) and getting all the colors to look even (or if you want them to look uneven, uneven)! It is a rather lengthy process but one that you definitely should do if you want your film to look good and professional (then again, a lot of people cannot afford this process so skip it - I know that I will never be able to afford a luxury like this any time soon!).

Katie, Jonno, Tony and Matt all doing bits and bobs to "Sweet As" before grading begins...

Therefore, I tied to absorb, learn and absorbs some more in the time that I was given today. Matt my grader was AMAZING. He is totally the silent but deadly type as he whittled away making my film really pop. I had been researching the exact look of what I wanted my movie to look like for quite some time. I wanted my colors to be overly saturated but at the same time for the whites not to be blown out and for it not to be so over the top that it distracts from the characters and story. In the film world, this look is called a “Bleach Bypass” but what is so great about using digital is that we (and by we I really mean Matt) could control EXACTLY how the colors looked etc for me (hurrah). This means that my film looks SO GOOD! The colors really pop and Tony said it best when he said it reminded him of old Kodachrome film… perfect!

Me wondering what would happen if I pressed the giant red button in front of me...

Anyhow, I was also summoned by the great Dave Whitehead to listen to a track that he wrote for my movie. I ran up there thinking he may have hit a few bongo’s and then thrown a bass line over the top... BOY WAS I WRONG… that crazy cat had about 12 tracks laid down and had composed the most INSAME music for me. I was truly blown away… then again I don't know why I would expect anything less from Dave (he even invented a damn language for the director of District 9 – the man is a genius!).

Dave's District 9 Language in the written form...

Tomorrow I start recording and laying all the sound effects and we are re recording one line of dialogue with Luke hawker (this is called ADR in Film nerd world). I have never done this before so am looking forward to it! Monday is the final mix and then…. Its back home! Can’t believe that this experience is almost over??!!

PICTURE LOCK – WHAT WHAT!

2010-02-12T02:24:00.000-08:00

Jonno exporting my edit list for Kate who will do my digital effects and Tony who is my Eagle eye!

Its official folks – I am picture locked! In fact we did not have to be done until 5pm today, but we were pretty confident that we were done at 10am! Therefore we took extra breaks and then wrangled six innocent people to come and take a look at the film (one at a time) to get feedback. Not a single one of them had anything that they wanted to change (hurrah!).

Therefore, it was off to visit Jason Stutter as he continued with his sound mix and scoring of his feature film “Predicament” (so cool – seriously folks… it looks and sounds AMZEBALLS)… Jason was nice enough to come down and have a gander at “Sweet As” as well and he too was happy with everything (yippee)!

The actor Jemaine Clement from "Flight of the Conchrods" is one of the stars of "Predicament"

This meant that it was time for lunch! One spinach quiche later, Jonno and I were a little confused as to what else we could do. We then decided to start adding more sound effects (even though these will be done later) just to get the feel for the cuts etc. We also put some music over the montage sequence which sounds so good – only problem is that we do not have the rights to it (waa). It is actually a track from a Japanese TV show called “Lupin the Third” that Jonno had on his computer. Lucky for me I have the fierce and fabulous David Whitehead as my music supervisor. He came down, listened to the track and did not even hesitate in saying that he can compose me something similar – LOVE HIM!

After that, Kristie (one of the other directors) was screening her short – she was kind enough to invite me to go and take a look which was awesome! She has done a great job with her movie – there was a part that even gave me goose bumps (did I mention that Dave also scored her movie? So talented)! What was interesting is that Kristie and I obviously were given the exact same parameters and brief and yet if you tried, you would not have been able to come up with two movies more different than each other! This was kind of nice as I did not start comparing mine to hers etc, as they are so damn different that you cant even begin too….

Anyhow, after her screening it was finally past 5pm and time to do the official hand over of “Sweet As”. Its going to be weird and sad to not have Jonno time tomorrow as I have become quite accustomed to sharing a little room with him for hours on end. Lucky for me, Jonno was nice enough to ask me out to dinner with his lovely wife Reiko and their friend Stu. Given that it is a Friday night, it was really kind of them to give up their evenings to take my sorry, foreign bum out!

Jonno - aka my killer cutter (editor extraordinaire)!

Reiko and I with our pots of yummy goodness!

Stu was the odd man out as his food was on a plate - boo!

We went to this great little Japanese restaurant (yum!) and had these different dishes that were served in pots. I have never seen anything like it before, but it was quite yummy indeed (and a welcomed change to all the other stuff I have been eating)! It was a lovely evening of recounting quirky family stories and hearing about their adventures…

PS – people laugh and talk about how everyone knows everyone in NZ and the more time I spend here the more I realize that it is true. Well guess what? On the way to dinner this evening, we picked up Reiko at this video store and she was chatting to this girl called Inge. Turns out that Inge is none other than one of my brothers friends and to make matters more freaky, when I was chosen as a finalist to make my movie, my brother introduced me to Inge over e-mail as he said she would be a great resource should I need anything! Small world!

Post is Possibly…

2010-02-11T01:43:00.000-08:00

Park Road Post Courtyard

Maybe, sort of turning into one of my favorite parts of movie making! Who knew that Park Post had such powers huh!

Jonno and I started off the morning with cutting my edit back to a cool 2 minutes and 58 seconds (including credits) – this meant that we had a whole 2 seconds to add (hurrah)! It was surprisingly easy, but we still rewarded ourselves with a tea break (yippee!).

One of the MANY kitchens at Park Road Post - seriously... I think they must have at least 20 of them!

Jonno is a tea snob, so much so that today he busted out his very own, personal thermometer to make sure that our green tea was brewed at the perfect 70-degree temperature (no joke)! I poked fun at him, but when I tasted it I had to take back everything that I had said as it was quite possibly the most delicious cup of green tea that I have ever had – yum!

While we were sipping tea, we also stopped into to check out the scoring and sound effect layering on the feature film “Predicament” which is directed by Jason Stutter. Jonno edited the movie and it looks AWESOME – kind of like a darker Harry Potter. It was so cool to watch them layer the sounds etc.

When we got back to our editing suite, the illusive blogger for the Your Big Break website was there to check in. We showed him the cut that we had and he gave me some very interesting feedback… He mentioned that there are actually three different ways that I could end the movie. The thought had never even crossed my mind before and it started the wheels in the head turning again. Jonno and I then did 2 more cuts of the movie and are now royally confused as to which is the better one! We are thinking that we may find some victims tomorrow to come and be test screeners…

In other fantastic news… I managed to get more sneak pics of Park Post (woot woot!)

One of the least swanky bathrooms at Park Road - still SUPER nice!

The cafeteria where I have lunch every day

One of the many working fireplaces

The hall that leads to my editing suite

The lounge outside my editing suite

AND in yet another tea break Jonno and I sat in the little lounge outside our editing bay to have a chit chat with Kristi (another Your Big Break director), her husband, Tony (the RED workflow manager), Alison (my post coordinator) and Dave (my music supervisor). We were having a grand old time when none other than Guillermo del Toro walked past and being the GIANT nerd that I am I ran to get a better look and did not notice the glass door. Yup – I ran right into it much to everyone’s amusement! Doh! Anyhow, I guess that he is here at the moment working on something so hopefully our paths will cross…

Oh, and last but not least Tony had promised me yesterday that he was going to bring in some sour gummy worms for me. There is nothing that I like more than a little sour gummy action (that just sounds so wrong), but in any case Tony used the lame excuse that his roommate had eaten all of them and therefore I would have to wait until tomorrow. Naturally I threw a tantrum (JUST KIDDING FOLKS… but I did remind him every time he came by that I would LOVE a sour gummy) and guess what? Dear Tony came this evening to the editing bay with not only a bag full of gummy worms, but also Jaffa’s AND Milk Bottles – all the candy that I cant get in the States and that I love! TONY – you are the best!

I am going to bed with a smile on my face as I am confident that we will have picture lock by 5pm tomorrow (my deadline) and I am excited to start on the music with Dave and to see everything start to pop!

PS It was really funny at lunch today when Alison (my post production coordinator), Tracey (a post production producer for Park Road) and I realized that we were all wearing silver shoes!

Post production - waaaa!

2010-02-10T00:46:00.000-08:00

I really do not enjoy Post Production. I think its partly to do with the fact that I loose control as I do not have the technical skills to execute what I want, but also because I am really impatient and having to wait so long to see things and get things the way you envision them and want them is extremely frustrating for me.

Lucky for me I have been given the coolest, funniest, most patient and talented editor out there - Jonno Woodford-Robinson (he has done such movies as “Eagle VS Shark” and “King Kong”). Jonno and I clicked from the get go (we have one key thing in common – the love of a tea break!).

Anyhow, we started by sorting all the footage that I had shot. Then it was choosing the best takes, followed by starting a very rough assembly of the movie. I keep getting told that I am very decisive and quick (I think that my family calls this trait “being bossy”!). In any case, whatever it is, it meant that we had done the rough cut by around 5pm (we have three days to get picture lock so this is really great)!

By the time we left the editing suite today, our cut was down to 3 minutes and 30 seconds. This means that we will spend tomorrow getting it down to 2 minutes and 55 seconds (5 seconds for credits) and will also start layering some sound effects etc. We will also start to pick out some music for the montage sequence (if we cant find something, my music supervisor Dave Whitehead (ahem – from the likes for “King Kong”, “Lord of the Rings” and “Pirates of the Caribbean”!) said that he will write something for me – hurrah!

Sadly I am not allowed to take photos at Park Road Post (boo)! Naturally being who I am, I still managed to rattle off a few frames before being told I could not so I apologize for the crappy images from me (the better ones were taken from their website!)…

The beginning of the end...

2010-02-08T21:22:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the momentary lapse in blogerige (bloggering?)… Yesterday was beyond hectic (I finally got to bed at 4am, only to have to leave the hotel at 8am to catch my flight). That being said, I think that it may have been the best day of my life (I am even starting up tear up a little as I wrote this!).

I am going to go into sap mode for a second but I promise to snap out of it and give you all the run down…

There were several moments yesterday where I felt as though I was having an out of body experience. I kept looking at myself and thinking what the hell is going on here? I have wanted to direct since the age of 5 and have been working slowly and steadily to get there ever since. It has not always been an easy road and to finally have my dream realized is a feeling that I cannot even describe. Directing yesterday felt so natural and not only that SO MUCH FUN! Film has not been fun for me in a long time and shooting yesterday reminded me of why I have been chasing this dream for so long. Over the past few years there have been some moments of doubt as to what the hell I am doing at the age of 29, making minimum wage and fetching coffee – is it really worth it? Do I really want to be a director that badly? Guess what – YES I DO! I have never been so happy in my life and I am now ready to fight harder and longer to make this a permanent gig because I know that it is what I want.

Ok, enough of that Hallmark crap and onto the juicy parts of why my shoot yesterday ROCKED MY SOCKS!

The day started with me arriving on set, only to be greeted by two cross-dressing men…

Just so happened that one of these men was none other than my Production Manager Gary as he was stepping up to the plate to be one of my stunt drivers for the opening sequence! I don’t think that I have laughed so hard in my life – it truly was a sight to behold (though apparently here in NZ, film productions have what they call “Frock Day” where everyone comes to set as cross dressers??!! AMAZING – need to bring this back to the States but somehow think that it would never fly!).

After eating some breakfast (or maybe a lot in my case – I LOVE a starchy carb and they had hash browns!), it was a quick meeting with Ken over the dressing of the two houses and also to go over the photo albums. Everything was exactly how I had imagined it (sometimes better) and Ken and his team (Amy, Ali etc) really outdid themselves (THANK YOU!).

We began the day with the racing granny sequence, which allowed my actors to go through hair and makeup etc while we got the first few shots out of the way. James my DP was on fire – he was quick, swift and precise as I know in the back of his mind he knew that there were a lot of shots that day and that there were more that I wanted to shoot. James has always been on my side and championed for what I wanted from day one – it was so great to have someone fight for you as sometimes I did not know what my boundaries were. James is also a HUGE perfectionist which was great at times as I would get bogged down with time and start to try to push through things too fast. James would always politely say, “Aya, lets just do one more for me”! What a rock star!

Anyhow, the morning ended with shooting the opening title sequence. This consisted of a crane shot that tracks up a signpost covered in various signage that also acts as the credits for the movie. It gets to the top (the street sign) that reads “Sweet As”, pulls up and back until the sign is out of the way and the cars come racing down the street. Quite a lot to coordinate and get just right. I was afraid that this may take longer than we had anticipated as there were so many variables involved, but everyone got it right and we were out of there in 5 takes!

Everyone really liked the idea and when Ken first put up the post it was quite the conversation starter (James was rather chuffed that he was a Kiwi and so far up the totem pole!).

At lunch I was whisked away to do some EPK (electronic press kit), which is the interview thingy that they usually put on DVD extras. I was first a little worried when they told me that there was going to be a behind the scenes crew there all day, but they were like Ninjas and I never even noticed them! Being interviewed was awkward (never know how to sit etc) but I guess they got what they needed…

After lunch we launched into all the heavy dialogue. Joe (my AD) told me that we had fallen 9 minutes behind and I started to freak a little and push through things. What I learned on this shoot is that it is VERY important to take the time to block through a scene. We were lucky (I should say I was lucky) that I had James as my DP as he was working through things in his head the whole time and saved me on one occasion, but walking through it is always important for the actors and for you.

My actors Milo, Luke, Helen and Kate were all fantastic. There was not a single incident of having to do more takes because of dialogue issues and everyone was so great that I actually had to do very little directing of them to get the performances I needed!

At one point I remember sitting back and just looking at Helen, Luke and Kate on the bench and smiling as they looked like the scene that was in my head when I wrote the script! Helen, Luke and Kate are all from Wellington so I am hoping that I can allow them to come to Park Post to see what we do with the movie as a huge thank you… we shall see!

The end of the day and the last shot was the bake sale flash back scene. Ken had purchased about 4 store cakes and then the two hero cakes (the Pavlova and the Gingerbread house). He had rigged the gingerbread house with fishing wire and hid under the table to make it collapse on cue. Only problem? He had made the gingerbread house too well and no matter how much he pulled it did not fall down! We all had a huge chuckle. He loosened it all up and we rolled again and everything went perfectly! Kate and Helen were so professional that I was able to get a lot of one-take wonders throughout the day!

This was a great ending to a dream day for me! We called it a wrap, and then suddenly I felt some cake hit me… Ken had declared war and a cake fight erupted (minus the gorgeous pavlova and gingerbread)! Out came the beer and wine and we had a little celebration before packing up! However, not before Ken came over and gave me a few keepsakes from the set (my street sign, some plastic budgie’s and the photo albums)!

I tried to smuggle my Budgies in my suitcase and one died...

It was then off to watch dailies with James my DP. The previous night I had freaked out a little as they all looked so grey and flat. Apparently this is what the RED camera does as it spits out everything as RAW files that you can then manipulate however you want (phew!). James showed me how he envisioned the scenes to look and they looked FANTASTIC! He is such an amazing DP!

Then it was off to dinner with Rajneel, Andreas (two of the other directors) and Luke. We hopped in a cab to town and chit chatted film nerd jargon before calling it a night (I still had to pack, go through the dailies and choose my selects etc). In fact by the time I got to bed it was 4am (eek!).

I was up at 7am to be out by 8am to catch my flight to Wellington. In a way I think that this was a good things as I was partially comatosed so I was not an emotional wreck when I said my goodbyes to everyone in the office… A hop skip and a jump away I was in Wellington and was picked up by Alison who will be my post production coordinator.

Alison whisked my over to Park Road Post for a quick tour before taking me to my hotel (the Duxton).

But before I go on about my new stunning view, I need to tell you about Park Road Post. People have been going on and on and on about how amazing this place is to me since they heard I was doing my post there. Well now I know why – THIS PLACE IS LIKE DISNEYLAND FOR FILM GEEKS! Seriously folks – its like a HUGE craftsman mansion (no expense spared) with the most AMZING mixing rooms, editing bays, Foley rooms etc you have ever seen/ can imagine. It even has its own movie theater with the walls and decorations all done by WETA workshop… I can’t even begin to explain and was so awe struck that I did not even take photos (in fact I am not sure that I am even allowed too but if I am will snap some tomorrow)!

Now I am back at the hotel (after going to Cuba st and having a pie for lunch!) and going to TEPAPA (a museum) across the street. Tomorrow my day starts at 9am with my editor Jonno Woodford-Robinson and I have three days to picture lock (agh!) before we start to do the sound design, grading, credits, mastering etc…

I DON'T WANT THIS TO END!!

CHI CHI CHI!

2010-02-07T00:40:00.000-08:00

Good old Daz took this great pic!

My parents have been SO supportive of me with this movie (well they are super supportive anyway), but they know how long and how much I have wanted this and I think they are extremely happy that finally it seems to have happened!

That being said, the other day when my eye closed up my dad wrote to me and said “Your eyes are in your heart like a Samurai”! Well, let me tell you, that fine gem was followed by this “Sending you the best vibe my Chi can produce” which I can only assume is AMAZING because he sent me this Chi after I had a melt down over the weather. Guess what? It turned out to be sunny in the afternoon! THANKS FOR THE CHI DAD!!

Another Daz image

What started out as a really overcast, rainy morning… blossomed into beautiful blue skies and this allowed us to get different light and different moods in the various locations we filmed in today.

I cannot say enough about the crew here as they were SO supportive and really gave it their all. No matter what I said or asked for – they seemed to find a way to make it work and even went on to suggest things to make their own lives difficult! We shot in 6 different locations today and only had 10 hours so we powered through it like crazy but I was super happy with the shots that we got.

We had no dialogue today as it was all the driving shots and shots of James doing things in different parts of NZ, but it was a good way to ease into actual filming. Luke and Milo are both from NZ but even they were awe struck by the beauty that they were in!

Anyhow, it was everyone’s concern that I had too many shots (remember this on going battle?), well guess what? We shot everything and then had spare time to shoot all the shots that I had taken out (hurrah)! AND WE GOT BACK TO THE OFFICE WITH A MINUTE TO SPARE (double hurrah)!

So one day down, another to go! Tomorrow is in fact going to be the tricky one as we have pages and pages of dialogue to get through and 4 actors so it will be tough. Not only that we have 2 crane shots and some stunt driving so lets hope that we can pack it all in there! I had a brief rehearsal with Granny and Nana (I want to shrink them and take them back to the States with me – they are FANTASTIC) and I think that we are ready to rock and roll for tomorrow…

Thanks everyone for the encouragement and for the advice to “breathe” and just concentrate on the talks at hand – I almost lost it this morning but know that it was not worth fretting over. Tomorrow – rain or shine (though it better shine!), I am going to the set care free about things that I cannot control….

Its raining - WHY?

2010-02-06T10:42:00.000-08:00

I awoke this morning to rain, fog, clouds and every other crappy weather element I could have imagined. SHIT!
Good News? I also awoke to an original poem by my Aunt R'Adele - THANKS AUNTY R... you were the only thing that made me get out of bed and face the day!

Twas the night before shooting
and all through the lot
was a calmness that mattered
not realy a lot

Our Aya she fretted
then cleaned and gleamed
while at the back of the trailer
the designers they beamed

Production they fretted
while directors they petted
when up in LA La Cheque was presented

Cops quickly decended
On the crims who pretended
And when Mama she erupted
They became uncorrupted - ever, ever again!!

THE END (of a Saturday night 2 red-whines from The Aunt who didn't win on the Pokies either - dang, double dang)

Will give you a proper update on how the shoot goes today... sigh...

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE SHOOTING…

2010-02-05T21:28:00.000-08:00

And all through the production office it was CRAZY!!! Actually not really at all – it has been eerily calm, collected and civilized!

Joe (my AD) telling me he is going to strangle me if I don't cut more shots (JK!)

Gary (my Production Manager) looking frazzled at the budget?!

So much so that this morning I was having a wee panic attack that I was missing something huge (I can always tell when I am stressed as I start to clean – I re organized all the furniture in the office, cleaned the whiteboard and re wrote everything on it…

Re hung all the clothes on the costume rack etc!

Anyhow, it was only about 30 mins of down time before I was sat down with James (my DP) to get rid of shots in my shot list (why?). We trimmed some of the not so fatty, fat and was told that more had to come out (the whole movie may be one wide angle shot at this point – agh!). In typical Aya fashion, I ignored this issue and went onto meet with Pip (my fab costume designer) to look at things that she had found in a far away place (same as before, but still cant remember the name). She found the PERFECT dress for Granny

– now we just have to hope that she fits into it (Pip will do costume tests tomorrow with Granny and Nanna while I am shooting as they could not get in earlier due to their schedules). I am confident that Pip will do me proud and when we wrap tomorrow, I will come back to the office to make my selects.

In the afternoon, both Milo and Luke arrived for the costume tests. We had set it up to shoot them at the same time for green screen shots (for the photo album pics) so the poor guys had to dress in Arctic gear etc in the Queenstown heat (they don't have AC here in the hotel) but they were both super troopers!

Just got the message that we cant use the logo on the shorts - AGHHHH!!!!!!! Will use alt. pair now... (I am very sad)...

We got the looks, the shots and then zapped the files over to Ken (Production Designer) to work his magic on.

It was then back to the shot list for me (waaa), and I now have it down to a number that has been approved by everyone (phew). I am hoping that I can shoot Ninja style and get everything much quicker than others think and therefore add in some of my detail shots… fingers crossed folks!

In other news, I just found out that someone has cashed a rather large check of mine (that was not written out to them – must have been intercepted in the mail), but much like the shot list, I am ignoring this issue for now and will deal with it next week. NO ONE OR NO THING IS RAINING MY MY PARADE (except maybe the rain is there is still 40% chance of it for tomorrow – the way I look at it is that our odds are still greater for it not to rain so I am all good!).

Go Go Power Rangers!

2010-02-04T23:35:00.000-08:00

I FINALLY HAVE THE MISSING PIECE OF THE PUZZLE – hurrah! I can now breathe a sigh of relief as the part of Sean was finally cast this afternoon with none other than the green Power Ranger himself – Milo Cawthorne! His screen test (along with about 8 others) came in and after watching them all there was no doubt in my mind that he was Sean. The poor guy got the news around 5pm today, flies here tomorrow and starts shooting Sunday (eek)! He is young though so should be able to handle it right? He is a Power Ranger after all!

Anyhow, it has been quite a hectic day (in fact it is still going – it is currently 8pm and I have yet to start on my shot list nor finalizing the photos needed of the albums). I digress – the day started at 8am with a last look at my locations with my cinematographer (James), my assistant director (Joe), my production manager (Gary), my production designer (Ken) and good old location manager (Daz).

I was a little nervous as I had mentally prepared myself for what I thought was going to be a day of people telling me “no” and “cut it”. My script had been sent off to be timed and came back at 3mins 33 seconds (aka 33 seconds too long and that was without credits) and that added to me being over budget was just a lot of bad news. Nevertheless, today ended up being GREAT, as I had always said that my script looks like it runs long, but because all the shots and sequences happen so quickly it is in fact the right length. After going over what I wanted, looking at shot options, discussing editing etc… both Joe and James were on the same page as me and had my back (yay team “c” as they are calling us)! Don’t get me wrong – we are on a VERY TIGHT rope and should anything go wrong (which it probably will) we are going to have to start cutting shots so I guess we will just have to wait and see.

It was then back to the office where I sent some ideas and work off to Park Road Post to my editor Jonno. I had a conference call with my post team last night and we had discussed maybe using a clip of aerial stock footage in the montage sequence and he may need to change the color of the car. Seeing as my post is so straight forward, he said that it should not be a problem so we shall see. We also discussed the look that I am going for (super saturated colors, with a bit of a faded look – its called Bleach Bypass and is what was used in such movies as “Delicatessen”, “Saving Private Ryan”, “Se7en” and “Fight Club”). Apparently because we are shooting on the RED camera, this is just a matter of adding a filter and playing with it in the film timing – cant wait to see it all!

Anyhow, then it was off to meet Ken at his warehouse again to look at the signage that is being used as the opening credit sequence and to choose photo albums. The signage looks GREAT (its really bringing everything to life) and the photo albums are going to work out really well…

Now I must get back to work but also wanted to let you know that on the scout today I DID NOT BREAK OUT INTO A HUMAN HIVE! Hurrah! Yippee! I covered every inch of myself and wore wrap around sunglasses. Then when I got back to the car, I wiped myself down with wet wipes, took eye drops and it was all-good! I think it must have something to do with all the good “Anti Allergy” vibes everyone has been sending – THANK YOU!!

Budget Shmudget - right?

2010-02-04T00:03:00.000-08:00

I have been told that I am over budget (nooooo!), the hard thing is that I am not allowed to see the budget so don't know where I can trim in order to keep what is truly important to me.

Anyhow, I have decided to ignore the problem (probably not the best idea) and concentrate on my tasks at hand. These consisted of choosing the two hero cars for Nanna and Granny. I was sent choices from the Wanaka Car Museum, which is a few hours away – WHAT AMAZING CHOICES! I chose 2 great vintage NZ cars that look quite similar...

What is great is that Nanna’s car is the same colors as the Vespa that Sean will pull up on! Could not have worked out better! Now we just need James’s car and we will have all picture cars locked!

Most of my day was actually spent listening to Kiwi music (Gary was kind enough to put about 700 songs on his iPod for me to listen too as possible options for my montage sequence). So whilst I listen, I was combing through thousands of photos on the NZ Tourism Stock library for ones that we can use to green screen James and Sean into for the photo albums.

What I thought would be a fairly easy task is in fact quite complicated (it has taken me all day – agh!). I think that we almost have it under control which is great – we have a post production conference call at 8pm tonight to discuss weather or not it would be cheaper/ better to cheat it and do it all in post (we shall see)! Thank god I had a SUPER yummy lunch to keep me going!

Out PA Heidi set it all out and warmed the bread etc and it was SO good! What is not so good is the packaging on the rice crackers here in NZ…

they would be sued in a split second if they ever packaged rice crackers like this in the States (I kind of love it but we know how un PC I am!)…

In other exciting news, my DP James and my AD Joe started today! We will go tomorrow to my locations to go over shooting, angles, timing etc. I have been told my shoot day with the Grannies is WAY too long, but my argument is that they are all really quick set ups and shots so tomorrow will decide my fate (fingers crossed please!).

Lastly, my Costume Designer Pip started as well – she is awesome and totally pulled the BEST look for the character of James.

Unfortunately, it does not look as though we are going to be able to use the NZ All Blacks logo as it has not been cleared. Therefore we are going to go with a generic jersey and some really makey short shorts (sorry Luke for making you wear them!).

Pip was also having trouble finding good stuff or Granny so has taken an over night trip to (hmmm not really sure where it is exactly), but she thinks that it will be a goldmine of Granny gear (hurrah)! I can’t wait for her to come back tomorrow to show me the loot!

Also, in a funny turn of events, turns out that I dress like an old lady as I realized that everything I dressed Nanna in (in my head) were things that I have! Not only that I brought them with me on this trip so half my suitcase is now on the costume rack! 2 pairs of pants, 2 cardigans, a jacket and 5 shirts! Obviously they are just options, but I got a good chuckle out of the fact that I am an 80 year old in a 20 year olds body (soon to be 30)!

Speaking of Grannies - It is official! I have two of the most famous NZ actresses in my short! Dame Kate Harcort is playing Granny...

and Helen Moulder will be Nanny...

Last but not least we got our first one liner and Script Breakdown – seems all very official so when I saw it, it made me a little scared! Especially as day 2 has 3 and 7/8 pages to cover (eek!). I have a feeling that this will be something they make me change (waaa)…

Eye - Ah - Gate 2010

2010-02-03T00:16:00.000-08:00

Well, I DID end up in hospital last night (agh!), after two Claritin, my eye kept getting worse to the point where the whites of my eyes were starting to get puss (eww) and starting to bulge out (puke!). Therefore, off I went and god bless the little old doctor on call as she looked in my left EAR, weighed me, checked my reflexes and that was that! She then wanted to give me a Claritin to which I reminded her I had already taken two (she forgot – woops!) and then proceeded to give me something else. Now I have a prescription for 4 meds and my eye IS feeling a lot better so maybe there is method to her madness??!! Eye-ah-gate 2010 is almost over as I still have some swelling but the puss is gone (hurrah) as is the bulge (whoopee!)

Anyhow, today began with an 8:00am meeting with Catherine (my producer), Gary (my production manager) and Daz (my location manager). Catherine was concerned that the location that we fell in love with was too far away to shoot. Travel time would have been 2.5 hours there and back and with only a 10-hour day, it would have been tricky. I tried to get around it by having a shorter second day with a reduced unit, but that was not an option either (waaa!). Therefore it was back to the drawing board and Daz and I were sent out to re comb the local towns for the perfect houses!

The first batch we looked at were track houses (nooo!), but then we found a few quirky looking ones that I was starting to think would have to make do when I received word that Barrie Osborne was at the office and wanted to have a word! When Barrie beckons, one goes!

Barrie was AWSOME – so full of knowledge and wisdom! He gave me quite a few pointers (which shall remain secrets until the films are completed!) and really boosted my confidence. He said that the key to a good movie is a great script and fantastic actors. He then pointed out that he thought my script was funny and a great read so he said I had that base covered (check!) and to concentrate now on getting my cast locked.

I will be able to tell you tomorrow if I have officially locked Granny and it looks as though we found Nanna today (yippee!). James is a done deal so now we just need our dear hipster Sean and we will be cooking with gas! There is a rather large open casting call tomorrow for Sean, so I have a feeling that we will find him.

Barrie then had to jet away to some exotic locals, but he left me thinking about a lot of things… one of them was not to compromise on the houses for Nanna and Granny (well compromise a bit, as he too said I should not go to Alexandria). Therefore it was back in the car with good old Daz.

We re visited many of the same places that we did before, but this time kept a much more open mind and low and behold we found our homes!

Nanna’s home is even inhabited by a wee Nanna who was SO cute I wanted to put her in the back of the car and bring her back to the US as my token souvenir! Not only that the street is straight and quiet AND there is an open lot across the street that will be large enough for our trucks, crew parking etc – Jackpot (cha ching!). It is still not locked as the neighbor house is a vacation rental property and we have yet to track down the owners but Daz says I should not have anything to worry about!

It was then back to the office

Daz found a prop wig from one of the other movies!

I did a once over with the script with Gary and then it was into a meeting with my production designer Ken and Amy my props & set dresser. Not sure what Ken has for breakfast each morning but he bounces off the walls and talks a million miles per minute – IT IS AMAZING. He has so many great ideas and his energy is infectious – he is working on everyone’s movies which is a good thing as otherwise someone would have the worlds greatest leg up! We went over everything and then took a trip to his warehouse where he has everything and anything you can imagine!

Amy and Ken had taken a lot of the selections out for me to see and approve which was great as I was really able to start seeing it all come together. Not only that, under an old blanket I saw a Vespa poking out. I took a look and it was awesome!

I jokingly said to Ken that he should send it to the US for me when he turned and said “hey we should have Sean pull up on that” – which could not be any more perfect as this morning, Catherine had said due to budgetary reason we had to cut Sean’s car out of the script... but turns out that this Vespa is even better! Totally works with Sean’s hipster look and I am overjoyed!

Ken trying some of the fly fishing gear!

I left Kens warehouse in a great mood, as everything seems to finally be falling into place and I am feeling a lot more confident. I am sure that there is drama to come (aka I just found out that Saturday is a National holiday here in NZ – meaning the day before I shoot, the entire country is shut down so no last minute shopping or using vendors??!!). Not only that the weather forecast has rain for Sunday (agh) but we are ignoring all of that for now and going full steam ahead!

Choo choooooo!

agh - my eye!

2010-02-02T01:23:00.000-08:00

Oh dear god! This entry may have to be short and sweet as I just got back from a 12.5-hour location scout and am now blind… literally!

Turns out that I AM allergic to nature (have been telling people this for years!). My Los Angeles habitat of concrete has done me a dis service, for it was only a matter of hours before my fragile little city body started freaking out at the fresh air, clean water and majestic scenery by breaking out into hives and closing my left eye completely shut – aghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Claritin did nothing (ahem Claritin) and therefore I think that I will have to go to a doctor tomorrow to get a shot of some sort as I can barely type blind so think that I would make a pretty crappy blind director…

That being said, it was a VERY productive day indeed! The morning began at 6am for me (actually it was earlier as I could not sleep but made myself stay in bed until 6am).

After a quick shower, I went over my work again and then went up to have some breakfast. For a mere $37 I got some eggs, toast, tomatoes, OJ and tea (eek!).

It was nice as the view was spectacular – but I am thinking that I have to somehow hitch a ride into town to get cereal and milk before I become broke!

After breakkie, it was an 8:30am meeting with Catherine (my producer), Garry (my production manager) and Daz (my location manager).

This is my very own office!

We went over my basic wants and ideas and then all decided that it was important for me to get out there, see what there was and start making some decisions as so may other factors hinge on the locations.

Therefore at 9am, Daz and I hit the ground running. Daz grew up in Queenstown and has worked as a locations scout forever – he knows EVERYONE (literally) and every nook and cranny in NZ (again... literally!). Did I mention that I am REALLY GLAD that he is on my team??!!

We started out quite far from Queenstown in order to get some older architecture. We found so many GREAT houses,

however none that were perfect in the sense that they were next to another great house, or did not have driveways next to each other, or had 6 foot fences dividing he houses etc. Who knew that it would be THIS hard! We scoured 3 different towns and I had given up (thinking that I was going to have to go the total opposite and find track housing of some sort or a retirement home) when Daz out of the corner of his eye spotted 2 houses, 2 adjoining driveways, no fences and no big bushes/ trees in front (hurrah!). They were not at ALL what I had envisioned the houses should look like, but at this point I was just happy to have SOMETHING!

With some set dressing etc, I thought this could work…

Then as we were leaving town to start scouting locations for James’ traveling scenes, we stumbled upon these gems…

Not only that, the house with the tree obstructing it has an owner that wants that tree removed so we are negotiating getting that done for her! These houses are much more of what I had in mind, but having had the creative juices flow on the other two bland houses, I am now wondering what direction I want to go in! We shall see…

It was then another hour and 45 mins or so to where all the nature scenery was.

Thank god Daz made me take photos as it was all starting to blur into one location to me (maybe the blurring had something to do with my eye that was closing??!!). But if felt like each location we went to was even more beautiful then the other!

The problem was that there was not that much variation. I think we found the Italian vineyards…

The Norwegian fly-fishing…

The Swiss scenery…

With some more set dressing the Amazon…

But we really can’t get to the snow etc so we are going to have to use stock footage etc for a lot…

Ok, I have to end this here as I think that I may need to go to a doctor… my eye wont stop tearing and it has been 2 hours now with 2 Claritin…. WHY??!!

Queenstown -woot woot!

2010-01-31T23:42:00.000-08:00

It is already starting to get difficult to keep track of days, hours, minutes, locations etc!

This morning I jumped out of bed to look at the sky... sadly, nothing had changed from yesterday, but no water was going to stop my casting meeting so off I went to meet Stu and Suzanne (my casting directors) at a little place called "Jaffa".

I had been told that Stu knew what I looked like, so I took a seat, ordered a chamomile tea and proceeded to wait.

About 15 minutes passed and there was still no sign of Stu and Suzanne.... until I looked at the table next to me and these two people had pics of my movie on their screen. Naturally it all fell into place then and we had a great discussion about what I could and could not get in NZ.

The character of James has already been cast with this amazing actor named Luke Hawker.

The funny story behind Luke is that he is actually a very old friend of mine! We went to school together when I was 13 but I have not seen him for about 15 years (eek!). It would be great to have him as my main character as I know that he is a brilliant actor and will also be extremely supportive of me!

Granny looks like she may be cast (fingers crossed), but Nanna and Sean are proving to be as difficult as their damn characters! Nanna calls for an elderly lady who is extremely thin and tall. I can get elderly lady, but the thin and tall part is not easy to come by. Therefore if we are still coming up empty handed in the next few days, I am going to have to simply take what there is to offer and go with a medium build Nanna. Sean we are getting warmer on and I am not so worried about...

Anyhow, after the meeting I was supposed to go on a walk and learn some Tamaki Hikoi stories etc. Sadly due to the rain (aka my nemesis), it was cancelled. Good news? This allowed me a full two hours extra time to sit and research some of the actors that were suggested to me in the morning meeting.

After that, it was a short plane ride to Queenstown. I saw the most BREATH TAKING vistas from the plane - truly unbelievable.

At the airport I was met by my production manager Garry who answered a lot of my questions and put me at ease! We hit it off from the start so I am really glad that he is on my team.

I then checked into the REES hotel which is situated right on the edge of a lake - talk about being spoiled... this place is AMAZING. I have a gorgeous view from my room and private patio (yes I just wrote PRIVATE PATIO??!!) and the production office is just a few floors up from me!

Speaking of which, Garry took me around to meet some of the people in the production office, however it was short and sweet as I was whisked away whilst being told that in order to keep the playing field level, I was not allowed to get questions answered, meet, discuss my film etc until tomorrow when my alloted time officially starts. IT IS SO HARD BEING SO CLOSE AND NOT BEING ALLOWED TO ASK QUESTIONS - AGHHHHHH!

Therefore, I am now in my room working. I want to tighten the script up and get that damn shot list in order before tomorrow so that I can go in and give everyone fresh copies of everything to work off.

Did I mention that I am SOOOOOOOO thrilled?! I still can't believe that this is all happening!

Auckland or bust!

2010-01-30T21:55:00.000-08:00

Phew! I finally landed in good old Auckland!

No small feat given that it all started with a very muddled start at LAX where I have since learned that Qantas has 4 different terminals from which they depart from (*#&%^)! That followed by the fact that I had 7 pounds too many in my suitcase and then had to decanter some luaggage into what I describe as a rice patty bag (sigh).

Anyhow, it feels great to finally have my feet on the ground! I was greeted by a friendly driver at the airport who told me that the rainy weather was "a bloody pain in the ass"! I concurr! That being said, if it has to rain the next few days in order to deliver sunshine on my shoot days - so be it!

The hotel that I am staying at is in the middle of town and called "The Heritage" - it is apparently where Tyra Banks stayed when she was last here (see - its the really interesting, historically significant facts of Auckland that I have retained)!

Anyhow, after a quick shower (and a quick peek into what was in the cool Your Big Break Bag)...

I totted on down to the lobby where I was met by Torusm NZ rep Monica and her husband. We took a quick stroll down to the water where we had reservations at a cute little restaurant called MECCA. It had a great view of the bay. Unfortunately, due to the torrentual downpoor, we had to move back inside the restaurant, but the yummy food more than made up for the not so great weather!

In fact, they had Pavlova on the dessert menu! Seeing as it is featured in my movie, I thought that it was apt for me to order it and order it I did!

It was scumdidilyuptious!!

After lunch we were supposed to take a ride on the America's Cup Yacht. Although the boat still went out, we decided to take a rain check (ha ha ha - I am so funny)! Being on a boat in the rain did not sound like a grand idea, so instead, Monica and her husband took me to the local supermarket so that I could get some face wash. Note to fellow people traveling to NZ - DO NOT FORGET YOUR FACE WASH! I purchased a travel sized bottle of Cetaphil (what one purchases at RiteAid or Target for no more than $3) and it was $12.50 (agh!).

From there, Monica and her husband dropped me back at the hotel where I wrote a few e mails (before discovering that the internet was $36 - WHAT?) and decided to take a stroll down the main drag (Queens st) to get over my sticker price shock! Sadly, due to the rain and the hoards of tourists, I did not make it long before heading back.

Tonight I am going to get my shot list in order and prepare for what I am sure is going to be an INSANE week head of me! Oh and I will wash my face with my new "crem de la mer" (aka Cetaphil) in hopes that I stop growing my pimple farm - sigh!

oxoxox
Aya

PS this blog post just cost me $47 (aghhh) - if it is the same deal in Queenstown (which is where I fly to tomorrow - if they let my luggage even get on the plane!) I shall simply start communicating via smoke signals and telepathy!

Ambush Attack!

2010-01-29T17:54:00.000-08:00

Well if one ever gets attacked or ambushed you better hope that it is from the amazing duo known as Alia and Sabrina!

I was festering in my own filth this afternoon (aka un bathed and between packing, working, dog nurturing, cleaning etc) when there was a knock at the door. Ryan thought that it was a delivery so totted on over (shirtless) and was surprised when he found none other than my PR agent Alia and my Dog Whisperer extraordinaire Sabrina!

Being the most thoughtful people I know, they came to bestow wisdom and calming breathing practices on me along with Lucky Charms lip balm and some really cute paper clips - hurrah! I am so lucky to have these two gals in my life - THANKS FOR MAKING MY DAY GIRLS!!

Anyhow, I have but hours before I leave my cocoon and embark on my journey... It is now starting to all feel very real (or should I say "reel" - mwaa haa haa) and I think that I may pack my meditation CD's that I thought I could do without!

Wee Pig Depression

2010-01-29T13:34:00.000-08:00

I don't know who is more depressed about leaving each other - Little Pig or myself?!

Take Two...

2010-01-28T19:50:00.000-08:00

Today has been a day of reworking. I awoke to an e mail from NZ that voiced some concern over a few things that I had put in my script along with other bits and pieces. Some of them I knew may be headed in my direction, others not so much...

The first thing was the opening sequence where the bird flies in and onto the street sign. I knew that it could be tricky to get an animal wrangler/ trainer to get a Kea bird to perform this etc and given the limited amount of time we have to shoot, I finally came to my senses and cut the scene. It has now been replaced with a tracking shot from the ground, up a pole and to the top of the street sign. Along the way it will pause on a "Lost Dog" sign, some sharpie writing, a kiwi crossing sign etc all that will have parts of the text replaced to be the actors names etc so it will also act as the opening title sequence.

Another concern is that Queenstown's architecture is quite modern and therefore finding two older Victorian homes is proving to be challenging. The location scout said that we may have to go out a little to find what I am looking for - this is fine as there will be no company moves that day so if we have to travel to get what I want then so be it!

Anyhow, completely off topic but I just wanted to share the love that I have for this PLIOT pen that I use...

THEY ARE AMAZING - just thought that I would let you know so that you dont reach the age of 90 only to realize that your life could have been so much better had someone told you about the delicious PILOT 0.4 pen!

Ok, ok... I am getting a little nutty now! Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that this is what I have consumed today...

and "yes" - that IS a donut on the end (not a whole wheat bagel!). Perhaps this is also the reason why the security guard at the tennis club's parting words to me were "don't eat hamburgers - they make you fat"!

Sweet, sweet music!

2010-01-28T13:52:00.000-08:00

Its funny how things work out sometimes...

I listen to music while I work and I was just thinking today that I need some new additions (there is only so much repetition my Karaoke loving Asian half can take)...

Probably five minutes after I had this passing thought, an e mail came through from my sister with a KILLER "Aya's Big Break" mix! Not only is it the best gift EVER, but it is also extremely thoughtful as I know how busy my sister is at the moment - HUGE SHOUT OUT GIRL!

Should you wish to rock out to what I am at the moment, this is the play list...

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - Around the Bend
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising
Le Corps Mince de Francoise - Something Golden
Delphic - This Momentary
Jay-Z Ft. Alicia Keys - Empire State Of Mind
Amber Riley - Hate On Me
Florence + The Machine - Dog Days Are Over
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Inspiration Information
Animal Collective - My Girls
Matthew Morrison - Gold Digger
Lea Michele & Cory Monteith - Don't Stop Believin' (amaZING!)
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - Bad Fever
Lykke Li - Little Bit

Ok, back to my shotlists (just revised the script a little after receiving notes and concerns from NZ) - this also means a new start and end to the movie, new story board changes etc... will update you on all of that later today!

Storyboards are done!

2010-01-27T18:55:00.000-08:00

Yup thats right folks - despite some computer crashes (agh!) the storyboards are finally done (hurrah)! It feels great to have them to go through/ look at but it is only the beginning.

Oh - and just as an FYI... apparently its not such a great idea to open all 55 photoshop files at once... Your computer will hate you and go on strike!

For the remainder of the evening I will start to paste the corresponding part of the script under the storyboard, as well as a shot list and notes for that particular scene. Although this will be very time consuming, I think that it is imperative as it will allow me to have the EXACT movie that I am making in my head and on page. That being said, I also know that there are going to be many, many changes from this day to the next!

PS Although I seem to be wearing white in every video I have taken so far - I swear to you all that I have bathed, moved and changed my clothes on a daily basis!!

Pochahuntas

2010-01-27T16:31:00.000-08:00

Who knew that I was part Native American, part Tranny! At least that is what I discovered when looking at some of the photos that Clio took of me this morning! I should preface this by saying it was NO refection on Clio's photography skills as she is one AMAZING photographer, but more about... well lets be honest - MY FACE!

I guess I have never really paid attention to it as I am behind the camera... Thank god Clio is a good friend and made me feel comfortable. She was also extremely patient and if it was not for her, I would not even have this final pic as she was the one that made me get by the yellow wall to take another round!

I love that I look so serious (he he)!

After my photo shoot, I went and ran some errands...

One stop I made was to L'occitane for some more almond moisturizer (I am obsessed). I chatted with the store clerk (why? Well because I chat to everyone and everything) and she was SO excited for me to go to NZ Friday that she showered me with lots of samples (so sweet - or should I say "sweet as"!). This, and my lack of sleep almost made me burst into tears as I was overwhelmed by the fact that I am surrounded by such wonderful, supportive, generous, creative, kind and caring people.

When I entered the competition there was a HUGE outpouring of support from people I worked with, friends, family, neighbors, local stores etc and then when it was announced that I was a finalist - the phone did not stop ringing with offers to help me with whatever it was that I may need.

Everyone is helping me make my dream come true and I am SO incredibly lucky - these are just a few people who have offered to help me out...

PR - Alia Quart Khan

MANAGER - Mardie Hughes Anderson

DOG SITTING - Callie Hersheway, Justin Root, OP, Sabrina Quart Khan, Todd (Dogsport LLC)

PHOTOGRAPHY & EDITING - Clio Van Ert

DRAWING - Hana Tanimura

EDITING - Taisuke Tanimura

MUSIC - Marissa DeVito

EAST COAST REP - Anna Duffy

AFRICA REP - Clara Van Praag

EUROP REP - Allison Tanimura

SOUTH EAST ASIA REP - Yorio Tanimura

AUSTRALIAN REP - Rhonwin Mitchell

RED ADVISOR - Carlo Pratto

TRIPOD SUPPLIER - Helen Kim & Viet Nguyn

POSITIVE THINKING GURU'S - Sarah Monson & Jesse Rosenblatt

WEST COAST REP - Lucy Irvine

PATIENCE & RIDE TO AIRPORT - Ryan Pool & Little Pig

There are many more names of people who have been SUPER STARS - wanted to give a HUGE shout out to each and every person that took the time to vote, bombarded your friends with threats to vote for me, who posted my entry on Facebook, who called, who e mailed, who sent good vibes...

As my people say - DOMO ARIGATO (well not my Native American people, nor my Aussies for that matter - but you know.... the other "my people"!!).

I will give you a proper update on the actual work on the movie I have been doing today. I got SO much done - almost finished with the story boards and onto my shot list - eeek! I have a feeling that there will be a lot of tweaking of the script in coming days to fit it all into the two allotted shoot days...

Oh and before I forget - did you know that MOBY has a library of sample music that he allows independent and student film makers to use for free? Shame that none of it works for my movie - but its a good resource to know www.mobygratis.com/

My big mess...

2010-01-26T16:43:00.000-08:00

This is what my works space currently looks like! I have commandeered the dining room table (with the exception of a corner for Ryan’s guitar he is making), and have started to churn out a Directors Brief, a Location Brief, a Costume Brief and a Casting Brief - all of which is due at the end of today (agh!).

Last night I worked into the wee hours and then passed out before I could post this...

Not sure that I am going to be in bed at decent hour tonight because what I had scheduled for work today had to be pushed to do the briefs that the competition asked for! In amongst all the madness though I did have a good chuckle as Joe sent me this photo of myself having a meltdown in the UK whilst filming INCEPTION...

He captioned it "you can always let it out" which is so true! From what I remember, I was on 2 conference calls with the US (one with the phone company, the other with a credit card company) and was on a 3 way skype call with France regarding a house... all at the same time (whyyy??!!).

Tomorrow I am off to Clio's house to get my headshot done. I think the Gods are smiling upon me at the moment because when I heard that I was a finalist they asked that I e-mail a headshot. Guess what? I don't have one! Therefore I just chopped myself out a family pic and zapped that on over only to realize that all the other finalists have professional ones (eek!). Luck has it that they have not put my profile up on line yet which means there may be a chance to swap out my triple chin pic...

for something a little more flattering... Fingers crossed!

My Big Break - Whoo hooo

2010-01-25T12:55:00.000-08:00

Time to revive the good old blog. Why you ask? Well, after returning from Europe I could hardy argue that I was having an "adventure" and therefore thought no reason to continue blogging (I mean who really wants to hear about me getting up, getting dressed, going to work zzzzzzz). However, now I have a GREAT reason to breathe some life back into this joint...

Thanks to everyones support and votes... I AM A FINALIST IN THE "YOUR BIG BREAK" (www.your-big-break.com) competition (woooo hoooo)! From over 1300 entries, I was chosen (by the people mind you) to hop on over to NZ to shoot my short movie! I am beside myself and my hands have not stopped shaking since I heard the news...

Anyhow, many of you have asked that I keep you in the loop as to what is going on, so this shall be the place that I do it! Hopefully I will have the time to keep the entries regular (I have a feeling that the next 3 weeks will be filled with NO sleep, so I apologize for bad spelling, grammar etc - nothing out of the ordinary for me really??!!)...

Also, it should be noted that I do not leave Los Angeles until Friday, so from now until then, my posts will probably be just of me having panic and anxiety attacks (then again, not sure that the posts will be that different once I get over there!)... hope you get some entertainment/ amusement out of my adventure!!

Last but not least - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all your votes, notes, support, words of encouragement etc, when I say that I could not have done it without you... I really mean it as I was chosen on votes! As my people say "Domo Arigato"!

I love you Loooong weekend!

2009-09-10T10:55:00.000-07:00

Phew- just got back to work after an AMAZING 4 day weekend! Albeit most of it was spent getting the apartment/ life back in order, but it was a very therapeutic effort. I can now check the following of my "to do list"
1. 7 loads of laundry (gasp!)
2. filing taxes into binders from their boxes (space saving)
3. Research and applying for heath insurance (scary)
4. Taking care of bogus "right on red" ticket (on going - but my next step of paper work is done)
5. New Cable box (even though don't have cable - just for network TV)
6. New TV wall mount ordered (hurrah - will get the damn thing of the credenza once and for all)
7. LP to the vet to get nails trimmed - yeah right! Also ended up that he had a chest infection, ear infections and a paw infection!
8. Steam cleaned carpets throughout apartment
9. Worked with Little Pig on his audition for "Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2"
PHEW!

Now that I have bored you to death with that I shall share some of the fun from the weekend! My very dear friends Alia and Sabrina have finally come to their senses and moved to Los Angeles (hurrah!). Therefore, I decided to introduce them to 2 of my favorite things...

On Saturday nights during the summer, the "Forever Cemetery" hold screenings of movies on a grassy patch with the film being projected on the side of a Colosseum. All the proceeds go to restoring/ keeping the grounds and it is an overall great time!

We dined on Trader Joe snacks that we purchased and although froze to death...had a great time!

Then Monday, we took an afternoon drive up the coast to "Neptune's Net" for fish and chips on the beach and to give Little Pig a bit of a romp (even though he hates the beach)...

Ryan tried to teach Pig to be a dog and "dig"...

Little Pig was not amused!

All in all it was a lovely weekend - hurrah!!

The end of a very long adventure...

2009-09-08T20:48:00.000-07:00

**Please note that because the photos are so large - they have all been cut off in the middle! I am working on fixing this issue but if any tec peeps out there know - give a sista a shout out!!**

As mentioned in the last post - I have saved the best of Morocco for last...(PS the photos are also larger now due to the constant nagging of my more mature readers...)

The night before we left, Dan, Stacey and I went on a mini adventure to the Casbah! We initially went on a mission to shop, I blame the heat, but we should really have known better (having been in Morocco for 9 days already) that everything is closed from 7pm - 9pm - sigh.

This was a guy spooling the thread to sell in his shop...

Therefore, our mission statement quickly shifted to "Lets Rock the Casbah" (and this we did)! On the way we discovered some interesting local graffiti...

not to mention some tasty delights (as well as some not so tasty delights)...

Anyhow, perched atop the hill we finally made it to the Casbah were I tried to shut down the street to get a rocking photo shoot (I am pretty sure that we managed to perpetuate the idea that all Americans are stupid, but damn was it worth it...). Just look at the photos...

Once in the Casbah, the houses are all white washed and the streets much cleaner than down in the Medina. We walked along the little streets...

Came across a doorway that had the flags of the countries that we had just visited...

and then finally come to the secret little door to the ocean...

I wish that I could romanticize it, but it was indeed a pile of rubble and trash that overlooked the harbour. Yes the sun was setting. Yes there were birds silhouetted against the orange sky, yes there was a cool breeze but Yes it smelled like trash, yes it was dirty and yes I felt as though some creeper was going to push me over the edge of the cliff. Relaxing? No not really. Interesting? Yes a little.

Afterwards it was time to get our grub on. Stacey pretended like she had better things to do and left Dan and I to fend for ourselves. Being Ramadan, nothing was open but...

That's right - the good old golden arches! Boy were we in for a treat!

Not only does McDonald's in Morocco have an array of different treats on their menu, but it may also have the best view of any place that I have been in the whole of Morocco. That being said, who is looking at the view when the interior of your McDonald's looks like this...

Yup - we literally ate like Kings!

Even though the food was less than mediocre...

Deep fried Mac and Cheese...

The ambiance gets an A++ (after 10pm they even have Karaoke??!!) and I wish that I had been able to take spy pics of the workers as they had the most AMAZING skin tight, fluro shirts on that I have ever seen... truly a wonder and sensory delight!

Anyhow, we then had to call it a night as we were leaving the next day to go back to the UK...

We all managed to get to the airport... only to find out that our charter was an hour late (we are all still confused as to how a charter can be late - but it was!). This left ample time for everyone to chill in the lounge...

I put in a quick game of Backgammon with Ed...

Then it was all aboard...

I was the very last sardine to get on - yay me!

Then it was 2 LUXURIOUS nights in London (have I mentioned enough times how much I LOVE the Langham hotel in London??!!)...

Hana (my sister) happened to be in town that weekend looking at apartments so she came and crashed with me. She discovered my secret (or obviously not so secret) stash of per diem money that I had been saving and decided to roll around in it...

Then on Saturday, Carlo, Hana and I went on a trip to Selfridges to get Carlo's glasses fixed and to get some food. We got the glasses fixed, did not get food but we DID find these gems...

This was followed by an exciting discovery - the cutest little candy store...

We purchased pop rocks and sour candy...

Then it was off to dinner at Yauatcha (did I mention that Hana and I love a good feed??!!)...

This place was something that work husband Carlo had discovered last time we were in the UK - must have been one of the nights that he cheated on me with someone but I will let it go as it was SOOOOOO YUMMY!!

Not only that, the food is presented in such a beautiful way it is almost a shame to eat it - specially the desserts...

It was sad to leave the UK, but I was SO ready to get back home to my little pad, my Piggy and funnily enough my damn car! I really missed driving. Speaking of which... I arrived back at LAX only to be picked up in a stretch limo! Strange - yes. Embarrassing - a little. Weird - definitely. Luxurious - yes. Fun - yes.

Please Sir, may I have some More-occo - NOT!

2009-09-04T10:08:00.000-07:00

Sigh - It just goes to show that one should update more frequently so as not to get overwhelmed and also forget all the good little stories (mostly horror in this case) to tell and blog about. Thus I am giving yet another "yawn" worthy entry to keep the hate mail at bay but I PROMISE that I shall be a more diligent blogger nerd mid next week when my life is a little more in order...

Morocco was a multitude of smells (not good ones), sweaty armpits (again not great), heat (deathly), yelling (loud), nagging (annoying), lack of food (Ramadan) and various other unpleasantries... I wish that I could write nicer things, but this is the honest truth...

We arrived in Tangier on Friday and went straight into prepping for shooting the next day. The first thing that we noticed about Tangier was there is a CRAP load of construction going on and no one finishing them or even living in them. Therefore vast areas are like ghost towns (very strange)...

They also have strange way of keeping foundations up - with sticks??!!

Anyhow, we arrived at the airport and were soon blasted by the hot air. We were then bussed to our hotel the "El Mizah" which is right in the middle of all the hassle and bustle.. Loud and crowded do not even begin to describe it...

After prepping, Ryan and I ventured out to see some of the streets and taste some of the food (even though we were advised against it).

We found this great little "Churro" shop (only they were round like Doughnuts) and for 7c you could get a little cone of them and they were delightful!

We were actually really exhausted so we had an early night. The next day we started shooting (again cant talk about it)... but here are some funny pics of people on "set"...

We had the worlds smallest trailer - this housed the production office, the AD's, PR, Chris and myself!

Monette still managing to look fabulous despite the dust, dirt, smell and heat

Cookie rocking her new water pack like a true Ghostbuster!

It was a LONG shoot day and we were in the sun the whole time so by the end of it all, we were all black, tired and cranky! Poor Ryan had grouchy old me to look forward to at the end of the day. The bonus? Because Ramadan started the first day of filming, when we wrapped there was no place to get food!! The streets would go from being packed...

To empty...

Therefore, Ryan and I shopped to get some clothes...

Sadly, I did not find anything, but Ryan did manage to get some linen shirts...

Finally we had a day off on Sunday. Tawa, Hoodie, Ryan and I went to the Medina to explore...

Hoodie had to get her sunscreen action on prior to departure - we could only find "blue" sunblock so we did a test to make sure that it soaked in... it did!

We found this great store where the owner took us to the roof and we saw this amazing view of Tangier...

That night, we also went to dinner with Chris Brigham's (my bosses) family to this great Moroccan restaurant that had a band - the food was great (the first place that we had a real mean and one that tasted fantastic) and it was quite relaxing...

On the way home, we discovered this little bakery where they had these great little sweets that this guy made by hand...

We did not try them, but it was interesting to see how they were made (so damn labour intensive!).

Ryan was then on his way to Marrakesh - but not before soaking up the "El Mizah"...

and not before visiting the "Blue City"...

Where he purchased me this winner...

Ryan was then off on his trip (which he hated) and I was stuck to fight of the men that would grab my boobs and bum all day (joy) and beat the heat. One morning on the way to the set I saw this...

Aghhhhhhhhh

There is in fact one last chapter of Morocco that I shared with Dan and Stacey - it is in fact the one chapter that includes a little fun. I shall have to download those photos from my camera and do one more Morocco entry before moving onto Los Angeles.

Boy oh boy it is good to be home!!

Long (and by long I mean LONG) overdue...

2009-08-23T05:48:00.001-07:00

So sorry that I have been MIA - internet in France was slower than dial up in the 1980's (it would take me about 3 hours to upload one image so I took a blog hiatus). Now I have been in Morocco for 3 days and the internet is fast (who would have thought) but I have simply been too busy to write. Now that I have my first (and only) day off - I have no excuses but to bombard you with photos to get you abreast of what the hell I have been doing for the last 2 weeks (wow - cant believe that it has been that long).

Therefore, instead of dull commentary that I usually do, I shall just do photos with captions :)

END OF CARDINGTON...

If complaining about the cold was not bad enough, it then got really hot one day and we realized how good we had had it when it was cold. The offices that were on the 2nd floor of the stages was a mini green house and we baked. Therefore Monette had the great idea to have an ice cream social - hurrah!

She also did her aircon dance which was pretty amazing...

it was a nice way to bid adeu to the farm! Everyone was really excited to move on (so much so we had a wee celebration on the bus ride out of there!)...

We then had one more night in London before we headed to Paris - I finally got reunited with my Ryan and with the Langham hotel (which Ryan had fallen in love with!)...

We also had a celebration dinner out with Harry, Stacey, Monette, Scott, Joe and Mischa...

Ryan walked all of London and this was the result...

But it was really nice to see Adam and Marion again (managed to squeeze in dinner before we left)...

Then it was the EuroStar Train to Paris!

The food was Uukk...

Amanda got cabin fever and was ready to disembark!!

and then before we knew it we had arrived!

PARIS FRANCE...

Wow wow wow - what can I say? Ryan and I were ready to move to France at the end of this trip. I worked a lot of the time, but did have the weekend off to see friends and to bike all over the place (they have these great rental bikes every 300 meters - brilliant idea unless yours gets stolen like mine was and then all of a sudden you own a 150 euro bike somewhere in France!!). Ryan would almost buy an entire bakery every morning and sit in the many wonderful parks and read... it was so beautiful that it was sad to leave...

Ryan on one of the rental bikes

We actually never took the metro due to our love of biking everywhere...

Lunch with my work husband and real husband!!

Ryan ate a lot of tartar (ewww)...

Fod was really good but EXPENSIVE!! We could not get over the prices of everything in Paris!

On Saturday in Paris we hung out at one of the parks and played scrabble!

and by scrabble I really meant napped!

we saw some amazing sights!

This one was for Hana...

A great little place that sold Macaroons - had to get some for work husband!!

We stayed at the "Grand" Intercontinental that was 720 euro a night and totally NOT worth it but we were right next to the opera house which was nice...

our window

the first night we were there we went to the Eiffel Tower...

we got there just in time to see the sun set!

The next day we did more sight seeing (and sitting in parks) before going out to drink Absinthe with Carlo, Stacey and Tawa.

It was located right by the Moulan Rouge (sp?) aka the sex district!

It tasted REALLY bad...

I did not drink mine but Ryan did!

We then all walked home and got VERY VERY lost!!

The next day, Ryan and I walked/ biked to Sacre le coeur to meet Chloe. It was HOT and by the time we got there it was crowded so we did a "drive by" and decided to explore the canals with Chloe instead!

Naturally we biked over there!

WHAT A COOL PLACE - they have it set up with all these fun/ free activities for families that cannot afford to go on vacation (aka Ryan and I). There were a lot of things that reminded me of my childhood in Switzerland like these boat swings...

But also great stuff like this globe IMAX theater...

The largest foozeball table I have ever seen...

Spray machines to cool off with...

etc!

Chloe then had to go visit her grandma, so Ryan and I biked down to the Latin quater for some food and a peek at the Jardin Luxembourg for another nap!

I found the worlds largest merangues - Yum!

Ryan and some spnge cake that was yummy and I had a Parmier...

We then passed out!

Later on in the week, my boss asked me to take his daughter Eve to Versailles - it was a great opportunity for Ryan to come along and so we did a little day trip...

Because it was a thousand degreese out, we decided to rent a golf cart to go around the gardens and fountains. It was the BEST idea as it gave you a guided tour and was a lot of fun...

Eve tried to go onto paths that were restricted, but the gardens outsmarted us as they would stop the power to the golf cart. It was kind of funny...

Then, just before we left Marissa and Alex flew in for a vacation! It was so weird to think with NO planning, we had managed to be in the same country at the same time (we cant even arrange that for NY!!)... it was SO nice to go out to dinner with them and Chloe and her Alex...

Ryan and Alex tried Snails for the first time... they were not fans!

It was too short, but really fun!

Then it was time to catch the bus to the airport...

Where we hopped on our charter plane...

We had many fun times and memories in Paris and it was such a delight to work there (the lunches were AMAZING and the crew so nice!) - the only draw back was the papparazzi who were SO agressive and scary...

Will update with Morocco scenes and stories soon!!