The Sea Change Blog - May/June 09
Jet-setting "Sea Change style" has been the defining characteristic of May 2009. Beautiful scenery (Lake District, Cote D'Azur), hiding dark secrets (VOSA fines and Cannes Film Festival)! The legacy of the production continues to haunt us just as the edit pulls us forward.
We spent 7 hours on trains up and down from Penrith in a day to attend the hearing at the Magistrates Court for an overweight art department vehicle unluckily caught on the road up to Scotland back in November. We'd known we'd be fined but by how much? My right leg wobbled uncontrollably in my only smart suit as I stood whilst they delivered their verdict….
No sooner had we returned to London then we were off again, taking the early morning Easyjet flight to Nice from Luton. With a deliberately packed, 'short and sweet' schedule of 48 hours, we crammed in 6 meetings a day plus the inevitable parties by night.
Our friends Nick Scott and Fiona Brownlie of The Winners Productions had space for us in their perfect little apartment at the end of the Croisette in Palm Beach, just the right distance from the frenetic mass of humanity around le Palais. Getting there however meant bypassing Jim Carrey and Colin Firth as they threw 'snowballs' in the 25 degree heat to promote yet another version of A Christmas Carol, bah humbug.
Meetings took us from hotel room to hotel room (not in that way, ahem) and café to café to meet with foreign distributors interested in buying the film. The first day ended with us moonlighting as Times gossip columists and attending the Spandau Ballet party at the appropriately named Nikki Beach. I fell in love with Martin Kemp who has just directed his first low budget horror feature. He's awesome. On so many levels I felt we really bonded but he hasn't called me since.
Struggling for the majority of the second day with shin splints and a sore head, we continued our meetings like troopers and ended on a high note at the superb Scottish Screen party right on the beach. We saw Anne Sheehan, our Exec Producer now at Prescience, Nigel Thomas of Matador, Carole Sheridan of SS, Frances Harvey of Soda and the usual suspects padding around in the sand.
Our male escorts (not in that way, promise!) Bertrand "the Muscles" and Rob took time from their busy sunbathing schedules to catch up on the day's events over a bottle of wine at the Grand. We finally returned to Luton feeling very satisfied if a little disjointed by the whirlwind of activity…and straight into the arms of producer Charlotte who had managed to secure funding for the flashback sequences in Kent!
Roll on the summer!
PS More podcasts to come very soon so please stay tuned.