September 2013 Update

​It’s been nearly a year since my last update, and what can I say, I’ve been busy… and too lazy to upload to my website blog. But I’m hoping this tumblr thing will make updates a breeze, enabling me to post more frequently. The hassle of uploading gone, I have no excuse :)

Anyway, a lot has happened in 2013. Last I wrote, I was still working on Fragments of Me and had just returned from Sitges and the last of the Four Corners workshops. I had “broken up” with my producer, and was looking for a new one asap, as I wanted to apply to the first Biennale Film College. And somehow I managed to find one and complete the application in a week. However, the application did not go through. Instead I took a well-deserved holiday with my family in Asia. We visited Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau and China. It was exactly what the doctor ordered.

I drank fresh coconut juice in Singapore.

And went up in the Singaporean equivalent of The London Eye.

I sampled an authentic Singapore Sling at the Raffles Hotel. Man, it was divine!

Singapore is really lovely. A provincial metropolis, if that makes any sense.

I hung out in Macau. Which is starting to look a lot like Las Vegas, unfortunately.

That’s the Venetian.

And the fountain at The Galaxy Hotel, where I was staying.

Dim Sum! Yum!

​Then I went home. To Hong Kong. I can feel it in my bones that I was born there.

​​I fell in love with Stanley. I had never been there before. It’s like a seaside colonial village amidst all the high rises of the bustling city. I wouldn’t mind living there, if I ever had the chance to relocate to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong by night

The beach at Stanley

​Back in wintry Denmark, I started a brief stint at a renowned production company in Copenhagen. I spent 6 months with M&M Productions, during three of which I worked there intensely on a daily basis. Then I got busy with the making of my first Danish short “Dronning for en dag” (aka “Queen For A Day”) which was overall probably one of the funnest, nicest shoots I’ve been on. I had so many wonderful people helping me make this little film a reality.

​“Dronning for en dag” (affectionately known as Dfed), aka “Queen For A Day” (Qfad) premiered at the Cinematheque theatre of the Danish Film Institute on September 6th.

I was also accepted into Torino Film Lab’s “Adaptlab” which is in its 2nd year. I am adapting a novel called “Buster’s Ears” by Swedish writer Maria Ernestam into a feature-length screenplay, although we will only submit treatments in November, when we pitch at the Meeting Event in Torino which will be the third and final workshop. The first one was in June in Lyon, France.

I ate a lot of good food, especially desserts. In fact, I think I garnered a reputation for being the girl who always eats. I think I gained about 5 pounds in a week.

Then in August the second workshop was held right in my backyard. We stayed for a week at Schæffergården in Gentofte, which is just on the outskirts of Copenhagen. More divine food. This time of the organic, Nordic gourmet kind. I’m starting to think these writing workshop are more about food than actual work. Although I did get a lot of work done. I am actually quite proud of the adaptation I’m writing.

On September 2nd I started my MA in Film and Media Studies at Copenhagen University. Which so far is great. However, I am not good at keeping up with all the readings which leaves me feeling chronically guilty. I have no trouble understanding what’s being taught, though, a lot of it is second nature. But I still have to write about it all academically - and I have blissfully forgotten how to do that. I’m a practical sort of girl these days. I don’t write about other people’s ideas and endeavours. I indulge in my own.

Which leads me to the amazing and spectacular news that I am in prep with a new short film. Well, actually it’s “Fragments of Me” re-envisioned as a trilogy of short films with the titles “Kærester?” (“Sweethearts?”), “Et Gensyn” (“Second Encounters”) and “Da Vi Mødtes” (“The Day We Met”). The Danish Film Workshop is funding part II, “Et Gensyn”, so we will shoot that in January or February 2014. Hopefully “Kærester?” and “Da Vi Mødtes” will follow, but I have to get them financed first.

Moreover, I am also in advanced development with a new feature film which is also a transmedia project, and experimental in its visual style. However, narratively it is a very commercial rom-com that should be a crowd-pleaser. I’ve got a great producer attached and am really looking forward working on this project with him. It’s gonna be huge!

I also started as a volunteer teacher at a local film lab where I teach kids and teenagers how to be filmmakers. Next week I am teaching them how to direct actors, and the two weeks after that, I’m in charge of their midterm films.

That’s it. You’re all updated on 2013 thus far. Torino and the last Adaptlab workshop is coming up in November. Then exams in December. And then it’s merry christmas and happy new year, followed by more filmmaking. Yay!

A brilliant and shiny kiss to you all!

​- Marianne