Cape Town or bust!

As promised yesterday, here is the blog posting that was meant to go earlier in the week...
(As an update - Zoe and James are in Sithengi in Cape Town with Pinky Pinky)

James - Joburg
Monday began with a bang. Overtired from the Running Riot premiere the night before, I belted up to Campus Square for some desperate shopping. Of course I arrived early and all the shops were closed. Bought some shoes. Afterwards I ducked down to the barber in Old Melville and got a haircut. I then ran the 5 blocks home in the rain to get my bag and Mr Poddie. Zoe picked me up and we went to the office where we bashed out the tweaked ending of the script. The posters arrived on time and looked great - thank goodness.

I did a screening of the corporate that everyone seemed to be part of - originally cut by Sue and Morgan, graphics by me. The client made some changes and seemed happy. It started hailing around three and got the call that the t-shirts could be collected. Zoe went off the the middle of town to get them while I did some more synopsis and behind the story stuff. Lucia came around 6 and we all had a quick motivational speech from Danie - woo!

I kicked around some graphics for Snitch so they could have backgrounds for while I was away and got home around 10. Tried to print our stickers but panic set in when I realised that my printer wouldn't respond to anything I did - it just flashed error code. The on-screen help said refer to manual, which in turn said refer to manufacturer. I kicked and screamed and shouted and unplugged and reinstalled. The works. Do manufacturers have a built in obselesence on all their equipment? Naughty Canon. I can't stand leaving things to the last minute. I collapsed at 2 and had an hours sleep. Woke at 3 and packed bags and loaded Mr Poddie with all our Pinky presentation stuff.

Zoe and I got to the airport around 6, checked in and headed over to Fournos for coffee and breakfast. Our Heat magazine article was out so we had some fun taking pictures and generally dorking around. The flight was good and we got to windy CT at 9:30.

After one call to a sticker supplier whose ad we saw in Joburg, we rented a car and got to Tokai. Elton from Stickermix was awesome and made the best stickers ever. They are vinyl so are splashproof. Zoe's friend Nomfi was still at work so we had some lunch and went over to the Sithengi building to register. Registeration only opened the next day so we got our tickets for the opening night film, Bunny Chow. I saw Bunny Chow in Joburg a couple of weeks ago with Ryley and Lucia when they had their cast premiere. Zoe and I ended up at Camps Bay drinking wine and eating pies on the beach (which was awesome).

Called Joz and asked to stay with him cos we expected to only get back from Bunny Chow super late. Saw his office and ran into Sunel who is an ex-classmate. She's shooting the movie that Joz is working on. Didn't make much sense 'cos I felt a bit drunk and sunned and tired.

Joz's loft in Rondebosch is great and we where able to dump all the luggage. Got ready quicky and phoned Tristyn who works at Velocity. What's up with parking in CT?! It's super expensive and everyone is so aggressive. There seems to be no parking around the conference venue at Artscape. Grrr.

Eventually got past the huge queue (yay for getting tickets early) and headed inside. Zoe sat right the back of the theatre and was near the front on the side. The movie was okay, but the sun and wine and flight got to me and I must admit I did doze off a couple of times. We got back to Joz's soon after the end of the screening.

Had the best night sleep and woke up feeling way better. Registration only opened at 2 so we worked on synopsis stuff and had Pick 'n Pay lunch which Zoe made.

Chaos and drama! Good thing we did the pre-registering thing. The place was packed with desperate people trying to get it. We were asked if we were students - (thanks guys) and saw Leanne who got stuck because of some payment mess up. The internet centre (which was totally advertised as open) was closed. Had issue with no advertising space for the posters but ended up being friends with the Sithengi person. Sorry nice lady with green scarf, I'll add your name later. Got conned into a press conference by Josh from City C'zela (you totally owe us one).

Bashed around and found an internet cafe eventually so send some mails and then went to the Cape Film Commission party in the ABSA building. Had a super view of CT and we met a couple of people. We left early and popped into the after party at Rhodes House and looked around. Saw Nicky from Monash which was nice.

At Joz's house we caught finally caught up with him and showed him our other short film from last year Vuurdoop.

Cheers for now, team.