Unbelivebale bad luck... and suprising happy end

There have been some crazy days out here. Lots of things happened that I didn't expect, in the bad way and good way. First of all I want to go off topic here a little and write about what happened to me. I don't want to go in details about my health, because that's private information only for people closest to me. But long story short - I ended up nearly completely deaf.

I discovered hearing loss like any other loss of senses is nasty. It puts you completely off your inner balance. You feel discomfort every second of it cause your brain is not used to getting less information suddenly. So walking the street when you can't hear the traffic or the people around you is not a good idea, needless to say it scared the crap out of me.

Next surprise, surprise was that Spanish emergency wouldn't help me, they sent me to local surgery instead where I knew I'd had problems registering, because I am not insured anywhere, because I don't have regular work. In situations like that the only way is to be a friend with a doctor. I was lucky enough to know somebody from my previous visit in Spain, and he said - no problem, I can fix you! Amazing! I can hear now! All the lovely sounds of the city, all the noises and screams, everything! So future advice to everybody: if you don't have a doctor among your friends, better get one fast. They are great!

So I am a bit of a disaster sometimes, in foreign country, not be able to speak Spanish very well and being deaf at the same time. Well done. I also like to thank my flatmate, who was kind enough to go with me to the hospital and translate everything.

But just when I thought I'm at the bottom of the bottom, deaf and jobless wandering what the hell am I doing here, more bad news - my sister called from Wroclaw, from the film festival, where my movie was screened, that apparently they are showing the wrong movie. What? Why? How on earth this is possible. They played my previous short "Lifestyle", and don't even know from where they had this. Anyway I sent her to fix it to the projection room and they realized they made a mistake. 10 minutes brake everyone, while we're looking for a right dvd... shocking. Then the right movie was finally on, but they forgot to put the subtitles on... haha. OK this was a disaster day.
In the late evening a good news struck me like lightning from clear sky. I've won the main prize at KAN Independent Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland. I have not expected this... I've been sending DVDs with All Secrets for six months now and I haven't even been screened anywhere. But I did it, although they played the wrong movie at first... I have won.

I've never won anything like the first prize, so this is a totally new experience for me. I hope some good will come out of this and somebody will realize, that I mean business as a filmmaker and maybe it would be a good idea to work with me.

By moving to Spain I left everything I had in UK, connections, jobs, friends. I decided to risk it to start from the beginning. And now I'm on my own, being unemployed for over 6 months now... haha there's a success story for you there. Anyway I plan to hang out here for maybe another 3-4 months and see what happens.

2 months in Spain and...

... I'm still a Ninja. Consider yourself lucky if you don't know the meaning of this. Ninjutsu is the ancient Japanese martial art which I have been studying back in Scotland for a year. It was a great fun, but over the past few months the word ninja has got itself a new meaning. No Income No Job and Assets. Enough said.

I've been sending some more emails to film companies, without any luck at the moment. But I guess I just need to be more patient. In a few words a summary of my first two months in Madrid:

- I have done much less than I intended to, but that's nothing new.
- My Spanish improved a lot... but it's still shite. Adding to this I discovered how much I love English for it's simplicity and overall user-friendliness.
- I sleep here a lot more. I don't remember any previous period in my life when I had so much sleep every day. Let's enjoy it while it lasts.
- I made the best business cards ever, too bad I didn't have a chance yet to give it to anybody.
- My cooking skills have gone over the roof.
- I saw lots of places in Madrid and I'm not lost all the time anymore. I know the layout of the city.
- I started to work on two new scripts, it's going sometimes good and sometimes awfully wrong.

So to summarize - not a good start at all. It seems like if I had a time machine and went back 2 months ago I would have been standing more less in the same point where I am now. But hey - another two months ahead of me. Every day can bring change.

I'm gonna have my new camera in two days time, so maybe once I start using it I will feel more inspired. From the other news I have been booked for a job on this years Edinburgh International Film Festival and although my movie is not here, it's still gonna be fun.
And it is my first job since February - it's time to open the champagne.

A new camera, new ideas

I've bought a camcorder, which is unusual for me. I don't often buy them, because good cameras are way to expensive and if you buy one it will be old and useless withing two years. I prefer to hire cameras and invest in what lasts for decades - camera support (tripods, cranes, steadicams etc).

However this time I needed something ultra small, that I can put in my pocket and just play with it, do some practice with it on my camera crane. So I got myself a Sanyo HD1000 - a very tiny camera. The beauty it is that it records to memory cards and with a help of my redrockmicro m2 adapter it can be turned into a really powerful tool. But obviously it's not a serious equipment, It's something to hold on to before the Red Scarlet goes on sale. But I'm still waiting for my Sanyo cause I bough it from ebay, so let's hope it will arrive someday.

From other news I'm spending my Semana Santa (Easter) sitting at home and writing emails. I have a list of interesting film places in Madrid, which I have to contact now, so that they will know about my existence, first thing in the morning when they arrive to work after Easter holidays.
I've also watched some movies that I missed - V for Vendetta (excellent!) and some polish thriller from the last year Nieruchomy Poruszyciel, which was really bad in my opinion. It's a shame because I honestly don't remember a good movie in this genre from Poland recently. If Polish Film Institute is supporting this, then I should hurry up and submit my next script, cause I'm convinced I can do far better.