How to start shooting your second Movie

or better: how to prepare yourself for shooting it.

The southern English summer impresses with a lot of greenery, small brick villages, lots of pubs with funny names, lots of funny names for everything in general. How charming England is and how nice to now have the opportunity to discover this country on four wheels after all the other European countries I have travelled to.

It gives me an inner pleasure to think back to my childhood and all the adventures we had as a family in our campervan - my parents definitely laid the right foundations for the future and did something absolutely right.

You spend a Friday evening with young adults, all of whom are just finishing school, swarming out into the world and want to enjoy their freedom before the gates of the country's universities close for them and more years of learning lie ahead. The kids are good at partying and very exuberant - euphoria is just a stone's throw away. So now you sit at the adult tables and listen to the parents, who now look back in amazement at the time, these 18 years that have passed so quickly. The very next day, you find yourself in a completely different situation: a hippie garden party is being thrown in honour of a friend: Cocktail bar and beer kegs, live bands and a bunch of good food - and to top it all off, a DJane from Vienna. A very international party, and the longer the evening goes on, the more cigarette-rolling Europeans make friends with drunken party guests. On the longest day of the year, nobody really wants to go home early, and even for us the sun had to rise again before the camper doors closed.

Other Inspirations

Things I have learnt: Unfortunately, the body is not a machine. It only seems to like stress and people and lots of work and alcoholic drinks to a limited extent.

So yes, after a week like that, it's not very surprising that you feel very low on the return flight and that it drags on throughout the week. Things I can't recommend? Being sick in midsummer!

Movie

On a camping trip it's clever to download films and series, because even if everyone complains about the network in Germany - in the countryside in England there isn't even a 3G bar.

So there's no way to continue watching The Americans.

Instead, you watch the first episode of The Gentlemen and feel well entertained. I finish watching it on the rest of the trip in August.

I start Das Boot and am a little disgusted by the brutality that comes to light throughout. Not that I was expecting anything else (40 men, no shower and only one shithouse), but I seem to be even more sensitive to such content when I'm on holiday and don't actually have to finish watching this series, even though it's a feast for me to see all my colleagues together like this. Dear Rick, Leonard and Matti, for example.

TITAN, the documentary about the lost submarine, however, shakes hands with Das Boot - at least as far as the means of transport is concerned. It's the perfect length to fly from London to Berlin (to the second), is a story about yet another egomaniacal American who cares more about millions than human lives. I feel like I've seen all the Titanic footage now and so have no desire to ever catch up with it in real life. I also didn't realise that this expedition had been going on for years. A 3.6 out of 10 stars.

So you come back to the capital physically weakened and with a backpack full of new impressions, together with your neighbours, whom you met by chance at the airport. However, Berlin decided to paralyse the public transport network - making the journey home a real adventure.

24-27 June

Knocked out.

And you're so bad at being sick.

Music

Til Reiners is sitting in the Hotel Matze. I have a pretty specific opinion of Matze Hielscher, but despite this, he occasionally has guests whose careers interest me immensely. This week it's Til - basically the German comedian (too bad, Germany, too bad), who talks about his career in a very reflective and level-headed way. Til Reiners. A 10 out of 10. Very inspiring. Suddenly you want to climb his cringe mountain too.

Scouting for Girls is the soundtrack for teenage coming-of-age films. In other words, as soon as you hear this band, you feel like you're part of a teenage coming-of-age film.

I created 4 in Vienna for my besties when we were strolling through this beautiful city together. 10 out of 10 stars.

Film

The Americans is a good series, there's no question about that. However, I'm a bit shattered and just can't watch all this brutality right now. Especially the one that goes against the women. I want to bury myself in my pillows with a cup of tea and New Girl and let the film wash over me. All these thrillers and depressing man-versus-man, America-versus-Russia stories, all this cheating and lying - that can wait for a while.

So: who has a good, light, enjoyable series for me?

Book

I was captivated by The Salt Path on my trip on the Traumschiff (film coming in July and I'm insanely excited!).

Raynor Winn writes in the first part about her loss of belongings and the decision to walk along the Salt Path with her husband Moth, who has become seriously ill. Such a difficult story, told with so much hope and lightness. I have now discovered the second part: The Wild Silence in my bookcase.

It starts out just as difficult, now it's her mother who becomes seriously ill and says goodbye to life... Mhmm, that gnaws a little at the thoughts of the future. However, she writes again with the hope of a woman who wants something from life and doesn't give up and touches you so much.

I'm really looking forward to the third book, as I've almost finished the second.

Other Inspirations

It will probably be of little interest if I tell you that I'm insanely good at cooking soup. I understand - but if you do need inspiration, please get in touch.

Otherwise, I pursued my passion again.

I had castings. Oh, that word - casting. With real people, without a camera in your living room. So I travelled to Potsdam, to the Film University, a building with many fond memories, completed a very successful casting (ah, what a word) and have been crossing my fingers ever since.

A second casting was then held in Prenzlauer Berg (of course), with an aquarium and a good style magazine. This casting was also great fun and was rewarded with a coffee, good conversation and a walk through the neighbourhood.

So let's all keep our fingers crossed.

Tomorrow the first clapperboard for Shortcut II will drop.

A second short film, written and designed and hopefully directed without a nervous breakdown. It'll be good. I'm looking forward to it.

So, see you next week,

Bussi baba, your Emilia.