Honestly, I didn’t know that being a debuting actress could be this much fun…

This was my first thought as I climbed my way in to Minske and Oscar’s heavily packed car, giggling and feeling slightly nervous about the iron camera-crane, that was placed in a way it occupied the entire car’s length; the lower ends enveloping the passenger seat, where I was supposed to sit. In the back was my favorite fat black cat Piepje sitting in a straw cat-basket, meowing frantically at the prospect of his journey to Ghent and, afterwards, France, where they would pay a visit to their family. As Minske was crawling into the car’s backseat in an equally acrobatic way, because of all of the stuff that was piled up back there, she assured me that Piepje actually loves driving once the car starts to move. And indeed, five minutes later, he was sleeping peacefully in his little basket. As for me, I was still nervous about the iron crane, and started wondering what it would feel like to have one of those things piercing your abdomen. Even after our cheerful director/driver Oscar assured me that it was safe, because the crane was placed in a way that it could not move; Frida Kahlo-ish thoughts kept running through my head…

Anyway we arrived in Ghent safely. It was raining and a rather strong wind was blowing. After having built up the crane in front of the St. Baafs-cathedral, Minske gave me a lovely old red umbrella, which happened to turn out very prettily on camera. After having made a few shots of me walking towards the cathedral and back, we moved crane and camera to a bridge over one of the famous canals of Ghent. However, before having found the perfect spot, Minske drove the car around for a while, only to be kept to a halt by a random male pedestrian, who addressed her with “little lady” and told her that “you can’t drive here, you know. Are you lost or something?”. To which she answered: “No, actually we’re shooting a movie”. To which the dude mumbled: “You movie-makers think you own the place”, and angrily resumed his walk.

After this, we found our perfect spot, and made a couple more shots of me walking with my red umbrella. The spot where we placed the camera turned out to be in front of a charming-looking hostel, with a note on the door that said: “Rooms starting from 35 euros a night”. While Oscar was restocking the crane in the car, Minske and I decided to have a look inside in case we’d ever need a room during future shootings in Ghent. Inside though, was a creepy guy saying: “Yeeees, come stay here with lots of ladies. I loooove laaaadies!” Ugh. I guess there’s other hostels to be found in Ghent…

So, using our recently acquired acrobatic skills, we all climbed back in to the car, because Minske and Oscar, kind as they are, would not let me walk to the station in the rain. Besides, I, having been in Ghent like at least two times before, firmly stated that I knew exactly where the station was… Or at least I thought I did… After having driven in the direction which I had confidently pointed out for 20 minutes, we decided to ask for directions. These, among others, were some of the answers we received: “Djeez dude, I don’t know… I think you have to go that way, no wait go there and then turn to the left, no wait turn to the right” and “That’s way too complicated to explain from here. Ask someone else will you, I’m BUSY”.

Finally, after 20 more minutes of driving around, we arrived at the St. Pieters-station. I climbed out of the packed car, leaving my two favorite directors behind to drive on to La douce France.

And as I was driving back to Antwerp, I couldn’t help returning to my original reflection: I didn’t know that being a debuting actress could be this much fun… I for one am counting on a lot more giggles and bizarre car-rides…

Manon.

Photos below by Walter Grimm:

Congratulations from all of us!

After two years of research, writing and re-writing, the script is now finally done. Many thanks to our co-writers Noëlla Elpers and Peter Holvoet-Hanssen, who’ve done a wonderful job on the personal stories between the characters!
This 90 minunte feature film is now ready for development and pre-production by Picoux Productions (BE). Please check out the special cast we are putting together and the teaser to try give a sneak peak of the mood the film will have. We choose to cast these actors in an early stage to refine the script with their personal character nuances, or better put: we were sure the actors will portrait the characters in their own original way

Oscar Spierenburg
Artist/Filmmaker