Filmmakers And Actors Networking Event In Westminster< My Fun Packed Weekend In London | Blog | Back To The 80s Concert > On Friday 14th August, I was invited to a filmmakers and actors networking event in the Westminster area of London. Angela, who I first met in the HeyJo Club in London, back in November 2007 (read about it here), was running the event. The last time I saw Angela was on my birthday last year. We were both extras in a BBC comedy pilot for my friend Jeannie, who was a production manager for it, which you can read here. I told my friend Ian about the event. Ian had recently returned back to Guildford from the US. He is working on a website called filmeverything.com. I suggested we print some flyers about the website and network with the filmmakers and actors at the event, so we would gain some more members for it. On the Friday evening, we caught a train from Guildford to Waterloo station in London, and then we went on the Underground trains to get to Westminster station. Westminster station was very big inside and we went up many escalators to get to the ground level. We took some photos of each other going up the escalators.
I invited my friend Jeannie to come along as well, as she works in films as a producer. She was late arriving, so I told Ian to walk to where the event was being held, and said that I’ll catch him up when Jeannie arrives at Westminster station.
Jeannie arrived and we walked along the street together to where the event was located. As we started walking, I asked Jeannie to take some photos of me with the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben behind me, as they were just outside the entrance of the station on the other side of the street.
The event was inside an old pub called the Red Lion. It looked like a nice traditional old English pub.
We went down some stairs into the basement. There was a bar, and some buffet food, as well as lots of people standing chatting to each other. I saw Angela and we said hello to each other and had a chat. Angela now has blond hair, she was a brunette the last time I saw her. The hair colour suited her well. I then saw Ian chatting to some people and he gave me the cards he had printed with the filmeverything.com details on to hand out to the people there. I started to mingle. I met some interesting people, including lots of actors, writers, directors and filmmakers. They were fun to chat to. I handed out the cards to them and told them about the website. I got chatting to an actress called Prue, who was very nice and interesting. She had long curly blond hair, and had done voice work for Barbie DVDs, stage work, and some film shorts. Prue had done a number of period and costume dramas, she looked like someone from an earlier age, as she had very old fashioned English looks, which were nice. Prue was currently looking for acting and voice work. It turned out she was living not far from me in Reading, she had recently moved to there from living up North. I met up with Prue a few weeks later after the event, and I showed her round Guildford. We went to a cafe and to Guildford Castle. I have included Prue’s showreel below.
I spoke to a South African filmmaker who was originally from Johannesburg or Jo’burg as its now called. He has made some zombie film shorts. My Great Aunt Essie moved on Jo’burg from her home in Ireland many years ago. When my Great Aunt was alive she used to send me postcards and pictures of plants, birds and animals of where she lived. I wish I had wrote back to her more often, as since she died, I regret not keeping in touch with my distant relatives over there. Great Aunt Essie was the sister of my grand father, which is on my mother’s side of the family. I got chatting to some more actors, which included a young guy, and two middle aged men. One of the middle-aged men was a comedian who was looking for work. The other middle-aged man had recently done some acting in a museum in London as a British soldier from World War 2, he was currently looking for acting work too. A very attractive blond French lady who was a writer talked to me as well about her writing. There was a guy dressed as a woman, which was a little strange to see, but he was ok. I got chatting to another guy who was a producer, and he was also in a band. It turned out he had done some gigs in my home town of Guildford. It’s a small world. I caught up with Ian and he was talking to a film distributor. Jeannie was speaking to a girl who had just arrived to live in London from New Zealand. I helped myself to some buffet food and bought some drinks for Jeannie and myself. As there were many people in the basement of the pub, it got quite hot and sweaty. I waited until Ian had finished chatting to everybody, we then said our goodbyes, and then we left the pub with Jeannie. It was now nighttime outside, and quite late. Big Ben was all lit up and looked good at night.
We walked back to Westminster underground station and caught a train back to Waterloo. Jeannie then had to catch a train back to her home in North London, so we wished her a good night. Ian and I then caught a train back home to Guildford. It was an interesting evening spent networking with filmmakers and actors. It seems a fun industry to work in, although difficult to find regular paid work, unless you are lucky and know the right people. Related ContentComments on Filmmakers And Actors Networking Event In Westminster |
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