The 4th Segment "Dahlia"

On Sunday, July 21st, 2011 we started shooting the 4th segment "Dahlia" starring Noura Saafan as Dahlia the bride, Sherifa and Sahar as the hairdressers, Azza as the mother, Elie as the father, Batoul as the sister, Omar Elhamy as the groom, Heba Ayman and Isis Khalil as the friends of the bride. It was shot in five days; two days in Mohamed Zedan's house and three days in Sherifa's hairdresser "Bella Donna". We finished shooting today, July 29th, 2011. 

The 3rd Segmet "The Girl"

On Tuesday, May 31st, 2011 we started shooting the 3rd segment "The Girl" starring Malak Magdy as the girl, Nadia Abdel Salam as the grandmother, Nesreen Nour as the mother and Mosaad Salem as the uncle. We shot two days in a mosque, one day in a school, one day in the street and one day in a house. We finished shooting last Friday, June 17th, 2011. Here are some photos from behind the scenes taken by Mohamad El Hadidi.

Hend Bakr is watching the actors through the camera's LCD

Hend Bakr and Mayye Zayed are shooting from the minbar or the pulpit inside a mosque

Mohamed Zedan who is one of the co-directors worked on this segment as the production manager and he managed to shoot this segment with L.E2000 (around $330) only for 5 days of shooting, which is quite an achievement. Ahmed Ragab was supposed to be the sound engineer but since he had exams, he couldn't come all the time so Nermeen Salem who has just arrived from abroad took over. Sameh Nabil and Mohamad El Hadidi sometimes were also responsible for the sound when Ragab wasn't around.

Ahmed Ragab is explaining to Nermeen Salem what to do before going to the exam

Mohamed Zidan is fixing a neon lamp to the ceiling

Mayye Zayed to the left and Malak Magdy to the right as drawn by Malak in the last day of shooting

The 2nd Segment "Moussa"

Last week we started shooting the 2nd segment "Moussa" on the 29th of April, 2011. It was shot only in three days, two days in April on Friday the 29th and Saturday the 30th and one day in May on Monday the 9th. 

After finishing the film and being completely exhausted, all the crew posed to take a picture together

The segment was shot in the "Courniche" avenue in down town "Mehatet El Raml" and in the restaurant "Athineos". The waiter there told us that we were shooting on the table where the most famous Egyptian Nobel prize winner writer "Naguib Mahfouz" wrote his novel "Miramar". Here are some pictures while making this segment, taken by Emad Maher.

The main actors/actresses are Kamal or "Abo Tarek" as we used to call him as the main character, Islam Kamal as the newsstand man, Farida Rida, Omar Elhamy, Taher El Hadidi, Mark Lotfy and Mai.

 

Alexandria Got Talent

The audition took place in Goethe-Institute on October 23rd and 24th. We've had over 50 actors and actresses in both days from Alexandria and few from Cairo. We were hoping to have more children and old people coming to the audition but as always most of them were young men and women. We were really impressed by so many people and how talented they were. We wish we could have more characters for all of them.

Magdy, Zedan, Hadidi and Mahmoud's arm while auditioning some actors 

Audition/Casting Call

Today we made an event in facebook to announce an audition next week in Goethe-Institute in Alexandria.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=168642533150495

The audition's event in facebook

The event stated:

Actors and actresses are needed to take part in an Egyptian Alexandrian independent feature film "The Mice Room". It's a collaborative digital feature film divided into seven segments and it's taking place in Alexandria. It's made by the graduates of the Jesuits Cultural Center Filmmaking Workshop (The 4th Group):

- Ahmed Magdy 

- Hend Bakr 

- Mahmoud El Soghiar

- Mayye Zayed 

- Mohamad El Hadidi 

- Moahmed Zidan

The film is produced by Fig Leaf Studio and Rufy's Fine Art Center

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000125012479
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=88241786968

The Roles:

- Actors from 3 to 10 years old

- Actors from 20 to 40 years old

- Actors from 50 to 55 years old

- Actors from 65 to 80 years old

- Actresses from 3 to 10 years old

- Actresses from 17 to 30 years old

- Actresses from 35 to 45 years old

- Actresses from 55 to 65 years old

Please prepare a small scene to act in the audition. No previous experience in acting is required.

The audition will take place on Saturday October 23rd, 2010 and on Sunday October 24th, 2010 in Goethe-Institute:

10 El Batalsa Street, Azarita

Alexandria, Egypt

+20 3 4879870

http://www.goethe.de/ins/eg/kai/deindex.htm

The map of Goethe-Institute in Alexandria

Please send your resume with a recent photo to the following e-mail address:

themiceroom@gmail.com

For more information please call the following numbers:

+2.010.259.8886 

+2.011.950.7575

Production Discussion

Yesterday we met Marc Lotfy and the production managers; Nesreen Talat and Sameh Nabil in "Fig Leaf" studio. We talked about the budget and the results of scouting locations. We checked the actors/actresses archive that Marc has in the studio for all previous auditions. Also Marc, Nesreen and Sameh suggested some names for specific characters or roles in the film. We are also planning to have an audition in the coming two weeks.

Hadidi, Marc, Zidan, Nesreen and Hend during a production discussion in Fig Leaf Studio

The Mice Room

No one of us really liked that name "Seven". It was only temporal until we come up with a better name. Ahmed Magdy was suggesting "A Film About Fear" but I guess he was very influenced by the legendary filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski and his films "A Short Film About Love" and "A Short Film About Killing". Then two weeks ago we've decided to name our film "The Mice Room". It may sound strange but it's a very popular term in the Egyptian culture. The mice's room is always a symbol a fear for any Egyptian kid so we thought then it is the best name to describe our film that talks about fear. No one has ever seen the mice's room because simply there is no such thing in reality but every one is afraid of it. Egyptian mothers are used to frighten their kids to let them go to bed early or to eat well for example, by threatening them to be taken to the mice's room if they don't behave well or do what they are told.