Better than my nightmares ❤️

Our feature film is being made. We're making our debut feature film.

“It’s better than my nightmares ❤️”. My response to a dear friend of mine after he asked me how’s it all going.

Today I set my 35 minute timer. I needed it in order to write this, it’s quite hard to stay focused when the energy of living your dream fuels your every breath. I am physically exhausted, never had so little sleep. But I’m also getting to fly the plane that we’ve been building for so long. Like a next-level team building exercise that challenges you to use your resources and work together to win the game.

This week we completed our ninth day of filming. Nine out of potentially eighteen days. We’ve been through most of the emotionally challenging scenes - with two still more to go. I feel like we’ve been assembling our avengers. When you have such incredible, talented and generous team making it happen, you feel so supported and excited about the journey.

We filmed the first five days between 12th and 16th May, 2025. The Saturday I laid flat for 85% of the day. The Sunday I got in my car, green tea or coffee or both in hand, and drove 3 hours to Great Yarmouth. Where I’d arrive at 12:58 and begin rehearsals at 13:00 until 19:00. Then I’d go to the Wetherspoons pub, within our Wetherspoons hotel (I’d stay again) with the director of the play you’re to perform on Monday 19th Joanna Holland as part of the Norfolk & Norwich Arts Festival with the director of the festival in attendance (hope he enjoyed it)!

I was performing on Monday 19th at the exquisite (adjective used sparingly) St. George’s Theatre. I was warmly welcomed by reception who then took me backstage to show me the space. They genuinely seemed so glad to have us there; it was a lovely feeling.

The play started at 20:00, followed by a Q&A and a lovely meeting with audience members who connected with the themes within the stories shared. Leah Clements shared her experience with Parasomnia and provoked many intriguing questions from the audience who were drawn to her experience. I then drove home to London, arriving back at 00:30, setting my 7:00 alarm and on set and in makeup for our feature film at 08:00. Unit base: London Irish Centre (thanks so much for having us)(you should check out their events and website - they are a hidden gem in Camden).

Speaking of hidden gems…

… I can’t tell you more than that, but that is a clue to the feature film we are in the process of making. I am so excited to share more with you as soon as I can but for now, I’ll stick to sharing the behind the scenes experience. Because that I can talk all day and night about. I feel that somehow the making-of this film is just as interesting, rewarding and as thrilling as the film itself.

We’re a group of passionate filmmakers who have been wanting to make a feature film for many years. On this team, the following are in the process of making their debut within these roles:

Lukáš Bistřický ACK - Director of Photography

Bruno Centofanti - Director

Tori Hitchens - Costume Designer

Neto Jones - Editor

Nick Francis - Script Editor

Louise Kim Salter - Lead Actress

🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

Yesterday was my first day off and it was hard to get out of bed. I ended up wallowing and getting a bit down because I didn’t have the energy to clean but I couldn’t relax enough to nap, so I was finding myself getting a bit frustrated. Later that day, when Bruno and Neto arrived back from wrestling a couple of production obstacles, Bruno went to meet a good friend and I reluctantly pushed myself to get out of our upside-down-home-slash-unit-base and I ordered Itsu to be delivered and gamified the whole situation by racing to complete as many housework tasks as possible before they arrived. I managed to hoover all rooms AND mop (n.b. most of the floorspace is like a camera and props buffet with a pathway kept open for you to walk around it).

I then got on my green avocado shoes and went to The Constitution Pub, the pub at the end of my street, and I literally felt like I’d found myself on holiday. It was exactly what I needed. Also on the way home, I showed Neto the locations that we’d been recording that week around the area in true Guerilla style.

And as we sat in the evening light, I asked my friend Jonesy (Neto Jones), if I had shown them this little project I’ve been working on recently, “LivingwithLouise.com”.

Watching as Neto scrolled through my posts, I realised how good it feels to be able to share myself through words. It’s the closest thing I can imagine to learning how to play an instrument, words are my notes and sentences are my chords.

I’ve also realised that in my life that I have played many roles. Roles that may have people pleasing or whatever the scene demanded. One of the biggest rewards along this pathway is the process of this acting craft. To feel like you’re working a muscle, and that you are simultaneously also that muscle drawing strength from your own life and lived experience. I created a short film called How to be Human and I think the title says a lot about my interests.

I’ve learned about the various masks I wear in my own life - and how my instincts respond differently in various circumstances and situations, which can then inform how my character may (or may not) differ from me and my own characteristics. Meisner is great for that. I highly recommend looking into Sanford Meisner if any of this piques your interest.

Some of the best books (for me) on the Meisner technique include:

• Meisner in Practice: A Guide for Actors, Directors and Teachers

  by Nick Moseley

• “Sanford Meisner on Acting” by Sanford Meisner and Dennis Longwell

• “The Sanford Meisner Approach” workbooks by Larry Silverberg

• “The Actor’s Art and Craft: William Esper Teaches the Meisner Technique” by William Esper

You can read more about my interests in Meisner here where I share about the time my mind convinced me that I was looking at my future self in the Repetition Exercise.

Photo by Wanda Martin

Makeup & Hair by Mikaela Honeywill

Styled by Laura Parkes

I’ve always been one for a scrapbook and I realised I wasn’t sharing that online, I was too afraid and worried that I’d be judged. But this is something that also makes writing this so wonderful, just the very act of writing this down alone is enough. But it provides me with this space to appreciate my process, reflect and digest the goodness from this experience and overcome my thoughts that say it won’t be good enough or what have you got to talk about anyway?

Being an actor has taught me that the best role you can ever play, is the role of being yourself. It almost feels spiritual. And I feel passionately about sharing my process in hope that I can also help others to be themselves too. I am fundamentally optimistic about human nature. I think because I’ve come to believe that fear and hate can be overridden - we can override our state of minds, with practice and a lot of patience and trust that we will get there. You can. You can get there.

I could keep writing, I have a lot more to say on this. But I’ll end here in case I’m scaring you away with how long the piece is. It’s a free flowing stream of consciousness. Unfiltered reflections. But I get it, enough is enough.

I would love to hear from you, if you read this and it connected with you.

Lots of love & wish us luck for day 10-18 and beyond!

P.S. I set my timer 35 minutes ago at 16:30 and it’s now 19:01. Powerful tool for productivity that one!

Louise