Sunday in summer-Athens

So, getting ready to head into a new week. Athens is slowly, but steadily becoming depopulated as more and more people go off on vacation, most of them to the islands. I'm still here and working. Apart from my new script, I'm going to talk to both director and producer about The Mountain, the script I recently finished 1. draft of. Its always a bit nerve-wrecking to wait for the response, and well, of course even more so to get it. The big irrational fear is that I have fucked up somehow, and the script is not good at all. The more rational fear is that they won't understand what I'm trying to do in the script, and we won't be able to reach an understanding of the premise and the logic I have applied to fulfill it. So tomorrow morning.. I'll meet the director. Then I'll know his response. Tuesday the producer is back in Athens, and has hopefully read the script (he promised - and I promised to lock him inside the toilet with the script if he hadn't). What I hope to hear from him is that he thinks it's good enough for him to go out and start financing the project, getting some money for development - so I can get paid. Being in a financial tight spot myself, I don't really want to spend to much more time on The Mountain without some money coming my way. My time will be better spent getting other ships into the sea, as well as working as a paid script consultant for financed project. From now and throughout August I will work with another Greek director on his up-coming film, which is to start shooting this year. His script has a strong story, but has a few weaknesses in 1st and 2nd act, and then some real problems in 3rd and 4th act. We have had an initial meeting and he agrees with my diagnosis and approach to solve the problems. The next days I will go over the 1st and 2nd act making extensive comments and suggestions for changes, while he thinks about the problems of 3rd and 4th. We will see how it goes. Read more!

My New Thing

This is the first time I have headed directly from one script and to the next - without being forced to it by necessity. But I had entered the vacuum of having-just-finished-a-big-thing and was going a little bananas, and so my cure was to readily throw myself into the next big thing. In this thing, which I will only speak in the most broad terms so far, I at last embrace my interest in quantum physics and pair it with my passion for drama. I see some overlapping ideas between the principles of drama and some of the theories of quantum physics - and this is exactly what I am going to explore in this new thing.
Quantum physics are mind-winningly fascinating and completely spins your world around - as Niels Bohr said: "If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet." And some of the basic concepts are not that difficult to get understand for a layman - apart from them contradicting fundamental stuff we assume in ordinary reality. In my next life I want to be a scientist!
So right now I am both researching a lot of stuff about quantum physics and fleshing out the basic idea of the drama - the main characters, their basic conflict, the structure of the script and of course fumbling around in the dark to get a grasp of the hidden meaning of it all.
In all this it is also a joy to gang up with an old friend to explore this world. Danish film director Thomas Bjerregaard has some of the same fascinations as I do with the whole quantum-thing, and he is reading as I write, and will look into the best ways to get this produced as a film. Maybe as a Danish-Greek co-production, which would be really great for a lot of reasons. Read more!

FIRST DRAFT OF "THE MOUNTAIN"

Friday I finished the first draft of The Mountain, a supernatural political thriller hopefully to be directed within a foreseeable future by Yorgos Siougas a.k.a as my good friend George, director of short films and TV-series. Based on an idea of his I wrote a short film for him, Is love a Tender Thing, which he directed and shot in early june. It's soon out of post-production and it's first public appearance will be at the Drama International Short Film Festival in september.

So first draft is finished. Which means it has gone to George, the director, and George, the producer. Who happens to be two different persons. I have begun to call the latter by a short form of his last name, Lykairdopoulos, pronounced in a French fashion Luc or if you will Danish fashion Lyk. The two Georges will read (eventually - they are busy people. and yes, I have threatened to lock them inside a toilet until they finish). Then when they come out of the toilet we will meet to discuss what the next steps are. Is the draft good enough to send out as is? If not, what kind of improvement is needed. When it gets send out, to who? The Greek Film Center? Star-actors we want on board from this early stage? Potential co-producers? All-in-all in boils down to this: This script that I have been living in an intense relationship with for the last many days will suddenly not be a part of my daily life. And so what do you do? My theory is all about moving on as quickly as possible. Pick up another project you left behind earlier, throw yourself into a crazy new idea - anything - because even though the finished first draft will come back to you and demand your attention it will never be that intense again - if you have done your work well. You will make some cuts, perhaps re-arrange some scenes, maybe even add a little stuff to clarify certain aspects, but you will not be as deeply immersed in its world again - hopefully. The next guy who will be that is the director. Not you. So move on.

And I believe I have found the next thing. More about that later. Have fun... Read more!

OMG - An Ode to Jesper

I miss my friend Jesper, who used to work at the Danish Cultural Institute here in Athens, but stopped by New Year and returned to the old mother country, Denmark.

We used to hang out whenever - discussing everything from food, TV-series, art, archeology, comic books, the roots of drama and not entirely unimportant - women. He is fun and easy-going company and it would fool a lot of people into thinking he didn't have depth or intellectual prowess.

And so, he has gone away from dirty, lively, ever-unexpected Athens to live in Copenhagen, paragon of order, cleanliness and the expected - and I really miss him. Most of my friends here has kids, wives, girl-friends, super-busy jobs or even all those together - and it can at times be difficult to hunt down anyone ready to grab a coffee and solve the world situation in an hour or so. Jesper was - despite having a busy job and in no short supply of friends - almost always ready to that.

So, that's my Ode to Jesper. And even though we keep in touch through that internet-thing-y, it's just not the same as a kafedaki or a cold drink at Booze. Read more!

OVERDUE UPDATE

I am in Athens all summer. Working.

Don't really have the money to go on a vacation. Or the time.

Things have been going very well with my co-operation with Yorgos Siougas. Right after meeting him in April he got a short film financed, but he only had the basic idea, and not really a script ready. And he had to start shooting in 3 weeks. So I discussed the scenario with him and then I wrote the script. The short-film has now been shot, is in post and is titled in English: "Is love a tender thing?". Is has been chosen for the main competition at the big Greek short film festival in Drama.

And after that I went on to write a feature film script for Siougas, The Mountain, which I have just finished the 3rd act of. So I have the last act remaining and then we have a full first draft. Its a supernatural political thriller and so far I quite happy with it. Not the worst I have written.

A script I was coaching the writer/director on is almost finished shooting these days. I think the final shootings take place in the up-coming week. It is "Black Field" and there are some nice photos coming from the shoot - the one at the top is one of them. You can find more through my Facebook entry here. I'm really curious to see the film.

The other 'big' project I have been involved with, Constantine Giannaris' "Overboard" seems close to a final draft now. Its becoming a really good script. Most of financing is in place, but to really make the film as it should be, we still need to find further financing. Maybe also with the hope of attracting one or two well-known international actors to take the lead parts.

Then I have a couple of new projects coming up as soon as I'm finished with the mountain. But most of them are long term projects. And my biggest worry right now is that I don't see any money coming in until maybe december or something like that. So I'm really looking for here-and-now jobs at the time being. Read more!