Dear blog readers
& anonymous commissioned-short-film lovers,
Apologies for the delay & impotence of our blogging, we shall try to equalize in the second half.
We the Turin train are slowly advancing, in joyful spirits and elated harmony with respect to the Balkan train experience – facing unavoidable detours and unnecessary delays, but altogether heading in the right direction, boldly guided by higher dramaturgy & fate.
The morale of the troops is… casual, sometimes even high.
Some believe to be on vacation and consider waking up, let alone filmmaking, as a burden; others are reaping the benefits of early research & around-the-clock consulting.
Some set up their shots for hours, others believe wobbly cameras are an acceptable price to pay for not willing to carry larger tripods.
Some are constantly rethinking their work, others are clinging to any piece of advice as word of god, until they hear another one.
Almost no one is taking notes about the learning process, at least not in real-time, but hopefully they will remember and appreciate it in the future.
Many are vegans, while one girl ‘doesn’t like vegetables’. As we are entering carnivore Balkans, ordering food, which usually generates more enthusiasm than discussing films, will become even more time-consuming, pending serious gastronomical ultimata on my behalf.
Respect for the travel experience as a whole and for locals in particular [hosts, coordinators, fixers, waiters, drivers] has been equally understated, i.e. ranging from chronic touristic apathy to ephemeral docmaker empathy, so another extracurricular part of my job turns out to be creatively excusing myself on behalf of the whole group, so that the local volunteers feel less exploited. Again, tighter discipline is to be expected, especially as we enter my home territory and its own notorious ways.
But hey, we are also having fun, drinking our kilometers away and sliding our carriage through many anecdotic turbulences, as you will read in the upcoming blogs.
And yes, we’re also making films, or learning to, from the initial dramaturgy sessions and wasted sunshine in Torino to the first shooting days in the rain in Ljubljana, from bed bugs & moments of truth in Zagreb to hedonistic thermal bath & goulash indulgence-before-the-calvary in Hungary. From Belgrade on, we’ll start carving out the rough cuts.
So — don’t worry about us, have no mercy on the spoiled and try to take advantage of all the opportunities set up for you by Nisi Masa Europe, the pan-Balkan railways & your overtolerant tutors.
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