Symi books and film
The mention of the film, ‘The Thirteenth’, yesterday has caused a slight flurry of interest in the trailer that I put up. (Scroll down for yesterday’s post.) This trailer was made up before the sound, music and colour-grading was complete, but it gives an idea of the kind of shots you can expect in the finished film.
I watched the film again yesterday, part of my job as one of the producers, and in this case it was to check the sound and music. The visuals are now ‘locked’ so can’t be changed (the visuals have to be officially signed off and registered as complete, it’s a legal thing), but the guys are still working on the sound and the colour grading. My job was to go through and listen out for anomalies or put down any ideas where the sound could be improved. I had a few suggestions for background sounds to help set scenes, and some other matters, and they have all been sent off to the big boss back in England.
What I can tell you though is that it looks and sounds great. There are some sound tweaks to take care of, but only minor things. I am not sure how long the colour grading will take, but apparently not too long. And then, as I said yesterday, the backers of the film should get to see the whole thing and this will be via a private link and password sent out in an email from 1066 Productions, when it’s ready. I haven’t yet seen the credits as that’s another thing to be added, but we think we have finalised the credits list and not left anyone out. The closing music, if it stays, is, like the rest of the music, pretty fabulous and I am hoping that the composer, Michael Bishop, is able to bring out a CD of the soundtrack in due course.
And all this film news leads me on to the book, on which the story/film is based. I expect most of my readers have read it now and identified the Symi locations used, without being specifically named, and the Symi history that’s in The Judas Inheritance – the book title. The film does differ from the book, there is always far too much in a novel to get everything onto the screen, but the main themes are there, as are the characters and locations and basic story. If you want to read the full thing, though, and learn some of Symi’s history as you go, then you can get a copy of The Judas Inheritance by clicking that link. That page will also give you the link to the Kindle version.
And, while on the subject of books, here are a couple of other titles with a local or Greek theme that you might like to check out before your summer holidays. Jason And The Sargonauts is another of mine; an earlier comedy that happens in the present day and also in the past, and all (apart from the opening) on Symi. It takes in WWII with historical facts mixed in with the fiction (thanks to Hugo for the research materials), and earlier history from the 19th century. Fact meets fiction. But away from me (though some of mine are there to) you might like to search through these pages: Click Here and find some guides, novels and other books about Symi including the much sought after Bus Stop Symi by William Travis. All worth collecting if you have not already got them, and all worth sending to Greekophile friends.
