No awards, but a couple of books

We have certainly warmed up a bit over here in Symi, with temperatures reaching the high 30s, some people have said they have recorded temperatures at their properties in the low 40s too. Summer has definitely arrived. So have lots of boats, the harbour was quite full on Sunday night, and there was a large gathering out there in the bay on Monday too.

It was good to see lots of places full in the evening when we went to Yialos for dinner. We were royally spoiled at a great apartment by the bridge which afforded views we don’t normally see. We were also lucky to find a taxi to take us back up at 10.30, the 11 pm bus can get very crowded, and I didn’t fancy a walk up after such a hearty meal.

In other news, we have seen the results of the Cyprus Film Festival. No awards for ‘The 13^th’ in this one, but we still get to show off the ‘official selection’ laurels on the poster and cover, for whenever the company manages to arrange a distribution deal. This is proving difficult because of the things that have to be put in place before a company accepts distribution responsibility. The problems are, as usual, caused by money, so there’s no definite news on that yet.

There is more definite news on my next book. (Here he goes again!) The Saddling is proving to be something of a hit with my loyal readers, and there are now 13 reviews up on Amazon.co.uk – the more it gets, the more they will promote it… you now the score. It only takes a few minutes to write one, and every one counts. I’ll also be using some of the reviews as quotes on the cover for the next in the series, ‘The Witchling’ which I have now started writing in earnest. Well, I have started in it Word and on scraps of paper as I do, but you know what I mean.

Also, the Miss P short, ‘Honestly’ is being read by a few beta readers. Neil has read it, laughed in the right places and enjoyed it. I hope to have this out in a month or so (must find time to do the layout once I’ve done the second draft), and I shall also be adding in some review quotes from ‘Remotely’ at the back, plus a link to that novel. So, if you want to see your review in print, make sure you leave a review there as well, assuming you have read it.

And that’s my news this Monday morning as the heat builds up, the sea remains calm, the boats come and go, and the fan works overtime. That’s the electric fan we use to cool ourselves down, not the fan who writes me good reviews on Amazon. Okay, I’ll shut up about that now and let you get on with your day.

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Movie moments

Picking up where I left off… Over in Cyprus… The film filmed on Symi, ‘The 13^th’, was shown in a programme of screenings on the Saturday night (17^th) and was well received. I answered questions afterwards and then went for something to eat; it had been a long day. On Sunday, I was able to slip away during the morning to have a look around a tiny part of the Archaeological Park in the blazing sun for a couple of hours. (Today’s photos.) Later, rather red and sweaty, I headed back to where I was staying to prepare for another evening of films, this time, those being shown in the experimental film programme. It was on the way back from this event that what William Goldman (Screenwriter of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, among many others) calls a ‘movie moment’ happened. It is one of those stories where you had to be there, but I’ll try and tell it as I experienced it.

There are four of us in a car, two film directors and two comedy writers (me being one of the writers, in case you were wondering). We needed to stop at a shop to pick up some bits and pieces (beer) for later. The car pulls up, and Aris and I leap out, him from the driving seat, me from the back, and we both slam our doors at the same time, fall into step and march quickly into the shop.

‘I feel like I’m in a Tarantino film,’ I say as there was something movie-ish about the timing.

Inside the shop, I find what I need, pay for it and turn around to see the other three watching a TV screen up on the wall. A film is playing, and clearly, something major is about to happen.

Three separate gangs are arriving at a casino. There are long shots and close-ups, some tracking shots as the heavies walk through the casino, and the sound and colour, plus the action, are actually quite good.

‘What’s this movie?’ someone asks.

‘Not sure. Looks good.’

We watch a bit more as it’s quite a compelling scene.

‘Something’s about to kick off.’

‘Is it Tarantino?’

‘I don’t recognise it.’

‘Great shot.’

Remember there are two film directors here, no doubt studying the camera angles while the writers write the ‘black stuff’, the action/stage direction in their heads, wondering how they would write this scene.

The three gangs are meeting up on the roof of the casino, and it’s all getting very tense. The music is building.

‘It’s nicely choreographed,’ someone says, meaning the action.

‘Reminds me of West Side Story.’

Everyone is very impressed, and even though we’ve got our supplies, no-one is in a hurry to leave. The scene has us hooked, and we want to know what’s going to happen.

‘Is it a Scorsese?’

‘Might be.’

And then the screen splits into three.

‘What is this film?’ Frustration that none of us recognises it, we feel like we should.

The three gang bosses are shown in the split screen, facing the camera. They lift their hands to their faces, and suddenly they pull away latex masks to reveal…

‘Uh, Charlie’s Angels.’ All four of us say it in disappointed unison, turn and walk out. Another movie moment.

I found it funny at the time, it’s better when I tell it to you in person. Which is an interesting point. Telling stories is to the same as writing stories, and comedy is very difficult to write. It’s much easier to speak as you can keep the flow going, use expressions and gestures, leave pauses and so on. Anyway, that was my Saturday and Sunday night in Paphos. The next day I headed for home which meant a taxi to the local bus station. The taxi turned out to be more like a limousine, a rather grand way to arrive at a bus station. From there it was a journey to Limassol to change buses, and another one on to Larnaca for the plane. A one-hour 45-minute flight over Rhodes and Symi to Athens to change. Another plane, where I was flying with Yiannis Poseidon who had been in Athens, down to Rhodes, once more waving at Symi as I passed, and a taxi to the hotel before taking the ferry the next day. And that, in a nutshell, was my trip to Cyprus. Here are some more photos.

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This isn’t my usual kind of blog post, but I know that many people will want to know about this. I will be back with my usual blog on Monday.

I’m interrupting my trip to Cyprus with the sad news that Jack, the Alarm cat, died on Thursday night. He was 14 and had long suffered from his bad ears and skin. Despite treatments and care, they got to the stage where they would bleed and there was nothing we could do to stop them. We were unable to have them removed due to his heart condition and, in the end, that wouldn’t have helped him as he had other places around his head that were also bleeding. In the end, we had to take the decision to help him on his way; it was only a question of time and it was clear there was not much of that left. We are very grateful to Symi Animal Welfare, Claudia, Hazel, Suzanne, Philamonos, Steve and, Jenine who all gave advice and help in one way or another, and to Sotiris who, being very experienced in this kind of thing because of his farm, came to see to things professionally. We were both there, and it was very peaceful.

 

Jack will be missed and not just by us. He was a huge character (and a huge cat) and gave many people pleasure and lots of souvenir fur when he cuddled up to them. He’s the only cat I’ve been friends with that had his own fan club and Facebook page. Despite his deafness, he helped take production meetings for ‘The 13^th’ back in 2013, appeared on mugs and T Shirts, attended sing-songs around the piano, parties and other events and, of course, carried out his early morning alarm call duties faithfully. He is now at rest within sight of the house.

Jack, the Alarm Cat
April 11th, 2003 – June 22^nd, 2017

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A quick script

Continuing the story from the Cyprus Film Festival… After the dancing, there came the buffet and a drink, but I had already eaten. I started chatting to a director called Samuel as it looked like we were the only people wearing the official festival badges, the other guests were organisers and interested parties. We, as people with films in the programme, were treated as the guests of honour and introduced to various people. That was all fine and dandy, and come ten o’clock I was thinking that an early night might be a good idea. I had been on the go since about six that morning. And then we were told that we should attend a meeting in ‘Suite 48,’ about the short film part of the festival. Why not? I thought, best to show support and I can keep awake another hour.

I imagined Suite 48 would be a suite of rooms in the university where we were staying and where screenings were happening. It turned out to be a Grill and Bar Lounge down by the seafront a short walk away. I just went with it not knowing what to expect. I ended up at a table with some of the volunteers and organisers and Samuel, the Belgian arthouse director. It turned out that part of the festival was given over to a short script competition and there were the scripts, around six or seven of them. The idea was to film one of them the next day. The idea being to produce and shoot a film in under 48 hours as a workshop. As people chatted, I looked through the scripts briefly. Little did I know…

I am not sure how it happened, and I’ll cut a long story short, but it ended up with Samuel being the director and me the writer of a short film inspired by an idea from one of the scripts. After much discussion, I thought, ‘I’d better write some of this down,’ and so the writer, me apparently, called for a pen and paper. I know; I never have one to hand when I need one. I jotted down some notes based on what the organiser/producer and the director had in mind, went over those ideas, they were then developed further and honed them down until I had several scraps of paper with a rough outline and the main ideas noted. Later, it seemed that we’d reached the end of the discussion and there was nothing more to do except chat and chill. It felt, to me, as if it was about two in the morning by then and I gave my apologies and left, promising to have everything ‘scripted’ by the next day. (It was actually only midnight when I got back to my room.)

Needless to say, the ‘script’ was a piece of paper with some notes on it, set out in a logical order. I’d listened to what Samuel the director wanted, as a good writer should, and then double checked that this is what we wanted and that all ideas had been incorporated or discarded according to the plan. The following day, we met up at the location, a garden centre in Paphos, where some extras had been called in to help out. After some chatting and organising we got to the stage of, ‘So, what are we shooting?’ and all eyes turned to Samuel and I. A further discussion ensued, we saw who we had to work with, gave the cast their characters, and set out an order for scenes. We’d already decided that the dialogue would be improvised; all I had done really was put the ideas into a structured form and made sure that what Samuel ended up filming was what he had seen as his vision for the short.

It was a long day, but an interesting one and good fun. Everyone worked hard and cooperated brilliantly, and we managed to film a decent amount of footage along the lines of the ‘script.’ There were a few unexpected extras moments, such as a member of the public coming up to Nikos (the lead actor serving behind the counter) and asking him where the toilets were; perhaps that will be in the outtakes. The film will be shown on Sunday night at the awards ceremony, I am told, though it itself is not actually up for any awards.

And that was Saturday up until four in the afternoon. Our film, The 13^th, was due to be screened back at the university in the 5pm session and so I was keen to get back, wash and change and prepare myself to be there and answer questions about it afterwards. That’s a story for tomorrow.

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Back to Symi

You may have been following the adventure via Facebook, but if not, I’ll let you know how it all went over the next few days. The important part is that the film, ‘The 13^th’ was shown at the Cyprus International Film Festival and I gave a question and answer session after it. A bit nerve-wracking, but I go through it. Symi got some publicity, and the film is now one of eight up for the Golden Aphrodite award at the awards ceremony next weekend. I also met some very talented people and had a good time, with only a few hours to myself on the Sunday morning to ‘do’ Paphos; well, about one twentieth of it.

Today, I thought I’d just fill you in on the first day, which was a travel day. I stayed at the Savoy Hotel in Rhodes (not as grand as it sounds, basic, but comfortable and, most importantly, cheap) and, after an early breakfast there, took the bus to the airport. I had already checked in for that flight online and only had hand luggage, so that was easy. A quick bus trip across the tarmac to the back row of the plane which I shared with a spare captain and spare hostess. Are they called that still? In-flight customer assistants? Anyway, that was an easy flight up to Athens, waving at Symi as I flew over it. Two hours at Athens to change planes goes by quickly enough, just time for a coffee and a wander around. Then off to Cyprus (waving at Symi again as I flew back over it), again at the back of the plane, but this time with a spare rugby player and a sumo wrestler. At least that’s what it felt like; all very intimate but I was glad of the padding either side of me when we went through some rough turbulence.

I scored a bit of a hit at Larnaca airport. Straight off the plane and to the bus ticket booth, picked up my nine euro ticket to Limassol and stepped straight onto the bus which left five minutes later. Air-conditioning and Wifi, and seat belts, and an hour long journey along the motorway to the next stop. I changed buses at Limassol bus depot (glamorous), and the next one left 15 minutes later. Four euros, no wifi this time but 90 minutes into Paphos. The bus was called the airport shuttle, but we went nowhere near an airport, and I ended up in the center of town at another glam bus depot. There, I changed onto a local bus to get to the harbour from where I could have found yet another bus, or I could have called a taxi. It was only 38 degrees, so I walked the few kilometres along the seafront and to the university I was to stay at.

Arriving there at around 18:30, I was warmly greeted by the festival staff and organiser,  given a badge (that read ‘Director’) and invited to the poolside party and Cypriot dancing that was due to start in 30 minutes. I explained that I ought to de-sweat and get dry first, so went to my room for a shower and change. I also slipped out to get something to eat. There was a buffet provided at this event but it wasn’t going to be ready until a few hours down the line and I’d not eaten since Rhodes. Actually, there was something on the plane, and I am still not sure what it was; a few pieces of pasta that someone had thrown some dubious sauce at. There was a selection of restaurants nearby, but an Irish Pub did baked potatoes. I know, but the staff were fun and friendly, and the meal was cheap.

I’ll leave that there for now as we are only at 19.30 on day one and this day wasn’t going to end until after midnight, so I’ll save the rest of it for tomorrow.

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