Prints

I love fine art but have always considered it a museum item or a lavish luxury for billionaire collectors. So, I never thought I could find myself considering buying some. Until Sunday, when I visited the London Original Print Fair, where one of my friend was exhibiting. There, walking at awe throughout the smart prints, I realized that there was something in-between the home-printed pics in RIBBA frame and the stern minimalistic look of collector blogs.

Smart, exciting, sometimes old sometimes new, meaningful or pointless fun, it finally made me understand how buying art, selecting something that resembles us or that we want to say, can make us feel more accomplished. A new road to happiness. (Also, not as expensive as expected: though some skyrocketed up to £50,000, you could find cool stuff around £300 – an okay investment for something that will brighten up your days for the rest of your life)

Some galleries excited me more than others, and I’ll make sure I pay regular visits in the future. Here they are:

Rebecca Hossack: http://www.r-h-g.co.uk/

RA Editions: http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/raeditions/

Frederick Mulder: http://www.frederickmulder.com/

Space invaders...

Not long ago, I attended a choreography workshop with Suzanne Thomas, who made us work on the performance's space.

She stressed how movie clips and TV have shaped our view of dancing: the importance of staying on the camera's viewpoint and of not disturbing the audience's attention from the singer have led to more static and uniformed performances.

She wanted us to use the whole space, and see how placing dancers in different locations, facing different directions could make us tell different, textured stories. It was amazing how the same moves could have different meanings.

For example, just placing two dancers next to each other, and one a bit further apart makes you wonder about their relationships. Are the first two in love? Will the third one join in or not? Or having all dancers face the wall, back to the audience, then make one of them turn, can create a kind of surrealistic experience.

Definitely worth taking into account, next time I have a play or dancers to direct...

20 pounds

The brief was: a journey; Who, exactly got inspired by a journey around pubs? I am not sure, but it is a deeper story than what you could think... I was co-writer and editor on this one...

The story: A couple finds a 20 pounds note, and tries to find the right place to spend it... here it is

HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU - the Musical

Last week was the busiest and most emotional week of the year. With two performances of my musical, I was running everywhere, working with my tema Amy, Delia, Veneta, Marco and Nikolai on the latest changes. 

I was the writer, director, co-producer, and I was also a dancer - so quite stressful!

The show went so well. And the venue was full full full.

And the actors asked to be on my nest show, which is all that matters to me, really. 

Pictures and video soon - editing now - but in the meantime, here is a quick "documentary" we made about the show - click on this link

Dancing in the streets of Buenos Aires

Chance encounter in the streets of Buenos Aires last spring. We danced in the street of La Boca. Click here to see the video

5-minutes videos - a focus on storytelling

Last week, I attended the ideastap event about creating 5-minutes videos. Many thanks to Paul Mason for his time and precious avice!

He's a reporter, so, as a playwright and director I wasn't sure I would gain much, but I did! 

What I loved about the session what how Paul made it very simple and "organised" to create a 5 minutes video. He started by emphasizing the idea of structure, explaining that any video needs a set-up, development and crisis resolution. Then he divided plain paper into 10 rows.... one for every 30 seconds of video. In each one, we worked out what we'd show every 30 seconds, and what type of footage we'd use. The idea: tell a story, and keep the viewer entertained with different type of footage. 

Definitely handy for my last documentary project. Thanks Paul!

François Truffaut on directing

I was going through the "The Four hundred blows*"'s DVD yesterday, when I came upon an interview with François Truffaut himself, and here he explains what he thinks is the way to become a director.

"Do not become an assistant directors - assistants are being sent shopping when something interesting is happening on the set. Instead, watch movies. There are movies I must have seen more than 16 times. Once you know a movie by heart, then you can start understanding how it was created. I consider Renoir a master, and I always relate to him when I am stuck about how to direct a scene".

There. On the other end, Danny Boyle suggests to get a job in the maimstream. I guess there's no one way.

*It is a literal translation of "Faire les 400 coups" which in French means being naughty and free and wild when you're a teenager. So pretty much spot on. 

Writing plays - What I learnt from my last one and why moodboards are key

With my latest play - How much I love you - out in 2 weeks, now is the time to take a step back about what I learnt during the process of writing and directing it: 

-There's no such thing as seeing it performed. Spending time with actors, hearing them say your words out loud, answering to their questions, definitely makes you spot how your writing can be improved. So, readings are extremely important. But mainly, it is about taking what you wrote out - even if it's not as perfect as you would like it to be - and letting other people bring it to life. 

-As filmaker AnneMarie jacir puts it: rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. I have 6 versions of this play on my computer, and kept editing it while working with actors

-moodboards: something that is extremely important. Even though we work with words, I find working with moodboards infinitely valuable. Moodboarding each characters for example helps define their personality: how would they dress for a walk in the park? which Hollywood actor would best fit the role? What does their office look like? Empty and clean, or with expensive art on the walls? It also helps so much when it comes to speaking with actors