Wanting to write in other languages than my own

[Mailliw87]

Hey.

I've got this Idea where I want the short movie to be in Italian, but I'm swedish myself. And I plan to direct this movie myself and send the script in to various movie companies.

Also, Another Idea for this script is to mix languages...Italian, Polish, Bulgarian. There's a specific reason behind that, but I'd rather not say yet.

My question is: Is it weird wanting to do a movie in italian in sweden, I mean, is this something swedish movie companies are looking for, or is it trivial? The script takes place in italy, though the location isn't that important, I want it to look like it's in italy and I kinda doubt Stockholm will pass as Italy or maybe it will?

/William

p.s. I don't think this movie will be produced but I thought I'd ask anyway.

 

[Randall_Oelerich]

My intuition is that it could be hard finding a movie production company to hire you as director, unless you plan on paying them to produce your short script. If they are going to do your script, and hire or use you as director, that is asking a great deal of them already. To expect them to produce a film not in their native language seems a bit excessive. Unless there is an extremely valid reason.

 

[Mailliw87]

I only have one company in mind, actually it's not a company, It's the state Stockholm, they got something called Film Stockholm where you can send in a script with the name of the director and apply for financial support about 20000 kronor which is not excactly a large sum of money but it's enough for renting equipment I think.

I do understand what you mean though. I guess I'll write it and shelve it, doesn't hurt sending them the script though.

/William

 

[Randall_Oelerich]

I saw the film "My Life as a Dog" years ago, a Swedish film, spoken in swedish with english subtitles; an incredible film. Then I saw it recently but it was dubbed in english, no subtitles. I have to say I really did not like the dubbed english version at ALL. It lost much of its charm from the original version spoken in swedish. So sometimes I would say the language of a film can have a huge impact.

Then there are movies like Pan's Labyrinth, in spanish, english subtitle-- i would have preferred to listen to the movie (dubbed) in english here in the USA so i could have paid more attention to the great visuals instead of always reading the bottom of the screen.

 

[clang]

'Science of Sleep' was in three languages and used that as an essential part of the plot, and it was great. But generally such multi-language stuff is difficult, both for production and for audiences

 

[djinjis]

EXT.

I saw recently “Cross of Iron”... oh, those German soldiers with their impeccable British accent... I think a lot of directors have shared tears during times about not being able to have German soldiers speaking German. The need for profit obliges to compromises.

Here are your choices:

1. If you want to make money, if you want a lot of people to come to see your movie, it is better to use one language. There are not many Sweden who understand Italian and vice versa (nice language combination though, ha ha)

2. If this is gonna be an “art movie” I’d go definitely for a bilingual version.

So, here is my advice: write the screenplay in Sweden, to get the money. You even can trow in some Italian expressions like “mascalzone” or "Vaffanculo". This will sound familiar in the board’s ears, so they will feel good, being under the impression they can understand foreign languages. Then, when you shoot the movie, do it bilingual. You can explain later you changed your mind because you had a dream with a white horse, it will make perfect sense to them. Then, you’ll be some kind of movie Snow White with your seven Sweden viewers who understand Italian and live happily ever after.