Sunday, August 24, 2008

5 Ways to Leave Your Lover By: Lukas Huffman



Five Ways to Leave Your Lover / Romania; A Sneak Peak
In June 2008, I flew to Bucharest to shoot the Romanian script. I rented an apartment and things weregoing swimmingly until I split my chin open and shattered some teeth.

But, lets start at the beginning.

My production plan; the structure and dramatic ideas of the Romanian script were finished (this scriptis about a couple in their young 20s), but I would work with young Romanians to create authentic charactersand dialog. Once the script was finalized we would cast, rehearse and shoot. Real simple. When I arrived in Bucharest I was introduced to two students from the National University of Film and Drama. (www.unatc.ro)I lucked out, as they are some of the sharpest film students in Bucharest. A crucial element of the Five Waysproject is that each script utilizes cultural nuances to drive the story. My crew understood what I was trying to do, so we started brainstorming about how to make the script “Romanian.”

The script I brought to Romania was set at a swimming pool (ideally a visually stunning, medieval pool)and was about discovering sexuality. I was quickly informed that A. kids in Bucharest don’t swim that often, nor does anybody have a private medieval swimming pool we could film at. And, B. Romanian’s in their early 20’s are way beyond discovering their sexuality.

(No swimming pool, bathing suits, or sexy drama photos here.)

So, I had to scrap the swimming pool and all the ideas that go along with it. After lots of thinking andhead sweating, Adi, Anna and I came up with new ideas and environments. The new script is based on what is really happening in the lives of young Romanians. It is about a secret romantic rendezvous in the park. The boy struggles to create an emotional connection, yet the girl only wants a physical connection. Their divergent desires explode in the shadows! Already, the script was starting to take a more “Romanian” shape.

Once the guy meets up with his girl, they walk into the famous Cismigiu Garden (http://www.ici.ro/ romania/en/bucuresti/bu_cismigiu.html) located in downtown Bucharest. This is where their emotions become intense and the drama goes down. Cismigiu is one of the oldest gardens in Romania and holds a mythical placein Romanian literature. Lots of couples make out there non-stop, so the script continues to build authenticity.

The point is; the garden is really beautiful and mysterious by night, and we are excited to shoot there.

Once the new script had been sketched out, we held an open casting at the University of Film andDrama. I was not looking for actors to just read a script, but actors who seemed smart and energetic enough to help me further shape the script. I needed actors who would contribute their ideas in order to create interesting Romanian characters and juicy Romanian dialog.

I was lucky enough to find two inspiring collaborators; Alex Calin and Jolanda Covaci. The actors and I sat down with a rough draft of the script and our locations in mind. They suggested we infuse the script with some of the visuals and sensitivities of Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu (http://www.mihaieminescu. ro/en/ english.htm). It turns out that his poetry contains a similar romantic urgency as the script. After more research we loosely based our characters relationship on the relationship between hopelessly romantic Eminescu and his practical muse Veronica. This is the conflict between passionate ideals and reality. Now, the script started taking on a dark and heartbreaking sincerity.

For the next week, the actors and I would sit in the shade of a tree by my house and think about thecharacters. However, the heat (I mean 100+ degrees) was making it difficult to think, and the sessions would get called short as our synapses began to melt down. This is when things start going south.

Regardless, a crew had begun to assemble, we set shooting dates set for late July, permits were pried from state officials, and we started to prep for the shoot.

Then, one night when I was out and about, my visional tunneled and I fainted standing up. I landed chin first on the sidewalk. When I came-to, I had broken teeth in my mouth, a girl was sitting next to me screaming, “I thought you died!” and blood was dripping from my chin. I was rushed to the Bucharest ER and got somestitches. It turned out that three of my teeth were shattered to the roots and getting infected, so a few days later Ihad two of them extracted. And, all the filmmaking brain push-ups came to a sudden halt.


Six stitches and three shattered teeth later.

I shattered three of my side teeth and did not look so bad, but I had a funny lisp and felt fucked up. Itried giving the movie making a go after this, but didn’t have the energy. After some deliberation I decided to post-pone the shoot one week, so I could go back home to Vermont for some healing. In Vermont things did not heal up as fast as I had hoped. My energy was zapped and I was still feeling lightheaded.

It turned out that the third tooth had become infect, so I had it removed and finally started to getmy spirits back. But, two weeks had passed, which cramped our already tight filming schedule. After more deliberation and encouragement from the cast and crew, I finally decided to post-pone shooting the script until early summer of 2009. Yikes.

So, the Garden, the romance, the young couple, and all the drama have to wait.

The cast and crew have already put in a lot of hard work, and we are excited to sink what is left ofour teeth into the project next year. This summer we will be translating the script in to Romanian, whichshould create some interesting language compositions.

I cannot give enough thanks to my Romanian friends who drove me to the hospital and took care of mybusted ass face while I was laid up. Your efforts mean a lot to me.

Moral of the story: Watch out Romania, the Five Ways to Leave Your Lover crew will be back!


…. da.

-Five Ways to Leave Your Lover director, Lukas Huffman

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