ShortEnd Magazine

 

 

Thoughts on Independent Film

 

 

Inside One Day in the Life of Two Castaways

 

 

 

Written by Noralil Ryan Fores   

Monday, 21 May 2007

 

 

Filmmaker Nikos Kourouklis sends a message in his native language, the only word of which we can understand is "MySpace." To fit a cliche into a literal mold, it's Greek to us, but MySpace--that we know. The mainstream networking format has allowed for unexpected connections on the global level, a boon for artists in every medium.

Fortunately it was through MySpace that Kourouklis first contacted SM about his short film One Day in the Life of Two Castaways, a black and white philosophical journey highly influenced by the likes of Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini among others. While working on a new short My Doll, Kourouklis graciously set aside time to speak about escapism, MAD magazine and optimism.

 

SM: Within the fabric of One Day in the Life of Two Castaways there's an implication that an intense state of capitalism creates an environment of isolation. In crafting the short, was this your directorial intention, or were you trying to impart other messages to the audience?

 

NK: I wouldn’t say that isolation is a result of capitalism exclusively. I believe that the world we live in now (and I’m afraid things are getting worse), makes people not feel good with themselves. There is a very intense need to escape. This is a result of many parameters.  So, that was my intention, I didn’t want to declare the causes but the feeling.  

 

SM: How did the idea for the short come about?

 

NK: There is a poem by a Greek poet, Titos Patrikios, and I think this is the answer to that question:

From my stance on life come my poems.

When my poems exist, they give me a new stance on life.

Back then, I’d spend a long time on the toilet; my best ideas came to me on the toilet! On such a joyous occasion, reading MAD magazine, which used to feature a comic strip about two castaways on a desert island, I got the idea for the film.

 

SM: In terms of cinematography, what influences were you working with, and what approach did you take in composition and lighting?

 

NK: I guess that the presence of Ingmar Bergman is very strong in my film. As far as the music is concerned, the old rock that I’d listen to in my youth played a role. Besides, this film is dedicated to my youth and my friends from back then. For the lighting, I can’t say much, the whole thing wasn’t absolutely conscious; we didn’t know much about photography then! The only conscious thing was the use of black and white film because we believed that this was the best to give the feeling we wanted.

 

SM: The sound design, and particularly the use of wind sounds, for the short plays a huge factor in creating the deceptive atmosphere of isolation. How much effort went into working with the sound on the piece?

 

NK: All the sounds in the film were added after the shooting in a sound recording studio. We created the dialogue, the footsteps on the sand, the running... The sea and the wind came from a CD.  Indeed, the use of wind sounds contributed to the creation of the required atmosphere. We were lucky to get the support of great professionals, who helped us a lot in our first steps with this film. The sound designer was one of them.

 

SM: In the time that you shot the short, what is your favorite set story?

 

NK: The whole process is a favorite story. We were just a bunch of young people, friends with each other, and with a mutual bond, our love for cinema. We went to that beach to play with our favorite toy: a movie camera. And we had a lot of fun!

By the way, the camera we used was the very same camera that was used for that historic 1973 image--the tank crashing the gate of the Polytechnic building in Athens, where students had barricaded themselves for days in protest against the dictatorship. The man who secretly shot this scene gave me this historic camera for my film.

 

SM: On more personal notes, how did you get into directing film, and what influences do you note in your work?

 

NK: I’ve always loved (still do) music and cinema. I was a bass guitar player in several groups during my youth and also dreaming about getting into filmmaking. When I had to make a life choice between these two, it was movies. My influences I guess are the Greek movies of the 80s and my favorite directors: Ingmar Bergman, Luis Bunuel, Federico Fellini, Wim Wenders, Peter Greenaway, Andrei Tarkovsky, Sergei Parajanov and movies like Coppola’s Rumble Fish and Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange.

 

SM: Where ideally would you like to see yourself as a filmmaker down the line?

 

NK: As a director who creates one or two films a year, and makes a living from it.

 

SM:What is one question about your filmmaking that you've never been asked but always wanted to be?

 

NK: Are you optimist or pessimist? And the answer would be, an optimist.

 

 

Noralil Ryan Fores

 

About the author:

A perpetual wanderer both literally and metaphorically, SM Editor Noralil Ryan Fores grew up in a theater with an acting teacher for a mother and a professional videographer for a father. Right in line with her upbringing, she went on to study in the film program at Florida State University then jumped ship to grab a graduate degree in Magazine, Newspaper and Online Journalism from Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. She has interned for South Florida's City Link Magazine and served as an editorial assistant for MovieMaker Magazine. Currently, she lives and writes from Atlanta.