Small updates

A short post, just to update everyone on what I'm doing.

Writing has begun. I have written "FADE IN:" at the top, and it can't be unwritten. But I have words on the page: about 6 pages, with some 354 left to go, if this turns out to be as large a project as I think it will. I'm still buried in Norse Eddic poems, making my way through the older literature as I've now read a few translations and adaptations. My current reading is the Poetic, or Elder Edda, which is a collection of poems from different anonymous authors that chronicle that history of the Norse gods and provide wisdom for everyday living; how one should treat friends, how one should act as a guest, advice for becoming wise, etc. There are some good gems in there. A few, on friendship and wisdom, from Havamal.

"It's a great detour to a bad friend's house,

even though he lives on the route;

but to a good friend's the ways lie straight,

even though he lives far off."

And:

"You know, if you've a friend, one whom you trust,

go see him often;

for brushwood grows, and tall grass,

on the road which no man treads."

And:

"The foolish man in company

does best if he stays silent;

no one will know that he knows nothing,

unless he talks too much;

but the man who knows nothing does not know

when he is talking too much."

They prize moderation much more than film adaptations might have you believe. Mostly recently, the History channel has been running a series called "Vikings" that I need to catch up on. Thus far I've detected some inaccuracies with it, but it seems a better presentation than most.

I'm writing what I call an exploratory draft. While I have an outline for the entire project, it's never enough. Unexpected problems always crop up, and screenplays tend to slide away from your intentions in the middle somewhere, not wanting to quite connect with the end. I prefer to just try to write it and solve the problems as I come to them rather than trying to anticipate everything ahead of time. So far so good.

I have taken a few other steps to help research along. I have contacted Hrafn Gunnlaugsson, an Icelandic filmmaker, writer and director of a trilogy of films reported to be among the most authentic-looking Viking films anyone has ever made. I'm also reaching out to the Icelandic Film Centre to ask about script development grants. So we'll see how that goes, on both counts, I'm not yet sure whether anything will come of it.

Before too long we'll have new artists arriving, a woman from Japan and a man from Switzerland. We're still waiting on the snow to melt some (and will be waiting longer after snowfall today) to do some further traveling.

As this post has been light on pictures, I'll include a couple here just taken outside the house.

Taken around midnight, thirty second exposure.

Also taken at night, longer exposure. I think this was a quiet aurora, far off.