Not Enough Time

Just thought I'd give an update on how my latest show was received at the Fantadia Festival 2011.

Not Enough Time (Non abbastanza tempo) 6 minutes, HD (1920x1080)

I was honored that it was selected to close the festival on Sunday evening.
It was felt that it epitomized what the festival was about in content, emotion and execution.
The Duse Theatre was almost at full capacity.

Inspired by a poem, of the same title, a collection of words by Daniel Rowbotham following the loss of his daughter in 2008. When asked about the apparent hidden meanings, he replied:

"I had been guided to write everything down, as my head was in a mess. It was the time when Beren was in the chapel of rest around the corner at the undertakers. I woke with a start, sat up scribbled, crashed back into deep sleep. This happened again not long after, the result is the words printed on the sheet unaltered, unedited. It is remarkable that you have found such fantastic meanings in them."

It was an emotional struggle for me to complete the show on time and was only possible to due the dedication and hard work from those who helped me get there. Especially from Sandro Di Stefano (Rome) who composed the music and created the finished soundtrack. He understood the subject and my initial concept so well that we were able to work from a distance, he propped me up. The voice of my brother Dan was recorded from an even further distance over the telephone, this was meant to be a guide for a voice-over artist to recreate in English as well as Italian. In the end it features in the soundtrack, it lends so much of the power behind the emotion and message that I could not leave it out. The poem was kindly interpreted from English to Italian by Silvia Tiso and with the help from Marcello Mazzilli and expertise of Federico Pelle we were able to record the great voice of Maurizio Busato for the Italian, this was recorded at The Basement in Vicenza. All of these people donated their time and energy for free, without much notice and with a tight schedule. I shall remain eternally grateful to them. Additional thanks also to my wife Sabrina for organising me and the donations in Asolo, to Hans Ruedisueli who helped me through some technical issues and for his moral support, and of course to all the Fantadia staff and crew.

The original visual material used in the show came primarily from online image stock sites, paid for through royalty-free use or from free image sites. Also many images came from the Menigitis Research Foundation website www.menigitis.org (Book of Remembrance). A small selection came from various family members or were created by me.

It is dedicated to my niece, Beren Rowbotham ,who at the age of ten lost her fight against meningitis (meningococcal septicaemia). The opening title was written by her older sister Cendl.

Even though the audience had bought tickets for the whole evening of shows, a donation box outside the theatre collected 230 Euro. This will be put towards the sponsorship of the 1000 mile tandem bike ride by Dan and Jen, from Hereford (UK) to Vierzon (France) which starts this weekend (18th June), to help raise awareness and funds for further research.

For more information about this visit: http://1000milesforberen.com/

If you weren't in Asolo to see it's first screening, then you can watch it here online. Eventually it will be available to download in higher resolution for use at other fund raising/ awareness events and distribution.



"...please send this tear-stained thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone that has helped you make such a wonderful work of art from the few words that I gave you. A great tribute to Beren." Dan Rowbotham

Comments

  1. Truly beautiful Alex. Visuals are glorious, music is superb. Really superb! and totally moving.

    Well done and much love to you and all your family. God bless. x

    ReplyDelete
  2. pure heart in image and sound and presentation.
    congratulations, Alex !
    K Vandekerkhove

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts