"WHY?"

"WHY?"

Why "WHY?"

Well, obviously because "WHY?" is the theme of the week March 19th to 25th of 2012), according to my Raresh... You don't want to know all the details ... so let's move on. 

Actually, that's a good one, my dear Ra.Challenge me into the depths of "WHY?", when I only asked you for a song ... and a very commercial one too. Yeah, yeah, yeah ...  I know you don't like it so that's "WHY?" you're getting back at me, huh?! 

PARENTHESIS: For all those interested in TRIVIA - the aforementioned song is .... drum roll ....

Grenade - Bruno Mars . I know, I know! It's commercial! Can't a girl have a little fun on a Monday?!

Back to the serious question - "WHY?". Well, let's see ...

"WHY?" To start with the beginning:

why

adverb /(h)wī/ 

For what reason or purpose
• - why did he do it?
Used to make or agree to a suggestion
• - why don't I give you a lift?

adverb (relative) /(h)wī/ 

(with reference to a reason) On account of which; for which
• - the reason why flu shots need repeating every year is that the virus changes
The reason for which
• - each has faced similar hardships, and perhaps that is why they are friends

exclamation /(h)wī/ 

Expressing surprise or indignation
• - Why, that's absurd!
Used to add emphasis to a response
• - “You think so?” “Why, yes.”

noun /(h)wī/ 

A reason or explanation

• - the whys and wherefores of these procedures need to be explained to students

Now, enough for today. I will let this sink in and be back tomorrow with some actual thoughts...

tah tah!

" k L u D "

“k L u D”
  it's possible with your contribution
contribute here

“k L u D” is a Nadia & Raresh Dimofte short film. It is an international project initiated in Vancouver, Canada, shot on location in Cluj-Napoca, Romania (in the heart of Transylvania), reuniting talented and creative professionals form 4 countries (so far) Canada, Romania, Czech Republic and Hungary and, with your help, attracting support from all over the world. 

“k L u D” combines two cinematographic styles: European soul wrapped in North American flesh and blood. It uses the better of the 2 worlds: metaphorical depth and acting craft mixed with vision and technology. “k L u D” will be shot in RED.

1.     Story

“k L u D” is written by Raresh Dimofte, professional actor and writer educated in Cluj-Napoca (Romania) who is now living in Vancouver. Here is the essence of the story.

Klud is just a regular person with a regular life starting a new day with a not so regular problem. He has to face The Great Commission about his duality: civilized man versus the animal within. The winner takes all and that’s how Klud meets the Extraordinary. 

2.    Director

The only option as far as the right Director for „k L u D” was Radu Teampău, Raresh’s professor and mentor, and he honored us by accepting to be part of our project. He is an accomplished theatre and film director, published writer and Assistant Professor at the Film and Television Faculty of Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

3.    Cast

Another crucial part of every project is the CAST. It has been a long search and we have finally arrived. We are grateful to all the actors who have accepted to be part of our team: Raresh Dimofte, Ivo Novák, Claudia Vašeková to name just a few.

Raresh Dimofte http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2286983/ created “k L u D”. Raresh Dimofte is Klud. And he will breathe life into a character tormented by duality. Ivo Novák (Hanibal Rising, The Illusionist, Dune) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1066166/ and Claudia Vašeková (Paradise Found) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1015795/ - are 2 amazing actors from the Czech Republic who have immediately said Yes to our invitation to be part of our production.  

4.    Director of Photography

Zsolt Magyari http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3044540/, a young talented and innovative (3D shooting) Director of Photography from Budapest, Hungary has accepted since 2009 to be part of our project. He’s most recent project is The Door – with Helen Mirren, as a Camera Trainee. 

5.    Art Director

We are proud to be able to say that Vladimir Molico – Group Creative Director Saatchi & Saatchi Romania has accepted to be in charge of the ART department for our project. 

6.    Crew

Mostly Romanian film/theatre industry professionals – creative and passionate freelancers with extensive experience in their specific fields (camera, lights, sound, make-up, hair, costumes, etc) as well as Acting/Directing student volunteers.

7.    Location 

The chosen location for this project is the city of Cluj-Napoca, North-Western Romania –in the heart of Transylvania; where we have found the perfect locations (one of them being Pšdurea Baciu – aka the Romanian Bermuda Triangle).

8.    Timeline

Fundraising                          March - December 2011 – Internationally       

Pre - production                 January 2012 – Cluj-Napoca, Romania           
Production                           February 2012 – Cluj-Napoca, Romania        
Post Production                 February - March 2012 – Bucharest

Festival submitting            Starts March 2012 with Cannes Films Festival. 

9.    Budget

An independent short film with an international production shot on location is slightly more expensive. Nevertheless, due to great dedication and interest from all the people involved in it we succeeded in keeping a decent film budget of $33,000(~24,000€) out of which we still need $23,000 (~16,500€). 

10.    Producer

Nadia Dimofte – being a creative, insightful marketing professional with expertise in all aspects of successful project/events planning, budgeting, development, management and evaluation, I strongly believe that everything I have learned and achieved in my 15+ years of career was only to prepare me for this; all my work experience and abilities: extensive marketing knowledge and practice, fund-raising and entertainment administration, detail oriented, demonstrated ability to recruit, built and motivate successful project teams everything built me up into the Producer I am. 

WHAT IS “k L u D”          

“k L u D” is an universal story about finding one’s true nature and about BELIEVING; a short film about the human condition of the INDIVIDUAL that meets with the EXTRAORDINARY.  

WHAT “k L u D” IS NOT  

“k L u D” is not a story for a particular person in a particular situation; it does not limit the creative act to stereotypes and it does not judge. 

Hopefully, “k L u D” will mean to whoever is watching it that the amazing and inspiring OCCUPY MOVEMENT starts with OCCUPY-ing YOURSELF. 

You Get:

1. First of all you get to be the contributing factor to the birth of an amazing project - “k L u D”, in which the short film is only the beginning. We want to leave something meaningful behind and we won’t give up easily (in translation we will do this movie no matter what, so your support and money will be used for its original purpose).

2. You also invest in the imagination and talent of an amazing team that has projects lined up for the next 10 years. So you, as the CONTRIBUTOR for “k L u D” the short film will be forever known as the ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTOR and will get mentioned in all our future projects financed through IndieGoGo on promotional materials (TBA on each project separately).

3. You can become an active part in any of our projects – now or later on.

4. Let’s start with “k L u D”.  You CAN help BY CONTRIBUTING NOW, so please browse through our 12 amazing PERKS, choose your favorite PERK and experience “k L u D” with us THE WAY YOU LIKE IT. Are you up for this journey?!  

We Need:

$23,000 in cash to cover equipment and van rental, transport to/from location, project insurance as well as travel and accommodation for international cast and crew. 

Other Ways You Can Help

Money isn’t everything! It is a big and important part but we value you no matter how you choose to support us.

You could help us by spreading the word and making some noise. Please do so by promoting “k L u D” on IndieGoGo to all your family, friends and foes (at least they will have less money after supporting us ;-)) through all social media platforms you dwell on.

spread the word 

Or maybe you have a better idea on how you could help us; we would love to hear from you so please let us know at klud.film@gmail.com 

Looking forward to hearing from all of you,

Nadia Dimofte

“k L u D” Producer

For all those meeting with my blog for the first time....

... and know zip about me .... listen to the linked song ...

I am a woman with a lot of attitude and so little patience. I am stubborn and tend to think that I am always right, which is annoying for everybody since I almost always am. I am painfully aware of my strengths and weaknesses, but grew tired of using or hiding them, so I've started to mix match them in a colorful and tasteful abilities ratatouille. There is a recipe for disaster.... so what now?!

Now what?!

Now I am looking for a job in Greater Vancouver area. It is tough. It is especially tough when you try to make a career change and you want to make it in the most challenging and most desired industry in the whole world .... THE MOVIE INDUSTRY.

Oh, yes! I am trying to become a producer. A movie producer. Is it hard?! Producing is not hard. It is beautiful as is challenging, it is demanding as is fulfilling. Getting to do it is tough. But I want to do it and I will do it.

Changing careers... what am I thinking?! I am a "landed immigrant" in a new system of a far away country. I am 10.000 miles away from everything ... I am in Vancouver, on the West Coast. I have always been a West side gal and keep on being that. It's somehow easier for me. I guess it's in the blood. But still, I am in Vancouver, in Canada. I have been here for 4 months. I've met a few people, I've made some friends, ignored some individuals, annoyed some insecure men, gained some enemies .... my usual stuff. Covered the basics too: renting an apartment, looking for a job, getting a job and then, for the first time in my life, getting fired from a job.... well, laid off... or fired .... it's the same shit to me.

The system is new, is different. Different in everything - not in a bad way! - but still takes time to adjust to. Different life style, different society, different mentalities, different approach, different work environment and especially different LAW environment. Everybody here is fully aware and scared of the law. Because the law is used. and enforced. and I don't mean the authorities. here everybody is scare of everybody ... that they might sue you.

And money. Oh, money. You have to pay for everything and everything is so expensive. And there are a lot of things that are mandatory and expensive, so you've got to pay them, like rent, utilities, mobile phone, internet and medical insurance, transportation and food. Those are the basics and you need to have them but they cost a fortune. Services - untouchable. Of course there is the LUCK component as well. Your luck sticks with you like your shadow. And with my luck no wonder I got to France when the recession started, and when I got to Canada they introduced the HST - Harmonized Sales Tax. lol.

That is my luck.

And what do I do when I get here ... I panic first and then I try and change my career. The rationale behind this is if I have changed everything what's one more thing to change?!? Well, it's a lot! I knew it and now I feel it. And in my perverted way I like it.

I don't have patience by definition and now my patience is heavily tested once more. Change takes time and for the past couple of years all I did was try my patience....

Now I need to start and succeed .... and fast. And I'm planning to. So I will be busy for a while, but I will try and keep my blog updated. If for nothing else, for future references....for my Mémoirs.

à la prochaine,

Nadia

PS: I am working on my first book. It's fun and thrilling and it will make a great movie too. Need to get Daniel Craig to play the leading role and I'm still scouting for the girl. I am thinking Meryl Streep meets Annette Bening in her late 20s. any ideas?

the Nth time around - about men's paradise...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

"Mai bine de atat nu se poate?!" meaning "it can't get any better"... well, dear, IT CAN!
Men's Paradise is a spoof of Heineken's commercial "Walk in Fridge" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIutgtzwhAc.

Raresh made it in February, 2010, when Bucharest was fucking freezing burried under tones of snow. He worked for 16 hours in the freezing air from the storage space. I remember talking to him on the phone around 2 am and they weren't finished and outside were -20° C. That morning me and Ana took the train to Bucharest too. Ana was leaving for France.

RAresh was asleep when we drove to the airport and coming down with a cold. HE was absolutely impossible to talk to after such a night on the set.
Ana and I were floating on rivers from the melting snow and slalomed through the mountains of snow still frozen on the sidewalk.

It was unbelievable. And back then we were all praying to get out of Romania asap.

Ana was the first to leave, we followed on April 24.

Men's Paradise.... I think in Romania it is indeed a storage space with all the props from the commercial and the ugly hooker on top.

I think the commercial is as much fun as it is tragic through it's sense of reality depicting work of art.

Men's Paradise .... said but true. That is how Romanian couples live ... from guys traveling to Chisinau for a night of "freedom" expressed in thrashing apart all the cheap brothels there having something to talk about for the next month. In the mean time, the wives clean, cook and take care of the children after working all day and taking care of business while looking at the phone, waiting for their "better halves" to call.

It is a Men's Paradise.... it truly is. That is why so many people leave the country. Because they cannot take so much happiness anymore.

They turn towards more unhappy countries from the West Coast of Europe or North America. It is frightening how fast people run from Paradise....

It is almost boring to talk about it.

I guess you can feel that but I just need to throw out words .... to use them so I free space in my head for new words. I need to refresh my mind. Maybe a reset wouldn't hurt either. But how can I do that.

I have started fresh, moved to a different country, on a different continent, with different standards and multicultural communities. Everything is new and seems to work better than back in Romania. But how do I reset my brain?!

I need a reset button. Or at least a disk cleanup. But No Can Do is all I get.
Why can't we empty our brains recycling bin? Select delete forever and move on. I am sure our brains will be able to work faster and easier.

Or a system upgrade?!

Anyone has a suggestion on this matter please feel free to drop a line. In the meantime I will laugh at "Men's Paradise" commercial....

à la prochaine...

Hi! I'm back! 3rd time in the same day....

Yeah! I have to see for how long. I am lazy indeed when it comes to writing my deepest thoughts up on the internet... It kind of blows privacy and resembles exhibitionism.
But I think the new developments in my life call for it.

So, as I've stated previously I am a legal immigrant to Canada. I am in Vancouver starting Saturday, April 24th 2010, 6.30 pm.

Oh boy! Getting here was the hardest thing I have done in my entire life. And now, that I have been here for weeks and 1 day... I am still waking up in the morning and wondering where am I and what I'm doing here!

It takes time............

Adjusting to the time change .... took us over 2 weeks. We have slept ourselves out until we managed to go to bed at 12pm and wake up around 9 am. Well, at least some of us :-). We've just adjusted to that but realized that during this process we've won 5-7 lb each (me and raresh) which is bad enough.

As any beginning, things are a bit slow although we were extremely lucky since we are staying at Ciprian's house (Raresh's friend from childhood). He and his wife greeted us at the YVR - Vancouver International Airport altogether with Gabi and Corina, who are friends of theirs and some far relatives of Raresh.

We have got our SIN's and we applied for the PRC and the MSP for which we are still waiting. The last two weeks we were attending the Job Search Evolutions! course with S.U.C.C.E.S.S - an NGO that helps new immigrants to get acquainted to the Canadian labour market and general working environment.

Very helpful program and very world racking ..... so, yeah, it turned us upside down. Everything we thought we knew about Canada was either completely or partially WRONG!

Good news though... we have learned the truth. :-) Not an easy thing to accept.

But we like Rene, the trainer. Cynically upfront and aggressively sincere. Nice guy.

On the home front... small battles going nowhere. Who wins when your opponent is a completely different category and there are no knock-outs?! If you ask me... it's the one that learns the lesson. That would be us... Nu, pisu?!

Soon we will move to our house and everything will be alright.

I miss Ana even if I talk to her almost every other day.
I miss Tita. I miss my grandmother.
I miss Toni and Papa. I miss my father.
I miss Lorena with her Zmeu and my aunt and uncle.

Yeah, I miss Catalin too. And Andreas a bit but not too much since he used to teese me by calling me "Tovarasa".

I also miss Morar, but I've got used to missing him and we do chat from time to time on messenger. ;-)

The interesting thing is that I kind of miss the fact that I did not have time to know Corina at all before we left... We have an online relationship that feels promising.

So the emotional part is kind of covered.

I need to get a job. That is the practical part. That should be easy enough ... we'll see next week.

What I do miss for real and for a very long time is ..... privacy.

I'm giving it 2-3 weeks and then I will harm somebody if I don't get an apartment.

Till then... the real thing is in the "MOSTLY URBAN PHANTASIES". Keep tuned and looking for your feed back.

Time to make love.

immigrant to Canada

Well... believe it or not we (my and my better half - Raresh) are now in Canada as legal immigrants.

I have started this blog over 2 years ago after moving to France. But I was not interested enough to keep it going. Then, I have tried to start over when back in Romania while waiting for the VISA. That didn't work also.

Third time is told to be a charm. We will see!

I do intent to keep a diary of our immigrant's experiences and life in general, but who knows what tomorrow brings. In the mean time I am writing stories about noting and everything. See THE POWERFUL WOMAN...

Later...

THE POWERFUL WOMAN ....

- Tell us about yourself...

She is lowering her eyes on the woman’s mouth while preparing to respond.

- (Oh my God! She’s a retarded idiot! I have to bear with her stupidity) Well ... (what does it say?! Be confident and have an answer prepared for any possible question) Yes! I am ... me! I was born in a Tropical country about 28 years ago... (what does it say?! Age is not important?! Who knows!!! I am too smart for this shit!) My family is ... a normal family! My mother died! My father hates our guts and my siblings.... who cares?! I think I have ... few sisters ... or brothers. I’m about to give birth to my girl. And, of course, I’m married. I’ve got married here.

That’s how my mother raised us. Find a guy with money or at least with potential and hang on to him. Marry him asap and soon after throw him an offspring. That’s your insurance. Oh yeah, and the leash!!! I almost forgot to mention the leash. That’s the secret. Tight leash. (Am I your encyclopaedia?! Whatta hell?!) Men.... they are stupid creatures needed to make money to support us while we sit back watching TV.
(Why am I acting like it was a job interview?!)

The poor sucker I’ve married is so stupid that he believes anything I say. I am possessive and jealous, obviously. I’m making his life a living hell any time he’s around a female. And he is not getting any ... you know... after even a little smile thrown at random at female human beings. That is how they need to be treated for us to have a beautiful life. So far so good.
My hobbies are watching bad reality TV shows and south American soap operas, doing nothing in the house unless an extreme condition appears. I also love humiliating my in-laws and his friends. My top skill is being rude and acting superior to them. With my extensive experience, highly developed skills and lack of basic social manners I think I can give a 120% to your organization.

- Thank you! A bit long and definitely above your 2 minutes limit but I have to be honest, rarely I’ve seen such passion and devotion.

- Of course! I am a genius but I rarely admit it in front of anyone else since they don’t seem to understand my superiority... but you look much smarter than average. (Yeah sure! Stupid tart!)

- Thank you, you are so kind. Nevertheless... I would like a proof that what you say it’s true in order to be able to propose to the BOARD your acceptance within our Society. If you could provide us with at least 3 references, FEMALE – of course.

- References.... like someone to talk highly about me?!?

- No, not highly. Of course not. Three females to confirm you’re as annoying as you describe yourself with all his family and friends. Could you provide us with such references.... well it is an inappropriate word since we do not call to ask about you... you know! Our Society works differently. We are after all a SECRET Society.

- Oh, you mean persons who hate me.... ah!!! That’s easy. Here’s a list.

- OK. Thank you! You are well prepared. And a long list too. One last question ... if it is Ok with you?!

- Yeah sure!

- WHY?!

- Why what?!

- Just why?!

- Well! ..... Because I feel lonely! I work so hard to keep him on a tight leash and even harder to break all his relationships, not to mention making him feel miserable all the time, and complaining, and being a bitch. Do you think that living in a dirty house, making shitty food, rarely doing laundry, never ironing, being a walking disaster and breaking and misplacing things all the time is an easy job?! I need to talk to somebody. I need to meet with other women in my position. Have some fun from time to time. You know. Sorority of powerful women. One woman above every man.

- I understand and I have to thank you for your presence here and especially for sharing with us your experience and your beliefs.
One last thing: you are on the II floor and we are the “ONE POWERFUL WOMAN BEHIND EVERY MAN” SOCIETY; you must be looking for “THE POWERFUL WOMAN ABOVE HER MAN” SOCIETY so ... you should go to the 11th floor.