“The Absence” is a Greek short film created by 17-year-olds who live in Ioannina, Greece. The film has as its main topic the method of lucid dreaming, which is used by the protagonist so as to control his dreams.

For more information about the movie click here:

https://anamendigain.edublogs.org/2021/03/09/the-absence-review/

Also, as promised, I took an interview from the creators (Theodore Dimitri, Nick Grapsas) and the main characters (Nick Vosdou, Georgia Psochiou) of this movie and I would like to thank all of them for giving me the chance to meet and talk to them.

1. Which was the inspiration of this movie?

Theodore: I want to be a filmmaker and I always hear a lot of people say that is a very difficult area and that you will probably fail so I wanted to make a movie and try to prove that when you work hard for something you will achieve it. “The Absence” has as its main topic the method of lucid dreaming, about which I learned from a video on YouTube. I would say that as far as the screenplay is concerned, I was mainly influenced by many movies by Christopher Nolan. Then, I asked Nick to watch some of his movies and create a soundtrack inspired by them. For example, the crime scene is dubbed by Nick’s soundtrack named Following, which was influenced by the titular Nolan’s film. While writing this specific scene I was also inspired by the same movie. Moreover, some of the black and white scenes of our movie (prequels) were inspired by Nolan’s movies, such as Memento and Inception (its central topic is dreams). Furthermore, in the film in the scene which describes the moment when Nickos returns home, there is an Easter egg as his sister is watching the film Inception (DiCaprio’s voice is distinct in the background). Also, every cinema fan would comprehend that the shot with the car’s boot is a classic shot of Quentin Tarantino. As far as film direction is concerned, I did not use any elements borrowed from a specific director, but I may have done it subconsciously.

2. How much time did it take you to complete the film?

Theodore: I started writing the screenplay in Summer 2019, but it was very different in comparison to its final form. Back then,lucid dreaming was not even part of the movie. After having written some pages of the script, I informed Nick about my idea with a view to his helping me with the shooting parts and later with the music. We worked on the movie for almost a year, but it was no more than the first quarantine (March- April 2020)when I actually started writing the screenplay to its final form.

Nick Grapsas: The casting took place on June 13. We had decided beforehand that Nick Vosdou would take the leading role. However, apart from him there were some people interested in participating and so we had to make a selection for the rest of the roles. The shootings lasted 16 days in total. After finishing shooting, Theodore started the editing and finished it in January. I got the first completed draft in December and started the composition of the soundtrack, which lasted one and a half month. For the composition, I used my piano and some other musical instruments from a synthesizer software (e.g. violins, percussions).

3. How did the actors approach their roles. Was there any improvisation?

Georgia: The truth is that I empathized with Myrto on some points and I generally liked my role very much. Of course, there were some other parts in which my true character was really opposite to the role. Generally speaking, observing my favourite actress, Katerina Didaskalou, helped me a lot to better comprehend how my acting should be.

Nick Vosdou:I wasn’t influenced by other actors while playing my role, because I hadn’t had any experience in acting or cinema before and I wasn’t really into neither of them. Nonetheless, I didn’t face any difficulties during acting due to the fact that I portrayed an introspective teenager with a few friends and this is actually who I am in reality. While acting, I was just following Theodore’s guidance and I tried not to improvise at all so as to avoid the risk of changing the screenplay.

Theodore: Improvisation was something I didn’t discourage, but the specific actors did not change anything in my script. Generally speaking, every and each one of the roles required a unique handling so as to make the characters multidimensional and therefore, a better overall outcome to be created. For instance, I asked Georgia to act like Nickos’ sister in certain scenes and in some others like his mother (in cases Myrto wanted to make Nickos feel guilty). 

4. How was the shooting?

Nick Vosdou: We usually arranged our appointments at 10:00 or 11:00 in the morning and finished shooting by 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon, in some cases even at 4:00. It actually depended highly on the difficulty level of the scene we wanted to shoot. The filming took place in our houses. The protagonist’s house is in reality Theodore’s house and the house where the robbery took place belongs to Nick Grapsas. The atmosphere at the backstage was perfect because we all knew each other beforehand, apart from Georgia, but any nervousness just disappeared after the first two shootings.

Georgia: At the beginning, I wasn’t very familiar with the other members of the group, but I managed to adjust easily as I am very sociable and I enjoy meeting new people. The filming part was a unique experience for me as I am all about theater. There were some times when we laughed with our mistakes during shooting and some others when we were really focused on our work, especially in cases when we had made many retakes of one shot.

5. Given that film direction requires special knowledge, how did you manage to create such a good audiovisual outcome? Would you like to work professionally in field of the cinema in the future?

Theodore: I have watched some webinars by Martin Scorsese about film direction, but I generally deem that nobody is going to teach you the rule of the 180 degree rotation or how to set your camera in every scene. Every film direction tutor will just try to teach you several things that will help you find your own personal style. Film direction is not just to create a nice visual outcome (this is part of the photography direction), but it is more about conveying an atmosphere, making you feel things you are not aware of. Unfortunately, due to the limited equipment and space we had, we couldn’t always manage to create the feelings and situations we wanted to. As far as my professional occupation with film directing is concerned, I have no intention to go to a film direction school, but I will just try to keep up with it on my own.

Nick Grapsas: I, as a cameraman, could not depict the perspectives that Theodore initially wanted mainly due to the limited space and the few lights that we had at our disposal. This was also the reason why we have so many close shoots in the film. As far as the photography direction part is concerned, I am interested in photography as an amateur and I know some shooting tips. Generally, I was following Theodore’s instructions.The good audiovisual outcome can be attributed to the good quality equipment that we possessed, i.e. a camera and my phone that was used as a microphone, devices that in my opinion everyone has nowadays. Of course, we have found numerous technical problems that can be attributed to our low budget. So far, I have decided to take the University Admission Exams and go to the university, but not to study music. However, that doesn’t mean that I face music as something amateurish.

Nick Vosdou: I do not plan to be involved in acting on a professional level. For the time being, I have other goals to achieve. Virtually, I just participated in the movie so as to help Theodore, but I would be more than pleased if I could take part in other projectsas well.

Georgia: I would surely like to work as an actress in the future. I have decided to take the national University Admission Exams in order to go to the university and gain knowledge on a more conventional subject, but my dream is to take exams for the National Theatre of Greece in Athens and become an actress. In other words, I want to change acting from a second choice to the first and foremost. Even if I don’t pass the exams for the National Theatre I will surely go to another acting school and try to make my dream come true.

6. How did your love for the cinema begin? Have you attempted something similar in the past?

Theodore: I was keen on writing stories and watching movies from a young age and therefore I knew that I wanted to be occupied with it. I have attempted to create many projects with Nick Grapsas before, but they are not available for the time being. We consider “The Absence” as our first official completed work.

Georgia: In my opinion we should do whatever we like and try to gain more knowledge and experience. Generally, I am very positive towards new challenges. I started being involved with theater during elementary school, but my very first beginning in theatre was at the age of 13, when I joined a theatre group, “Oi Atherapeutoi” (the Incurables). This was when I learned more things about theatre. We brought on stage plays or made improvisations and I liked it very much. Unfortunately, right now we can’t attend lessons because of the coronavirus, but I try to keep in touch with acting by performing monologues on my own.

Nick Grapsas: I really like participating in everything that has to do with the Arts. I always liked music, but I was aware of the fact that I wanted to do more than this and Theodore gave me the chance to develop. I wouldn’t describe myself as a person who enjoys collaboration. I generally like working on my own, but with Theodore I don’t feel like working with someone else because we share the same perspective and we just created a movie together.

7. Is your movie going to participate in any film festival?

Nick Grapsas: We have already sent our movie to festivals, but we would like not to disclose such information as we are not sure if they will accept us. Generally, our options were limited because we had done our premiere on YouTube and the vast majority of the festivals want to have the exclusivity of the premiere.

Theodore: At the end of each audition we asked the candidates if they would be ok if the film were submitted to festivals. So, we initially had an intention to do that but while filming we discovered many fails and problems and at some point we gave the idea up. My screenplay was almost 50 pages long and I thought that it would comprise a featured film, one hour long approximately. Nonetheless, after editing we found out that our movie fell into the short film category (38 minutes) and as the most movies included in this category were of lower budgets, like ours, we decided that The Absence was a good and innovative attempt and we finally sent it.

8. How do you feel with the audience’s positive reaction?

Theodore: I was talking on the phone with Nick some days before the film’s premiere and we found some of our old projects and the first draft of the screenplay. It was the first time we truly understood how much we had worked on the Absence. The Absence had become our everyday reality for almost a year. We had lost our impartiality and our interest in the story and we were looking forward to hearing the audience’s opinion of the movie. During the day of the Premiere, on February 26, our phones had not stop ringing and people were texting us to inform us about how much they liked the movie. We felt very happy and relieved. That night I went to sleep at midnight but due to my excitement and nervousness, I could not fall asleep.

Georgia: Nick Vosdou and I hadn’t watched the completed version of the movie and so we found it very nice. All of my friends and family were excited, especially my grandpa. The week after the premiere some students and teachers at my school were calling me “Myrto” and asked me about the film.

9. Are you planning to create another movie in the foreseeable future?

Theodore: Yes, right now I am writing the screenplay for our second movie. It will be something completely different from the Absence and we are planning to do the shootings during summer.

10. Has the Greek educational system motivated you to interact with the cinema, or was it just due to your personal interest? Do you believe that the existence of an extracurricular activity about cinema at school would be good?

Theodore: The Greek educational system already has many problems and is focused on the National University Entrance Exams. Ιwould prefer the most profound problems to be solved first and then an extracurricular activity like this to be added. Cinema is not just an entertaining medium, but an educational one as well. This is why I believe that classic subjects should be combined with artistic ones, especially subjects during which we mainly discuss, like Modern Greek language ones.  

Georgia: Even though the majority of our teachers haven’t really motivated us to do artistic activities, there were a few who, off the beaten path, encouraged us to do such things (e.g. theatrical plays). For example, I had a teacher who stimulated us to get involved in and explore other things apart from lessons.

Click her to watch the whole movie:

Click here to listen to the movie’s soundtrack: