Est-Télé-Flash, Strasbourg
October 29, 1988
My little-known and otherwise obscure (and brief) into the big bad world of film-making, way way back in 1988. A Strasbourg TV production company set out to do a 30-minute TV adaptation of my book "Cathédrale" for FR3, one of the main french channels. I was tacked on to the production as boy Friday, only, as I was to discover later, because legally the "author" had to be affiliated in some way, at least on paper. I ran about, did all kinds of grip and drudge work, dressed sets, clambered all over the cathedral (that part was fun) and generally helped out, but was not allowed much input, either concerning the script or the shoot. (In the end, I was condemned to affiliation with the Nefarious Script-Writers' Guild in order to perceive my paltry commission, which came fairly close to paying the dues, and when basically asked point-blank by the director and producer to sign away all my rights, I did so in a fit of despondency... never to hear from anybody involved in the whole project again, naturally.)
Anyway, it was enormous fun, the child actor was am amazing lad, and the ravens recruited forthe film were fabulous. The film? I must have a cassette somewhere in the attic.
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