Katherine is a writer, researcher, and musician. Her projects may be divided into two areas: those that relate to sound and music, and those that relate to science when applied to the study of the visual arts; in particular, Italian paintings from the 1500's-1700's. Schimmel holds her undergraduate degree from Berklee College of Music and her graduate degree from Harvard University. She has been affiliated with the remote recording studio "Le Mobile", since 2011, and multi-Grammy winning music producer, David May, since 2012. Over the years she has published technical articles, papers, and interviews, for various journals and magazines and is currently working on a book and a screenplay that details her 12-year investigation into an important Italian painting. "Dinner with Dante", which takes place in Florence, is Katherine's first short script. She hopes to be able to go into production in Italy in 2024.
Q. Hello Katherine, it's great to have you here with us for this interview. Congratulations on your ‘Best Screenplay’ award at last March's edition of the “Rome International Movie Awards” (click HERE). First of all, why don't you introduce yourself to those of us who don't already know you?
A. Thank you very much for your kind words. It was an honour to even be considered for an award let alone to win one and so I remain very grateful for the opportunity. As for an introduction, I am a native of Boston, Massachusetts, but now spend a fair amount of time in both Italy and Southern California. My great passion (or obsession) has to do with the nature of creativity and how it’s expressed in art, music, poetry, and film. And for this reason, my projects tend to encompass specific aspects of both the visual and performing arts. With respect to the visual arts, I have worked on projects that relate to the material analysis of Italian paintings from the 1500’s-1700’s, and have spent years doing archival research in which I delved into the past lives of historically important subjects who lived in Italy, France, and Boston during the 1700’s-1800’s.
Q. Now what got you into screenwriting in the first place and did you receive any formal training on the subject?
A. I am relatively new to screenwriting and as such, "Dinner with Dante" is my first complete screenplay. Prior to that I had been trying to write a historical series based on an unfinished book I’ve written. The book is based on research I did in Italy over a 12-year period. As I was writing the book, I suddenly saw the characters and scenes in my mind and so it seemed to me, that it would make for a wonderful series and so I started to adapt the book for the screen. However, since the story is so large, heavily layered, and nuanced, I got lost along the way. I felt like it would be a relief to try and work on a short script because it would be more contained, especially if I created it with no set or scene changes and minimal characters so that the weight of the story would be almost entirely carried by the monologue and the camera.
After I wrote the script, I was not sure it was very good and so I sent it for an industry review through Stage32 and they sent it to a veteran of the film industry to read. I remember that when I first saw the review in my email, I didn’t want to open it because I was getting ready to sleep and I thought if it needed a million changes, or the reader didn’t like it it would ruin my whole night. But then my curiosity got the better of me and I opened it anyway, about an hour later. However, this time I thought my eyes were failing me because it was the best review I could ever have imagined receiving. Ironically, I then stayed awake all night because of good news rather than bad news. I think if it weren’t for that review, I never would have had the courage to submit the script anywhere.
A. My ideas are usually inspired by several things. Sometimes they come from life events that I’d experienced or observed first-hand, or they come from the deceased historical figures I’ve come upon during archival research. But either way, I’m always inherently drawn to moments or vignettes that seem extremely powerful and to characters that have unforgettable, almost haunting stories to tell. Then, once an idea pops into my head, I slowly begin to develop it in my mind before I write it in final draft; and depending upon how long it is, I write until I get tired. I usually go through several rounds of minor revisions and then I put it away for a while, maybe weeks, before reading it again. But I should mention that before I write I always SEE and HEAR everything first and then the words come so fast that I often struggle to capture them before they fade. "Dinner with Dante" was written in one shot but of course it’s not long.
I think in many ways storytelling is like weaving a very large tapestry or perhaps painting a great work of art. First you must start with a great concept or vision and then you sketch it out on paper. And then finally, you select and/or make the materials. In the world of stories, nuance and depth is created by the many layers a writer builds within the storyline itself and this is achieved through its characters and the setting, among other things. While in the world of painting or weaving, depth and nuance can be created through the careful selection of the colours such as the dye of the fibres, the types of fibres or the pigment mixtures, colours, and glazes. When an artist first starts to paint or weave, no one can imagine the outcome except for the artist, and it is such a labour of love. To me, it’s the same with a script and so for complicated stories, I like to think I am weaving an intricate tapestry or adding layers of pigments to a canvas or a panel.
Q. Where the inspiration to write "Dinner with Dante" comes from?
A. Sure. "Dinner with Dante" was in large part, inspired by the weekly conversations I had with Dante years ago when sitting by myself in a small café that overlooks the famous Enrico Pazzi statue of 1865 in the Piazza di Santa Croce in Florence. I was going through a challenging time, and I felt like talking to a friend and that’s when I looked up and saw Dante’s face, which at that moment, somehow seemed to come alive and implore me to say something.
Once I was through my difficult phase and stopped visiting Dante, it occurred to me that that experience would make a good short story or short script. So recently, when a friend of mine from Rome, who composes music for films, asked me to write a short script so we could work on something together this year, I decided to write the story down but altered the circumstances, era, and the protagonist by weaving in fragments of stories I’d heard about the early post WWII years in Italy.
Q. And what can you tell us about your work prior to “Dinner with Dante”?
A. Prior to "Dinner with Dante", I was working on a historical series called, "The Force of Destiny", which was adapted from my book "Andrea’s Fire", and which mainly takes place in Florence and Boston; but I have yet to finish both.
I have also spent years researching an important lost drawing by Leonardo da Vinci and would like to translate that research into a series as well because the story, at least what I know of it, is incredibly interesting and involves a journey into many fascinating historical figures across time.
Q. Writers who inspire you?
A. There are way too many that come to mind but if I were to mention a few I’d say: Carlo Levi, Madeline Miller, Oscar Wao, Goethe, Dante, Diane Bodart, Edward Wilson and Charles Bukowski. I also find the diaries that Rosa Luxemburg penned while in prison, profoundly beautiful as they revealed a clear passion for not only science, art, and nature, but also showed her to be an astute observer of the poor, the oppressed, and the state of humanity.
A. "Christ Stopped at Eboli" (Carlo Levi) is one of my favourite books. The opening is stunning and the story behind the story (or of how it got written) is poignant... not to mention the characters. I also love: "The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao", by Junot Diaz and find Madeline Miller’s "The Song of Achilles" achingly beautiful and most assuredly inspired. I heard it took her ten years to write which gives me hope with my own book.
Books I deplore? Hmmm, well, I set the bar high in the book space and so I really don’t like books that are poorly written or trite. And of course, the same goes for ones that are exploitive or culturally/socially insensitive in any way. I do feel strongly that a good book needs to serve a purpose other than that of a writer just writing to make a living and so any book worth its salt should enlighten or inform the reader in a way that’s both useful and meaningful. And of course, a great book would take it even further by being inspiring, or entertaining to no end, or be profoundly meaningful.
Q. You also work in the sound and music departments, right?
A. Yes, the music part of my journey started with the violin when I was very young and then later, continued with the voice and piano. Later, when I’d finished the requirements for High School a year/grade early - but because of a technicality wasn’t allowed to graduate until my class did - I was obliged to do an internship at a place of my choosing if I promised to report back to the school on Fridays. I chose to do my internship at a local recording studio that was cutting edge digitally but also had a lot of analog equipment still in use. It was a fantastic experience and one of the highlights was not only assisting in recording many of the bands I was into, but also using the iconic Studer A800 machines which had come out of Switzerland and cost a fortune back then. I also had to learn how to splice tape the old-fashioned way, with a razor blade. So it was great fun and I really enjoyed setting up the recording sessions which included, among other things, placing microphones on all the instruments, setting the sound levels, and labeling all the tracks.
When I was a student at the Berklee College of Music, I worked as a stagehand for various shows (Wynton Marsalis etc.) which included stage set up and break down, microphone repairs and helping with the stage lighting if needed. During that same period, I also worked in the Costume Department at the Boston Opera Company. Sarah Caldwell, who’d won the National Medal of Arts years earlier, was the Director and Conductor at the time. I remember dressing mezzo-soprano Shirley Verret a few times for Puccini’s Tosca and Turandot and having to repair costumes between sets that had been damaged on stage during the performance. Verrett had won numerous awards, including the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and was a beautiful person not to mention the fine quality of her voice. Being around all those artists made me recognize how much I truly loved live performances.
Years later, when I met Guy Charbonneau, founder of the remote recording studio Le Mobile, we became instant friends and over the years have worked on select projects together. I was amazed at how he could capture an artist live but also what he’d built in the way of a remote recording studio, and I am still convinced there is nothing quite like it in the world today.
A. "Dinner with Dante" will have a website this May but until then, I can be found on IMDB (HERE) and on "Linkedin" (HERE).
Q. Thank you for this very inspiring interview, Katherine. Here at the “Rome International Movie Awards” we look forward to seeing and appreciating your new film productions!
A. Many, many thanks again for your time and kind words.
No comments:
Post a Comment