I interviewed myself...

[janestarz]

Because I am a proud larper and suffer from Multiple Personality (Character) Disorder, I now present to you the interview I wrote last night.
I once before did something similar, indulging in my character's inner debate, writing something that is, to me at least, hilarious. It all depends on whether you know the characters and their backgrounds of course.

I've been writing a lot lately, focusing in the extreme on our D&D campaign, -world and -characters. It should be no surprise that Mariel is right at the surface there.
And Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta had their share in this; I watched "Grease -- interview with cast and filmmakers" only a few hours before writing this.
But that's enough excuses for now. Indulge me, I'm crazy. Totally bonkers. Off my rocker. Lost my marbles. Two eggs short of a dozen.

After the smashing success of her first book, the memoirs of Mariel Morningsun will soon be out in cinema's across the kingdoms. Despite having four sons flying around the Estate of Bourgeville, Mariel was able to focus completely on developing her acting skills. And thanks to her husband's skills in diplomacy each and every one of the main characters are played by themselves.
The adventure will only be out in cinema's next month, Elf Diva took this opportunity to talk to Mariel herself - elf and diva.

Visiting Mariel Morningsun has always been a privilige reserved for the very happy few, but after the success of her first book "Chronicles of Mariel" it is nigh impossible to visit the Estate of Bourgeville in Ironforge. Security is more tight than ever, but after a long walk down the driveway the facade of the mansion is a mesmerizing surprise.
Mariel receives us --where else-- in the gardens. When she is not wearing her armour, she is an elf like any other: small and slender, with long locks tumbling down her back. A sight we will not often enjoy in the movie.

How did it feel to be back in your armour after so many years?
It was definitely a unique experience. We were so busy with our calling for such a long time; we have roamed the countryside, lived off the land, slept on the ground, that sleeping in a real bed is a very strange experience. And vice versa as well: after so many years of living in peace, it is a great change to have to live it rough. Your body is pampered with luxury, and suddenly you're wearing that armour again, and parts of you that haven't had any abuse in years are poked again, or strapped or clasped by leather straps. (laughs)

And you didn't just wear the armour, back in those days.
No! No, we did everything in our armour. We fought in them, we slept in them, and we were quite often bleeding in them. The choreography was very hard. There is a scene in the movie, and this was one of the very first scenes we filmed. It depicts Mariel training in the elven style of battle. And I think that I had a harder time filming it, than I did learning it in Margden Woods all these years ago! At least Willem was very kind to only make me fall on my face once. For the movie, we had to shoot each sequence four, five or even six times, from different angles. And just when you thought they had it, one of the mages would go "I'm sorry, I fumbled my spell;" and there was nothing on the tape.

Some people say that the battles are far too slick.
Well, it's true that everyone romanticises battles and for the film we wanted to follow up on that. For the book I also skipped some of the more embarrasing details, to make the story more fluid, and for the movie we did that as well. Nobody wants to see how Grimm tries to brandish his axe and miss completely, unless it's for the comic relief. We attracted this wonderful choreographer from Millwater Academy who has studied many styles of battle, and he showed us what we could still learn. After the first week of training I was afraid of my own sword, but in the end it all worked out wonderfully. We're smooth, but not too smooth. I had far too many bruises for that.

Was it your actual armour?
The actual armour? That's a funny way to put it. Yes, of course it was the actual armour. We saved everything, because it was all special to us. Even the white robes I wear when I pray in the mornings are the actual robes I wore. We had some newly made for the long-distance shots, but the hero costumes were the real deal. Because they were worn, and they were used, and that's what I always did, I didn't throw anything away! I still don't! And I bet you're wondering about the ballgown? It's real as well.

You mentioned Grimm earlier. Was it hard for you to see him again?
I think it was harder for Leona, but it wasn't easy. Each of us had our differences with Grimm, although we never really made an issue of it. Until one day he just packed up and left. And when I saw him again, it was just like old times. We were on the set, he wore his adamantinite armour and I was in the armour he forged for me, and we hugged and everything was fine. There was that loud clang of armour-upon-armour, which we will hear in the movie as well, and that just brought us back to old times.
I never blamed him for going his own way, he just had stuff to take care of. His timing wasn't the best, but then perhaps we should have been more understanding to him as well. And in retrospect, he had had a rough time with Leona dying that time --
One of many times...
-- well, I don't know about that, she could be considered very lucky that Ehlonna sent her back each time, telling her her work was not done yet. I think that secretly we all wish that is how it would go, but many of us only die once.

Did any of the deities appear in the movie as themselves?
I'm afraid I am not allowed to comment on that.

What about Sir Jean?
Yes, it's definitely the real Sir Jean. I checked. (laughs)

The second plot, if you will, of the book is the love between you and Sir Jean.
I wouldn't call it the second plot. We've had so many things that occupied our attention during that time in our life. We had the vision of Tirazil, Bachtor trying to become a deity, Granny, Sirc'al. If anything, the love between Jean and myself was a constant throughout the book. A baseline we could fall back upon, even if our relationship was very turbulent at times. He is always very thoughtful and caring and I am truly blessed to have him to take care of us. I don't think I've ever seen him more worried than when I gave birth to our children, but he rallied magnificently. He is and always will be my knight in shining armour.

Is he the reason you had the freedom to undertake this movie?
Well, I don't think I could have done it without him, because he would have been very hard to cast. There are very few men who could pull off the attitude, the acting, the heroism. He did all of his own stunts! I nearly died inside, every time he did his foolisly heroic paladin duty. We even pulled in several trained hydra's and a tame kraken from a collector in Rendbane for the movie. There's only so much you can do with Minor Image spells, and we had enough mages and sorcerors on the set to help the special effects people when they were out of mana. Even Melvin stepped in once or twice to cast a Fireball on us from off-screen whenever our 'enemies' were out of mana. They could usually barely stand up by the time we had done two or three takes, while we were all still ready to go. Obviously, we couldn't use the real enemies from the book, because we vanquished them all. But all actors and enemies did a wonderful job!

How did you work things out with the undead for the movie?
Well, apparantly Melvin found an obscure necromancer out near Southshire one day while were shooting there in the church, and he was willing to create vast numbers of undead for us. Of course, Melvin never told Sir Jean or me any of this, we just figured our Auras of Evil Detection were going haywire, but it did add a dimension of reality to the set. As soon as we found out about it, we had to kill the necromancer, of course.

How did Melvin fare through all this?
Melvin cooked for the entire cast and crew each day, next to playing his role. I really don't know how he does what he does, but we love him for it anyway.

One of the most exciting scenes from the book was the fight where Sir Jean gets his wings. You often said it was a glorious and horrible battle. Are you satisfied with how this scene turns out in the movie?
Well, the initial confusion and excitement we had that very day was absent, but we still managed to convey this overall feeling of being lost, partly because of the cinematography. The mages did a wonderful job with their camera's and captured that moment really well. What happens afterwards, when we literally slaughter the remainder of that army, that was very hard to do. I wasn't looking forward to the bloody mess; we used blood and entrails from abattoirs around the countryside, and it was as disgusting as I remember it to be.

What was, for you, the best thing about making this movie?
Oh, I don't know! First of all, it's great to spread the word of Ehlonna and Heironeous, to show everyone that no matter how small you are, anyone can make a difference. And there's all these old friends we were reunited with, so many great people I hadn't seen in years, that just answered my letters and showed up to do their part. We managed to locate every single one of them except for Aaron, who was in some obscure dungeon somewhere and we couldn't locate exactly where he was. Even Thamior came, although he popped in and out several times during the recording of the movie. We had to change the set schedule several times because he kept disappearing on us, popping in on us in the middle of a scene a few days later. He is still as busy as ever!

The premiere in Ironforge is next month, and you've already announced you and Sir Jean will be attending. Will your entire family be there?
We try to keep our sons from getting too much publicity, but it's really hard with boys like them. Not only will they go looking for trouble, like young boys are prone to do, but there's always someone around to make sure that Jean and I are scared out of our wits. We are blessed with the archon hounds and everyone that looks out for them, and so far we've managed to keep them safe. I can disclose this much: if they will attend, then BabyQ is coming too. He's their dearest friend and greatest protector. Not something you'd expect when you see how he became an addition to our family, but we'd be heartbroken without him.

Chronicles of Mariel will premiere in Ironforge at the third day of the Winemonth.
Elf Diva, issue 24491

I also made a pdf with a magazine layout (as everything's more beautiful in glossy) but I blatantly stole images off the internet so I can't publish it here.

Comments

[erwinl.livejournal.com]

I love it. I really love it. :-)

I'm getting the impression you're enjoying yourself?

Shurf

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Terribly much so! I'm also catching up rather quickly, I finished chapter 12 today! I might be out of writing stuff pretty soon.

Also: I linked to an image of the actual article layout. Scribus was a bit slow so I went easy, if I spend another hour on it it would be even better.

[erwinl.livejournal.com]

Oh I missed the link to the layout.
Silly me. Must be my years catching up. :-)

Looks very good. You might place an image on the third page on through the fourth page, where the dragon is.
Maybe some kind of landscape?

Shurf

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

I only added it after you commented, so no worries, you're not that old.

Open up any magazine and see how much white there is. White is hip, in magazines. It's crazy but true. I actually thought about leaving the dragon out and doing a column of white next to the article, only having one or two quotes from the interview (in green) next to it.

[erwinl.livejournal.com]

so no worries, you're not that old.

Thank you. That really makes me feel a lot younger. :-)

I'm more used to what we do in our schoolbooks. Several of our publishers have a real case of blancofobie (fear of white spaces in books). So budget willing, a white space will always be filled with an image or cartoon.

Shurf