Rodolfo Weisskirch
He is the man behind King’s short story Harvey’s Dream (El Sueño de Harvey).
SKSM: Could you start with telling me a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do?
Rodolfo Weisskirch: My name is Rodolfo Guillermo Weisskirch; I am 21 years old and I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I’m in my last year of the Cinematography direction career at the University. I am also preparing two new shorts movies and finishing my second year thesis (“We Interrupt Our Program…“) and my career thesis, “Harvey’s Dream“.
SKSM: When did you make Harvey’s Dream? Can you tell me a little about the production? How much did it cost? How long did it take to film it?
Rodolfo Weisskirch: “Harvey’s Dream” history started two years ago, on October, 2003, when I got the original story from Javier “Ziebal” Martos, a Spanish friend from a Stephen King’s Forum called “Kinghispano”. When I read the story I instantly thought in shooting it, but at that moment I was shooting “We Interrupt Our Program…”, and I postponed the project. Between February and April, 2004, I wrote the screenplay for my final thesis. In November, 2004, I started the preproduction with the help of Román Virgili, the actor’s and assistant director, Anahí Colombo, the first assistant director, Sol Damiani, the producer and Juan Cavia, one of the directors of photography.
During the last two weeks of November, three weeks of December and two weeks of January, 2005 we rehearsed with the actors: Hector Cesana, Estela Aurea Guelfi and Helene Grenbaum. The movie was shot between the last week of January and the first one of February and between the last week of February and the first one of March: they were nine hard days. It cost about 1000 pesos (US$ 350.00) and it was filmed with a Mini DV Digital Camera. I’m editing the movie as of May and I believe that will be finished (with sound, music, titles, subtitles and DVD included) by September.
SKSM: How come you picked Harvey’s Dream to develop into a movie? What is it in the story that you like so much?
Rodolfo Weisskirch: When I choose any project, I always see what the story can transmit. I felt that “Harvey’s Dream” has a dense and tense climate. That was what attracted me. The relationship between the characters. This monotonous and boring marriage, falling in an abyss of non-dialogue, and suddenly bum! He wants to tell her, his dream, but very slowly. And the dream gets more and more scary. I really like the way she looks at him. A pessimistic vision of an American decadent middle class family due to government economic policies. It’s a very local, but also a very universal point of view.
The climate and the situation reminded me as of best of Bergman’s movies such as: “Autumn Sonata”, “Persona”, “Screams and Whispers” or “The Hour of the Wolf”.
SKSM: How did you find out that King sold the movie rights to some of his stories for just $1? Was it just a wild guess or did you know it before you sent him the check?
Rodolfo Weisskirch: I knew about it thanks to Ariel Bosi from the “Kinghispano” forum who advised me to look into this website. They were wonderful news for me, because it’s very difficult for an Argentinian to buy the rights of any story and it’s harder to get a Stephen King one. I couldn’t send him the dollar yet, because Marsha DiFillipo never answered my letter about how I can send the dollar and where to.
SKSM: Was there any funny or special moment when you made the movie that you would like to tell me about?
Rodolfo Weisskirch: We have a lot of problems with the weather, because the days that we have to shoot outdoors, it was raining or very cloudy. It was also very hot and humid similar to the weather in the story. We have to interrupt shooting during the first week of February, because of the weather and after that, some of the crew members and the actors went away on vacation. We were lucky to start shooting again on the last week of February.
SKSM: How does it feel that all the King fans out there can’t see your movie? Do you think that will change in the future? Maybe a video/dvd release would be possible of on our website?
Rodolfo Weisskirch: I hope some day, people will be able to see the film anywhere.Perhaps, I can take the movie to a local film festival but I don’t know yet. First I will finish it and then I’ll see. I intend to release the DVD in your website soon.
SKSM: Did you have any personal contact with King during the making of the movie? Has he seen it (and if so, what did he think about it)?
Rodolfo Weisskirch: Only in my dreams. As Mrs. Marsha DiFillipo has never answered my letter I can’t expect Mr. Stephen King to ever write me. It would be great to meet him in the near future.
SKSM: Do you have any plans for making more movies based on Stephen King’s stories? If you could pick – at least – one story to shoot, which one would it be and why?
Rodolfo Weisskirch: No at the moment, but I like Stephen King’s stories and novels, and I hope to shoot another one.
I read the first chapter of his new book which is going around the Internet, “The Pulse”, and it’s very interesting. It has a big catch.
SKSM: Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. Is there anything else you want to say to the fans that read this interview?
Rodolfo Weisskirch: I hope that someday anybody will be able to see the short movie in the website, please be patient (because probably it will be slow at the beginning) and enjoy it. I hope to see more short movies from the whole World and especially from Latin America.
