Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1428470
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 14 NOVEMBER 2021 12 ALMANAC My essentials CHRIS DINGLI 41, Actor, Writer, Comedian. I'm Maltese but live in the UK. I write, produce and act in the Comedy Knights as well as a bunch of other shows, both dramatic and comedic, on film and on stage. I'm married to Erika and have two young kids, Adam and Imogen. I'm a pluviophile, a musician, and love pizza although none of those things are related. 1 2 4 5 1. Books 3 2. Film/TV 3. Internet 4. Music 5. Place I'M writing a screenplay for a contained movie (one that has very limited locations and cast) and so I'm watch- ing a bunch of similar films, such as Oxygen, Locke, and The Guilty. When writing a project, I sometimes find it useful to immerse myself in other examples of similar work. Observing the craft, the choices made in the writing, the techniques used to ratchet up tension, to re- veal character, and keep the story moving forward. It's like pulling apart a machine to see how it's made. Calibri I read an article about the art and design collective MSCHF, who bought a War- hol sketch for $20,000, and then made 999 exact rep- licas of it. They mixed the original sketch in with the replicas so that it was indis- tinguishable from the copies, and then sold all 1,000 to dif- ferent buyers for $250 each. Any buyer had a 0.1 percent chance of actually purchas- ing the original, but the catch is they'll never know if they did. I find that seasons, weather, location, even the time of day affect my musical listening choices. For me, the music has to suit the surroundings, almost like a film soundtrack. It feels wrong to me to play certain kinds of music on an overcast day, for example. We're now in Autumn and that's the season for Shos- takovich, Richter and Bruch. If not music, then a podcast: Tim Ferris, Marc Maron, Burgs, Scriptnotes, On the Page. LONDON. I live here and when I didn't, I missed it every day. It obviously doesn't need any introduction, although I would say that if you have visited London and already seen the main sights, there are many not-so-central plac- es that are well worth a visit. There are actually a ton of places in central London too that are not on main tourist trail that are worth checking out. Also find an evening or two in your visit to go and see some fringe theatre or some stand-up comedy in a room above a pub. I'M reading 'A River in Dark- ness' by Masaji Ishikawa. It's an autobiographical account of how his family moved to North Korea from Japan in the 1960s, how they suffered, and how he eventually escaped. I like read- ing non-fiction and find myself particularly drawn to stores of people who have overcome or escaped great hardship to start a new life, usually by travelling for long distances over inhos- pitable terrain. Before that I read 'The Long Walk' by Sła- womir Rawicz.