Pre-production Update 3

Hejsan Svejsan!

Another week, another update. I’m doing quite big jumps in the timeline, so we’ll land up to date on load in, that starts April 8.

It’s quite interesting to see what people pack for travelling, and it’s even more interesting to see what their kids truly believe their parents need on the road. This is what my awesome assistant Technical Director, Tobias Åberg found in his bag one morning, checking in at the airport. I guess his daughter Hedvig thought: ¨How can you go to Malmoe without a Barbie doll¨? Yes Tobias……..How?

But every now and then, we do the fatal mistake of taking the train! Here is our multi camera director Daniel Jelinek showing off his skills in wordfeud. You already met our set designers Frida and Viktor, but who is that Finnish muppet sitting in the corner?? Holy Diver! It’s Mikki Kunttu!!! Mikki was the Lighting and Content Designer for Eurovision Song Contest 2007, in Helsinki. We believe he will be PERFECT in the role as Content Designer for Eurovision 2013. So we hired him! I’m sure it’s not the last Fin you’ll see in this diary…………..

Why were we on a train to start with? To go to Gothenburg and see Mariah Carey of course! Well………. this is actually not her in person. Just a hologram of her. It’s a really interesting gag that has never been done in Eurovision! Will we do it? If I tell you, I’ve to KILL you, so I better not!

Train ride from Stockholm to Gothenburg is ok, if you are on the X2000 fast train. There is no such thing between Gothenburg and Malmoe, that was our next stop. After 4,5 hours on a bumpy old train, I repeated my promise to myself, that I made three years ago, to NEVER ride that train again! When will I learn?????? Anyway, this is Tomas Olsson, our health and safety manger, together with Tobias Åberg, whom just gets more and more beard for every year. He might aim for a carreer as Santa within soon! Last time all three of us were on the same project together was actually Eurovision Song Contest 2000! Many moons have passed the bridge, or whatever the Indian say (the ones with arrows, not dots) and we are still young and pretty! AMAZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!

While in Malmö, you better watch some Icehockey, since Malmö Arena is the home of the awesome Malmö Redhawks. Might not be the best team in the world, but they sure as hell are the coolest! Our staging production manager Matt Hales (on left) from Tait Technologies was happy to see some hockey again (don’t get much of that in Belgium where he lives since 14 months) Frederic Opsomer, also from Tait, was happy since this was his first hockey game EVER! Go figure when you live in Belgium……….And Tobias was happy since we went to his favorite Chinese Restaurant after the game. So……. all happy! That’s how we work at SVT!

It’s a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong way to the top! Just before Christmas Break, me and our Show Producer Christer Björkman decided to go and check out the tallest building in Sweden. It happens to be in Malmö. And we thought that we might be able to do something fun with it in our show. Thank God, the elevator was working, so we actually didn’t have to use the emergency ladder.

Top of the world mum! Here we are at the top of the

Stay out of trouble!

Joan