I'm Désirée Nordlund and I've five short scripts sold, four of them produced and one a festival winner. I'm writing on my 7th feature, but only two of the previous I would let anybody read :-)

I write both in Swedish and English.

I've always been writing and wanted to be a famous novel writer as a kid. Now I'm no longer a kid and I don't care for fame, but I would like to make a living out of my writing.

Links to Swedish movie making forums:
http://forum.voodoofilm.org/
http://www.filmcafe.se/

Hej from Stockholm! I'm not sure I necessarily count as I'm British and have just been living here for a couple of months, but I guess I'll do until a real Scandi gets here!

I moved out here to write, bizarrely enough, and have found my career has taken a huge upwards swing since I made the move - they do say think outside the box to make it happen, so I'm definitely living embodiment of that.

Currently waiting to hear whether a pilot script that was commissioned by SVT (the state broadcaster here) is going forward to series, just about to go into production with a web series I created and tomorrow night will be attending a reading of one of my screenplays that has been translated into Swedish - no idea how weird that is going to be!

Am blogging about life here and writing, so feel free to check out more: http://claireduffy.wordpress.com/

Ooh - thanks for the links Désiré!

@Désirée: Another longtime GITS reader. Great to hear from you again, especially that you have been so prolific with your writing. A reminder to GITS readers, you can see one of Désirée's short films here. Thanks, too, for those links! Continued good luck with your creative endeavors.

@Claire: How interesting that your relocation from the UK to Sweden has translated into an increase in professional opportunities as a writer. Do you think there are more openings in Sweden compared to England, more programming, more need for writers? If you have the time, I'm sure readers would benefit from hearing how you've gone about establishing yourself there. I'll add your blog to my Friends list. Cheers and good luck!

Thanks Scott! I'm slowly writing the story on my blog, not least as no one is more surprised than me!

I think that it probably has a lot to do with, not so much being a big fish in a small pond (which I'm not!) but a different fish in a new pond. I have a perspective, experience, skillset - tiny bit more fluency in English! - that's unique here, and that helped me to create my own niche.

If anything, the UK market is bigger (simply because it's a bigger country), but in London, I was one of who-knows-how-many writers just waiting for my shot - and maybe it would have come sooner or later - but here I have a little novelty factor. I know I got meetings with bigger producers than I would have access to in London, simply because they were curious about what on earth a British writer was doing rocking up in Sweden, so from that extra little jumpstart it was just a case of following through... which I seem to be doing - so far!

[Sorry - edited for a little sentence structure clarity!]

@Claire: Thanks for that update. It will be interesting to see if there are other writers around the world who have had a similar experience: Moving from Country A to Country B opened up writing opportunities.

Wonder why my nickname is coolface.jpg, but never mind. o.O

Here's my post with my real name.

Hi!

I'm a Finnish writer/director. I've been writing, drawing and watching films since I remember. I have written and directed couple of plays, written short stories and some articles for magazines and newspapers etc.

The industry here in Finland is almost non-existent (even more so for me as I only write in English) so I've decided to move to London, UK. I'm going to write and direct at least 3-4 commercials and 1-2 short films before the "big jump". The Finnish film industry makes almost nothing else, but dramas about confused people in their 20-30s and war films. There's some progress though: in the last couple of years, we have made a J-horror film, and a wuxia/kungfu film. We also have a western and a science-fiction about Nazis on the Moon coming up among others.

I don't think that there are any active Finnish filmmaking forums or other resources, sadly.

@Aki: First off let me acknowledge your place in the worldwide community of filmmakers. I know filmmaking has more or less of a presence from country to country. One of the most exciting aspects of digital filmmaking along with this incredible distribution network we have -- the Web -- is that a filmmaker can live anywhere and get their movies in front of people who can make things happen. For example, there is this, a short film by a Uruguayan commercial director that resulted in a seven figure directing deal in Hollywood based on his movie idea.

Best of luck in your move to England. Please stay in touch.

@Scott: Yeah, it's amazing. According to my list, I can buy a GH2 with some lenses, some helpful accessories to shoot video, and a powerful enough editing PC for like 3500€. That's like $4000. And I think many people could do with less accessories so the price could be even smaller. As Ed Burns said, "Anybody can make a movie now. There are no more excuses. True, you do need a few grand. But you used to need a few million." As you said, now that fat girl from Ohio CAN make her own film with her friends and become something big.

One of the reasons for the move is that British actors generally speak better English that Finnish actors so I can shoot my films in the language they were written in. There are also much more possibilities for a writer/director to work in TV, films, theatre, and commercials and keep progressing through the ranks. Of course getting those jobs is never easy. I also think that the move could inspire me and make me work harder.

As I've said previously, this is a great site! I'm checking this Lord knows how many times a day.

Hi form Denmark. I'm Malene Kirkegaard Nielsen - trained filmdirector from The National Danish Filmschoole and former head of DR Radio Drama. Now I'm independent writer and storycoach.
I have been following Go Into the Story for a year or so, and love it.
I dont know of any online forums here in Denmark.
I run a page on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/plotvaerkstedet

Thanks to you Scott for your inspirering and wise blog :-)

@Scott: Thank you kindly for the promoting the film.

Another one is found here, if I may take the opportunity.

@Claire: I'm happy you found the links useful. I would love to hear your story some day. How is Swedish as a language?

@Malene: Greetings! By the sound of it, the National Danish Filmschoole sounds like a big deal. Is that the most well-recognized film school in Denmark? Your experiences in radio drama must have been interesting, certainly a good training ground for writing TV and film, especially dialogue, yes? Good to 'meet' you and best of luck in all your creative efforts!

@ Désirée Det är mycket svårt, men jag lär mig långsamt!

@ Scott - Yes, the National Danish Filmschool is THE Filmschool in Denmark. Every second year 6 student get selected for a 4 year programme at the directors department, and I think several hundreds are applying... I have never ever felt as talented and succesfull. I walked the moon that summer, when I was looking forward to move to Copenhagen and start at the school. And then I realized, I had to learn. I had to work hard. I had to stay humble to absorb the training offered by the school. Holly shit. :-)
And radio drama is great! And such a good place to start. Dialog, yes - but also storyspin! You have to stick to the story! You can't seduce the audience with beautiful pictures and astonishing special effects - Only story, acting and dialog counts. So you are down to the essentials.
And the line of production - you write, you deliver your script and if its accepted, you can be on the set direction just a few month later. THAT I like!
And I love radio. I love the kind of storytelling, you can listening to. You get a story, and you make your own imaginary world. Thats nice.

@Claire: That's perfect!