It is probably difficult to beat everyone's favorite foreign sagas about vampires and other representatives of the supernatural, and most importantly, to surprise an already spoiled audience. However, Ukrainian filmmakers decided to challenge this by creating the incredible domestic series “Diaries of the Dark”? or "Shchepodniki Dark." Did they manage to implement their plans? And how difficult was the filming process?
A few words about the creators and the premiere of the series
The mystical television series of Ukrainian production was created in 2011 with the active assistance of the well-known film studio “1 + 1 production” and the television channel “TET”. The idea of the telesague belongs to the promising director Victoria Lezine-Maslenitsa, who in 2013 became the general producer of the aforementioned film studio.
The premiere of the mystical series, in which Arthur Dvoryanov (an actor from the Kyiv Municipal Theater) was invited to play one of the roles, took place in August 2011.
More about the city of Dark
The events in the series unfold around a small provincial town with the mystical name Dark, located in the middle of dense forests. This is an incredible place hidden from ordinary people. It is difficult to find, but if you get into it, then it is almost impossible to get out of it.
As usually happens in such television projects, the city was built at the intersection of several invisible lines, which are an accumulation of incredible supernatural energy. It is here, where various events take place that have non-standard and beyond the limits of human understanding subtext, young actors fall. “Diaries of the Dark”, like Twin Peaks, Haven, Silent Hill and others, has become one of the few TV shows where all the action is tied to the same city.
What is a series?
The series resembles a peculiar cycle of almost unconnected fantastic stories. In this case, each series describes its ending in a mystical story, which is close in meaning to a detective story or thriller.
The characters of the stories are the inhabitants of the city of the Dark, who from time to time have to fight witches and sorcerers, mermaids, werewolves, vampires and other dishonesty. It is noteworthy that the characters, like the actors themselves (The Diaries of the Dark, a series reminiscent of the chaotic mix of Are You Afraid of the Dark, Twilight, and Supernatural), often change. Therefore, in almost every series new faces and heroes appear that have absolutely nothing to do with each other.
Subtleties of plot twists and turns
As such, a single storyline in the series is not traced. However, there is still a single character - a journalist, who, in fact, writes all these fantastic stories in his diary. Otherwise, the series tells about different heroes living in the city of Dark at one time or another.
Story examples from some episodes
For example, in one of the series of the television series in which the young artist Bogdan Yusipchuk starred, we are talking about the cute and fearless Sergey, who preys on vampires. At one point, he falls in love with a beautiful girl named Alina, but she turns out to be a ghoul in a woman's guise. Experiencing a chaotic sense of passion and love, he is faced with a difficult choice: to kill the object of adoration or to keep alive.
Another series speaks of a student of Mary, who fell head over heels in love with her teacher. Suffering inconsolably from his inattention, she decides to love spell. For this, the girl turns to a professional witch. But the young student does not even suspect what she will have to pay for this unusual request.
In the third series of the television series, where actor Sergey Shlyakhtyuk appears from time to time, she talks about the girl Svetlana. She suffers from personal emotional drama and, by chance, falls into the Dark.
Here the girl finds a fortuneteller, who, according to her assumption, should predict the future fate of the heroine. However, the soothsayer is one of the brightest representatives of the other world, so the fate of the girl is radically changing. “But this is only the beginning of a series of inexplicable supernatural events,” the actors share their opinions. “Diaries of the Dark”, according to them, is a wonderful and long-playing project with a good script. Unexpected and its plot twists and turns.
Actors ("Diaries of the Dark"): famous and not
In the series, actors with a variety of abilities, roles and cinema experience were involved. For example, in the Diaries of the Dark one can meet the young actress Natalya Denisenko, who already has a certain creative biography. So, the twenty-six-year-old artist previously could be seen in the following films and TV shows:
- “The Return of Mukhtar 8”;
- "Lonely Hearts";
- "Sashka";
- "Husband for an hour";
- “When the Dawn Comes”;
- "Split";
- "Fraternal bonds" and others.
The previously mentioned twenty-four-year-old actor Arthur Dvoryanov appeared in the television series. During his short career, the young man starred in such films as “Indian Summer”, “My Mom” and “Dreams from Plasticine”.
Sergey Shlyakhtyuk has a longer track record, because he has already managed to prove himself not only as an actor, but also as a director. He starred in two seasons of the series “Brother for Brother”, played a policeman in “Lombard”, was a skinhead in “Lonely Hearts”, Strelnikov’s fighter in “Trap” and participated in many other films.
Bogdan Yusipchuk, who has already managed to acquire a decent piggy bank of roles, also took an active part in the Diaries of the Dark. The young artist is already known to the public for his roles in the series about detective investigations of the magnificent dog Mukhtar.
He starred in the projects “Deliver at all costs”, “Passion for Chapay”, “Synevyr”, “Shadows of unforgettable ancestors”, “Guard”, “Nakhalka”, “Flight of the Golden Fly” and others.
During the filming, not only professional actors were involved (“Diary of the Dark” - a series in which most of the invited artists debuted), but also newcomers such as the Ukrainian soloist of the group “KAMON !!!” Alisa Cosmos, member of the musical duet "Dantes & Oleinik" Vadim Oleinik, Yan Zapolsky, Sergey Shishkov, Evgeny Kolesnikov and others.
Where did the series take place?
According to the general producer of the TET television channel, Irina Kostyuk, the shooting of the multi-part science-fiction film took place in Kiev. Moreover, many scenes had to be shot in a cemetery, in a forest, in a swamp and even abandoned city buildings. Sometimes the action took place under water, where not only the actors had to dive, but also the film crew.