Hi there!

We are so glad that you decided to buy Marina Submarina ebook.

Thank you for making our dream to publish children’s books possible.

Have a great time with this one!

Your Zuzka and Marka,

Your Zum Zum production

© Marka Staviarska, 2014

© Zum Zum production, s.r.o., 2016

© Adela Režná, 2014

© Jakub Dušička, 2016

© Michala Hudecová, 2016

Original Marka Staviarska, Marínka Somarinka – Ako nakrútiš film, aj keď nie si dospelák

© Zum Zum production, s.r.o., 2014

www.marinasubmarina.com

www.zumzumproduction.sk

Check app Marina Submarina

Table of contents

Chapter One

Why Marina is called Submarina and why she has a tattoo.

Chapter Two

About how Marina Submarina found out about the mission in her life.

Chapter Three

About the oath on the carousel and about how finally Grandpa arrived.

Chapter Four

About the script and why Jonas and Chris are offended.

Chapter Five

Script finished, film crew wanted!

Chapter Six

About how the director can’t be a yellow-belly and what’s the reward for producer.

Chapter Seven

About the big meeting in the sandpit and about how the shooting was unstoppably approaching.

Chapter Eight

Dangerous chapter which may not end up well…

Chapter Nine

About the floral lady and despair at the fountain.

Chapter Ten

Who’s Mr. Dzadon? That’s a surprise.

But the main topic of this chapter is that Marina knows exactly who will play Christopher.

Chapter Eleven

Chapter where many problems will be solved but mainly the one with costumes.

Chapter Twelve

Chapter about the attic.

Chapter Thirteen

You can’t see famous writers on TV except in the city center. And how they were almost shooting but not quite yet.

Chapter Fourteen

About preparations and why Marina Submarina invented the LOOK.

Chapter Fifteen

About Ivy. And also about one rather important thing.

Guess which one? Well, about filming!

Chapter Sixteen

Why sound designers shout cut and why apples fall on heads of naughty kids.

Chapter Seventeen

About how the shooting was almost called off and who was to be blamed and also about who saved the day.

Chapter Eighteen

About ice-cream, thirty-five millimeters and funny things but also about one sad thing.

Chapter Nineteen

About how you can’t find Malaysian Scriptacabra in the ZOO.

Chapter Twenty

Romantic Chapter.

Chapter Twenty-One

Sad chapter. Of course not, we’re just pulling your leg, it’s a cheerful chapter because everybody is happy but we will be sad because it’s the last one.

That’s why it’s a sad chapter for us.

Chapter One

Why Marina is called Submarina and why she has a tattoo.

“Hi! My name’s Marina” said little Marina when she came to school for the first time. She thought she said it loud enough, but the truth was she had butterflies in her stomach. And when you get butterflies in your stomach, you shiver, blush, talk really quietly and nobody can hear you and some may even cry when they get stage fright. Marina didn’t cry because she told herself seven times at home that she wouldn’t cry. She wouldn’t even sob, “Mommy, don’t go!” She was six after all! She even asked her dog Indy,

“Indy, shall I cry for mommy?”

And Indy said,

“Woof!”

So it was all clear then!

And so she just blushed and said with lowered eyes:

“Hi My Name’s Marina.”

“Submarina,” sounded from somewhere in the back of the classroom but Marina didn’t hear it. When the other kids got the giggles, she nearly dissolved to tears. But fortunately, Jonas and Chris explained everything to her on the carousel in the afternoon. They said they whispered Submarina after she said her name. And that it was funny. And they also said she had a super cool marine T-shirt and they would like to have one just like that, too. And Marina had wanted to be a sailor ever since.

But that was a very long time ago. Almost a year back! So many things have happened since then. For example, Marina’s Mum refused to buy her a boat. Marina was quite understanding, though as she suspected that such a boat was rather expensive when it cost twelve euros in a toy shop. Then she tried to write a letter to Santa. But he may not have gotten it right because she got the one from the toy shop.

“Next time”, Marina told her Mum, “I won’t dictate the letter to you. I will write it myself. Because you must have mixed it up somehow.” Besides the toy boat, Marina also got a book about sailors and pirates for Christmas, which totally changed her life, although not her whole life. Only some part of her life. But Marina found it a VERY IMPORTANT THING.

The book had many pictures of sailors. The strange thing was that there were only men. Jonas and Chris said that it was quite clear because men were stronger. And they could also do more stuff and knew their way around much better. But Marina wasn’t convinced. She asked them whether they could braid hair. They couldn’t. And another thing was that almost everyone in the book about sailors had a tattoo like this:

Marina knew quite a lot about boats so she immediately recognised an anchor. “So that your boat doesn’t float away when you park it,” she explained to her Mum who didn’t quite get why her daughter wanted to have an anchor tattoo on her arm. Mum said it was a big decision. For life. As if Marina didn’t know that. It is sometimes very difficult to explain stuff to mums. Jonas and Chris were on the same page about that.

They had been persuading their mum for ages, for about two weeks, that they wanted to have a dog. That Marina also had one. And she was two months younger. And so they kept on riding on the carousel for a little longer and understandingly nodded to all arguments in favor of a dog and a tattoo. Then the first street lamp lit up and they had to go home. To their moms. Who just don’t get anything.

Fortunately Marina got an excellent idea in the morning! She surreptitiously watched her Mum in the bathroom whether she didn’t change her mind about the whole tattoo thing. Her Mum was applying black eyeliner on her upper eyelid. As she did every morning. She said that after that she finally looked like a human. Marina had often come to see her Mum in the bedroom early in the morning to see whether she looked like some alien before she put her makeup on. She didn’t. But she was always very cross with Marina as she wanted to sleep in. “If you hit the sack at same time as me, you would get enough beauty sleep!” said Marina. “But you won’t hear of it, you just have to burn the midnight oil!” She surprised herself that she knew these words. It was very grown-up of her. And so her Mum was just putting on her eye makeup.

And Marina got a brilliant idea at that very moment: THAT SHE WOULD PAINT THE ANCHOR HERSELF! And she did. She did her best to hide it from her Mum, she really took great pains not to give herself away but her Mum found out the truth in the evening. Funny thing about that was that she wasn’t mad at all. She just smiled.

And then by far the most important day in Marina’s life arrived. Even more important than the day when she got her dog Indy. She thought at that time that there couldn’t be anything more important. Jonas and Chris told her at that time that they really noticed that she was somehow older and wiser.

But this was different. On this very day, Marina came to realize what her mission in life would be. You have to admit that this is definitely the most important day in one’s life.

Chapter Two

About how Marina Submarina found out about the mission in her life.

Jonas and Chris said that it was like this: Marina rushed into the school in the morning and apparently, her face looked weird. She howled with laughter, winked at them and whispered: “On the schoolyard! On the schoolyard later on…” Jonas and Chris even considered saying something to the teacher because they saw people who had some mental health problems in one movie on TV once. They agreed in the end that they would wait and see what would happen in the schoolyard although they were slightly afraid. Jonas even took a stick he found on the ground with him for defense. They met up behind the bushes near the fence as usual when they wanted to go into a huddle and consult about something very confidential. However, Jonas dropped the stick… He wanted to take to his heels, but Chris stopped him and it was a good thing because Marina was completely fine. Quite the contrary! They learned everything and were very pleased.

The dog Indy said it was like this: “Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof!” And he added that: “Vrrrr woof!”

Marina Submarina said it was like this: “Suddenly the white light lit up and glitters were scattered around the living room and very dramatic, but at the same time cheerful music started playing. It was probably Mozart. Or Sting,” she said. But we all know very well that Marina sometimes, but really only on rare occasions and in a very cute way, spins a yarn.

So this was what really happened: Mum tucked Marina in and went to prepare dinner for Dad. He had a twelve-hour shift at work that day. Marina couldn’t imagine that. Twelve hours! She spent much less time at school and it was a pretty big yawn sometimes! Mum kissed Marina goodnight and left. But Marina couldn’t fall asleep. She kept tossing and turning. She sat up and watched the street lamp that was lit up outside and swung her legs. Nothing. She got up and took her teddy bear from the shelf and cuddled up to him. But this was the kind of information that wasn’t to be disclosed to Jonas and Chris under any circumstances because it would soon spread around the whole playground that she snuggled with a teddy bear! So shush! She just couldn’t fall asleep and only later she realized it was fate.

She went out of her room although she risked ticking off her Mum. And, man, what she saw! Her Mum wasn’t preparing dinner for Dad! She was lolling on the sofa, eating popcorn and watching a movie! “Ha!” said Marina and put her hands on her hips. “All right, come and watch with me for a little while. My little sailor girl.” Marina snuck under the blanket to her Mum, filled her hands with popcorn on the way and fixed her eyes on the screen. There were a man with a painted face and a very pretty lady cruising the sea on a perfect huge boat. They were Pirates of the Caribbean. Or at least that was the name of the movie. As Marina watched, she realized it had to be incredibly difficult to be a sailor or a pirate. There was always someone who wanted to kill you, you could drown, or your boat could sink and then you would have to get a new one.

“Mum!” she said all of a sudden. That was probably the moment when the white light and the music she mentioned went on. “Mum! I got it! I don’t want to be a sailor!” “And what would you like to be, baby?” “I will make a movie about it! It must be so much fun, don’t you think? Making movies about anything you want!” Mum broke into laughter and Marina was slightly hurt because she had just come to realize the most important thing of her life. But her Mum wasn’t taunting her, she just explained to her that it wasn’t all just a piece of cake.

If she really wanted, she could give it a try but she has to brace herself for loads of work. “And how do you know that, Mum?” “We can call your Grandpa tomorrow and you will see.” “Not until tomorrow?! Let’s call him right away!” And she added: “Please!” Because that is a polite thing to say and people who don’t say “please” and “thank you” and “good morning ma’am” are already in prison. That was what Mum as well as Chris and Jonas’ mum says so it must be true.

Marina knew that her Grandpa is a writer, that he writes books. They even have some on the shelf, but she has only read titles so far. She can read and write a little but reading such thick books has to wait until she is twenty or thirty. But how it was possible that only then, only then…?! After six years and nine months of her life, she learned that her Grandpa was also a filmmaker?! And moreover, a screenwriter?! Mum laughed again. She said that she discussed that with Dad two million times. And that Marina probably just didn’t know what a screenwriter was so it just slipped her mind. Ha! That she didn’t know. That was… that was… a man who…

“Mum? And what is the screenwriter?” Well, all right, she didn’t have a clue. Mum wouldn’t say a word to anyone. Neither would Indy. And Dad came in later, right after. Phew! That was a narrow escape.

Mum told Marina that Grandpa would explain everything to her and that he even had a video camera. Awesome! Marina made a dash for the phone although it was already ten in the evening and she was supposed to be fast asleep. They agreed that Grandpa would come for summer holidays in a few weeks. She couldn’t go and stay with Grandpa because she didn’t really know her way around Presov as she did around her hometown, Bratislava. And she couldn’t take Jonas and Chris. And that Grandpa could stay the whole summer with them. He would sleep on the sofa although that was Indy’s sack. And that the movie would be about sailors and she would be a boss, as Grandpa said, she would direct it and she might even be a producer.

Marina Submarina settled down for the night in her bed, Mum and Dad kissed her goodnight and she fell asleep with a smile on her face. But one second before she entered dreamland, she indulged in the thought that it was probably the very happiest day, or actually night, of her life.

Chapter Three

About the oath on the carousel and about how finally Grandpa arrived.

Two awfully long weeks had to pass until the beginning of summer holidays. Marina was to enter the 2nd grade after the summer. Although she told her Mum, she didn’t need any school because all she needed was her Grandpa to teach her how to make movies. She would have a job and, on the top of that, a job she would love. “You keep saying that all the time, Mum, that it’s the most important of all. Having a job that you enjoy.” And that was the moment when she learned a terrible thing from her Mum. That before starting work, her Mum had studied for altogether eighteen years! Primary and secondary school and university. And that Marina was most likely to do the very same. Instead, she went out with Jonas and Chris to avoid hearing more of that terrible stuff from her Mum.

They took an oath on the carousel. “We would otherwise have to spend half of our lives at that school!” said Jonas. The oath went like this: The movie that we will make has to be so good that it will win an Oskar in America in Hollywood. “You spell it Oscar,” said Marina. And three of them will go to Hollywood and make movies there forever. Marina knew a little bit about Hollywood and Oscars. She saw how her Mum and Dad always admired the dresses of actresses walking down a big red carpet. And so she imagined which dress she would take. Probably the one with red stripes. It was a sailor dress, but a very elegant one. “Oscar is a little golden statuette which is awarded to the best movie or actress or actor,” she explained to Jonas and Chris because although they pretended to know everything, the truth was they didn’t.

“And here in Europe, we have Cannes instead of Oscars. And in Slovakia, we have Trencianske Teplice,” said Mum. Marina wrote it down in her notebook:

Mum bought her the notebook. A thick and terribly nice one, with a boat on the cover. That was a notebook for the script which Marina was to write. A thing of great importance! That’s where a screenwriter has to write down everything that comes into his or her mind. And Marina already noted these ideas there: huge boat, pretty actress most likely in the floral dress, there would be some fatal love, win Oscar, Kan, Trencianske tjeplice.

“You spell Kan as Cannes,” said Dad in the evening and Marina gave him an angry look. Not because Kan was spelled Cannes. It was because he read her screenwriter’s notebook and what if he stole her ideas. And then he would want to make a movie with a pretty actress and fatal love! Dad promised not to do that and that he would read it only with her permission because she was right that other people’s notebooks or letters or emails or text messages weren’t supposed to be read by other people. Let alone screenwriter’s notebooks.

Marina Submarina could hardly wait for the summer holidays to begin. She got dressed and washed on her own in the morning, ate her whole breakfast and while Mum and Dad were finishing theirs, she was already by the door and waited impatiently. She even walked Indy. Mum said she wished Marina was like that all the time. “Write to Santa,” giggled Marina.

The day with a capital D finally arrived. Marina got up at five and woke up Mum and Dad, just in case so that they would not oversleep. She didn’t care that Grandpa wasn’t supposed to come until eleven. Marina knew very well how Mum and Dad could easily oversleep and how they liked wallowing in bed on Saturdays! “But we go to work on weekdays!” they protested. “And I go to school and have dancing lessons, too!” argued Marina and won. Because Mum and Dad didn’t have any dancing lessons. Long ago, they promised her they would. And then later, that they would do yoga every morning. But Marina saw them doing yoga only twice.

Grandpa arrived and said that nobody had ever hugged him with such happiness in their eyes as Marina at the station. “Not even Grandma?” asked Marina. He said that, actually, she had. Four times. When Mum was born, Uncle Richie, Uncle George and then Marina.

They got down to work right away. Because they couldn’t let grass grow under their feet! Marina had already told her schoolmates and teachers and friends at the playground and even at the neighboring playground and at the dancing school that she was going to make a movie. And they couldn’t wait! So they had to start hammering away! Grandpa laughed and was pleased to see Marina’s enthusiasm. But he said she could at least wait until they had finished the script. And then PROMO. That’s what he said. And Marina immediately jotted it down:

“So you will also be a producer,” said Grandpa and Marina eagerly agreed. Although she pondered later what it actually was. But she wanted to be everything! “Producer is a man or a woman who scrapes together money and everything necessary for making a movie. And puts together the whole team, a film crew to be exact. Because making a movie is teamwork.” “So, I can’t do everything by myself?” inquired Marina. “You can. But the best thing is when everyone does what they can do best. For example, when somebody is good at music and sound, he can be a sound designer.” “I see,” gasped out Marina. She knew only a little about the music. She sometimes watched MTV. And she didn’t know how to use a video camera much either. In fact, not at all. But she would write the script! She had such amazing ideas after all! Ideas which nobody had ever had before! She dashed off to fetch her notebook. It was hidden. But we won’t say where so that you don’t find out and steal Marina’s fantastic ideas!