News - Eurovision 2008 director: No sleep till May | Eurovision Song Contest News - 2008 Belgrade, Serbia 

Fresh from directing this year's Melodifestivalen, Swedish-Serbian director Sven Stojanovic returns for the fourth time to the Eurovision Song Contest to direct the broadcast in May. In an interview with Serbian Blic, Sven discussed the preparations and gave some insight on the amount of work the mega project involves.

Sven Stojanovic, a Swedish citizen born to a Serbian father and a Croatian mother, is no novice in the Eurovision Song Contest. He has already directed successfully the contest three times from 2003 to 2005, in Riga, Istanbul and Kiev. Sven, naturally, feels honoured to be working for the contest once more, especially as this time he is returning to his father's homeland where his family lives.

The director is absolutely happy with this year's location as he feels the Belgrade Arena is the best venue he has worked at both in terms of size and capacity and also because the way the Arena is constructed is ideal for the cameras and light. Sven is fully aware that directing the contest is a huge project, involving thousands of people to ensure a perfect outcome. He cannot know beforehand the exact number of people involved in the realisation of the broadcast on 20, 22 and 24 May but "Technically speaking, rehearsals and broadcasts will be handled by 250 people, however, there are technicians, mixers, people in charge of sound at the Arena, commentators from 43 countries, people from RTS, 2,000 reporters from all over Europe... We will be working with at least 20 cameras, which is more than enough, perhaps I will have 24 cameras available, but I will most certainly not use cameras which I know won't be necessary", he says to Blic. Sven will be soon returning to Belgrade where he will be staying until May.

To give an idea of the amount of work required, Sven Stojanovic estimates that each of the 43 participating songs requires from five to eight hours of work. The director needs to "feel the song" and try different approaches to it so it is presented in the best possible way. Rehearsals will last for 12 crazy days, ten hours per day followed by meeting upon meeting to decide on changes in the presentation of each song. "This means that 15 days before Eurovision I will be lucky to get three hours of sleep a day. That is why this job is very demanding, both physically and psychologically" says Sven "After the contest, I am taking a looong holiday, but if you know any good hospitals, I may need one...", he laughs.

Thank you Travis Grass for the submission of the information.