Farmer Hendrik goes to Egypt

After Prague, Cannes and St. Petersburg, Hendrik will travel to an other exotic place, this time Egypt. Hendrik is selected for the first edition of Luxor Egyptian and European Film Festival.

The festival will take place from 17 - 22 september. After the Dutch premiere in the cinema "Het FraterHuis" in Zwolle. http://www.filmtheaterfraterhuis.nl

MOTIVATION

Its been a while since I posted something on this blog. In the meantime I went to Cannes with my short film Hendrik and I was waiting for the reaction of an other Film Festival, "Festival of Festivals" in St. Petersburg (Russia). They said they will announce the selected films on there website. After a week of waiting I gave up. I haven't got any mail and I didn't saw anything on their webpage. 2 weeks later my partner Olga visited the website and discovered Hendrik got selected for this festival.

Beside the selection for the 2 international filmfestival, nothing much happened. The only landmark at this moment is a year after graduation. This is a moment to look back and evaluate my current position in comparing with the goals I created last year.
My goal is to make 2 short films a year. In didn;t shot a film in 2012 yet, but 2 projects are in progress.
Being selected for festivals and the positive feedback I got, motivates me to create more films. The counter part of not being motivated is the financial situation. As a started we state in difficult times, especially an artist who starts. Sometimes I have my doubts about my business, but its my hobby and I like it.

The following 2 films I would like to share with you to motivate you in difficult times. The message is simple but this will keep me awake. Especially the Dragonball Z video, as I am a huge fan of, inspires me greatly.

                                          

Charity for KWF Kankerbestrijding

I was invited to a concert of a friend of mine in a small pub. Not realizing he was performing for charaity reasons, I got interested what this event was. It appeared his neighboor Taco Smit is going to bike the Alpe D'huzes (France) six times in name of KWF kankerbestrijding, a charity foundation that fight for cancer.

After an hour of good coffee and sharing idea's we came to a concept. This video is made with the help of volunteers. Here you can see the result of hour one day of shooting. 

One year later

From nature we humans wants the best in everything. The best food, the best car, the best partner, etc. I think this is one of human natural behavior. Also I look for quality. That's why I reedited my Prague Filmschool Diplome film, Hendrik, and let my composer Gagi Petrovic, created music and let a sound designed fixed the bad sound recordings.

Patiently after almost a year I can send Henrik to film festivals. Cannes filmfestival is one of the first filmfestivals I send Hendrik to. Today I got a conformation email from the festival that Hendrik has been validated for the Short Corner.

Cannes short Corner is the first festival accepting Hendirk, hope others will follow. Until that time I will work on other projects.

3D SOUND

If I ask the question to a regular person; "what is film?", the person would answer something like, a story told in pictures. And that would be a correct answer. And with film we think about actors, directors, camera and lights. Even during my study, the focus of filmmaking lies in these terms. But something that is underestimated is sound.

When I was shooting my first film, Het Schilderij, I made a misstake with scouting my location. I found a beautiful, historical location, but the location was on busy street. I had a good sound recorder/mixer who know how to deal with these situations and created a good sound mix for my film. But this is the moment I realized that sound for a film needs the same attention as the picture itself. 

Today I read an article on filmnieuws.nu about the new film of the dutch filmmakers Eugenie Jansen and Albert Elings Above my head, which was shot in 3D. Elings quoted "Geluid is leidend in het verbeelden van ruimte...", which means "Sound leads imagining the space..." I am not sure if they know something about the new sound technology, auro - 3D, but I would know this technique would make there film even more realistic, where sound and the image comes together. 

I am not so technical to explain how Auro 3D works, but I know that the experience of sound becomes more realistic. The attached video  explain visually how it works. 

Source: auro-3d

Unfortunately, experiencing this new sound-technique is very limited. The Theater Kinepolis in Antwerpen would be the first cinema in West Europe who would use this technique. Some cinema's in USA, China and Russia have this new sound system. 

So for me it will take some time to experience this, but for now, I would work with Stereo and finish the musicvideo I shot last Saturday. But about this project would follow later. 

Dealing with clients

Illustration by Kilu Zamana on Facebook

It has been a while since I have been on a set of a music video, but tomorrow this record will be broken. This time I will shoot a music video for the young artist Shno Kamal.

What started as a small agreement to shoot a live performance turns out to become a full music video. Still the focus of this video lies on the live performance of Shno, but we, "Tree Film Productions", wanted a narrative story in this video.

We from Tree Film Productions are young artist who're trying to become successful in the thing we like to do the most, Film. So in the beginning you do the things rationally and without thinking of any consequences. Past projects learned us and specially me, how to deal with specific situations, but still facing problems are one of the most common things. But thinking after dealing with these problems you still make misstakes of the same topic.

The problems I am talking about are clients. They don't have to be necessary problems, but as long you deal with parties who wants something from you, things can become very complicated. This is why contracts are invented. Contract to make sure both parties are agreed about how the corporation is organized. I am happy that a lots of models are on the internet to help me setting up a decent contract.

So, now the legal agreements are settled, the production can starts. And hopefully I learned enough to make sure I will have the same problems in the future.

Quentin Tarantino's favorite and bad filmlist 2011

Last year Quentin Tarantino published a list of his favorite film of the year 2009 on http://www.tarantino.info/ This list was so populair that he decided to publish a 2011-list.
I copied the list from the webpage of film1.

Below you can read the list.

Quentin Tarantino's official Top eleven of 2011
1. Midnight in Paris
2. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
3. Moneyball
4. La piel que habito
5. X-Men: First Class
6. Young Adult
7. Attack the Block
8. Red State
9. Warrior
10. The Artist / Our Idiot Brother (gedeeld)
11. The Three Musketeers

Others he like:
50/50
Beginners
Hugo
The Iron Lady
Carnage
The Green Hornet
Green Lantern
Captain America: The First Avenger
The Descendants
My Week With Marilyn
Fast & Furious 5
The Tree of Life
The Hangover Part II
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
The Beaver
Contagion
The Sitter
War Horse

Nice Try Award:
Drive
Hanna
Drive Angry
Real Steel

Best Director:
Pedro Almodóvar voor La piel que habito
Bennett Miller voor Moneyball
Woody Allen voor Midnight in Paris
Jason Reitman voor Young Adult
Michel Hazanavicius voor The Artist

Best Original screenplay:
Midnight in Paris
Young Adult
Red State
Attack the Block
Our Idiot Brother
Beginners

Best adapted script
Moneyball
La piel que habito
Carnage
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Hugo
X-Men: First Class

Bad Films:
Sucker Punch
Potiche
Miral
Insidious
Rampart
Straw Dogs
Paranormal Activity 3
Meek's Cutoff

Amazing "flying" camera movements

This message will the first I publish in the new year. I would like to wish you all a good, but more, a creative year.

Today, we at home, got a visit by my uncle, to ask my father to join him to search for a new car. While he was waiting for my father, we got a talk about camera movements and how some beautiful shots are created. He was especially amazed by "Karsten Jacobsen" operating shot during the Eurovision songfestival a few years ago.
Also I mentioned, because of the light weight of the DLSR camera's, "flying" shots are easier to create by using remote helicopters.

By coincident, I read something about the unique BBC documentary Earthfly. This film, produced by John Downer Productions creates a world wereby, we as viewer are in the wings of the birds. We see their point of view. I have seen this film yet, but seeing parts of the film on the net, makes thrilling to watch this film.

Christmas update

The last week of the year 2011 starts. In this blog I will tell something about our last projects and what is coming up.

First of all, Olga and I shot a few project, before going to the Netherlands to celebrate christmas. The first project we were shooting is a viral-commercial for an android application called "animating touch". This project is the second project after Prague Film School. The first viral commercial was for the Russian company "Uhnwa".

I have learned from previous projects and tried an improved techniques on the "animating touch". This turned out to work pretty wel. 

The casting I did was pure based on the looks of the actors and the personality. I had two long days of talking with the actors. Some didn't understand English, but Olga helped me with the translation. One of the topics that came up was my different approach to actors. They told me that my approach and working with actors was relaxed and more human. They told me the Russian directors are tough people. I guess the mentality of the Russian society works strong with the hierarchy. You need to pass the man with the mercedes, while a person with a volkswagen is a low class person. I guess the rule of this way of living works as well in the film business.

Next to this big project I shot 2 small project for our Tree Film Production. One is a surprise and the other one you can see below.

Last year was for me a big challenge and learned a lot. I changed in different aspects as well as in life. What 2012 will bring will be a surprise. My plan is to continue working on a short film and hope to get the finance done within a few months. More updates about this project will follow next year.

Keep an eye on this blog for more news.

Christmas in St. Petersburg

Besides the "29 ways of staying creative", it has been a while since I've posted something. So I thought it's a good time for an up-date.

A lot happened since the last time. First of all I continued working on a script I wrote at Prague Filmschool last year. I extended the script and did some more research about the Czech history in the last 300 years to apply on my story. I got some interested results. I will tell more about this project in a few weeks. Now I will focus on my stay in St. Petersburg.

It is the 3rd time since 5 months I'm St. Peterburg. I witnessed the summer, fall and the start of the winter and its incredible to see how the days turns from light until night. I have never thought the sunlight can change so quick. And one of the most magical moments is the start of the winter. On my birthday, magic started for the first time of the year. Especially with all the christmas lights in the streets.

Besides the Christmas spirit, I am also in St. Petersburg for some project with Tree Film Productions. A few projects are running and I have met some interesting people. The D.O.P I am going to work with for our next project, also organizes filmevents. I participated with 2 films and I witnessed for the 1st time the opinion of viewers, who had never seen my films before. It was interesting to hear what their reactions were. Especially when the feedback is in Russian. The critical feedback made me think what to do with my future projects. Hopefully this will turn out better for my films. 

29 ways to stay creative

Sometimes I have problems to create ideas. Especially when a deadline comes ahead and the client is breathing on your neck. This video, made by guys from, to-fu, reminds me how te stay focussed and creative.

Enjoy the video.

start as a entrepreneur

Hello world. I thought it was time to post something again. Since the last time a lot happened, but the most resent event was the starters day of the Dutch camber of commerce. Young entrepreneurs could follow seminars and talk with experts in specific fields.

Lode Schaeffer from Indie Amsterdam, one of the speakers, gave a presentation about the qualities an entrepreneur needs. From his point of view of course. The tips he gave were very helpful cause he is like me, a creative person.

Now, as a young entrepreneur and the tips of Lode I hope to become a successful director. But time will tell. 

hypocritical capitalism

I discovered this picture on facebook and it upset me. The whole world is up side down when Steve Job pasted away. But this single picture reflect who we in the western world look at this event. Selfish   

Steve Job is responsible for our lifestyle nowadays. We all use his products and inventions. Even I do when I write this blog. So it is big news when a person like Steve past away. But when I see the reaction of people on several internet pages, news papers and television, I get the feeling they treat him as a god.

Steve delivered us computers and other divises to make our life comfortable. But we forget the people who doesn't have the possibility to buy those machines. In fact, they haven't got money to buy food. And that is what live is about. Staying alive is the first priority of all creatures.

The crazy reaction of the people is what we human in the western world makes us selfish. This is what capitalism does with our way of thinking. I mentioned in my previous blog that money controls the people. This is an example. I think people need to realize what really matters in life.

Money and Love

Money is the thing that controls our live. Money is needed to buy the things you like, as well as the things you need. It's also a source for your emotional feeling. It can makes you feel happy, relaxed, exited. But also sad, unhappy and it even hurts. They say: "money doesn't make you happy" but I think having no money can make you feel unhappy.

Those who have a lot of money are in control. Banks, oil companies, government. They are the people who creates the rules. They say what is possible or not. Some countries controls the citizens complicity while others give you more freedom. But what is freedom. As long our world is controlled by money there is no freedom. I feel free when I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. And for now i feel chained.

An other source that controls a lots of emotions and feeling is love. It makes you happy, feel good, energetic but is also can make you feel sad, angry, depressed and it can particular hurt. 

Having no money and love hurts me the most nowadays. I am in a moment of making choices. I always try to follow my instinct, so I probably need to do that again. Despite these two source that makes me feel fucked up, it also makes me hunger. Hunger to be against everything. I am stubborn and see this as challenge to be against everything.I will follow my own route, and want to do it my own way. I will live. 

A new adventure

This is my first message ever on a blog. I would like to announce my premiere. The future will tell me what I'll post in this blog. Most likely it will be short report of the projects.

So, currently I am finishing a short film and a few commercials. All produced under the licence of the film company Tree Film Productions.