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.