Ask the Director Duo: Shooting Monkeys
If you have nothing to say you can find the most elegant words but they will be empty. The same counts for visuals. Storytelling is a skill that doesn’t come like that. It’s a skill you need to develop by practicing. Good storytelling is what captures an audience and makes a good film magic.
Tips for aspiring filmmakers..
Don’t do it!
There’s already more than enough competition as it is. Just kidding.
For real: Don’t rush it or put yourself under any pressure to be successful or please others. Be patient, shoot, develop your own voice and allow yourself time to gain experience. Experiment and just keep shooting.
Advice to your 20 years old self?
See above. Don’t be impatient. To set yourself goals is fine but in the end it’s all about the journey. Allow yourself time to experience life, so you actually have something to say. Be gentle with yourself, especially when you make mistakes and results are not what you imagine. Keep working, stay consistent and things will happen.
To set yourself goals is fine but in the end it’s all about the journey. Allow yourself time to experience life, so you actually have something to say.
On Storytelling
To me storytelling is the substance of it all. We’ve always told each other stories and film is a powerful way to do so. In our business the style often seems to be more important than the substance which I personally find boring. I’m a friend of the philosophy “form follows function”. If you have nothing to say you can find the most elegant words but they will be empty. The same counts for visuals. Storytelling is a skill that doesn’t come like that. It’s a skill you need to develop by practicing. Good storytelling is what captures an audience and makes a good film magic. In the short format of a commercial it’s a huge challenge to tell a story well.
Favourite Documentary?
I always find the “favourite” questions hard to answer. I don’t have ONE favourite documentary, there are too many good ones. I give you one that I found fantastic: “The Vietnam War” by Ken Burns.
How to start the creative process and tools you use.
Oh dear. I wish I could give you a simple recipe that I follow and that always works. I don’t have one. But let me try. As a director we get involved in a project either at the conceptual stage or when there’s already a concept. My first question is: What do we want to communicate? What is this all about? What’s the “story”? I break down the concept. From that point on, we play with ideas in which different directions the concept could be taken to work for the client and still be something cool (which is not a given in advertising ;) We play around with the puzzle pieces and slowly shape “a story”. So the tools I use are mainly rational analysis and imagination.
Your way into filmmaking was like…
…definitely not a straight one. More of a windy road with detours. I would lie if I told you that I’ve always been into film and already shot films with lego toys when I was 8. It took me until my early twenties to find out that film is what I wanted to do in my life. Amongst other things of course ;)
Where do you get your inspirations from?
Everywhere. Everyday life, books, films, photos……from everywhere. It changes through time. What’s a big inspiration now might be stuffed away in my memory in a few years. It changes all the time.
What's your spirit animal?
Is that an animal that I pick myself? Seems I don’t have one, because I’ve been thinking about answers for a few minutes now and there is no clear answer. The animals are all my spiritual brothers and sisters.
We have such an overstimulation with information and only limited time. I hardly find time to watch the films or read the books I want to.
Cool Instagram accounts to follow?
I’m not following any instagram accounts anymore. I’ve lost interest. When I was still following it there were some friends or people I knew that kept taking photos. They were not in the game for the fame. They just wanted to share their photography with some friends. I don’t like the whole self promoting aspect of the game. We have such an overstimulation with information and only limited time. I hardly find time to watch the films or read the books I want to. So instagram faded.
Selection of interesting movies.
I have a bad memory - here are some that pop to my mind: "A Prophet" by Jaques Audiard, "The Sisters Brothers" by the same director, "Fallen Angels" by Wong Kar Wai, "Moonlight", "Taxi driver", "Man bites dog"…..i could go on and on.
