All posts in “EFC”

Click here for some horrendous acting (and blood!)

Posted 1706 days ago · Tagged: european film college, the nursery · 5 Comments

I don’t know why I haven’t mentioned this before, but a lot of the movies made during my stay the European Film College, has been put online. One of them is “The Nursery”, a sci-fi horror movie I co-directed and wrote for our final projects (well, I made an adaptation). I’m not particularly proud of the outcome, the acting is mindblowingly bad, but at least I feel we partly succeeded in creating some suspense in the final scene. Also, our budget was 2,500 kr.

I’ve also added direct links to some of the movies I think you should take a look at, “The Sandbox” is an animated film, made with rotoscoping by a group of people who had no experience in this field, when they started at the school. Some scenes haven’t been completed, but that’s actually kind of cool, since it gives you an idea of how much work’s had to be done. You should also take a look at “A Life Depleted”, an extra-curricular (made in the students’ sparetime), written by Simon (polt).

All movies
“The Nursery”
“The Sandbox”
“A Life Depleted”

Stuff I’ve been doing

Posted 1837 days ago · Tagged: anders w berthelsen, det som ingen ved, lost, rasmus heisterbeg, ray bradbury · 4 Comments

Hello there, I finally got around to post a new entry, I’ll just kind of write about stuff I’ve been doing the last three weeks or so.

First of I ended my stay at the European Film College, it was rather sad, especially because some of the friends I’ve made live in other countries. On the other hand, staying in touch is easier than ever with Facebook, Skype, etc. The last week on the school was awesome, we didn’t really have anything to do, the only real thing that was planned was the screening of our final projects, so we just partied.

My movie didn’t really turn out that good, our main problem was the actors, we had two kids and two adults, the actor playing the dad was very good, the other three kind of sucked. Also, since it’s a sci-fi we kind of had to built a convincing set and we only had 1500 DKK for the entire project, but the end result was still satisfying (see pictures in latest entries). It was awesome to see the other final projects though, some of them were really, really good.

As a finale we got to see Nimbus Film’s new movie, Det som ingen ved (What No One Knows) because their owner, Bo Erhardt, is the chairman of the school’s board. Leading role is (surprise, surprise) Anders W. Berthelsen, and it’s a "Oh-my-God-is-the-Danish-government-making-chemical-weapons"-kind of thriller with an added commentary to the Big Brother-like society we’ve come to live in. It’s directed by Søren Kragh-Jacobsen and co-written by Rasmus Heisterberg, Nikolaj Arcel’s writing partner from the EFC. I didn’t really like the movie though, seemed like I had seen it before, just better.

Then I got home, just in time to prepare a little doc-like movie for my mom’s 50-year birthday, which was this friday. It all went down fine. I also got to see Iron Man which was a pleasure to watch, well, until the movie’s third act though. I’m thinking of going to the cinema to see it again. On another note, the fourth season of Lost has started again, and I’m gonna watch the tenth episode this afternoon. The season has really taken off, the start was quite boring, but now it’s great. Since the weather is so nice I’ve also bought a bunch of Ray Bradbury books, more specifically Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man and The Martian Chronicles. Right now I’m reading the Chronicles, it’s a bunch of short stories about mankind’s colonization of Mars, and they all intertwine nicely. The book’s written in 1951, and the stories all take place in 1999 – 2025, kind of funny to read.

Shooting ‘The Nursery’

Posted 1869 days ago · 3 Comments

We’ve finally begun main production on the final project I wrote. It’s a sci-fi horror which centers around a small family; George and Linda Hadley and kids Peter & Wendy, in a distant future, in which almost all everyday tasks have been automated. The children’s room, the nursery, has been replaced by an advanced virtual reality, which will display whatever environment and creature the children wish for. The parents become worried when they realize that the children have become obsessed with an imaginative forest inhabited by dark creatures.

Last week we started building the set, which consists of a futuristic kitchen / living room, bedroom and hallway. Sunday we started shooting some forest scenes and since then we’ve mainly shot on our set. The shooting will be done thursday and then we’ll edit until the 18th. Anyway, here are some pictures:

The basic framework of the set.

The bedroom, ready for shoot. The monitor says ‘SLEEP MODE: ON – OFF’.

We thought of this as the replacement for the newspaper of today. You flick a button and recent news stories appear on your wall. The news stories here are kind of silly (first one being a reference to another final project) but you won’t be able to read any of them in the movie.

This is supposed to control the entire home; food, cleaning, entertainment, everything.

So far it’s been going pretty well, cool actors and we’re on schedule. Looking forward to having everything shot now, the days are long. All behind the scene pictures can be seen here.

Final Project scripts chosen

Posted 1899 days ago · 3 Comments

My stay at the European Film College is coming to an end, and a little over a week ago students could submit scripts for the 15 final projects. 65 scripts were submitted in total, and yesterday the selected scripts were announced, my script was chosen!

THIS IS IT, MY BREAK IS HERE, SCREW YOU, I’M GOING TO HOLLYWOOD, WOOOH… Okay, maybe not, but I’m still very happy. The 15-page script is based on The Veldt, a sci-fi novel from 1950, and I started some early production work today. I’ve gotten most of my crew together, I’ll be 1st Assistant Director, and I’ve found my Director, Production Manager, Editor, Ass. Gaffer and hopefully my Cinematographer and Key Gaffer. It’s going to need a lot of work on set design (and perhaps also visual effects) and finding someone to do sound may be harder than I thought. Anyway, I’m a bit stressed right now, since I’m also writing my application for ‘Den Grafiske Højskole’ in Copenhagen.

Also, six out of the seven students in my writing group at the school had their scripts chosen (including Simon aka. polt, grats!), we’re like totally awesome.

Awesome movies seen at the EFC

Posted 1925 days ago · 1 Comment

Lilja 4-ever (9/10)
"Lilja is 16 years old. Her only friend is the young boy Volodja. They live in Estonia, fantasizing about a better life. One day, Lilja falls in love with Andrej. He is going to Sweden, and invites Lilja to come along and start a new life."

Very strong movie about a young girl struggling to make a living. One of Moodysson’s best.

Living in Oblivion (9/10)
"Film about filmmaking. It takes place during one day on set of non-budget movie. Ultimate tribute to all independent filmmakers."

Great little movie starring Steve Buscemi and Catherine Keener. Buscemi plays a director struggling to finish his movie.

Grbavica (8/10)
"A woman and her daughter struggle to make their way through the aftermath of the Balkan war."

Very emotional, must see.

Reprise (8/10)
"Two competitive friends, fueled by literary aspirations and youthful exuberance, endure the pangs of love, depression and burgeoning careers."

Made by former EFC student Joachim Trier, Reprise is a rather unique movie. The editing is different from what you usually see, but the movie is incredible.

Double Dare (9/10)
"Double Dare is a double-barreled, action-packed documentary about the struggles of two stuntwomen in male-dominated Tinseltown to stay working, stay thin, and stay sane."

Very entertaining documentary about legendary stunt woman Jeannie Epper, and up-and-coming star Zoe Bell, who came, unemployeed, from New Zealand and ended up being Uma Thurman’s stunt double in the two Kill Bill movies. Bell’s story if by far the most interesting, mainly because she is so damn sweet. I saw this twice in two days after purchasing it, something I very rarely do.

RoboCop (9/10)
"In a dystopic & crime ridden Detroit, a terminally wounded cop returns to the force as a powerful cyborg with submerged memories haunting him."

You should all know this movie, and I’ve seen it before coming to the EFC, of course, but after rewatching it here I realized how extremely awesome this movie is. I’m a sucker for dystopian and/or post-apocalyptic movie settings, and the sad, future version of Detroit is incredible.

Garden State (9/10)
"A quietly troubled young man returns home for his mother’s funeral after being estranged from his family for a decade."

Natalie Portman is so fucking cute in this movie. Zach Braff is nice, too.

Primer (8/10)
"Four friends/fledgling entrepreneurs, knowing that there’s something bigger and more innovative than the different error-checking devices they’ve built, wrestle over their new invention."

This is a real low-budget movie, made for only $7.000. The crew shot 80 minutes of film in total, and the movie is 78 minutes long, incredible. It’s about four guys who accidentally creates a time machine, and the movie is one long mindfuck.

Braindead (9/10)
"A young man’s mother is bitten by a Sumatran rat-monkey. She gets sick and dies, at which time she comes back to life, killing and eating dogs, nurses, friends, and neighbors."

Peter Jackson’s zombie classic. I never thought he had actually made a movie I would like more than the Rings trilogy, but this one is amazing, one of the best zombie movies I’ve ever seen.

Nanook of the North
"Documents one year in the life of Nanook, an Eskimo (Inuit) and his family."

Nanook was made in 1922, and is considered one of the first documentaries created, although it’s not really a documentary. It’s still surprisingly entertaining.

Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead (8/10), Day of the Dead (8/10)
The Living Dead trilogy, saw them in a row and they are, of course, among the finest zombie movies ever made.