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Creative Corner => The Art Gallery => Topic started by: Just Withnail on June 16, 2010, 12:57:38 PM

Title: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on June 16, 2010, 12:57:38 PM
Hi everyone!

Have a short film I did earlier this year. Loosely based on my experiences with working in psychiatry in Oslo.

GREP
Can be watched here. (http://vimeo.com/12150509)

It's also showing at the Norwegian Short Film Festival this weekend, and was nominated for a public choice thing at this site (http://nrkp3.no/filmpolitiet/2010/05/grep/). Winner is decided by vote, so please do if you liked the film!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Pubrick on June 18, 2010, 01:50:41 AM
hey man that was great.

i went to the second site where you said we can vote for it but i couldn't figure out how to, everything is in a weird language that makes no sense to me. once i figure out how to vote i will definitely encourage everyone to do so!  in the meantime everyone should watch this little film.

i'll now talk a bit about what i liked:

- for starters, it's short. it doesn't waste any time doing things that many bad short films fall trap to. a lot of short films waste too much time on silence or useless dialogue. there is no expository dialogue in this story apart from the simple identification of the main character that he repeats a few times and couldn't be explained any other way without giving away the ending, that is when he says "i work on tor" and gives some information about his background. the rest of the short is just the training, i love it.

- on the subject of the training. it's a great idea to make a film around this idea of physical training. as we all know it's useful in montages to progress a story where simply learning something creates a momentum and an internal narrative of progression where a character can grow. this is basic story telling. what i think is neat about something as simple as as this short film is that it engages the audience with the proven method of physical activity suggestive of violence without stooping to one of the other great pitfalls of crappy shorts which is showing actual violence. real graphic violence is almost NEVER earned in short films, it's just a cheap way to get someone's attention and personally i have always found it embarrassing and amateur in execution. murder, blood, extreme violence or language, this is the arsenal of a hack short film maker (sorry anyone who does this on a regular basis).

- it has a great structure whereby the end will make you want to rewatch the beginning and maybe reassess the way you looked at this character at the start. the ending of the film really dictates what kind of film it is. at first it made me wonder what is this, some kind of public service announcement? but your backstory (that it's based on your experience) kind of explains where the film is coming from. the lead actor is very good at doing everything the film requires, and that is going from someone who is not taking things seriously to someone who is.

- it's not perfect. somehow feels a bit incomplete but i think that was always going to be the case as the film is all about an introduction of some sort. it's sort of about a "first step". so it's not that important that the ending supply us with anything more than the character's realisation of this first step.

a few questions:

- what does GREP mean? -- oh nevermind i figured this out, it's GRIP. awesome title! add it to the list of things i like, definitely gels with the theme of the story.
- what did you shoot on? (the omnipresent 7D? if so you'll get a news header!)
- how many shorts have you made that are at the technical and performance level of this one? is this your big foray into the festival/comp circuit? is it just one many great shorts you've made? (i'm guessing you were writer/director)
- again.. how do i vote?
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on June 18, 2010, 06:35:49 AM
Wow, thanks for the generous reply! Will have to keep this pretty short, as I'm at the festival as we speak. I wrote, directed and edited it.

The voting is done by pressing the green button to the right saying "Stem på denne filmen!" (the language is Norwegian). Voting closes on Sunday.

Really glad you liked it, and feel bad to give such a brief reply, but will write more tomorrow or Sunday.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: RegularKarate on June 18, 2010, 10:59:54 AM
This was really good.  I really like both these actors.  Especially the non-lead guy... he was really subtle yet expressive.

I don't see any green button when I go to the vote page, otherwise I totally would.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on June 18, 2010, 08:23:04 PM
Ah, shite, voting's closed!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on June 20, 2010, 02:48:53 PM
Holy shit! I just got an Honorable Mention from the jury but I'm on the bus home! Ah, well.

Again, thank you for the comments.

You really got what I tried to do by focusing so much on the training, the steps of the program. I wanted to show how systematically one has to learn to lodge another person to the floor, and how technical these training sessions are, leaving little room for, or encouragement of, reflections around the use of restraint. A big chunk of the people working in these institutions in Norway are students who work part time, and this sort of work really requires every inch of your attention. As I wanted to show, these situations will almost certainly make the participants reflect around what they're doing, but there's still no official forum for reflection. It just has to be accepted. And this program is just one of many different ways to engage with the "users" (also something of a misnomer), that are rarely said to be what they often are: a program specific to the given institution, and not something set in stone and official. Hopefully a tad of this is in the film through negation - by ethics never being brought up, hopefully they importance comes through in their absence.

Which also applies to the violence, as you say. It's THERE, but it's not, because the participants are just learning this as if it was a martial arts program (which it in all practicality is, only one that must and will be used). Hopefully, the violence of the lack of violence comes through. I'm glad it did for you!

We shot it on a Sony EX-1 with a 35mm adapter. Just got myself a 7D though and have an upcoming short shot on it. Have made a slew of shorts that are all incomplete at some level (and with plenty of "silence and useless dialogue"). This is the first I've entered into any competition, and the one I'm most pleased with both technically and performance-wise. Pleased enough to finish it :)
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: ©brad on June 21, 2010, 12:53:52 PM
I loved it as well. Very well done across the board. The ending was great and really intense.

Keep going!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: polkablues on June 21, 2010, 01:26:52 PM
I really hope you're working on expanding this into a feature, because it earned the right to be one.  Really fantastic work.  I'm sorry I didn't get to it early enough to vote for it.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Pas on June 21, 2010, 01:31:53 PM
Yes that is very good work my friend, great acting and great basic idea.

Good job, hope it will do the shorts circuit in your part of the world!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on June 22, 2010, 12:16:11 PM
Holy moley! Thanks for the fantastic feedback :)
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: I Love a Magician on June 22, 2010, 11:45:37 PM
really dug this quite a bit. not showy in any way, just lulls you in and then the ending punches you.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on June 23, 2010, 10:58:23 AM
GT's thoughts (http://filmsplatter.wordpress.com/2010/06/23/filmmaker-series-grip/#comment-146)
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on October 01, 2010, 07:34:38 AM
Just spend a great week with this at Nordic Panorama, a festival of "the best" Nordic shorts of the year.

For the occasion we made a poster:

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FcSOaY.jpg&hash=c00e443a80c68a1bce7e9edc015d3e6c8d041ad2)

We've also been picked up by the Norwegian Film Institute for distribution and we might get shown on national television, so things are going very well for us!

Hope more of you guys check it out :)
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on July 28, 2011, 03:21:46 PM
Hi guys!

I've recently completed a new short,

to hand to hand to mouth

Can be watched here (http://vimeo.com/trulskranemeby/tilmunn).

The color grade is pretty dark, so if you have a new mac-monitor the gamma might be so low on it that important face-detail might be lost. I haven't had the time to cross-check with too many monitors, and at the moment my laptop is the only screen I've found that's too dark, but that one still has the factory settings so there are probably many displays like it.

Basically: if you can't see the stamp on his arm in the end of the first scene, the monitor's probably too dark. Please give a shout if this is the case, so I get a feel of how many people out there are with monitors like that. You can continue watching if you like, but there'll be a lack of detail in certain important places.

It's my first since "GREP", and this is also loosely based on my own experiences, but with a character a bit more removed from me.

You can watch it at the link above your interested.

Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: matt35mm on July 28, 2011, 11:34:23 PM
Great stuff. Thanks for sharing.

It looked just fine on my monitor, which I have calibrated to be a bit brighter than factory settings.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Pubrick on July 29, 2011, 08:22:05 AM
looks good on my monitor and my android tablet.

this is even better than GREP, which i quite liked. the only gripe (GREPE?) i would have is with the title. the expression as i know it is "hand to mouth" as in someone living "hand to mouth".. there is usually no need to add anything before the word "hand".. your title would look and sound better and still make sense if it didn't start with "to", keep the repetition but start with "hand". i guess if it makes more sense in your language then fair enough. it still works as it is though.

the rest is very impressive. has it really been a year since your last film? you need to do more! especially if you have access to good actors, which evidently you do. i liked that we didn't learn much about all these side characters outside of the way he got his money from them. it doesn't seem immediately strange that so much money is being owed and borrowed everywhere, and if it does then it makes you wonder about what kind of person this character is. towards the end when the "twist" is revealed (was his real motivation supposed to be known only at the end?), i think the audience has already had the chance to figure it out by considering what kind of person would have so many friends that he either lends money to or borrows from in such short notice.. he must be a good person, or a likeable person.

we judge him and we wonder how many times this has happened.. in light of this, starting the title with "to" might be appropriate. it feels like it starts mid sentence, and the ongoing nature of this guys problem seems deeper embedded. but still, absence of "to" feels cleaner to me.. sorry i'm so obsessed with titles. i think in a short you learn that every aspect of the film is important in order to drive home certain ideas, the title is central to this, why waste time with pointless words? you have only a few minutes to tell a story, a few words to establish it.

good work, keep it up.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: socketlevel on July 29, 2011, 10:30:28 AM
I really liked it my man. I think the photography and acting are great. I love how you don't see anyone else's face in the entire film. Did you shoot this with all practical lights or did you use anything? fills possibly? either way i think the visual aesthetic was great. Great dialog, you really captured the realism.

Have you tried a cut without the music? The kind of stark realism you achieved so well is kind of taken away whenever the music track came in. I feel it doesn't fit the mood you established so well. It might just work best with no music at all. I feel the rest of your film is so strong, and your soundtrack doesn't really live up to it. anyway that's my 2 cents.

great job :)

Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: RegularKarate on July 29, 2011, 02:08:58 PM
Yeah, I really liked this.
I disagree about the music, it didn't get in the way at all.

I am curious now that P said "twist".  Was there supposed to be a twist?  I didn't feel like there were supposed to be any surprises, just a little smile at the end.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: matt35mm on July 29, 2011, 03:31:41 PM
I think P put "twist" in quotation marks because it's not really a full-on TWIST. However, I do think it is a little bit of a twist, in that the audience has, by then, maybe made an assumption about who he needs to pay back and why. That does then make the end a little bit of an "ah ha" moment.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Jeremy Blackman on July 29, 2011, 04:26:36 PM
I'm with everyone else... this is really good.

My favorite part was the lack of faces. Besides keeping the focus where it should be, it has the same effect a novel does, where you start to fill in the faces yourself and become sort of a collaborator.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: squints on July 29, 2011, 04:59:03 PM
Yeah i really enjoyed that man. Great work!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on July 30, 2011, 10:27:53 AM

Wow, thanks for the great feedback! Excellent responses. I'm glad no one seems to be having too dark monitors.

Quote from: Pubrickthis is even better than GREP, which i quite liked.

Awesome, thank you.


Quote from: Pubrickhas it really been a year since your last film?

Yes, sadly! This last year I've been hijacked by a full-time job at the visual department of a consultancy firm, so I've had little-to-no energy to spend on my own projects. Learnt a lot but had to say "enough is enough" and quit in May. I plan to always have a project in the making this year.


Quote from: Pubrickespecially if you have access to good actors, which evidently you do.

Oslo must have some record for good actors in proportion to population. There's a pretty remarkable amount of talent, sadly many going unemployed.


Quote from: Pubrick(was his real motivation supposed to be known only at the end?)

The reason his motivation is only hinted to in the opening scene but not made explicit is both that I wanted it to be a hook, and the practical thing of not wanting the motivation to be on everyone's mind whilst the movie is going on, since the focus is on the transactions in themselves – what he gives and receives from other people. I felt that giving the motivation that early on would come in the way of what's going on. 

But at the same time I think it's fairly easy to surmise from the opening what the deal is, it was just important not to set it in stone at that point. You're bound to judge him, but hopefully there's a sense or realization that this is being done without access to all the facts, which sort (hopefully) of knocks the heat of it.


Quote from: Pubrickwe wonder how many times this has happened.. in light of this, starting the title with "to" might be appropriate. it feels like it starts mid sentence, and the ongoing nature of this guys problem seems deeper embedded.

This was exactly what I wanted to convey with the title :)

Quote from: Jeremy BlackmanMy favorite part was the lack of faces. Besides keeping the focus where it should be, it has the same effect a novel does, where you start to fill in the faces yourself and become sort of a collaborator.

That's a great thing to hear :)


Quote from: socketlevelDid you shoot this with all practical lights or did you use anything? fills possibly? either way i think the visual aesthetic was great.

Thank you! We didn't use a single light, everything's practical. Mostly out of necessity: we shot it very scatter-shot over a few months, and couldn't afford to rent lights just for a scene that would take an hour at most to do.


Quote from: socketlevelHave you tried a cut without the music? The kind of stark realism you achieved so well is kind of taken away whenever the music track came in.

I thought more people would be saying this! The trance-track is meant to be a dip into his mindset there and then – how he perceives his mission, and to give a sense of what he listens to and maybe even where all his money goes (partying maybe?). I wanted it to jar a bit with what came before to maybe hint at a distance between his view of the world and what really going on. Originally the Bach-piece was the only music, and I've done a pass without, but in the end I liked the trance-version better because it throws things in a different direction for a few seconds.

At that point, the movie is the movie Axel would make about himself.

Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Pozer on July 30, 2011, 11:52:59 AM
watched it over coffee this morning. goes great with coffee, FYI:)

so well done, man. you are a talented dude. writings/actings/shootings/editings. top notch business :yabbse-thumbup: love your interpretations up there, too.

cant wait to see more from you.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on July 31, 2011, 07:21:37 AM
Quote from: Pozer on July 30, 2011, 11:52:59 AM
watched it over coffee this morning. goes great with coffee

This might be the best compliment I've ever received.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on August 18, 2011, 04:58:06 AM
GT's written a great piece on the short for his blog (http://filmsplatter.com/2011/08/18/filmmaker-series-to-hand-to-hand-to-mouth/)
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on September 23, 2011, 03:06:49 AM
I've password protected the film, so if someone still wants to see it just type in "axelerblakk".
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on March 02, 2013, 09:42:10 AM
Hey again everyone!

Have some more stuff coming, so thought it could be nice to merge my two old threads into a homebase for all my stuff.

First, a little note about to hand to hand to mouth: I did some small revisions after I posted it here, notably changing the title font, removing the techno-score, and adding a little something at the very end. You can still find it at the link above, no longer password-protected.

I'll be shooting a new zero-budget short next week, and post it as soon as it's done, and a music-video.

I was going to do a pretty big short film project last summer, that was pushed back until this upcoming summer, and thankfully so, because the creative vaccum compelled me and my photographer/editor to jump into an ever-growing improvised feature. Check out our teaser here:

https://vimeo.com/59652877
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: wilder on March 02, 2013, 12:12:56 PM
Loved the teaser, very much looking forward to the full thing -- you have such a talent for directing actors...I can't wait until you get a full feature off the ground one day.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: 72teeth on March 02, 2013, 02:49:56 PM
yeah, ill totally watch this, looks great!
Your actors people have terrific faces
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on March 03, 2013, 01:50:17 AM
Thanks guys!

I can't wait to show you more of it. We're about half-way now, taking a little break and letting life get in the way.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Cloudy on March 03, 2013, 06:04:33 AM
You are one moody motherfucker. And I love it. Such thick emotions through simple scenarios, and I also agree that Hand to Mouth is even better than your last. I can't wait for more.

I also have to say, the lighting was magnificent. I love seeing natural light used so well, and not forcefully Your story fit that sort of texture. Also, your pacing just lulled me into the rhythms of the film...Pretty much agree with all of the opinions above, and most importantly..."this goes well with coffee". It's that moooood.

:yabbse-thumbup:

PS: The fact that THAT was your favorite comment on the film so far reaffirms my feelings for it. I think you'll dig the fact that it flowed perfectly at 4AM for me.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on March 03, 2013, 03:08:23 PM
Quote from: Cloudy on March 03, 2013, 06:04:33 AM
I also have to say, the lighting was magnificent. I love seeing natural light used so well, and not forcefully

Thank you! It was ridiculously liberating to be able to grab the camera bag and tripod, head out the door, and be ready. Or, at least ready to start rehearsing. I think we spent two hours and maybe eighty (!) takes on the shot of the hand coming up into frame from below, holding the note, then Axel taking it and following his hand behind back, getting the clap in focus and not way too motion-blurry, and then up to the other hand doing the friendly hit on the shoulder. But then we didn't do anything else that day.

And that was sort of how we did all of it. Two hours here, four hours there. If you've got no money that's a good way of working :)


Quote from: Cloudy on March 03, 2013, 06:04:33 AM
Also, your pacing just lulled me into the rhythms of the film...

I think it's the main actor Stig's walking! He sort of set the pace for the bing long takes.


Quote from: Cloudy on March 03, 2013, 06:04:33 AM
It's that moooood.

I'm putting this on the DVD-cover.


Quote from: Cloudy on March 03, 2013, 06:04:33 AM
I think you'll dig the fact that it flowed perfectly at 4AM for me.

Fuck yea! Probably edited most of around that time.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on November 28, 2013, 02:49:43 PM
Hey friends, I got a little secret here for you, don't tell anyone.

This link here (https://vimeo.com/78762443) leads to my latest short.

You'll need a password to see it and I'm not sure I want to make it public, but send me a PM and you'll get it. Please don't mention the title in the thread, as I don't want this page to come up if you google the title, in case this is something festivals still do.

Pubrick, I put your bee in the credits, with a thanks, but that is a thank you to all of Xixax. You know, for being who you all are.

Can't wait to hear your opinions!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Pubrick on November 28, 2013, 03:25:24 PM
Password request sent.

I hope the title isn't Password Request.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: matt35mm on November 28, 2013, 03:49:38 PM
I dunno how much we're meant to talk or not talk about it here, but I just finished it and am buzzing with how much I loved it. My immediate feeling is that it's one of the best shorts I've ever seen. Everything about it just worked so well for me. I'll say more specific things once the conversation starts blooming a bit more. I also want to watch it again to figure out what I want to say and why it worked so well for me. But anyway,  :bravo:
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: jenkins on November 28, 2013, 03:58:14 PM
Quote from: matt35mm on November 28, 2013, 03:49:38 PM
I dunno how much we're meant to talk or not talk about it here, but I just finished it and am buzzing with how much I loved it. My immediate feeling is that it's one of the best shorts I've ever seen. Everything about it just worked so well for me. I'll say more specific things once the conversation starts blooming a bit more. I also want to watch it again to figure out what I want to say and why it worked so well for me. But anyway,  :bravo:

matt and i are having one of our days of cosmic harmony. he's made an excellent statement and i fully agree

i sent a more detailed thing to just withnail. it's nonstop gushing. and i mean it

(edit)
i asked just withnail if i could share the credit screencap, i asked like 2mins ago and he hasn't responded, though it's so sweet i'm going to share it anyway. watch the short first if you can, because it's such a nice final gift, but if you think you don't already want to watch it, please let this discourage you from not watching:
http://i.imgur.com/MBb1A0c.png
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on November 28, 2013, 06:11:50 PM
Holy shit! Thank you for those immensely kind words, they mean a lot to me. But please don't hesitate to criticise.

And I have no problem at all with you discussing the film here in the thread. If you have questions please ask :)

(and of course no worries about the screencap)

Tomorrow I'll write a little bit about the hows and whys of the film for those interested.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Cloudy on November 29, 2013, 04:09:29 AM
This felt like Benji's chapter in Faulkner's Sound and the Fury...and if you've read it you'll know why...and how this might be the most accurate way of depicting how this felt for me.

As a post-Thanksgiving meal, this was exactly what was necessary. The sense of place was pure feeling like a memory, the wind..each sound, the change of light pouring through lived windows it felt like you could smell, the younger brother calling for his older brother in the background was truly something, the laughing at the funeral, the fear of the unknown...the darkness in specific spaces and scenes...you captured truth.

The way this ended was so interesting as well...thank you for this. Will be watching again, want to talk more.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: wilder on November 29, 2013, 04:15:42 AM
Ahhh I loved it! I loved the sound! Not a moment felt false. And I'm marveling at the layers in exchanges like this one:

"Jonas, come, let's play by the water."
"Not now Arvid. We're cleaning up. You're welcome to help out."
"Soon!"
"Now, Arvid."


Just that you thought to...not only have the kid avoiding another conflict through his avoidance of this one, but also have him masking his feelings from his father with the tone of his reply "Soon!", how emotionally contained he is for the duration...I don't know, man. Your writing and direction: it's something. I want to let the short stew in my head for a bit before saying more, but to echo everyone above, it's really, really good. I know I'll be watching it a few more times in the next 24 hours.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: pete on November 29, 2013, 02:15:54 PM
I want to watch it or them.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on November 29, 2013, 04:22:24 PM
I haven't read Sound and the Fury but I've been planning to for ages and those plans just got put into motion thanks to you, Cloudy. And reading thoughts and descriptions like yours and wilder's is immensely exciting, can't wait to hear what you think after further viewings.

Pete: you got a pw your pm!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: 03 on November 29, 2013, 04:25:56 PM
NEED PASSWORD POR FAVOR;;
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on November 29, 2013, 05:13:42 PM
So, a little background about what this is.

I have always wanted to do a short in the neighborhood I grew up in and in the house I grew up in, in Svolvær in the north of Norway (google it!). Something that could capture a little bit of that feeling of running between houses up and down hills. That was the first impetus and it was just lying in the back of my mind for a long time. Never as anything concrete.

After to hand to hand to mouth I was trying to figure out what to do next and I figured I'd try to work towards getting a grant from a regional film fund. I started writing, and it evolved into a story that is loosely based on my own experiences with my aunts death. So there's a lot of very personal stuff in this film. We were lucky enough to get two grants and were planning to do it summer 2012, but due to circumstances out of our hands it was delayed a year. Thank god. I really don't think I would have been ready to do it then. The delay suddenly opened up a creative vacuum that I filled with that improv-project I posted the teaser to some pages back. Working that closely with actors really broke down some barriers for me and prepared me for what this ended up being.

We started pre-prod for real around march/april last year, and did the casting then. Up to this point I had been extremely nervous about how to handle the kid actors, how to give them direction and thinking a lot about how the entire film was on their shoulders. But when we found the kid playing Arvid, I was sure it was going to work. He did a tremendous audition. You look at him, and you see he's thinking.

We shot in july this summer and it was almost exclusively a joy from beginning to end. We spent the entire first day trying to get the first scene, taking our time and trying not to hurry too much. The steadicam operator had only done a handful of steadishots before! We initially thought the opening might be divided into four shots, but after a killed all-the-way-through rehearsal we decided to go for a one-take. The actress who played the mom rightly and thankfully took me aside to tell me she needed me to focus less on the technical side and talk to her a little bit about what she was going to do. That sharpened me up a bit :)

The second day we were up on the hill, pretty much just playing around. We knew we had a few lines that we had to get before the day was done, but other than that I just tried putting the kids in situations where things were bound to happen. The part in the film where he's describing the gas chambers is an extract from a much longer explanation he gives after I asked him to explain to his younger brother what the holocaust is. 

We had a rough shotlist for the entire film, but whenever we got to the set on each scene, we'd break things down and see how simple we could make it. Is there an evocative shot here, that can be held through the entire scene? Let's find it and hold it.

Yeah, that became a wall of text :) Sorry. Probably better if you guys ask if there's anything you're wondering about :P
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Cloudy on November 29, 2013, 06:46:51 PM
Just watched it again, it holds up man =), loved it. I found a few moments that stood out to me this time which were overlooked the first time. When the younger brother is yelling at God "GIVE US OUR AUNTIE BACK" resonated so hard, the Sun was always shrouded by a veil of clouds, penetrating in hints. And I gotta say, the confusion, an almost existential crisis within Arvid was felt much more in this viewing. It had a dark foreshadowing of adult life that was looming over the sun at this moment in his life that his brother was not yet aware of. Also, the idea that his younger brother could die one day, just like in the picture of his mother and aunt as babies was felt this time.

Were you purposefully working with wind for specific scenes, or did it make its appearance on its own terms? I absolutely loved the way it was lit, and the way you work with light is extremely nostalgic. The darkness in many moments is so poignant that it creates a feeling as if it was captured from memory. And it's so interesting that you brought up how personal this was for you after I posted my post, because I felt it even without you saying it. I feel like I've had those moments with my mother on the couch, turning the TV on. Father coming in with a bunch of laundry asking for the controller. I think I basically had a very similar childhood as you. I'm the older brother with my younger brother, and it was really interesting how you captured the dynamic between father/older son & father/younger son.
And to say that there were hints of Tree of Life here is completely a compliment, in other films it's forced, here not. I think here it's beyond the influence of Tree of Life, it didn't feel like that was conscious at all through the filmmaking. You were just approaching the film in a similar manner. Tarkovsky-esque as well. There was a shot where the camera fluidly followed Arvid towards a group of flowers when Arvid left the shot, I was expecting you to linger and focus to a close-up of flowers and it almost looked like you purposefully didn't.

I'm going to just go ahead and be the one to ask the dumb but necessary questions: What were you using in terms of camera, lens, steadicam, lighting, bounces? Also in terms of sound, how did you come up with the idea of the loud machine that comes in in certain segments, and also, how did you work with your sound design in general? How many days did it take to shoot?

Really inspiring work dude. I sort of lost hope in the medium of short film for a while, but this one sparked them up again.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: pete on November 30, 2013, 04:03:36 AM
I envy your soul and your talent.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: max from fearless on November 30, 2013, 07:53:59 AM
Can I pls get a password?
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Drenk on November 30, 2013, 08:41:03 AM
Wow, I loved it...After the first shot, when Arvid finds himself in the staircase again I was so taken by the mood that I thought that everyone could have disappeared - his mother and his brother - and that he could have found himself alone, in a gap in time. Because it was about a memory and Time, I guess. I don't know if I'm alone, but, during the first shot, when the camera moved around the house, followed Arvid and his mood (in the way that, yes, Faulkner writes the first chapter of The Sound of the Fury, even if Faulkner took the point of view of Benjy The "Idiot" but it was a way to have a kid²), I felt like the house was an infinite space of imagination, so everything could happen. The fact that his brother called his name really made Arvid in another space for me.

Your short is a success, so you succeeded in giving the feeling of what it is to play in the hills; I've never done this, but it could have been my memory. So it was emotional. When you manage to touch people though an intimate story you have done everything for me, and that's why, maybe, I don't see the bad things.

Then, the way you treated the death of the aunt, was also about Time. Arvid writes his age, 6, 7, 8; he was doomed to be sensible to death in a strange way; and yet, the strangeness of his reaction feels connected to the reality of the tragedy, he seems to be the only one to grasp/feel what is happening.

Time: sisters, brothers...the photography added a depth to all this.

Bravo!



Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: N on November 30, 2013, 03:48:01 PM
Wow.
I don't usually go in for short films but this has really changed my mind.
You definitely hit a soft spot for me anyway.

I especially like the scene after we see Arvid's writing about his age, where the family is preparing for the funeral.
Seems almost surreal to me, like a dream sequence.
(Running on low sleep here so I'm probably misinterpreting)

Anyway, I need to think about it for a while longer and watch it few more times before I can try to give a somewhat less primitive opinion than my usual review, so for now all I'll say is thanks.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on December 02, 2013, 01:08:21 PM
Thanks again for all your comments. I don't want to say too much about certain aspects because some where happy accidents and your interpretations are incredible.

Quote from: Cloudy on November 29, 2013, 06:46:51 PM
Were you purposefully working with wind for specific scenes, or did it make its appearance on its own terms?

Both the first scene and the scenes on the hill were scripted as sunlight, though having lived nineteen years of my life in the town we shot in I should have known better than to try to predict the weather. The day we shot the first scene was the first day of relative sun after a gloomy week of rain. The whole week I was frantically trying to come up with some solution that wouldn't alter the mood of the scene too much, but thankfully the rain ceased on the very day we started shooting. So the wind, along with all the weather, definitely made it's appearance on it's own terms and we decided to enhance it in post. Another stupidly scripted weather prediction was that the last scenes take place in the rain or just after it had rained, was also thankfully granted us by the weather gods.

Quote from: Cloudy on November 29, 2013, 06:46:51 PM
I absolutely loved the way it was lit, and the way you work with light is extremely nostalgic. The darkness in many moments is so poignant that it creates a feeling as if it was captured from memory. And it's so interesting that you brought up how personal this was for you after I posted my post, because I felt it even without you saying it. I feel like I've had those moments with my mother on the couch, turning the TV on. Father coming in with a bunch of laundry asking for the controller. I think I basically had a very similar childhood as you. I'm the older brother with my younger brother, and it was really interesting how you captured the dynamic between father/older son & father/younger son.

Several people have mentioned the feeling of memory, and I'm awfully glad to hear that. When I was developing it I thought there should be a (very) slight surrealism, motivated by Arvid being thrown out of a loop by his aunt's death. But I realized as we were shooting the first scene, that the moodiness and the surrealism was probably going to be there from frame one. I was a bit nervous as to how that would frame the whole thing, so I'm glad it seems to work. I guess it's part of a larger process of discovering how nobody knows all the shit I've had running through my head whilst making it, and the film (thankfully!) exists on its own terms.

Quote from: Cloudy on November 29, 2013, 06:46:51 PM
There was a shot where the camera fluidly followed Arvid towards a group of flowers when Arvid left the shot, I was expecting you to linger and focus to a close-up of flowers and it almost looked like you purposefully didn't.

Me three months ago: "Is it too long? No, it's too short. NO, it's too long." Seems some of that back and forth somehow made it into the shot.

Quote from: Cloudy on November 29, 2013, 06:46:51 PM
What were you using in terms of camera, lens, steadicam, lighting, bounces? Also in terms of sound, how did you come up with the idea of the loud machine that comes in in certain segments, and also, how did you work with your sound design in general? How many days did it take to shoot?

We used an alexa with some anamorph lenses (that are modified in some interesting way i'll ask the photographer about), on steadicam. Though I would have loved to have had a dolly on certain scenes instead, for a bit more control. The loud machine is supposed to be the father vacuuming in another part of the house :)

The sound design was in jeopardy for a while, as we had one talented, but really expensive sound designer onboard when the money had practically run out, but i took some from my own pocket and paid an enormously talented guy who had worked with my photographer a lot. I will definitely be working with him as much as I can from now on, he did a tremendous job. I had some concepts about the sound that I wanted to try out, like using and enhancing everyday objects (like the vacuum, and the wind), and knew that I wanted some sort of moody droney thing instead of music. But that was sort of the extent of my instructions. "Can you do a moody droney thing?" And then I get something great in return. It was also very important for me that the sound accentuated certain cuts and changes in mood. Especially on the hill, where the editing is a bit jumpy and mood changes quickly. Like: "Enhance the sound of Arvid's hand when it hits his brothers chest, so it gives more of a subjective feeling of being hit, than what it would actually sound like. Like a *foooomp* that motivates Jonas's complete change in mood in the next shot. And take the drone out under the *foomp* so it's suddenly quiet."

Quote from: Drenk on November 30, 2013, 08:41:03 AM
Wow, I loved it...After the first shot, when Arvid finds himself in the staircase again I was so taken by the mood that I thought that everyone could have disappeared - his mother and his brother - and that he could have found himself alone, in a gap in time. Because it was about a memory and Time, I guess. I don't know if I'm alone, but, during the first shot, when the camera moved around the house, followed Arvid and his mood (in the way that, yes, Faulkner writes the first chapter of The Sound of the Fury, even if Faulkner took the point of view of Benjy The "Idiot" but it was a way to have a kid²), I felt like the house was an infinite space of imagination, so everything could happen. The fact that his brother called his name really made Arvid in another space for me.

:shock:

Holy shit that is a fantastic interpretation. Thank you so much for that. I'll be telling people this. I love the rest of your thoughts too.

Quote from: N on November 30, 2013, 03:48:01 PM
Seems almost surreal to me, like a dream sequence.
(Running on low sleep here so I'm probably misinterpreting)

Definitely not :)



Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on December 02, 2013, 01:42:19 PM
DoP Benjamin Loeb about the lenses:

"It's a set of Lomo Roundfront Anamorphics that have been completely rebuilt and rehoused by Van Diemen in the UK. They have been customized with Cooke Speed Panchro SII rear elements rather than Lomo Spherical elements, so they have the anamorphic qualities of the Lomo's mixed with the spherical characteristics of the old panchro's."
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: matt35mm on December 02, 2013, 04:31:34 PM
Watched it again; blown away again.

Yes, work with the guy who did the sound design again. The quality of the sound and how it works in this movie is so incredibly effective. Upon re-watching, when Arvid first walks out into daylight and the wind picks up and you see the leaves rustle on the trees... at that point I'm already starting to feel so many feelings and the movie just arrests you in those feelings all the way through. And the feelings keep changing, and you don't know whether you're watching a horror film or a drama or a surreal Lynchian thing and you don't know what's going to happen. The title gives you no clue as to what's going to happen or how you're supposed to feel, and I like that.

And when the boys are playing in the foresty area, the cracks of the tree branches as Arvid walks through the trees... the intensity of the sound plays against the soothing nature of the images, and the whole movie has this kind of unsettling quality, but not in a way where I ever felt like it was disturbing or interested in being disturbing... just... that it was a world where it's hard to get a solid footing and feel comfortable with where you are in the narrative or the characters or the world. It forces you to have to trust the film, to go with it and sink in, and that's where the masterful filmmaking really helps, because there is not a single moment where I didn't feel like I was in the best possible hands. I could give my heart over and ride this ride, and that's what I look for in any movie. That's the ideal.

And every new scene has its own kind of beauty that's different from before. Every new scene introduces a wave of feelings upon the very first shot, just because of the aesthetics. Maybe it's because of the nostalgic quality of the overall look of the movie, but yeah, it's like, upon the first second of seeing Arvid on the bed with his brother playing with his face, that's a feeling, then CUT to Arvid's POV of his list of ages, and that's another feeling (and I love how you included the half-second of camera jostling before you cut away from that shot). And then CUT to oh my god the one-shot tableau scene of Arvid mashing the keyboards with the brother running around shouting bang bang and the father (step-dad maybe?) ironing and the mother just staring off...

Dude, believe me that I'd love to find some criticism to give because I don't want you to think that I'm at all coddling you or worrying about hurting your feelings. I know what it's like to want real criticism, but sometimes a movie is so beautiful that there's really nothing to do but bask in its glory. I'd do that with this movie even if I didn't know you... I'd just go and tell friends how great I think it is (which I already have, sort of... just telling friends how I saw this amazing short film and can't stop thinking about it). The fact that you are a person that I can call my friend is just nuts because I think this movie is like a blast of light upon a giant billboard that says you are a great filmmaker and certainly on your way to becoming a major figure in cinema. I almost feel like I shouldn't say that because I don't want to blow your head up too big and I know you're a humble guy, but goddamnit, there are filmmakers worth celebrating and you're not only on your way to having that happen, I'm sure, but you've already made a movie that demands to be celebrated. Like I want to have a party for your movie.

Please keep making movies. I know you are, but please, just... keep doing it. If you ever get depressed and start thinking about quitting for any reason, I would fucking fly to Norway or Germany or where ever you are at the time and buy you your favorite food and tell you that we all need you to keep making movies. It would bankrupt me probably, but I would do it.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on December 02, 2013, 04:57:03 PM
Friend, you are making me cry. Thank you so much.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Cloudy on December 02, 2013, 05:25:49 PM
Quote from: matt35mm on December 02, 2013, 04:31:34 PM
Dude, believe me that I'd love to find some criticism to give because I don't want you to think that I'm at all coddling you or worrying about hurting your feelings. I know what it's like to want real criticism, but sometimes a movie is so beautiful that there's really nothing to do but bask in its glory. I'd do that with this movie even if I didn't know you... I'd just go and tell friends how great I think it is (which I already have, sort of... just telling friends how I saw this amazing short film and can't stop thinking about it). The fact that you are a person that I can call my friend is just nuts because I think this movie is like a blast of light upon a giant billboard that says you are a great filmmaker and certainly on your way to becoming a major figure in cinema. I almost feel like I shouldn't say that because I don't want to blow your head up too big and I know you're a humble guy, but goddamnit, there are filmmakers worth celebrating and you're not only on your way to having that happen, I'm sure, but you've already made a movie that demands to be celebrated. Like I want to have a party for your movie.

Please keep making movies. I know you are, but please, just... keep doing it. If you ever get depressed and start thinking about quitting for any reason, I would fucking fly to Norway or Germany or where ever you are at the time and buy you your favorite food and tell you that we all need you to keep making movies. It would bankrupt me probably, but I would do it.

People need to say shit like this more often. Totally agreed. Especially in a world where films/filmmakers like Withnail are sparse, these words are vital.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: ©brad on December 06, 2013, 05:43:02 PM
This is everything you want in a short. Beautifully made, provocative, doesn't try to do too much and yet leaves you wanting more. Plus it's inspiring. It makes you want to make art.

I remember the exact moment as a kid when I finally processed what death meant, and once I did the fear and dread hit like a freight train. It was overwhelming. I didn't want my parents or brother to ever leave the house again. This took me right there.

The kids were brilliant. I swear I saw a little Danny Torrance in Arvid in a few shots. Was it as liberating to direct talented kid actors as I imagine it being? Seems they would more easily get out of their own way and not over think everything.




Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Alexandro on December 07, 2013, 11:54:28 AM
Man, I have seen some of your work before and I liked it a lot, but this is on a whole new level. I find myself trying to say something that doesn't sound like what everyone else is saying, but as matt said, there's really nothing bad to note about this film. It's a small masterpiece. I also usually don't go for short films, but this one has made me reevaluate that position and the possibilities within the format. I have made two features and no shorts, because I've never figured it out how to do one. I blame this on the fact that I almost never watch short films, and I'm mostly informed by features. If more short films were like this one, I would be watching a lot more of them. And probably making a few, which would be great, because it enables you to shoot more frequently than with features.

It is so difficult to convey feelings without characters saying things, not only from their subjective point of view but also from the objective point of view of the camera. I feel that happens in both instances here. As others have mentioned, that shot of the kid playing the organ, with the brother behind him and both parents doing their thing is particularly powerful, not only because of the way it's shot but because of what came before and what comes after. Sound, cinematography (don't let that guy go, he will always make you look like a genius), acting...everything. fantastic movie and really one of the best trips i've had this year, short or feature. thanks for that.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on December 08, 2013, 09:19:07 AM
Quote from: ©brad on December 06, 2013, 05:43:02 PM
The kids were brilliant. I swear I saw a little Danny Torrance in Arvid in a few shots. Was it as liberating to direct talented kid actors as I imagine it being? Seems they would more easily get out of their own way and not over think everything.

Both liberating and not. When it worked, it worked, and when it didn't, well...The youngest would give you absolute gold for two hours, and would go with whatever you gave him. But of course he soon tired, and we'd have to work really hard to get some small usable snippets.

With him we would usually just roll, and I would feed him the lines directly in different tones, rather quickly, so whatever came from him might have some spontaneity to it. So his shots would pretty much either be "we have plenty to choose from here" or "let's just try to get that little thing that I think we need here". But the only scene where I thought we might have to deviate drastically from the script was the church. That was the hardest to nail, not dialogue-wise, that was great almost every time, but he kept looking in the camera. But then we also had moments like when he strokes his brothers chin, and some great versions of the tickling and laughing, so I was certain we could make something out of it. In the end I managed to make a version that worked pretty much as scripted, though it took quite a while to get there.

But all in all he was tremendous. Completely himself and never ever nervous or unsure of what he needed to do. The boy who played Arvid is an actor, pure and simple. That he just started acting classes six months before we shot is just amazing to me, he is a ridiculous talent that I'm sure will do great things. I was afraid I would have to lure the performance out of whoever we ended up casting, trick him somehow, I had no concept of how I would go about working with kids. This guy made everything simple and easy. I could talk to him like I'd talk to any adult actor.

Quote from: Alexandro on December 07, 2013, 11:54:28 AM
And probably making a few, which would be great, because it enables you to shoot more frequently than with features.

Please do make shorts! The ability to shoot frequently is something that's been extremely important for me these last few years. Not waiting for the go-ahead from someone, but being able to go out and shoot if I have an idea. The improv-feature I posted the teaser to a few pages back, was shot like a series of shorts, and being close to actors often completely tore down my former intense fear of them ("why am I telling these people what to do, they know more than me! They know more!").

Quote from: Alexandro on December 07, 2013, 11:54:28 AM
cinematography (don't let that guy go, he will always make you look like a genius),

Hah! Never ever. We're working on our next collaboration now, that just got funded :)
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Reel on December 08, 2013, 02:40:07 PM
I had to watch it twice and let it sink in before I said anything...You really hit some beautifully subtle notes about what it means to go through this preadolescent stage that Arvid's in. I'll start at the beginning, I can vividly recall that feeling of wanting to hide from younger siblings/cousins, because they become so dependent on you to have 'fun', so you make up dumb little games for them to get your few moments of solitude. Your intention isn't to abandon them outright, but just to get a break from those little heathens always cramping your style. When Arvid's in the house and you hear his brother calling his name from the yard, it was so poignant to me. To know that someone wants you and is looking for you, but you've got your own thing going on, is almost like living through your own death. Arvid is Tom Sawyer up in the rafters listening to the cries at his  funeral. Then when they're playing in the hills later to seek refuge from their depressed parents, not only are they diverting their grief to be worried about them, but it's their last chance to joke about and entertain the idea of death before it literally hits home and they have to face the hard truth of what it really is. Little Jonas seems oblivious to what's happened, so he doesn't understand why they're straying away. I think it's hilarious when Arvid calls him a 'fucking asshole' for going home because it speaks to that disconnect between kids who are growing up and those still at the age of being coddled by their parents, and shows the vulnerability of how now Arvid needs his brother to help him through it more than anyone else.

I found the image of the Aunt with her mouth agape very disturbing, like you're watching the soul escape from her body. I have neither heard of nor seen that in the number of funerals I've gone to and to witness it the first time you look at a dead person must be downright terrifying. So, for Arvid to relay that detail to Jonas after all of the war role-play and stories of gas chambers is a big step in their maturity about the subject. The first moment in the film that struck an emotional cord with me is when Arvid's with his mom on the couch and we see him look at the picture of the Aunt, and then them as babies ( twins? ). It perfectly crystalizes Arvid's understanding that he and his brother will die too someday, and to watch in his face how he deals with that knowledge is just heartbreaking.

I love his desperate cry for attention at the end, I have to think he purposefully falls off that bank, and I found it funny. When his mother genuinely asks him what he's thinking, and you know that the only possible thing could be his aunt, it's such a great place to end it because that's the beginning of them sharing in their grief. I can only imagine that what happens after the screen goes black is they start weeping uncontrollably, since that's what I did.

This really blew me away on so many levels, I wanted to let you know how it worked for me personally before I asked about the more technical stuff, but I look forward to seeing where this takes you in the festival circuit. I echo everything that Matt said, you're a filmmaker to watch!! :bravo:
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on December 11, 2013, 04:39:56 AM
Quote from: Reelist on December 08, 2013, 02:40:07 PM
To know that someone wants you and is looking for you, but you've got your own thing going on, is almost like living through your own death. Arvid is Tom Sawyer up in the rafters listening to the cries at his  funeral.

This is so much more beautiful than anything I had been thinking about that scene. Amazing interpretation.

Quote from: Reelist on December 08, 2013, 02:40:07 PM
I found the image of the Aunt with her mouth agape very disturbing, like you're watching the soul escape from her body.

As is this.

Quote from: Reelist on December 08, 2013, 02:40:07 PM
then them as babies ( twins? )

Yes, twins :) The idea was also that when he's looking at his aunt, his basically looking at his mother.

Quote from: Reelist on December 08, 2013, 02:40:07 PM
I love his desperate cry for attention at the end, I have to think he purposefully falls off that bank, and I found it funny.

Hah, I'm glad you did! And I'm glad the ambiguity of the fall can have that effect, as it was really just a matter of not being able to actually shoot his fall. It was intended to be an actual fall, but the fact that we had to shoot around it (hopefully) now gives it the opportunity to swing both ways: a real fall or a purposeful fall. This is actually the original version: he runs all the way up to the hill, and  mother catches up with him. She grabs hold while he's...rage, raging against the...you know, and he kicks against a tree (or something) so they both fall and end up upside down, where they have this last conversation. But then the actress we cast ended up being pregnant (actually not scripted, but perfectly fitting) so we couldn't actually film her falling, or even running and climbing. An alternative solution was just postponed until the day we were going to shoot and we ended up going for a little less rage-y version which works fine (although part of me really wants to see him kick and scream "against the dying of the light").
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: matt35mm on December 11, 2013, 11:30:10 AM
I know what it's like to luck into something that's better than what was written/planned (anything that's good in any of my movies has happened this way). I think the ending's just great. He does yell at his mom before he runs up the hill, and that's enough to fulfill the "cry for attention" while leaving the fall as a genuine accident.

I feel like rage, no matter how real it feels, is often an act that we put on, for others and ourselves. That's not the whole story, but it's an aspect of being sad or angry. But no matter what, when a child falls, the mother will run to him, and when a mother holds her child, the defenses begin to melt. This is at least what I feel like we see here, in all its glory. The "Am I bleeding? Check if I'm bleeding." "You're not bleeding." A mother checking the body of her son and saying, "Oh you're fine, you didn't fall that far, you're okay" is  always a lovely thing... and then seeing or feeling that her son is hurt in another way, internally, was the most beautiful part of a very beautiful movie.

The mother was caught up in her own pain, which she had every right to be, but to be able to open up and share the pain, recognize the pain that others are going through in all their varieties... it was like seeing the first step from going at it alone to going through it together. And all you have to ask is, "What are you thinking about?"

Can you tell I like this movie?
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on August 17, 2014, 09:23:37 AM
Some exciting news!

Good Machine Gun Sound will be playing at the NewFilmmakers LA screening now on August 23rd.

And also at the New Orleans Film Festival between the 16th and the 23rd of October.

I'm also in post-production on my latest short that I cannot wait to show you guys.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on October 09, 2014, 03:57:51 PM
Hello everyone!

For those who would like to watch, here is a new grade and a new cut of Good Machine Gun Sound. As you see from the screens the changes are quite substantial. I've done some nips and tucks to the edit as well, bringing it down by almost two minutes.

Watch it here. (https://vimeo.com/76212360)

PM me for the password.

Now it's finally done in my eyes, I was never really quite satisfied with the original cut.

In a few days I will also give you guys a secret sneak preview of my new short.

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.squarespace.com%2Fstatic%2F5145a044e4b033f3803b1334%2Ft%2F5436de55e4b0e245b0e13c1e%2F1412882015514%2F%3Fformat%3D750w&hash=5dd7c88c64ececc593fcd9968a76ad04192fb100)
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: jenkins on October 11, 2014, 12:16:00 AM
bumping this for just withnail duh^

i guess we've had a week of too many personal accomplishments here at xixax. i mean, well, great problem, but idk if i was just withnail i'd maybe think no one gave as much of a fuck about mine. i give more fucks than numbers can express my friend

i think it's pretty obvious there are wildly differing movie tastes here, so no it's not movie tastes i come here for, it's people. which is weird but whatevs. you my peeps. deal with it xx
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on October 11, 2014, 04:31:08 AM
Quote from: jenkins<3 on October 11, 2014, 12:16:00 AM
i give more fucks than numbers can express my friend

hahah, thank you! Though after the last pages of incredibly exciting and in-depth thoughts about the film I'm more than satisfied with numbers.

And here is that mentioned secret link to my new short film, that was completed just a few days ago. It's a thematic follow-up to Good Machine Gun Sound, and hopefully the second installment in a longer series of coming-of-age stories. It's also another Xixax-film with "bodies" in the title.

VERY SECRET LINK RIGHT HERE (http://www.trulskranemeby.no/vvk-secret)

PM me for the VERY SECRET PASSWORD.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Reel on October 11, 2014, 07:11:40 AM
This is why I need vimeo on my tv. Looking forward to this, man. Congrats!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Drenk on October 11, 2014, 09:43:24 AM
Once again, I'm in awe. When you respond so emotionally to something it is hard, after, to analyse it properly. But I'll try to say something.

First: it looks beautiful, from the VHS to the computers or the board games, it's the nineties. The colors feel warm? Something intimate. The way you manage to follow the child, like you did in the last short, allows us, by your film-making, to enter his state of mind. Something violent and troubled. We had death, now it's sex. Childhood can be violent.

Adults are always around but we feel the distance, it was also true for the last shot where, if I remember correctly, we didn't see their face as often.

The computer is the monolith of the house. The child looking at it, scared. The pages loading. You made drama with an internet history and it's very, very good. The scene where the father is in the kitchen, and his son realizing that he was checking porn...We feel the discomfort.

The opening shot is fantastic, you capture this moment in a way I can't describe: movements feel natural, the camera moves and, yes, there is movement, life.

"But I'm not." is a very strong way to end the short-film; parents often make us ashamed, and few have the courage to say "But I'm not ashamed." The very last scene, with him masturbating on his bed, feel a little bit unnecessary to me, but the way it is cut with shots of children playing adds...okay, I'm not sure about how I feel, but it's as if you show how something begins, continues, that it goes on. (yeah, I know, I'm not really clear.)

Fantastic. Consider me as a big fan.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: wilder on October 11, 2014, 01:35:22 PM
So amped and inspired every time you release something new -- unbelievable what you're able to do with these short films. Betting Bergman wants to have a word with you from beyond the grave.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: jenkins on October 11, 2014, 05:36:56 PM
Quote from: Just Withnail on October 11, 2014, 04:31:08 AM
Though after the last pages of incredibly exciting and in-depth thoughts about the film I'm more than satisfied with numbers.

And here is that mentioned secret link to my new short film, that was completed just a few days ago. It's a thematic follow-up to Good Machine Gun Sound, and hopefully the second installment in a longer series of coming-of-age stories

first part about most appreciating people engaging with your short on a direct level: ahh. you're the real deal man. i always think of who i always think of when i think of something like this -- kieslowski, who said he felt most proud of the double life of veronique when a girl told him what the movie meant to her personally. i do think that's the goal to have, and it's so nice to hear it

your new short: what i most respect is the consistency of your focus, without the feeling that you're the master of your puppets. i feel like you're discovering things along with your characters. which you're not of course. so i think you're operating at a level of talent that's unfakeable. i think you actually have to be this good to make something this good

and i think the way it's divided into sections allows the short to operate within the twin dimensions of story and emotions. for example, i feel inside of mads's emotions by the point of the confrontation with his parents. that scene vibrates at a tonal frequency that's hard to get to, for sure. you gotta work to get there. how you worked to let me know what the dad is feeling and thinking — you did it perfectly, imo. you're aware of what the details of your short will mean

even the sound of a modem dialing in! it's funny how the title "loads" at the end. and cultural/social values present feel universal, which to me is a sign of a good piece of art. i don't have to know local norwegian culture to understand the line "Would you mind knocking before entering my private sphere?" and goddamnit i think we as people all wonder about the dinosaurs

looking forward to the entire series. world wide woven bodies and good machine gun sound being impressive has nothing to do with you standing in front of me right now in this imaginary way. nope. they're impressive because they're impressive
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Garam on October 12, 2014, 01:18:10 PM
just watched this in the basement of an internet cafe and it almost made me cry, haha.

One of the most real portrayals of childhood i've ever seen. Too many artists portray childhood as this idealised state, as something that we've slipped away from rather than evolved from...either that or just with a totally patronising simplified cuteness, like they're just puppies with zero inner world, or conflict, or fears, or anger and confusion. Like they're incapable of doing bad things, or making mistakes. Their stakes are often lower but the struggle is just as real. This just totally brings me back 15 years...it's so real. They're not characters, they're people. The parents reaction to the finding of the web history is perfect, the dad smoking the cigarette to ease his anxiety over choosing an allegiance to his wife or to his son, wanting to mediate and appear both sympathetic and authoritative but failing to convincingly do either.

And i got all that from a 3 second shot. The whole film is like that.

I don't want to gush too much but i truly fucking loved it. Breath of fresh air, makes me feel inspired and in love with film again. Seems like Scandinavian directors have something in their DNA that prevents them from making bad films. Can't wait to watch the others.

And yes, such an incredible period piece! Everything is so perfect, not kitschy or tacky in the slightest, just totally spot on. Such a rush of nostalgia.


edit: ending is golden too. That feeling of 'i will never leave this room'. I think everybody can identify with that.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Frederico Fellini on October 12, 2014, 03:20:04 PM
Damn dude. That was fucking fantastic. Looks gorgeous. Love the way you use silence. Little kid is a hell of an actor. What camera/lenses did you use? I cant get over how good it looks and the way the camera floats through the environment on some Pta/malickian beautifulness.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Axolotl on October 12, 2014, 07:06:42 PM
More people should be freaking out about how good this is.

Some of these shots, man, like the one where he's sitting there paralysed after seeing that pop-under, that feeling of I'm-fucked-and-this-charade-is-over that you experienced on a daily basis combined with the 56K modems and CRT screens and slow loading pixelated images, that Macbeth-y guilt-ridden scrubbing after his first full realization that his sister is a female, you've managed to get at something inexpressible here. 

Thank you for sharing this.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on October 13, 2014, 04:15:42 AM
I am again overwhelmed by your responses, thank you all for taking the time to write down your thoughts!

Quote from: Drenk on October 11, 2014, 09:43:24 AM
First: it looks beautiful, from the VHS to the computers or the board games, it's the nineties.

We had a fantastic production designer, who brought many of her own leftovers from the 90s. Wonderful how much placing a Jumanjii board game in the frame can do. Sadly, we ended up ruining an old DuckTales poster that she valued quite highly. In the last scene I gave Heine, the main actor, free reins to destroy what he wanted in the room and he ripped the poster of the wall in the most beautiful way. He showed some very authentic aggression, but in the end I felt it became too violent of a reaction to the scene before and cut out that part, sadly rendering the tearing of the poster completely unnecessary.

Again we shot in a house that was very familiar to me, it was my aunt's house this time, and it used to be my grandma's, so I've spent an incredible amount of time there. The drama in my films is very often centered around the specifics of their locations, and it was interesting to feel how the screenplay suddenly changed pretty drastically when we decided to use that location. A funny note is also how the cinematographer, when reading the screenplay before we landed the location asked me if I had been thinking about the location we used for Good Machine Gun Sound when writing it, which was absolutely true. He'd guessed it from the way the scenes were written.

Quote from: Drenk on October 11, 2014, 09:43:24 AM
Adults are always around but we feel the distance, it was also true for the last shot where, if I remember correctly, we didn't see their face as often.

I really like this! I guess it is a by-product of very strictly following the child all the time, not seeing their faces. I feel it's a way of narrowing in the focus. The confrontation is the first one where the camera lingers on the parents, and while editing I was a bit afraid that we might not have enough empathy for them at this point, since we've barely seen their faces before, they just seem to float around him, so I'm glad it works for you.

Quote from: Drenk on October 11, 2014, 09:43:24 AM
The computer is the monolith of the house. The child looking at it, scared. The pages loading. You made drama with an internet history and it's very, very good. The scene where the father is in the kitchen, and his son realizing that he was checking porn...We feel the discomfort.

That makes me very happy to hear! I really wanted the computer to be felt as a character. We amped up the sounds so that it's loud as hell in the frame everytime you see it (almost in a parodic way when we swish-pan to it as his parents come home and it's incredibly loud for half a second and then it disappears, like in a horror film where we just catch a tiny glimpse of the beast before the protagonist runs away again).

Quote from: Drenk on October 11, 2014, 09:43:24 AM
The opening shot is fantastic, you capture this moment in a way I can't describe: movements feel natural, the camera moves and, yes, there is movement, life.

Quote from: jenkins<3 on October 11, 2014, 05:36:56 PM
your new short: what i most respect is the consistency of your focus, without the feeling that you're the master of your puppets. i feel like you're discovering things along with your characters.

These ones make me breathe more calmly. I'm constantly afraid that I might be constraining the actors too much because of the choreography of the camera. Especially in something like the first shot in the living room and when the parents come home. Hopefully there's enough chaos in the movements to hide the very planned steps.

Quote from: Drenk on October 11, 2014, 09:43:24 AM
"But I'm not." is a very strong way to end the short-film; parents often make us ashamed, and few have the courage to say "But I'm not ashamed." The very last scene, with him masturbating on his bed, feel a little bit unnecessary to me, but the way it is cut with shots of children playing adds...okay, I'm not sure about how I feel, but it's as if you show how something begins, continues, that it goes on. (yeah, I know, I'm not really clear.)

Haha, no that's perfectly clear. Admittedly I always had a bit of a problem with it in the edit, it felt like the big punch came in the confrontation, and that in many ways it could have ended there as well, and that the last scene was more of a grace note. But I really liked the thought of just finally seeing him masturbate, completely naturally, with no filters, just show the normality of it. There was also the aspect of seeing him masturbate without porn, which I felt focused the story more towards sexuality in general, and not really porn as a phenomenon. 


Quote from: jenkins<3 on October 11, 2014, 05:36:56 PM
and i think the way it's divided into sections allows the short to operate within the twin dimensions of story and emotions.

Happy to hear the chapters worked for you. It was a decision I made in the edit, when I was looking for the structure. It was clear from very early on that the screenplay had a very odd pace, and that it took on a bit too many threads parallel to each other, so I ended up parcelling it all out into "episodes" instead, which slowed down the drive of the film in it's own way, but made the dramas much clearer and gave them room to breathe.

Quote from: Garam on October 12, 2014, 01:18:10 PM
just watched this in the basement of an internet cafe and it almost made me cry, haha.

Oh man, that is great to hear! And what a setting to view it in. Very meta.


Quote from: Garam on October 12, 2014, 01:18:10 PM
One of the most real portrayals of childhood i've ever seen. Too many artists portray childhood as this idealised state, as something that we've slipped away from rather than evolved from...either that or just with a totally patronising simplified cuteness, like they're just puppies with zero inner world, or conflict, or fears, or anger and confusion. Like they're incapable of doing bad things, or making mistakes. Their stakes are often lower but the struggle is just as real.

Thank you! It was always very important to me to take the children seriously, but not make Mads a depressed and sulky child either, but see that these things affect him. Which is why it was important to me to show that even after he's had a pretty dramatic scene with his mom, when he tells her not to touch him, we can still see him laughing with his friends (and also being touched by them). I felt I wanted to show how this was a problem isolated around his relationship to his parents, and that the drama could and would continue inside the house the minutes he goes back, but still not something that makes him shy away from all bodily contact ever. It seemed more real that way.

Quote from: Garam on October 12, 2014, 01:18:10 PM
the dad smoking the cigarette to ease his anxiety over choosing an allegiance to his wife or to his son, wanting to mediate and appear both sympathetic and authoritative but failing to convincingly do either.

His face there is so fantastic, Anders did an incredible job with that scene. I love the way he lights the cigarette right after the mother says "is this what you're watching", like he's getting ready.

Quote from: Garam on October 12, 2014, 01:18:10 PM
edit: ending is golden too. That feeling of 'i will never leave this room'. I think everybody can identify with that.

Very glad to hear it, that might be the part of the film I am most unsure of.

Quote from: Frederico Fellini on October 12, 2014, 03:20:04 PM
What camera/lenses did you use?

We were lucky enough to be able to shoot on 35mm! We used an Arri. The lenses are the same as on Good Machine Gun Sound, that I posted some specs on a few pages back. I am a lucky bastard to be working Benjamin Loeb, an ridiculously talented cinematographer. We think the same about most things.

Quote from: Axolotl on October 12, 2014, 07:06:42 PM
Some of these shots, man, like the one where he's sitting there paralysed after seeing that pop-under, that feeling of I'm-fucked-and-this-charade-is-over that you experienced on a daily basis

Our main actor Heine is incredibly talented, he so damn calm and assured. I have some funny stories that I'll share soon.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: max from fearless on October 13, 2014, 03:30:10 PM
THIS WAS FUCKING DOPE.

I didn't read anyone else's notes for fear of spoilers so sorry if I'm repeating stuff others have said.

Some notes. First off.....

The ape motions/chasing games (boys and girls) at the start, the discovery of ones body, that private space where we can touch ourselves, check ourselves, try to discover our limits, tastes, desires, try to get a grip on what we are physically, how the fuck we work. Shit, all captured so fuckin' well. I loved how you gradually teased out this space.

The physicality of this was beautiful. The sound design made this film so tactile, so intimate, sometimes delicate, sometimes rough. But I could always FEEL IT. Him washing his face (trying to get clean again?) feeling his parents bed sheets, breathing/smelling them (looking for sex? is this what they do?)

Followed by the photos on the wall and him in the reflection in the mirror - ahhhh, this is what sperm and sex is. Fucking awesome simple clear storytelling.

The tension of when the imaginary world of projected intimacy, discovery desire, fucking (adult entertainment) and cumming (and the guilt/confusion/joy that comes with that first load) was going to meet the world of play, discovery, physicality, boys+girls, innocent family touching games. All this made the last scene great.

And also how his own thoughts, his feelings and confusion on intimacy, post-porn: the way his male gaze lands on some breasts (his moms?) the way he doesn't want to be touched by her in his bedroom. Loved this scene, the lighting especially.

The computer literally sexualises his world. Fuck I loved how this virus infected the characters and how you painted this infection with your camera: cutting back to the wide of the dad in the kitchen BG and the son in the foreground, who now understands his dad's transgressions and is a unknowing accomplice.

The steadicam work as the boy touches his dad's feet, followed by his dad tickling him - the floaty freeness and innocence of touching at this point is lovely and inviting and again telling the story really fucking well.

The push in shot onto the computer at night, with the red screen and the pattern on the computer screen growing (what is that?) - is this a monster movie, in which a 256kps modem posses/infects a father and son via porno? Leading the son to a more honest wank?

Performances of the father and son were great. The shot of the dad, fumbling to find words and support the mother at the son's court hearing was great.

On a personal note the Hornets Starter jacket made me immediately swoon and brought back a ton of memories. As did the slow loading porn images (the anxiety and joy that used to come with waiting) and the sound of the modem.

This is a real strong piece of work.

I've sat in on several short film programmes at the LFF this year, and you mr. withnail and you mr. gooses are straight killing all the shorts I've seen by a country fucking mile. And that's just me trying to hide behind a critical privileged p.o.v., (oh look at me seeing all these shorts) cos on the real, and on the honest humble, I've thought about ripping both these films off vimeo, just to study the craft, to think about how certain moments were arrived at, to ponder the questions you discussed with your collaborators and to show friends and to say to them, "I know these guys!!! These are my friends." And in some strange disconnected-internet-way I do know you guys, and through the films, I know you even more so, and those are my kinda films, through and through, and definitely my kinda filmmakers.

You guys are killing it and instead of being filled with dread/jealousy/anxiety at making my own stuff in the wake of these films, I'm filled with an overriding amount of joy and happiness to be around these films and their makers. Tbh, I'm just proud of you guys, and anyone who says xixax ain't as good as it used to be or xixax ain't about shit, well they can suck my dillsnick. This retarded shit is a part of my self-taught filmmaker's curriculum and this is the perfect film (intimacy being the key) for me to declare all my emotions about this place.

PS. I haven't spoken about how funny this film is: The boy nearly getting caught by the modem delivery guy. The mum: "Come here and i'll kiss it off" i.e. the wine that is actually her son's sperm that is actually dad's understanding because he is effectively still a wanker. Dope. Also the cinematography is Killer. How the fuck are you getting the $£$ to shoot this shit? You got some Robert Elswitt shit going on here. Damn. I need to watch this again and think more about technique as this is just a one watch write up...and I need to continue making and learning.

You two are killing it.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Cloudy on October 13, 2014, 04:19:31 PM
Just reading all of these feelings and reviews after watching your movie...you have a way of opening people up, and I think that's.... your personality, the only way you know how...- anyway, this note may be a bit of a digressive: but this movie showed how absurd it is that people our age are now at a point where we can finally point and say, hey that's the exact same pipe screensaver (!!!!!!) I had on my slow-porn spouting computer fifteen years ago... I don't know why I find that so jarring. It's the first time it's actually happened through movies, the Earth keeps turning, and we'll keep getting older, and this will keep happening, as well as the main characters in your short series...

Also, your childhood was littered with beautiful homes in amazing landscapes. I'm so happy to hear from you that this is your aunt/grandmothers home. Is it chance that it's your aunt's home.... because the aunt in the previous short passed away... all of these homey details are what do it for me. You're collecting all of the dust and details and memories of your past and letting it settle ..

And on an immediate level... I love the purple. The mood of this piece is so god damn purple, the mood of it is like sperm in between the fingers, and that sensual feeling is connected to the color purple. This short in general had a chewy pulpy quality to it, that also leads to purple... I was just bummed he didn't taste his sperm (like some of us.... curious cats)

I may be projecting, but your father characters always get me. They fucking bite out of the screen straight into reality.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on October 19, 2014, 07:59:23 AM
Quote from: max from fearless on October 13, 2014, 03:30:10 PM
The physicality of this was beautiful. The sound design made this film so tactile, so intimate, sometimes delicate, sometimes rough. But I could always FEEL IT. Him washing his face (trying to get clean again?) feeling his parents bed sheets, breathing/smelling them (looking for sex? is this what they do?)

Physicality, tactility, is always an aim for me, I'm very glad that shone through. The 35mm was incredibly rewarding in that sense, and the sound designer did an incredible job in getting us close to the characters. And it was great fun being able to ask for "more ball-flapp".

Quote from: max from fearless on October 13, 2014, 03:30:10 PM
The computer literally sexualises his world. Fuck I loved how this virus infected the characters and how you painted this infection with your camera: cutting back to the wide of the dad in the kitchen BG and the son in the foreground, who now understands his dad's transgressions and is a unknowing accomplice.

Quote from: max from fearless on October 13, 2014, 03:30:10 PM
The push in shot onto the computer at night, with the red screen and the pattern on the computer screen growing (what is that?) - is this a monster movie, in which a 256kps modem posses/infects a father and son via porno? Leading the son to a more honest wank?

I love this. The virus and monster feelings are definitely something I wanted, without ever wording it exactly like that. The surreal quality of the pipe screensaver I thought was very fitting, and thematically resonant. This ever-growing chaotic pattern seemed to mirror the increasingly conflicting relationship to the people around him. He's caught in a web of movements in this house with his parents and some interactions are bound to feel strange after becoming more sexually aware. It's a web, as in the title.


Quote from: max from fearless on October 13, 2014, 03:30:10 PM
The steadicam work as the boy touches his dad's feet, followed by his dad tickling him - the floaty freeness and innocence of touching at this point is lovely and inviting and again telling the story really fucking well.

I have completely fallen in love with dancey steadicam work. Choreography has always been something that attracted me to films, as a thing in itself. I remember being 17 and watching that scene in Band a part where they're all gathered around the table and they keep changing places and drinks and just being smitten by the mere movement and wanting to create a similar energy.

Quote from: max from fearless on October 13, 2014, 03:30:10 PM
On a personal note the Hornets Starter jacket made me immediately swoon and brought back a ton of memories. As did the slow loading porn images (the anxiety and joy that used to come with waiting) and the sound of the modem.

The jacket was another great detail from our production designer. I didn't quite know what to have him wear, except it had to be purple. That jacket was her own, actually. I love how it's too big for him too. The slow-loading porn was one of the first keys into the story, that stayed there from the very beginning, a montage of not-quite loaded porn.


Quote from: max from fearless on October 13, 2014, 03:30:10 PM
I've sat in on several short film programmes at the LFF this year, and you mr. withnail and you mr. gooses are straight killing all the shorts I've seen by a country fucking mile. And that's just me trying to hide behind a critical privileged p.o.v., (oh look at me seeing all these shorts) cos on the real, and on the honest humble, I've thought about ripping both these films off vimeo, just to study the craft, to think about how certain moments were arrived at, to ponder the questions you discussed with your collaborators and to show friends and to say to them, "I know these guys!!! These are my friends." And in some strange disconnected-internet-way I do know you guys, and through the films, I know you even more so, and those are my kinda films, through and through, and definitely my kinda filmmakers.

Thank you so much for that! There really seems to be a lot of exciting projects going on, and your very own TRIM is one of those.


Quote from: max from fearless on October 13, 2014, 03:30:10 PM
instead of being filled with dread/jealousy/anxiety at making my own stuff in the wake of these films, I'm filled with an overriding amount of joy and happiness to be around these films and their makers.

My thoughts exactly!

Quote from: max from fearless on October 13, 2014, 03:30:10 PM
Dope. Also the cinematography is Killer. How the fuck are you getting the $£$ to shoot this shit? You got some Robert Elswitt shit going on here. Damn.

Thank you! PTA and Elswit are of course huge inspirations and by now a part of my DNA in a way that will take a long time to shake off. Both this one and Good Machine Gun Sound were funded by the Northern Norwegian Film Center and the Arts Council of Norway, which is just another way of saying "oil". We had about $84 000 on each, so we've certainly had quite a bit to work with! I've been extremely lucky in getting to do what I do the way I do it, but these two would never have been made hadn't it been for all the projects I've done for no budget whatsoever.

Quote from: Cloudy on October 13, 2014, 04:19:31 PM
how absurd it is that people our age are now at a point where we can finally point and say, hey that's the exact same pipe screensaver (!!!!!!) I had on my slow-porn spouting computer fifteen years ago...

Yes! This very first inspiration was a just a feeling of how ridiculously much has happened in these...not even twenty years. How incredibly changed things are by now.

Quote from: Cloudy on October 13, 2014, 04:19:31 PM
Also, your childhood was littered with beautiful homes in amazing landscapes. I'm so happy to hear from you that this is your aunt/grandmothers home. Is it chance that it's your aunt's home.... because the aunt in the previous short passed away... all of these homey details are what do it for me. You're collecting all of the dust and details and memories of your past and letting it settle ..

This was actually another aunt, but it certainly a way for me to preserve something of them, even though this one we changed very drastically in the production design (for instance, we put in that huge book shelf). The house in Good Machine Gun Sound might now be sold, so I am extremely happy that I got to document it in the way I did.

Quote from: Cloudy on October 13, 2014, 04:19:31 PM
And on an immediate level... I love the purple. The mood of this piece is so god damn purple, the mood of it is like sperm in between the fingers, and that sensual feeling is connected to the color purple. This short in general had a chewy pulpy quality to it, that also leads to purple... I was just bummed he didn't taste his sperm (like some of us.... curious cats)

Yes baby! That underlined part is exactly what I was after. Also - damn! That is indeed a missed opportunity, he should have tasted it. Truthfully I was a bit unsure of whether I was pushing it too far just with having it on the fingers, but I see now that it just reads completely naturally in the final film.

Quote from: Cloudy on October 13, 2014, 04:19:31 PM
I may be projecting, but your father characters always get me. They fucking bite out of the screen straight into reality.

Thank you. I am always a bit unsure of whether the father in Good Machine Gun Sound is too one-sidedly harsh, so I'm glad to hear you think that.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: JG on October 21, 2014, 08:56:18 AM
just wanted to reiterate what everyone has been saying - great job, beautiful stuff! your most recent is my favorite, the fluid camera works so well for your material.

i'm jealous because i too have written a bunch about childhood and those early days on the house computer. its a generational thing, so i'm assuming i'm not alone. there are so many easy jokes to be made, dull ironies to be drawn out, comparing our relationship to computers then and now. but you have a deft touch and focused on all the right stuff.

i also admire that you seem to be making shorts at a pretty quick clip (at least one a year?).. keep doing it! don't view them as stepping stones to features, these are the real thing.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on October 21, 2014, 10:03:29 AM
Quote from: JG on October 21, 2014, 08:56:18 AM
just wanted to reiterate what everyone has been saying - great job, beautiful stuff! your most recent is my favorite, the fluid camera works so well for your material.

Thank you!

Quote from: JG on October 21, 2014, 08:56:18 AM
i'm jealous because i too have written a bunch about childhood and those early days on the house computer. its a generational thing, so i'm assuming i'm not alone.

Written for film? Shoot it! I'd love to see. It's certainly a fundamental aspect of our generation's childhoods.

Quote from: JG on October 21, 2014, 08:56:18 AM
i also admire that you seem to be making shorts at a pretty quick clip (at least one a year?).. keep doing it! don't view them as stepping stones to features, these are the real thing.

It's been really important to me to always be ready to go out and do something, always have something to play around with, since noticing during to hand to hand to mouth how little stands in the way of hitting the streets and creating something.

Since the funded projects are a little bit further apart, it's always been important to have something to do if/when the schedule falls apart. Two examples: we actually got Good Machine Gun Sound funded in winter 2012, to shoot that summer, but it got postponed a year due to some bad planning. A happy accident, as the creative vacuum created an strong hunger to do something, and made possible the improvised feature I posted the teaser for some pages back, which gave me a huge amount of experience with actors and playing around, which informed Good Machine Gun Sound quite a bit. That project is still not finished but we haven't been hurrying too much, and it's been very nice to have something to play with. And after we got a rejection from the Northern Norwegian Film Center on the first application for World Wide Woven Bodies in 2013, because of a not-quite-finished script and because they wanted to see how Good Machine Gun Sound turned out, I quickly made Everyone is Present, a still unfinished short you can see the teaser to here.

Teaser for Everybody is Present (https://vimeo.com/62022862)
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on January 21, 2015, 02:35:47 PM
So!

I just returned from an incredible premiere of World Wide Woven Bodies at the Tromsø International Film Festival. We got extremely good responses and talked with a very interesting producer about future collaborations. As the film is now starting it's festival run, I'll remove the password from the public (and the same with Good Machine Gun Sound). But send me a PM and I'll send you the password if you want to see it.

And in with the new:

Here is a secret link to Everybody Is Present, a no budget improv-based little thing. We basically worked with a very general outline of what was supposed to happen, and this is culled together from 3-4 half hour improvisations.

https://vimeo.com/115961726
password: aet

I'll leave that password open for a little while.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: matt35mm on January 21, 2015, 04:52:01 PM
You're the real fuckin' deal, Truls. Always an inspiration. Thanks so much for sharing.

:bravo:
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on January 22, 2015, 10:04:40 AM
Thank you so much for that Matt! I'm very happy to hear it.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on September 15, 2015, 10:34:35 AM
Fellow xixaxers!

Any of you in New Orleans? World Wide Woven Bodies will be screening at the film festival there in about a month, would be great to hang out.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: 03 on September 16, 2015, 10:45:35 PM
dude i would love to come, i'm about 2 hours away so i don't go there too often but it's a great place to hang out. congrats homie.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: max from fearless on September 17, 2015, 09:59:39 AM
Congrats brotha! So happy for you, this is great and looking forward to whatever you do next!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on September 17, 2015, 10:32:56 AM
Thanks max! and 03 - you should definitely come if you're that close, it would be great to hang out!

We also made a teaser, that can be seen here (https://vimeo.com/129261007)

If someone still wants to watch the film, just shoot me a PM and I send a link.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: N on September 18, 2015, 01:24:45 AM
Congrats man. Jealous of anybody who gets to watch your films on the big screen. Good luck.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on October 01, 2015, 02:24:53 AM
Thanks for that N!

I'll also be going to New York after the festival - any xixaxers there who'd like to meet up? I'll be there from approx the 22nd of October to the 27th.

Edit: Or Boston? I'll be going there first, so will be there for a few days around the 22nd, and then NYC.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: pete on October 11, 2015, 02:01:20 PM
I'll be in boston!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on October 11, 2015, 02:55:12 PM
Fuck yes! Pete, we meet. Again.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on November 04, 2015, 02:44:26 PM
Had a fantastic time in the states, hanging out with both Matt and Pete and also bringing home an award from New Orleans! We got one of two Special Jury Awards, runners up to the winner of the Narrative Short category.

In other news, Good Machine Gun Sound and World Wide Woven Bodies will be premiering online at NoBudge sometime soon in the future.

Right now I'm writing a longer thing about a girl who tries to go vegan but can't do it. If anyone has interesting vegan-related stories, I'd love to hear. As of now the script features a fish screaming like a human, a dead moose frozen in a lake and plenty of steadicam shots following cats.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: jenkins on November 04, 2015, 03:00:43 PM
xx
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: max from fearless on November 04, 2015, 07:05:47 PM
AWESOME JW!!!!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Garam on November 07, 2015, 05:12:32 PM
Great stuff! What's the award look like? Is it a big crawdad with clapperboards for claws?
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on November 09, 2015, 07:42:16 AM
Haha! Not far from the truth. It's a glass alligator.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: jenkins on February 09, 2016, 11:58:35 AM
http://nobudge.com/main/good-machine-gun-sound

QuoteYesterday Arvid was 7 years old, and today he is 8. While setting up for his party, his mother receives a phone call; her younger sister in the city has suddenly died. The meaning of this news has yet to really dawn on him, but its weight has fallen with a physical force on the rambunctious little boy in the yard, spraying his family with play machine gun fire. A break, inevitable as turning another year older, has been placed in the flowing path of afternoons spent charging through the house and roughhousing with his baby brother. Arvid's discovery of life's impermanence is less a conscious recognition than an understanding felt in the body, an awareness that is surfaced and interpreted through small rituals.

Shot with a dreamy richness that unveils the vicious greens of the Norwegian forest and the foreboding of a mid-day when the corners of a room are lost in shadow, Truls Krane Meby's film gently leads us down to the sunken landscape of childhood emotion, so much more vivid for being unreachable by words. (15 minutes). Directed by Truls Krane Meby, who has another NB premiere coming up in March: World Wide Woven Bodies on March 15th.

xx
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: matt35mm on February 09, 2016, 12:24:35 PM
I've already said many words about this movie on this thread, so for now I'll just say that it is extraordinary.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: polkablues on February 09, 2016, 03:27:30 PM
So goddamn good. I'm wrecked.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: wilder on February 09, 2016, 06:47:46 PM
Again, your shorts are incredible and feel so note-perfect I'm at a loss for words. I think I'm sharing the sentiments of everyone here in wishing you a long and rapidly-ascending career. Your talent deserves everything coming.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on February 10, 2016, 06:17:17 AM
Those are incredible words to hear my friends! Thank you so much, again. It feels very good to have this film out in the open now, also finally getting to close that chapter a little (basically meaning: no more tinkering! I've been fiddling around with it up to yesterday right before it went live, it was even converting for a few hours while it was supposed to be up).

World Wide Woven Bodies will follow on NoBudge on the 15th of March, and it looks like Everybody's Present might go on their blog. So those films will soon be living their own lives, while I truck on with the next projects. One being the aforementioned vegan-film, another being a feature also about the arrival of the internet in northern Norway, called Age Sex Location, and a third, but the one I'll finish first, a short based on a true story about a refugee who guides his family over the mountains of his native country, over the mobile phone - from the north of Norway.

Also, there's one little mistake in that description from NoBudge: it should be "twin sister", not "younger sister". It's been fixed on the site now.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on February 10, 2016, 03:04:45 PM
So a Russian site (http://cinebus.org/bozhestvennaya-mashina-razoblacheniya) has reviewed Good Machine Gun Sound, and the Google translation is pretty amazing.


Divine revelations machine

Heidegger argued that death allows the person to remain at last alone with himself. Home movie director Truls Krane Meby, the boy sneaks through the rooms of the parent at home, if it is confirmed. Before the light enters the frame death. It keeps track of the boy, but when he runs into the street to play and chase a younger brother, he turns into a death, hunting for someone. Always hunting and waits. So within a single frame, which lasts more than three minutes, the hero-boy appears in two forms: the victim's death and deadly hunter.

At the end of a long mizankadra included in the film and in the house death without masking through the ringer. The news gets the boy's mother, wearing a new life. There is a dichotomy of either beginning or end, or circular harmony, closing the loop, using a circling camera that monitors gyres boy. Boy playing in the death of a boy, shooting, boy, tearing the stomach's younger brother, a boy to compete with life. The viewer is prepared this whirling and changing roles within the same role and at the time of the phone call, he was ready, he expects death. You can not say about the daring boy ...

And then begins the mounting film with frequent gluing, between which there are no additional expectations and new semantic meanings. Meanings tell of adults, parents, losing their strength and time, in general, chewed what was in the initial three-minute mizankadre. Adults and parents removed in passing, in the icing, only children - large, long-silent personally in Bergman. Children meet with death, which was previously only modestly lived in them, and now looked them in the eye, children are left without a protective layer of the parent, children, exposing the life of children, under the radiant eyes of the Creator.

Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: matt35mm on March 30, 2016, 04:13:59 PM
I am currently in Just Withnail's childhood home, where GOOD MACHINE GUN SOUND was shot. I had dinner with his mother, who is very nice. Soon I will become him, and the Universe will collapse on itself, but until then, I recommend that everybody come visit this incredibly beautiful place (Lofoten, Norway). All it takes is time and money.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on March 31, 2016, 07:30:44 AM
It's worth noting that I am nowhere near Lofoten myself at the moment, and that Matt is indeed taking over my life in my absence. And miles away I can feel myself slowly mattifying.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Garam on March 31, 2016, 09:20:21 AM
Quote from: matt35mm on March 30, 2016, 04:13:59 PM
All it takes is time and money.

the word 'money' must always be all-capped, font-size 50'd and bolded whenever used in reference to Scandinavia
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: matt35mm on March 31, 2016, 09:57:48 AM
Oh and I also stayed with the family of the kid from WORLD WIDE WOVEN BODIES.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Drenk on March 31, 2016, 09:59:33 AM
I want to write a movie about matt stealing people's lives.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Jeremy Blackman on March 31, 2016, 10:24:37 AM
Quote from: Drenk on March 31, 2016, 09:59:33 AM
I want to write a movie about matt stealing people's lives.

The Talented Mr. Latham
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Sleepless on March 31, 2016, 10:31:57 AM
Didn't Matt go boating with Pubrick right before he stopped posting?
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: matt35mm on March 31, 2016, 10:57:41 AM
Quote from: Sleepless on March 31, 2016, 10:31:57 AM
Didn't Matt go boating with Pubrick right before he stopped posting?

The original matt35mm would've loved that joke.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on April 01, 2016, 02:31:52 PM
Today my mom sent me the kind of picture she usually sends of her and my siblings, but with Matt instead. I find this oddly comforting.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on April 11, 2016, 03:33:18 AM
Holy shit! We just got another special mention for WWWB at Aspen Shortsfest!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: matt35mm on April 11, 2016, 11:05:31 AM
Good that you got another one, because I stole the New Orleans one from Heine.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: jenkins on May 27, 2016, 11:04:57 AM
QuoteNew short: EVERYBODY IS PRESENT. A young couple tries to cope with a long-distance relationship through the wonders of modern technology. Directed by Truls Krane Meby (Good Machine Gun Sound, NB Selection Feb '16). Only available on our Vimeo channel. Please FOLLOW our channel to view other Vimeo only selections. https://vimeo.com/channels/nobudge/115961726

xixax is dominating nobudge this week  :inlove:
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on May 28, 2016, 06:45:26 AM
The Xixax sleeper cells have been activated. Go go go.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on June 25, 2016, 11:04:42 AM
Gang!

I'm trying my damndest to write a feature that's inspired by World Wide Woven Bodies, set in the mid-90s when the internet came, but I really don't want to re-use the same plot as my short. I'm seriously stuck and banging my head against the wall (how does one write a feature??), and need to get out of my bubble a little.

Do any of you have any good early internet stories to share? What things did you use it for in the beginning? Did it affect your life away from the screen in any way?
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Reel on June 25, 2016, 12:45:24 PM
I think I first started having conversations at length with girls on AOL instant messenger. Remember how much of a party it used to feel like? It's so quaint to look back at how simple text messaging excited us. I would talk to girls I'd never have the guts to in person for HOURS, and usually it'd veer into sexual territory. So we'd have this weird 'thing' between us that we could never breach in public but would seem to obsess about once we got back to our computers. This lasted into my late teens and I never got anything 'done' with it. The memory I look back on with the most fondness was when a girl I really liked invited me over late one night and we ended up watching TV under the same blanket but I just couldn't. make. THAT. MOVE. And sometimes I'll find myself looking back on these brief passages of time and think "Wow, that was my one shot with her. We'll never be that innocent again."
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: matt35mm on June 25, 2016, 02:15:24 PM
Quote from: Reelist on June 25, 2016, 12:45:24 PM
I think I first started having conversations at length with girls on AOL instant messenger. Remember how much of a party it used to feel like? It's so quaint to look back at how simple text messaging excited us. I would talk to girls I'd never have the guts to in person for HOURS, and usually it'd veer into sexual territory. So we'd have this weird 'thing' between us that we could never breach in public but would seem to obsess about once we got back to our computers. This lasted into my late teens and I never got anything 'done' with it. The memory I look back on with the most fondness was when a girl I really liked invited me over late one night and we ended up watching TV under the same blanket but I just couldn't. make. THAT. MOVE. And sometimes I'll find myself looking back on these brief passages of time and think "Wow, that was my one shot with her. We'll never be that innocent again."

Um. These are my experiences. How'd you get them?

Things like Xanga/LiveJournal (these were a bit before MySpace, even, I think) were eating up a lot of my time, as well as XIXAX and obviously porn. Music downloading. I used the internet to educate myself a lot, reading about movies, movie-making, reading scripts. I spent a lot of time discovering and listening to new music, which I don't really do anymore. I still mostly listen to what I listened to in high school.........
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Reel on June 25, 2016, 06:19:19 PM
Quote from: matt35mm on June 25, 2016, 02:15:24 PMI spent a lot of time discovering and listening to new music, which I don't really do anymore. I still mostly listen to what I listened to in high school.........

Yeah, remember how much Napster broadened your taste back then? There was so much "un-popular" music you'd have never bought for $20.00 at best buy until you sampled it and then it was your new favorite thing! Those were the days, when downloading a song took 45 mins and you'd be thrilled to get it.

I do think an interesting realm to consider for your film would be the early web communities before social networking took off. A place to swap stories and speak your mind that felt like your own corner of the internet. You'll meet some kindred spirits and of course more seedy characters ( where it seems like the drama in any movie about this would lie )
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: polkablues on June 25, 2016, 09:14:34 PM
A weirdly great way of discovering new music was when you would download a song on Napster or Kazaa or whatever and it wouldn't be the song the filename claimed it was, but you liked it, so you had to do some detective work to figure out what the song actually was.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: wilder on June 30, 2016, 05:39:33 AM
Just Withnail:

I was re-watching Good Machine Gun Sound because it's so fucking good, trying to figure out how you pulled it off. It's one of those things I see that seems to work by magic - simple explanations about how it's constructed are elusive. So I'm watching it again, and had a vague idea that each section is sort of like a mental headspace. The first section sets up this idea of Arvid's innocence, playing, spraying his brother with fake machine gun bullets - making light of death. The dialogue is sort of throwaway (in a wonderful natural way), but really what I'm getting from this section is "innocence" not even really from the dialogue or what I'm imagining is scripted action necessarily, but from the way you directed it - the movement and pace, etc. Then the phone call interrupts that. Following there's the angry/confused/darker behavior Arvid displays in reaction to the phone call when he plays with his brother, and the direction totally changes here... On and on as the story progresses.

So really, I have a question about how you write and direct your films: Is all of it on the page? Are you improv-ing in the moment? (i.e. is it "Arvid runs around the house." and then you stretch that out to a a few minutes once on set, or...?) What kinds of things do you say to the kid? How much are you giving weight to the script versus some separate idea of how the scene should be directed (i.e. is the direction giving into the script or the script giving into the direction, if that makes sense). What I'm trying to say is that the real story seems to come across in your direction, almost regardless of what the dialogue and action is, because it's that strong, and it's amazing. It all feels so organic and I'm really curious about your process. Tell us your secrets!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on July 02, 2016, 04:17:58 PM
Thanks guys, for the anecdotes! It really helped, and loosened things up for me, first just making me want to put everything in, and for a day or three it was suddenly a very loose multiple-protagonist film that just floated around a little aimlessly, from episode to episode. It's not like that anymore, though I won't rule out that I float back to it later.

Especially the kind of chatting experiences you mention I think will be very prominent in the film. Since I started thinking about it, it's been the anonymity angle that's been most attractive to me, that it let's to behave in ways you'd never allow yourself offline. Just like you describe Reelist, that situation is perfect.

And the educational part that you describe Matt, was also instrumental for me. Growing up in a tiny town, the internet really made you feel plugged into the world. That's also been a part of this film at one point, with a little kid who gets really cocky and starts feeling much smarter than his parents (which obviously wasn't true).

It's been all over, this film, and I'm starting to feel like it might be because I'm trying to stretch short film storylines into a feature - hence the episodic idea mentioned above, but then it became a little to thematically focused.

The detective angle that you mention, polka, is something I'd like to cover, in a little bit of a different way, that was covered a teeny tiny bit in the short. That using the internet in the beginning was mostly trying to figure out what the hell it was.

And Garam: losing your virginity through an online date, that's what all this should be about.

I'm going crazy. I should make a dozen shorts about it instead, I want to do a little bit of everything.


And wilder - thank you again for the great words and in-depth thoughts. It's quite moving to read. Much appreciated that you take time to watch it again. Here are some thoughts of mine about the process.

First of all, you are bang-on about the structure. My thought was very much to have these bulks of sequences with metaphorical atmospheres, where each sequence could be thoroughly soaked in a mood, where the plot was so much forwarded in the sequences themselves, so much as in-between (roughly). The first one, was, like you say, to do with innocence. Sadly it was just to chilly that day to have Arvid/Erlend run around in just his shorts, which would have exacerbated the innocence-mood, but oh well. The mood of the next one was something like "escape and aggression", and, with the wake I wanted to bring in a surrealism, and so on.

Another idea was cross-cutting between these like Eisensteinian montage - instead of each shot having it's own strength and symbolic potency that crashes, it's in the whole of the sequences themselves. The cut-points become vital for the story and potent in effect (exacerbated by long-takes: minimal use leads to maximum feel, contrast is key).

As for what's on the page or not: I definitely tend to over-write. Then as we shoot and go, I just keep subtracting: dialogue, beats, entire scenes. This is a very on-the-fly feeling, often. I've seen what we have up to that point, and can make some quick mental edits to feel if we have what's needed, and then we either go or skip.

With these last two shorts I've also known the locations intimately and have so tailored the motions of the script very directly to the way people can move in these places. Many shots - such as when Mads is on the PC and the father is in the kitchen in WWWB - are very precise and are there on the page, as the intensity of the drama depends very much on it. I try to do that as much as I can - tailor the drama to the place. A funny anecdote that I think I said here before: before we landed on the house in WWWB I was picturing the house from GMGS while I was writing, just to be able to picture things more concretely. After my DP read the screenplay for the first time, he actually noticed that I'd done just that. He'd recognized the house from the writing. So a lot is there on the page, but it's always negotiable if it doesn't flow.

What stays in from the script and what goes out will often come back to the metaphorical atmospheres. If the atmospheric changes come through from sequence to sequence, then often the only thing that is really needed to keep is the key change in the scene - and it doesn't have to be outwardly big, as the atmosphere will do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to getting a sense of how the character feels. After that the rest is things that maybe deepen character and place, but sometimes those things have had to go, in favor of flow and keeping atmosphere.

This also feeds into how I interact with the actors. I try to do most of the talking up-front (and if possible to have a reading through the script with them) , and minimize it when we're shooting. When we shoot I mostly try to get everyone into the feeling of a scene, the tone of it, and not to do too many adjustments to people's performances.

By the way, I have never really intellectualized this as much I'm doing now, but I notice that this was probably what I was doing all along.


Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: wilder on July 02, 2016, 07:28:37 PM
JW, thank you for elaborating so much and writing such an in-depth response, your explanation is even more detailed than I'd hoped for. There are a few key things you said that make so much sense...

Quote from: Just Withnail on July 02, 2016, 04:17:58 PMMy thought was very much to have these bulks of sequences with metaphorical atmospheres, where each sequence could be thoroughly soaked in a mood, where the plot was so much forwarded in the sequences themselves

Quote from: Just Withnail on July 02, 2016, 04:17:58 PMinstead of each shot having it's own strength and symbolic potency that crashes, it's in the whole of the sequences themselves. The cut-points become vital for the story

Quote from: Just Withnail on July 02, 2016, 04:17:58 PMIf the atmospheric changes come through from sequence to sequence, then often the only thing that is really needed to keep is the key change in the scene - and it doesn't have to be outwardly big, as the atmosphere will do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to getting a sense of how the character feels. After that the rest is things that maybe deepen character and place, but sometimes those things have had to go, in favor of flow

The following really surprised me because your shorts feel very elliptical, even though they're progressing linearly and the emotional beats are precise, but in retrospect now I understand why it would work with your cutting method:

Quote from: Just Withnail on July 02, 2016, 04:17:58 PMI definitely tend to over-write. Then as we shoot and go, I just keep subtracting: dialogue, beats, entire scenes. This is a very on-the-fly feeling, often. I've seen what we have up to that point, and can make some quick mental edits to feel if we have what's needed, and then we either go or skip.

I think about this a lot - how you can introduce an idea once in a story and it really will resonate if you trust it, but that if you keep hammering the idea over and over it becomes redundant and stale, and hinders story from evolving and feeling complex in any way. Redundancy also just negates the setup/payoff contrast you mentioned:

Quote from: Just Withnail on July 02, 2016, 04:17:58 PM(minimal use leads to maximum feel, contrast is key).

For me the conundrum comes in the writing stage, where I often feel paralysis in fleshing out a scene because focusing it down to the change from what's come before becomes an exhausting mental exercise, but, paradoxically, sometimes writing through the redundancy is the avenue to new things. I'd imagine having all the experience you do of cutting things down on set would help set my mind free.

You've been more than generous in explaining how you work, but at the risk of being greedy I have to ask - would you mind posting a scene from GMGS in script form, prior to its being cut down? I completely understand if you don't want to reveal your cards / take off your clothes in public. It'd be illuminating, though.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on July 06, 2016, 06:06:02 AM
Quote from: wilderwould you mind posting a scene from GMGS in script form, prior to its being cut down? I completely understand if you don't want to reveal your cards / take off your clothes in public. It'd be illuminating, though.

I'd be happy to show an example. As I was reading over the GMGS script again, I was a little surprised at first, at how little was really cut from it, and started thinking that maybe I was projecting my experiences with my recent writing back onto this, but then I came to the following scene and thought it's a very good example of the kind of cutting-down I was talking about. Some of the cutting down came as we found the location (only two days before shooting the scene), some ideas came while we were shooting the scene that is directly prior to this, and some came on set.

The exerpt:

8 INT. CHURCH - SMALL ROOM
Dark. Arvid is hiding in a corner, behind his mom, holding her hand, looking towards a table where somebody is blocking Arvid's view of a white-clad figure that lies on it, seeming to adjust it's clothes. He can't see the face. Until the person steps aside, and we see a pale woman, identical with his mother, surrounded by flowers, with her mouth open and lifeless.

Somebody speaks mundanely about funeral preparations.

Arvid's father leans down to his face.

MORTEN
Come, Arvid, let's look at your auntie.

He takes Arvid in his arms and carries him over to the corpse.

Arvid stiffens and fights slightly against it.

MORTEN
Look how calm she is.

ARVID
Dad...

Arvid turns his body and face away from his aunt.

MORTEN
...but it's not dangerous. Look. Look how calm she is.

We hear sounds of scratching that we don't yet understand the source of, as Arvid looks towards the door and his aunt lies white behind him.

--

This one was maybe the scene I was most unsure of how to do before we came on set, since the way this scene is written demands many set-ups, as we follow Arvid and his eyes around the room.

When we were preparing to shoot the scene, I felt the drama between Arvid and his dad was a little too tightened, that the father was too pushy in the script, so that was toned down to the bare essentials (it was all in there in their body language anyways). I had also failed to imagine exactly how large eight year olds are (and add to that the fact that we cast a ten year old), so suddenly it seemed very implausible that the father would pick him up and that was axed (but no big loss).

"Somebody speaks mundanely about funeral preparations" became a wonderfully half-improvised bit when we gave the task to a person who actually works at this place, with corpses. That bit about "she looks like she's sleeping on the couch" came from her, as something she'd actually say in a situation like this, as well as the technical details about the "death stiffness receding".

One of the core ideas of the scene preceding this one, was that Arvid's movement is stilled by the father, and when were were on set it suddenly seemed obvious that everything needed to be simplified, and for that complete stillness to continue over from the previous scene, keeping everything in one long shot. So Arvid's direct POVs were discarded, in favor of an "emotional POV" (like putting him out of focus in the back of the shot, the cutting off of the heads of the adults, and the overall atmosphere). The last addition was the father tightening his fist over Arvid's sweather.

So, calling it over-writing might be exaggerating, but this kind of paring down happens all the time in different forms.

EDIT: I think this is all because I've yet to develop an instinct for how much is really enough to get an idea across, and in the writing I always have a slight paranoia, that diminishes more and more as the shoot progresses and I realise what I we have and how much is really there in the images.

I'd love to read what you're writing! PM if you want.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on December 06, 2016, 11:29:42 AM
Finally!

World Wide Woven Bodies is finally online, free for all to see! It premieres on NoBudge and Short of the Week, and we just got a Vimeo Staff Pick. Feels very good to finally have it out there.

HERE IT IS! (https://vimeo.com/96432729)
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: jenkins on December 06, 2016, 12:10:54 PM
made me smile smile smile xx
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Drenk on December 07, 2016, 08:58:26 AM
Quote from: Just Withnail on December 06, 2016, 11:29:42 AM
Finally!

World Wide Woven Bodies is finally online, free for all to see! It premieres on NoBudge and Short of the Week, and we just got a Vimeo Staff Pick. Feels very good to finally have it out there.

HERE IT IS! (https://vimeo.com/96432729)

I often think about that short. I have watched it again and I still loved it. The dark "magic" around the computer, the violence and the strength of the emotions, how the 90s reappear, how comfortable and yet uncomfortable the world feels...yep, it hits me.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on December 07, 2016, 02:28:50 PM
Dark computer magic! I love it. There will certainly be more of that coming. Working on something longer now, that will hopefully give an even stronger impression of how strange and magical the net felt in the beginning, every star-filled GeoCities page promising you somebody's personal, esoteric truths.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on December 01, 2017, 10:10:20 AM
It's time again!

Finally, my latest short is done done done. As always, I'm anxious to show it to all of you, and to hear what you think. If anyone wants a link and a password, give a shout and I'll send it over.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Drenk on December 01, 2017, 10:25:29 AM
I want it!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on December 01, 2017, 11:05:35 AM
You've been PM'd :)

This one is a little bit the same old and a little bit different. Like always I guess.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: wilder on December 01, 2017, 12:19:10 PM
Yes please!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: polkablues on December 01, 2017, 12:37:48 PM
Hook it to my veins.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Robyn on December 01, 2017, 01:38:37 PM
yeah, me too!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Jeremy Blackman on December 01, 2017, 03:09:33 PM
Me
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: jenkins on December 01, 2017, 06:11:53 PM
(https://media1.tenor.com/images/eb84af20881a5e7b2ddea2e64b4d86ec/tenor.gif?itemid=4420134)
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: jenkins on December 01, 2017, 07:34:36 PM
Just Withnail you have mad skills which you've developed over the years. i'm positive. Mobile is a fully functional short with all the signs of maturity. it took development to bring you here. it's beyond kid stuff. hell, i like kid stuff too second of all. but really the ending here is quite dramatic, in a way which initiates reflection upon what i've seen and felt while watching the short. you make me think about the world, distance, chaos. possibility. lack of possibility. money. lack of money. family. lack of family. it's all represented. and it's the human stuff that needs to be talked about, but there's a matter of who's talking about it and how.

i like how you talk about it and of course i adore the particularity of the setting. and visual symbolism as narrative texture. all the things you did there, i like all of them, basically i'm going to watch it again, thanks as always.

(https://i.imgur.com/Q8iMpjP.png?1)

xx
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: ono on December 01, 2017, 08:12:03 PM
Ludovico me plz kthx.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: WorldForgot on December 01, 2017, 10:14:15 PM
Link me up, Scotty!
Need as much Xixax sauce as possible ~
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on December 02, 2017, 09:48:42 AM
Thank you jenks!

Those are mighty mighty good words to hear. I was pretty nervous about this whole project, as the form and feel was pretty different from the other shorts, not to mention the fact of portraying a situation so extremely far from my own experience (while the other shorts have been extremely close), and as usual towards the end of it all I've gotten completely blind on the whole thing.

It's based on a true story from my home town, where we also shot. I thought it had a lot of potential to show one small situation with a gigantic backdrop. The story had a fabric to it that I thought could touch on a lot of themes from my other shorts, exactly the ones you mention.

It also could let me try to go further into our-relationship-to-technology territory. Further into the almost supernatural, mystical elements of it. Being everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Or: being everywhere, yet not at all, yet always, unavoidably, extremely just where you are, physically.

I realized late in the process that the film is essentially structurally an upgrade of to hand to hand to mouth, my short from 2011 (link close to the beginning of the thread).
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: wilder on December 02, 2017, 04:49:07 PM
Always enjoy watching your work. It definitely feels different than your previous shorts but in an interesting, 'let's explore this other thing' way. Loved the jump cut storytelling style. There's a moment where he gets off the phone after hearing bad news and you jump cut to him stepping into shadow as he hangs up (5:29). Little details like that are cool.

The nearly silouhetted students in the opening seemed to subconsciously promote the idea that we're all the same regardless of race or nationality (not to be rote...) by obscuring those features of people's faces with the lack of light, that the conflict this one guy is experiencing is a universal pain. They're human bodies not (fill in the blank ethnicity), and the idea that they're all learning a language and bridging a gap between themselves and others certainly reinforces that.

You have an amazing way of incorporating modern technology and the new behaviors that go along with it in your filmmaking that feels extremely organic and simultaneously insightful, avoiding the gimmickry that can plague a lot of other narrative work when it tries to do this and be current. I'm referring to the part where he takes a selfie and goes through the filters briefly before posting. Like, this is a serious subject, but his life is continuing to roll forward and is he going to apply those filters as he does in a state of normalcy? Of course he is. Also loved the moment when you cut to him again in class, the camera tracking in and then out from outside, the sense of panic and fear building. 

Your scene set ups all feel so real. When he gets dressed for the restaurant and you have the kitchen working as he goes in briefly to pick up the plated food, you get the sense that those other characters had/have business to attend to before and after - that their lives extend beyond the frame.

Quote from: Just Withnail on December 02, 2017, 09:48:42 AMOr: being everywhere, yet not at all, yet always, unavoidably, extremely just where you are, physically.

I really felt this confusing helplessness in the final moments of the short. The inability for the brain and body to agree and reconcile the distance collapsing effect of modern communication with our primal understanding of space. Super interesting idea that I'd be game to see explored further.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: matt35mm on December 02, 2017, 06:23:37 PM
give it
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Drenk on December 02, 2017, 09:21:38 PM
As someone who's often freaked out by maps, I can say that this short was very effective on me and articulated feelings and impressions I had in a way I could have never imagined. This is my kind of cocktail.

In short: I thought it was very good.

Google Map is a strange thing, you can scroll kilometers under where you live and even if you stay in your country the names evoke nothing, and it is difficult to wonder about all the people whose lives are impregnated by these names and places you can't fathom.

The map here is a physical map. It is hard to talk about this short because I can't explain my fascination. Before I knew about the story, I was fascinated by this map. I didn't know it would haunt the rest of the short. What's haunting is the impossibility to feel it. The entirety of the world. And it is true that technology changed the way we conceive the world.

This strangeness is very strong in the short. It's not just the map. It's the world itself. The streets. The mountains. I suppose it isn't strange to you. These places must be where you live or not that foreign to you but I'm sure you were able to see them as strange to capture them that way. This is something that you're very good at, I remember how in a previous short of yours the house where a child was playing seemed weirder and weirder the longer the shot was—I even said that I almost thought that something surnatural would happen. This is what cinema can offer. The possibility to see how surnatural nature can seem. The possibility to see us with alien eyes.

The last shot is breathtaking; it takes it one step further...

It's difficult to tell a story as actual while making it personal without denaturing it or showing disrespect but you found your way in. Now I can recognize your work and it is entirely you. The rythme. The way it looks. The storytelling. Once again, it looks gorgeous. I think of Jacques Audiard and Terrence Malick but once again the fluidity of your work is from your own DNA. I love it, it's intimate. I'm a fan.

I could articulate my thoughts in a better way, but I agree with the previous posts. Are you still writing a movie about the internet?



Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: WorldForgot on December 03, 2017, 01:12:43 AM
Great, great short film.

I don't have much to add that wilder, Drenk, and Jenkins haven't already articulated far better than I could, besides that your sense of tempo/rhythm is impeccable. Watching your other shorts before this one helped contextualize thematic interests, but I think moreso it allowed me to watch your storytelling evolve to this latest state of momentum. It's the jump cuts, but it's also the brevity with which you illustrate our protagonist.  In the first two minutes you know the conflict and the scope, but you don't have an idea of where this breakneck pace will take you.

Reminds me of the best character dramas. Feels immediate, because it's rooted in our present, each instant honest and honestly instant.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Something Spanish on December 03, 2017, 09:34:58 AM
Good job, sir. A humane, touching, and all too real story. The 10min breezed by so quickly I was surprised when the end credits flashed.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on December 04, 2017, 06:07:38 AM
Thank you all for your wonderful thoughts. Again, the best part of all of this is understanding the film through others reactions.

Quote from: wilder on December 02, 2017, 04:49:07 PM
Always enjoy watching your work. It definitely feels different than your previous shorts but in an interesting, 'let's explore this other thing' way. Loved the jump cut storytelling style. There's a moment where he gets off the phone after hearing bad news and you jump cut to him stepping into shadow as he hangs up (5:29). Little details like that are cool.

I wanted it to feel more nervous than the other films, to push even more on having a clear formal contrast between the scenes and sequences. The jump-cuts in that specific scene weren't designed to be there from the start, but in the edit I felt they both help us feel his energy build up for the mission and then feel the total cosmic indifference of the big wide-shot all the much more. I wanted an energy that gets its wind taken out of it immediately.

Quote from: wilder on December 02, 2017, 04:49:07 PM
The nearly silouhetted students in the opening seemed to subconsciously promote the idea that we're all the same regardless of race or nationality (not to be rote...) by obscuring those features of people's faces with the lack of light, that the conflict this one guy is experiencing is a universal pain. They're human bodies not (fill in the blank ethnicity), and the idea that they're all learning a language and bridging a gap between themselves and others certainly reinforces that.

That's a good way of articulating that. My cinematographer suggested the darkness, and I was a bit wary at first, but soon felt it fit perfectly. The surface mood of the scene is joyful, but the darkness hints at other currents. I didn't originally think of the darkness as universalizing, but I can see how it works that way, especially together with the way we don't get to know the other students, but only see them embedding themselves into a new culture through language, and feel hints of longing through the map. With the way we pick up Walid at the end of the scene, I wanted there to be a feeling that any single one of these people could have a similarly intense story, that the camera almost accidentally lands on him. The following job-scenes, and his friendliness with the cook, was a way of showing him getting further established, slowly getting a home here. Burrowing down in a place, instead of across the map to somewhere else. The opposite of mobility (wink wink). Yet his life is of course nowhere near stabile.

Quote from: wilder on December 02, 2017, 04:49:07 PM
Your scene set ups all feel so real. When he gets dressed for the restaurant and you have the kitchen working as he goes in briefly to pick up the plated food, you get the sense that those other characters had/have business to attend to before and after - that their lives extend beyond the frame.

I'm very happy to hear that! I think it's one of those little scenes that can work as natural in a cinema context, even though it's not really like life. What I mean is that he comes in, gives a wave, and the cook just says a super-quick "hi" and scoots him out with the food, perfectly timed. I was afraid it would seem to constructed so I'm happy it didn't feel that way.


Quote from: Just Withnail on December 02, 2017, 09:48:42 AMOr: being everywhere, yet not at all, yet always, unavoidably, extremely just where you are, physically.

Quote from: wilder on December 02, 2017, 04:49:07 PM
I really felt this confusing helplessness in the final moments of the short. The inability for the brain and body to agree and reconcile the distance collapsing effect of modern communication with our primal understanding of space. Super interesting idea that I'd be game to see explored further.

Altso very well put! This was exactly what I wanted here.

Quote from: Drenk on December 02, 2017, 09:21:38 PM
Google Map is a strange thing, you can scroll kilometers under where you live and even if you stay in your country the names evoke nothing, and it is difficult to wonder about all the people whose lives are impregnated by these names and places you can't fathom.

Wow, I *love* this. It's such a harrowing thought.

There's an experimental film in here somewhere. A relatively close-up view of Google Maps, simply panning sideways (slowly enough for placenames to be readable) until it's gone a whole round around the earth.

Quote from: Drenk on December 02, 2017, 09:21:38 PM
This strangeness is very strong in the short. It's not just the map. It's the world itself. The streets. The mountains. I suppose it isn't strange to you. These places must be where you live or not that foreign to you but I'm sure you were able to see them as strange to capture them that way. This is something that you're very good at, I remember how in a previous short of yours the house where a child was playing seemed weirder and weirder the longer the shot was—I even said that I almost thought that something surnatural would happen. This is what cinema can offer. The possibility to see how surnatural nature can seem. The possibility to see us with alien eyes.

It's a big drive for me, to try to get myself to see the weirdness of my own surroundings, or to pull out and highlight certain traits. Having lived away from this town for 13 years (although I go back multiple times per year) it's easier now to see how bizzarre this place can be. In this film it was really finding the aspects that made it look like the edge of the world.

Quote from: Drenk on December 02, 2017, 09:21:38 PM
Are you still writing a movie about the internet?

I am! Though struggling to write it. I definitely haven't cracked how to do what I like doing as a feature. Like World Wide Woven Bodies it's about when the internet came to that town, but it'll be a different story. It's called Age Sex Location, and is about using the early internet and IRC as an experimental labratory for identity. I know I asked before, but if anyone's got a great anecdote, I'd love to hear.

Quote from: WorldForgot on December 03, 2017, 01:12:43 AM
Great, great short film.

I don't have much to add that wilder, Drenk, and Jenkins haven't already articulated far better than I could, besides that your sense of tempo/rhythm is impeccable. Watching your other shorts before this one helped contextualize thematic interests, but I think moreso it allowed me to watch your storytelling evolve to this latest state of momentum. It's the jump cuts, but it's also the brevity with which you illustrate our protagonist.  In the first two minutes you know the conflict and the scope, but you don't have an idea of where this breakneck pace will take you.

Thank you! I think one of the things that excites me when writing a feature story, is the possibilty of having both the meandering feeling of the previous shorts and the more stressed pacing of this one. I definitely haven't moved permanently away from the other mode.

Quote from: Something Spanish on December 03, 2017, 09:34:58 AM
Good job, sir. A humane, touching, and all too real story. The 10min breezed by so quickly I was surprised when the end credits flashed.

Merci :)
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on April 27, 2018, 04:36:14 AM
HELL YES YES YES!

I just got a writing grant to develop my first feature AGE SEX LOCATION! Amazing. It's another project about the arrival of the internet, but this time about how the ability to be anonymous online affects the identity of a young boy. CANNOT WAIT TO SHOW!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Jeremy Blackman on April 27, 2018, 11:03:01 AM
Congrats!!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: matt35mm on April 27, 2018, 01:45:28 PM
FUCK
YES
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on April 30, 2018, 08:15:16 AM
Thank you!

I've been trying to properly get going on this for years, and it's great to feel that the wheels are finally turning. But the work is just starting!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Drenk on May 18, 2019, 10:42:34 AM
Probably late, but two articles that might help for the internet project:


https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/05/moms-who-were-extremely-online-1993/588562/

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/05/backstreet-boys-humor-site-super-fans-millennium-album/589363/
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on May 24, 2019, 11:46:19 AM
Great Drenk, thank you for these! I haven't got to reading them yet, but I will when I start the next draft in a few weeks :)
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: WorldForgot on May 24, 2019, 12:18:07 PM
Quote from: Just Withnail on May 24, 2019, 11:46:19 AM
Great Drenk, thank you for these! I haven't got to reading them yet, but I will when I start the next draft in a few weeks :)

Your essay on Inherent Vice iz really freaking inspiring.
Thank you for writing that and, I'm assuming, making the gifs.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on May 25, 2019, 12:18:34 PM
Quote from: WorldForgot on May 24, 2019, 12:18:07 PM
Your essay on Inherent Vice iz really freaking inspiring.
Thank you for writing that and, I'm assuming, making the gifs.

Thank you for those beautiful words, I'm very happy to hear that <3

I did make the gifs too, yes!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on July 04, 2019, 04:33:25 PM
We just finished the first round of shooting for my next film - Dyr & Dyr ("Animals & Animals" - the title will likely change), and I made a little teaser from the northern Norwegian part of the film. Can't wait to share more! And to show the very different aesthetics of the Berlin part of the film.

Let's see how long I manage to have this online until somebody wants it down for that Debussy piece.

Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: jenkins on July 05, 2019, 12:06:28 AM
verbal upvote, and since this one can be described it's "sincere" and "utmost"
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: WorldForgot on July 05, 2019, 11:41:45 AM
Looks grand!! Especially dig the boat shot and pace of the teaser, the sense of investigating each frame and catching glimpses of a life against precipices, hazy as they run along locations that fall off into the nada.   
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on July 09, 2019, 09:07:13 AM
Thanks guys!

This one is going to be interesting - and really difficult - to edit, I feel like it can go in so many different directions. And we can shape it quite a bit - especially as I'm now editing what we already have while shooting more now and then. The Berlin-parts are going to be so different, much more chaotic.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: jenkins on July 09, 2019, 08:47:20 PM
I excited
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on February 05, 2020, 11:59:46 AM
Hey folks!

Mobile is finally online after it's festival run, and we were lucky enough to get a Vimeo Staff Pick Premiere for it.

It's available for all to see right here:



And I'm aching to show you guys more of this strange other project I'm finishing up at the moment.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: jenkins on February 05, 2020, 12:01:27 PM
xx

v glad for this and excited about strange other project
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Drenk on February 07, 2020, 07:36:12 PM
As a stranger, watching this character seemingly lost in Sweden truly highlights the eeriness of the immigrant experience. And the stressful plot adds, well, all the stress of the experience. Anyway, I still love this one!  :bravo:

And I'm excited for what's coming next, too!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on October 03, 2021, 06:00:14 AM
Wild to say but FINALLY the project I've been deep into for the last two years is done - a novella film that was supposed to be around 60 mins that grew into a feature. That's the teaser for it up there, with it's old title. Like with my short Mobile I'm aching to show it to you guys and can't really wait until it's released (which we don't in any case know where will be yet).

SO! Like last time, this time with a little more risk I guess, it being a feature, I want to give a secret link to those of you who'd like to see this 72 min weirdness. I honestly have no idea what it's become, and how it'll be received (and if it'll be misunderstood). Whoever wants to see, shoot me a PM. I trust you all not to spread the link around and not to mention the title in the thread (don't want to make the thread pop up in Google searches).
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Reel on October 03, 2021, 09:56:46 AM
Cool! I've been thinking about watching your shorts again on the big screen so they'd make a great lead up!
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: WorldForgot on October 03, 2021, 10:03:39 AM
PM'd ya!  :yabbse-grin:
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on October 03, 2021, 11:19:44 AM
Quote from: Reelist on October 03, 2021, 09:56:46 AM
Cool! I've been thinking about watching your shorts again on the big screen so they'd make a great lead up!

Quote from: WorldForgot on October 03, 2021, 10:03:39 AM
PM'd ya!  :yabbse-grin:

PM'd ya right back!
Fantastic!  :yabbse-grin:
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Robyn on October 03, 2021, 11:45:01 AM
The fishing scene... wow

And the overwhelming dread that slowly krept back during that whole sequence.

I didn't expect to get so moved by this, but holy shit was this good. I was close to tears by the end of it.

That was amazing.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on October 03, 2021, 12:08:47 PM
Oh man oh man, Robyn, that makes me happy.

I'm very glad you were moved by it - starting out I hadn't thought it would be a moving film at all, so that's great to hear.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: WorldForgot on October 03, 2021, 12:50:30 PM
Beautiful film!!! Your consideration of our online irreal ontology iz potent. I love the visualizations in the first act and even more so how they juxtapose the rest. Great work. Very inspiring.

I'm currently working on a short film myself with a bunch of inserts and digital visualizations. This feelz like a wave that's close to cresting in terms of representing the modern dilemmas of multiple obligation-planes.

"I think I want to stop eating animals. I feel like everything I do I do for me, you know? I feel like a bad person, you know? I just grab everything and put it into my mouth. We just take everything. Ooo I like this, ooo I like that."
"Don't take that ~"
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on October 05, 2021, 06:35:29 AM
Quote from: WorldForgot on October 03, 2021, 12:50:30 PM
Beautiful film!!! Your consideration of our online irreal ontology iz potent. I love the visualizations in the first act and even more so how they juxtapose the rest. Great work. Very inspiring.

Thank you so much, WF! Those visualizations grew very organically throughout the process (as did the whole film, really, after the first week we basically put away the script and followed the edit). The visualizations were originally just supposed to be pure split screen image montages (like that one scene with the fire burning next to her), but it became apparent in the edit, as the concept of the film grew, that I needed it to act much more like a phone interface, much more dynamically, so that led to using the idyllic sunset backdrop (as an ironic, flat counterpart to the Norway parts), and when I realized I'd need the graphic to somehow arrive in the screen slowly in the first shot things started to get interesting. I first faded it in but that bored me, so I did a super simple sideways animation set to that Debussy tune from her phone, an animation that I thought was so goofy and funny and from then on I knew approximately how the form of it needed to be. We eventually evolved those animations into something more dreamy with the help of a 3D-animator, but I think the simple goofiness is still there.


Quote from: WorldForgot on October 03, 2021, 12:50:30 PMI'm currently working on a short film myself with a bunch of inserts and digital visualizations. This feelz like a wave that's close to cresting in terms of representing the modern dilemmas of multiple obligation-planes.

Hell yeah! I'd love to see this when it's done. I'm glad there's been some attempts to embed digital life into the form of films, rather than just always showing screens. This stuff is in our bones now.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Robyn on October 05, 2021, 08:17:55 AM
Speaking of funny, I really like the humor in general.

"I have a growing economy" lol

Maybe I am crazy now (I haven't watched her movies in a while), but I thought there was a slight Josephine Decker vibe in this... not sure why, tho

I'll probably watch this again in the next few days.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Drenk on October 05, 2021, 08:52:37 PM
This is terrific. As usual, I am overwhelmed by your work. It's absolutely on my wavelength.

There's a lot to talk about, and even if I tried to keep notes mentally of all my thoughts, I was too taken by the film to keep track of the rush, which is another way to say that I loved it.

I'll start with the main character—how I perceive her self and her main motivation—as a way to get into the details of the film: K is trapped in a digital and neoliberal hell, a predicament that may be responsible for her scattered mind, and is therefore looking for personal change as if it could change reality/her reality. It seems like an impossible task. But what else is she gonna do? Change the world? Change your life and therefore change the world? Change your life/ or change the world? You feel more in control of your individuality, there are easier margins for changes there, but I kept thinking: "There's nothing you can do to stop that noise in your head".

Movies are where you watch stuff. Right? Nobody will debate this definition?  :yabbse-grin: And digital space is a distraction from stuff, yet is also stuff...So how do you depict distraction? This is hard, and that must have been a headache, but this works there with the integration/invasion of digital space in the screen, mixed with the hectic editing. The animations added eeriness. I always come back to that word with your work: the eeriness of reality and of mental spaces and the way they intertwined. I loved the shreds of her phone.  I think we talked about scrolling through Google Maps in this thread, so I enjoyed everything with the maps! Abstract fish. Abstract world...

What's great about Norway is the respite, yes, it slows down—wider and longer and slower shots—and then the unease creeps back in. Her mind is her own screen. That's when I started to see the struggle as an everlasting struggle, which makes her decision to become vegan as a desperate attempt to change her life as sad as funny. I'm not mentioning how this is *also* a love story, and a fucking romantic and harsh love story. The drama is in the thousand beautiful details your fisher's eye keep catching. In the actors bodies, the situations, little lines of dialogue. It rang true. It felt true. I remember the way he laughs when K is freaking out in the boat, and how you know this is the way he's always laughing when something similar happens. All the irrationality makes sense. There's flesh and blood in the game. I'm never bored.   

The restlessness of her interior monologue coming back in Norway is fantastic, there's also the beginning of a "minor" psychotic break with the other, mystical voice. I was reading the subtitles but it went so fast that, especially in the first twenty minutes, I was often missing stuff. But it made sense. And I had her voice as background noise. I liked the ending, there were subtle changes but it leaves us hanging in the struggle...And that rings true, too. Oh. And a character being so dispersed that she can't feel herself present, whatever that means, is also at the center of a novel I've written, which ends on the same word, or the same idea, anyway...There instead of Here. Because this is constantly shifting from Here to There, so what does being present means exactly?

Okay! Going to bed now! I'm missing a lot, obviously. It leaves space to discussion.

One more thing: shoutout to the sound design! It holds all the pieces together.



Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on October 07, 2021, 06:36:09 AM
Quote from: Drenk on October 05, 2021, 08:52:37 PM
This is terrific. As usual, I am overwhelmed by your work. It's absolutely on my wavelength.

Thank you so much, Drenk, your thoughts are eye-opening for me!


Quote from: Drenk on October 05, 2021, 08:52:37 PM
I'll start with the main character—how I perceive her self and her main motivation—as a way to get into the details of the film: K is trapped in a digital and neoliberal hell, a predicament that may be responsible for her scattered mind, and is therefore looking for personal change as if it could change reality/her reality. It seems like an impossible task. But what else is she gonna do? Change the world? Change your life and therefore change the world? Change your life/ or change the world? You feel more in control of your individuality, there are easier margins for changes there, but I kept thinking: "There's nothing you can do to stop that noise in your head".

I'm glad you pinpoint the neoliberal aspect as I feel it seamlessly ties into her digital hell. Whether the neolib-digital hellscape is ultimately responsible for her scatteredness, I'm unsure, but it certainly makes it much much worse and feeds off of it.


Quote from: Drenk on October 05, 2021, 08:52:37 PM
Movies are where you watch stuff. Right? Nobody will debate this definition?  :yabbse-grin: And digital space is a distraction from stuff, yet is also stuff...So how do you depict distraction? This is hard, and that must have been a headache, but this works there with the integration/invasion of digital space in the screen, mixed with the hectic editing. The animations added eeriness. I always come back to that word with your work: the eeriness of reality and of mental spaces and the way they intertwined. I loved the shreds of her phone.  I think we talked about scrolling through Google Maps in this thread, so I enjoyed everything with the maps! Abstract fish. Abstract world...

Regarding the depicting the distraction, I had for a while (not connected to any particular project) been trying to think of ways to depict the way digital life both narrows and widens our attention, they way they first screen out (I guess it's more like a superimposition) life around you before plunging you into something completely different. Thinking of value-neutral way of showing how digital life acts on our attention, one way I thought could be interesting was simply to have the sides of the screen narrow in everytime we hear the buzz of a phone, and then the sides being filled with graphics as the phone is picked up and attended to, and then the graphics take over. In the beginning of editing the feature it became clear that I wanted something more aggressive, that K's intensity really needed more whipping up, and that I wanted to show the brutality of digital life more. I also didn't want to show the phone at all (I think there's only one half-close shot of a phone in the entire film), and internalize it much more, make it of a whole with her thoughts, make it inseperable from them. The graphics themselves could be a bit of a pain sometimes, but mostly it was just a lot of fun, and playing around with them added momentum both to the work and the film itself. Thinking of them like a devil whipping her up.


Quote from: Drenk on October 05, 2021, 08:52:37 PM
What's great about Norway is the respite, yes, it slows down—wider and longer and slower shots—and then the unease creeps back in. Her mind is her own screen. That's when I started to see the struggle as an everlasting struggle, which makes her decision to become vegan as a desperate attempt to change her life as sad as funny. I'm not mentioning how this is *also* a love story, and a fucking romantic and harsh love story. The drama is in the thousand beautiful details your fisher's eye keep catching. In the actors bodies, the situations, little lines of dialogue. It rang true. It felt true. I remember the way he laughs when K is freaking out in the boat, and how you know this is the way he's always laughing when something similar happens. All the irrationality makes sense. There's flesh and blood in the game. I'm never bored.   

"Her mind is her own screen." Oh man, I love this. Yes, when in this "blank slate" utopia, with no digital distraction, no people, she ultimately ends up getting back into the same distracted state of mind. Though the fishing trip shook her to her core, cut through the veil of Maya and all the bullshit, but then how to go on from there? The further away in time and space from that moment in the boat, her old hectic ways of being slowly intrude, until her project has succumbed completely to the neolib-digtal flow again.

I'm very happy to hear the romance clicked for you!


Quote from: Drenk on October 05, 2021, 08:52:37 PM
The restlessness of her interior monologue coming back in Norway is fantastic, there's also the beginning of a "minor" psychotic break with the other, mystical voice. I was reading the subtitles but it went so fast that, especially in the first twenty minutes, I was often missing stuff. But it made sense. And I had her voice as background noise. I liked the ending, there were subtle changes but it leaves us hanging in the struggle...And that rings true, too. Oh. And a character being so dispersed that she can't feel herself present, whatever that means, is also at the center of a novel I've written, which ends on the same word, or the same idea, anyway...There instead of Here. Because this is constantly shifting from Here to There, so what does being present means exactly?

The mystical voice - the Guide as I ended up referring to him as - was a way of showing that she's still a bit removed from herself. Another voice is guiding her, and as the fantasy landscapes of Norway are replaced by the chaos of Berlin the voice that guided her towards her newfound idealism silently slips over to guiding her towards her previous life. Her wishes to change not deeply enough embedded (yet?).

Yeah I'm definitely expecting a lot of the details in the interior monologue to get lost, but that's completely fine, I think you did it the right way. There's stuff to find in there, but the overall chaos is the most important. If it works like a drone, or a motorik beat, then that's the most important - a monotonous forward drive.


Quote from: Drenk on October 05, 2021, 08:52:37 PM
One more thing: shoutout to the sound design! It holds all the pieces together.

I'll tell the sound designer and the musician (who also did a lot of the sound design)! It was so great to experience the music as it came in, seeing how K's thoughts would literally seem to change and sharpen once a proper track was put under the imagery. I used a lot of krautrock and kraut inspired stuff for the temp tracks: Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Thomas Dinger. The mood of those are felt, I feel, but in a much more dynamic soundscape.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on August 28, 2023, 09:42:23 AM
Hello everyone!

I just recently finished a short, in case anyone's interested in watching, send me a PM and I'll send the link and password your way :)

This is a very personal one, and my first documentary, that I'm both scared and eager to show the world.
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on December 01, 2023, 05:18:23 AM
Hey all!

KATJA DREAMS OF WAKING UP comes to streaming in the US on December 5th, courtesy of Fandor and Cineverse!

It will also be available on iTunes and Apple TV.

Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on December 15, 2023, 10:54:16 AM
We made a poster for my latest short, THE WEIGHT OF SIGHT. By the same designer, Isabel Seliger, who did the poster for Katja Dreams of Waking Up.

(https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5145a044e4b033f3803b1334/7a72e0f4-7b2f-4088-ab6e-9999133fcfdf/Poster-1.jpg?format=2500w)
Title: Re: just Just Withnail's short films
Post by: Just Withnail on February 21, 2024, 06:44:27 AM
We made a little teaser for the film now too!



I'm still in development on my next feature, AGE SEX LOCATION, about the arrival of the internet in northern Norway in the late 90s, and I'm doing some research/inspiration interviews now with anyone who has interesting things to share about using the internet back then.

If any of you would like to partake, let me know!

The film is about a young boy who discovers his sexuality and a gets a more complex understanding of his gender, so experiences regarding this are very interesting for us, but also just overall experiences of that wonderful, crazy time online.