Produced By - #5 - Vasco Alexandre: From Successful Short Films To Writing Own Feature

Starting point is 00:00:03 Vasco Alexander is a Copenhagen-based filmmaker with a broad range of set experience from different countries who aspires to become a director. Born in 1993 in Lisbon, he worked as a freelance photographer in Portugal, directing branding content, mini-documentaries, music videos until 2016. His broad education experience includes bachelor's in film in London, Erasmus in Madrid and masters in directed in Edinburgh. Studying for his bachelor's in London, he wrote and directed a short film Yard Kings, which was screened at many international festivals and picked various prizes including two Royal Television

Starting point is 00:00:45 Society awards. His recent directing credits include other short films, and he is currently trying to write a short film. Listen to this episode to hear the comparison of cultures in different countries, how Vasco Elmos got his script adapted into TV series and learned more about. about Danish cinema in general. Enjoy it. Thank you for you today and welcome to the show. Thank you to having me. It's nice to see you after so long.

Starting point is 00:01:19 Yeah, likewise. So for the beginning, can you please a bit introduce yourself and say, where are you working now or what are you working on now? My name is Paschou and I'm originally from Portugal. I did my education in different countries. So Spain, England, Scotland. Then I moved to Denmark a year ago. And I've been working on some projects still in development,

Starting point is 00:01:46 including now most recently a feature film, which I hope is happening next year. And I've been working in creating my own production company with a few people here, which we can talk a little bit more in detail further and commercials and other things. and I have also some freelance commercial work going on, which is essential to be in the beginning of our career as a filmmaker, because to pay our bills, right? We can also talk in a bit. And yeah, that's me at the moment. So it's like quite a few exciting projects. It's an exciting year.

Starting point is 00:02:27 Yeah. So in the franchise, why did you actually move to Denmark? Or what led you there? To be completely honest, I was doing my master's degree in Edinburgh, in Scotland, which is a one-year program. Sorry, was it like a film degree? Yeah, a film degree, but specialised in directing. So we had like a few general classes about film, but then we had like a part of the program was specialized in directing. And so there was four different departments.

Starting point is 00:02:59 that was producing, there was editing, directing and cinematography. And I met my girlfriend there in that course. She's a producer and she was studying in the same year as me and she ended up producing one of my films. We go written together that film, Gummy Bear, a short film, that we did as part of the problem. And in the end of the course, I didn't really know where to go. And she has been living in Denmark for seven years

Starting point is 00:03:27 and she advised me to come to Denmark, that it was a good place to start my career. And I decided to jump on and here I am. Yeah. So just coming back to your short film, Gabimberg, how was it in that? Did you go to festivals with it? No, not yet. This year, I'm a player to festivals this year with that film. Hopefully we will.

Starting point is 00:03:50 Still don't know. That year, I did three short films as part of the program. So there was a shorter one. There was just seven minutes. I mean, I have more groups on the final film, on the graduation show. That one, I'm investing a bit more energy into distributing it, which is called 10 with a flag. And which is also going to go to festivals this year. So it's quite exciting.

Starting point is 00:04:15 A lot of things are coming. Big ambitions. So I wonder, because I know you studied film before in London, bachelors, why did you... We do. Yeah, we did. I mean, together. But why did you decide to continue studying film? Well, I think mostly for me as a director, it was very important to keep making short

Starting point is 00:04:37 terms. It doesn't matter how I would do them, but I had to do more shortchamps. I couldn't stop. And continuing my education in film would allow me to have the tools to do it. I had basically two roads, right? I could try to get a job, probably as a runner or, you know, go up the ladder in the classic way or I could try to keep making short films and go through that maybe the festival route or you know start growing my name as a director which is what I want to do even though it sounds like

Starting point is 00:05:09 a dream rights to be recognized with a short film in a festival and somebody invites you to finance a young X project but it's always a possibility and I wanted to to take that risk and I think it was worth it now that I look back. I don't regret. I would do exactly the same. And why did you decide for University in Edinburgh in particular? Well, that was one of my last options, actually. My first option was the NFTS and it was way too difficult to get in and too expensive. It was two years and I thought up. This course was way cheaper, easier to get in one year course. different city also I wanted to try a different city to live in a different city so the

Starting point is 00:05:59 program was nice because I could do you know three short films so I thought it could be a good option also Pamu was one of my first choices as I was also hard to get there I get yeah yeah but actually I visited Edin Brayden I think the city itself is beautiful how did you feel it's yeah it's beautiful city it's a plenty of historical places slides. Yeah, it's so funny because like the city is perfect to do a historical drum or something like that. And we ended up making doing a futuristic film, this topic and short film. Location scouting in Edinburgh for a sci-fi kind of thing is not the best thing. But yeah, it's a beautiful city. Definitely as a student you have a good time. But I don't know if I would

Starting point is 00:06:49 live there, you know. Yeah. This is probably different as a tourist. as someone who's living there. Yeah. You also mentioned that you studied in Spain before. Yeah, there was an Erasmus that I did on my second year of my bachelor. I did like one year in Madrid and actually not so related to film. I did a short film there though, but it was more focused in marketing. Actually, it was really helpful because I learned a lot about not like the classic marketing

Starting point is 00:07:19 that I actually, I don't know anything about that, but like how to, To sort of fly. Exactly. Yeah. Oh wow. Yeah. Sounds good. Like marketing applies to the communication industry basically. And also I had like law, some law modules, which was really nice. I wanted to fill up the gaps, the holes of my knowledge in other areas of filmmaking, you know, in that year. Like law marketing, you know, also literature, tune. I read a lot of books that year. So that was a cool year.

Starting point is 00:07:47 So then I went back to Middlesex in my third year and I led like a different perspective of the industry, you know. It was helpful. Yeah, it sounds great having experience like this from different cities and working with people from different cultures, different places. Yeah. In the end of the day, so in filmmaking, I worked in other things other than filmmaking, right? Like I worked in bars, you know, companies, a lot of different places.

Starting point is 00:08:14 And I worked in different countries. While I was a student, I had to work in clubs and bars and things like that. And in different countries, the world. working culture and hospitality sector is different. But in filmmaking, I noticed that it's always the same. It's like going to... How would you describe it then? Those similar traits of film work culture?

Starting point is 00:08:40 The hierarchy, the structure of the team, the communication in the team, the feeling of being part of the team and going to war together. Those are common traits, universal traits in film. But it was nice to know the culture, the cinematic culture, for example, Spain, what kind of movies they watch and what kind of directors are on top and wants the trans. That was helpful. So what do you think then you would recommend to someone what place to study in? Out of these cultures or out of the places you've studied in,

Starting point is 00:09:16 what would be like the best one to pick someone who wants to study a film? Well, I think definitely the NFTS, it's the best place. And even if not just for the directing future, but even commercial and documentary and everything, in my opinion, they have really good facilities. You hang out with the best of the best there, you know. Is it actually in London or outside of London? It's in Bacon School, something like that. Oh, okay, yeah. But I guess it's very tough to get there, isn't it?

Starting point is 00:09:48 Yeah, I wait to. the interview and it was already hard to get there to the interview, you know, to the last thought of people. I was being interviewed by an Oscar-nominated producer. So really? Yeah. And I have a lot of friends there and they say it's the best. But if you don't have money and you just want to make movies, there are other options,

Starting point is 00:10:12 you know. If you just want to have decent equipment, they love and have a crew, you can, for example, Screen Academy, Scotland was not the best course. There was a lot of things that I didn't like. That's the one you did, right? Yeah. But at least I could make films. So if you just really want to make films,

Starting point is 00:10:30 and that's your only objective and not learn so much, if you just want to use the university as a tool, let's say, and I know this sounds really bad, but I'm going to say, you still pay quite a lot for it. So I guess you kind of deserve it, if you want to. you know because of the loan and stuff yeah paying that until dying yeah exactly i mean if you even pay that off before you die moving forward to the kopenhagen how did you start there i mean you moved there so what did you do when you moved there to the completely new place

Starting point is 00:11:06 it was not easy i was lucky because my friend guided me through the process you know she's been here for so long so she was like a very important support uh Yeah, support in that sense, introducing me to people and to the culture and so on. And she's been working a lot in filmmaking, so it was easy to meet people. But as soon as I got here, of course, I had to get it. I was jobless. So I started applying to a lot of company, a lot of production companies and getting a lot of rejections. Because, of course, as a graduate, and I just had four short films.

Starting point is 00:11:43 And I didn't even know what to apply for. Should I apply it to be a runner? But I don't have runner experience. sure I applied to be a director, but I'm not a good enough director yet. Take your situation. Yeah, what should I do? I was lucky because I could find a job one of the biggest companies in Denmark called Pandora. It was the best thing that happened that year because I didn't really know what to do.

Starting point is 00:12:06 And I also, like, I couldn't find jobs as a corporate video ever for or anything because I only had a portfolio on that. So when I got this job as a video director for them, it was mostly a corporate job. So directing like corporate stuff for them, but like really big corporate stuff. Would it be like commercials? Yeah, I did. I didn't do commercials, but I did talk shows. I did campaign videos, you know, like they are launching a new campaign and they want to promote the new stores and things like that.

Starting point is 00:12:38 So and also like training videos and a lot of things like that. But that was good because it kept me busy and I could bring my crew. So I was not alone. I could bring my crew. and my DP and we could work together and I could have a lot of time in between projects to work on my own projects because I was shooting like one week and then I was editing at home and I was getting money enough to pay my bills, you know, from those little jobs. So that was actually the perfect situation for me that year because I was working like a week,

Starting point is 00:13:12 shooting like for a week and editing. And then like in one month or two months I was going to do the next year. video and my salary was enough to cover for that so I could stay at home and work in my projects you know yeah that sounds good I had the look I didn't know that panderai is actually Danish company yeah I thought it's like you know there was just headquarters or something or just one of the branches it sounds great they are huge there is huge company it was not like the best creative experience as you can imagine besides yeah but still and based on what did I to hire you? Was it based on your portfolio, studying experience? Yeah, so a friend of my girlfriend

Starting point is 00:13:55 worked there and I was looking for a job and I told her that I was looking for a job and they were looking for a video director and it was just perfect timing. I sent them my portfolio and they hired me right away. It was being in the right timing and the right place. Of course, you need to be talented and all that, but it's really important to meet the right person in the right model. and otherwise it would have been really hard to get the job. But yeah, then after that, as I told you, I developed my projects. So we started, me and my girls, and we always work together. So we started doing a lot of things, including a TV series that we started developing.

Starting point is 00:14:33 So you mean just you and Terrace of like starting TV series from the scratch? No, so basically in my master's degree, I did a graduation film, which was a dystopian drama called Turn with the Flag. This film was inspired in an original short story by an American writer. So we adapted that story and made the short film. We got the rights for the short story. And then my girlfriend, she's a producer,

Starting point is 00:14:59 so she pitched the idea of that story, not the short film, but the short story. To a production company here in Denmark and they got really interested and they wanted to develop the short story into a TV series. It's a long process. It's still like, of course, in development, not even in development, it's still like waiting to start development. It's been like long journey on this TV series.

Starting point is 00:15:23 But you're on a good path so far, aren't you? On a right journey? I think so. Of course, I am. It's just tough to wait. And you know, like this year I realized, not this year, last year, I realized that we don't know anything about the industry when we get out of school, right? Like they don't teach us how it really works. Yeah, the industry isn't really waiting for you.

Starting point is 00:15:49 I feel like I am in the right path, but I feel like that's not the direction I want to go to wait maybe a year or two years for a project to get developed. Initially, I was supposed to do one thing in the project and another thing and then another thing and there are a lot of interests all the time in these projects of this dimension. So what I really want, and I think it's the best direction for me, is to do my project the more independently way possible, you know, and have full control of them as much control as possible and build my name with those projects and not being dependent on, you know,

Starting point is 00:16:29 production company that is pitching the idea to Netflix or to Amazon, you know. Then like maybe they tell me, okay, this guy does I have experience enough to direct? Or maybe they, you do have that experience, but then something gets on the way and they want to change the whole story because there is not like loved enough or there is not, you know. And you end up just basically selling your projects. You don't even have control anymore. So I feel like now in the beginning of my career, what I should focus more is, of course if it happens that I have a project made by a stream like Netflix or whatever, I's going to be the happiest day of my life until now, of course. but I shouldn't stop working on my other projects, you know, that I can express myself. Yeah, that's what I mean.

Starting point is 00:17:13 So is it basically now you are waiting for them to do that, or are they like waiting for you and your girlfriend to develop it more? The wrong story. So basically... Or you can just say it briefly, just kind of to know. I would love to tell you the whole story, but it's a lot of it I cannot talk about. But basically we are waiting now for the first finance package to start development, you know. So now we are in a moment that we are gathering talent. So we already have a few letters of intent from a few like a level cast. And we are like now attaching in this precise one with a screenwriter.

Starting point is 00:17:54 We already had two screenwriters. They dropped out because they had a Netflix project. So we had to start from the scratch looking for another screenwriter. now we got a new league. We are like advancing on that. And then when you have the whole package together and the new pitch Bible and so on with the writer's take, then you can pitch to the stream. We already had a few. It's like this process that we were here, then we went here, then we went here without nothing.

Starting point is 00:18:21 You know, and then you go to the top and then you suddenly from one day to another you have nothing and then you have everything. It's like a roller goes through emotions. Up and down, yeah. Yeah. There was a moment that it seemed like we were going to make it. And next day, our two screenwriters, they had a Netflix project happening. They dropped out. The streamer that was financing the development process dropped out because they dropped out.

Starting point is 00:18:44 You know, and suddenly we had nothing. It's like a chain reaction. Yeah. So does that mean that your project could eventually be adapted by Netflix as well or some other streaming company? We pitched to them. I went to the meeting with my girlfriend and the production company to pitch to them, to the Netflix of the Nordics. And it didn't happen. It was not the right project for them in that precise time.

Starting point is 00:19:12 They had another strategy. And then we pitched to see more entertainers, which is like a Swedish streamer. And we got a lead with that. And then in the meantime, we lost them. You know, it's like Netflix was the first one that we got a meeting with. Yeah. But it still sounds impressive. Who can say that they were pitching a project to Netflix?

Starting point is 00:19:35 It sounds already really good. Yeah, it is amazing. But as I say, like, it is amazing when you hear it, when you are there and you didn't talk to me for so long and you hear that and you are like, oh, that's amazing. That is such a lucky guy. And it's true. I'm very lucky that this happened and grateful. I'm very grateful that this happened.

Starting point is 00:19:56 But the truth is that I was way happier. when I could just make films. And it's been a year or almost two years that I don't actually make shows, you know? So, like, I'm just wondering, like, I know this is really cool. I'm going to have the opportunity to be part of this amazing team and work for a stream and all that.

Starting point is 00:20:17 But I'm not feeling happy at a moment. You know? It's a tricky word. That's why, like, me and my girlfriend, in the meantime, we started developing a feature film a few months ago. attached to screenwriters to the project and we are now working on a draft and we can make this film for like little money like almost anything we are really like thinking about just financing the film

Starting point is 00:20:43 ourselves is necessary you know like just getting some help from here and there but not wait for any streamer to pick it up we just want to make it ourselves and have fun like our mentality at the moment And do you want to say just shortly what the previous one is about, the one that you are about to adapt into a TV series, just about the plot? So yeah, it's the short story and the short film, which are pretty similar. I didn't change much from the original story. It's a dystopping society. It can be futuristic or just a different reality in which the government can predict the genetic capability. the genetic potential of your baby before your baby is born.

Starting point is 00:21:30 So basically, if you want your girlfriend, she's pregnant, and she needs to go to do a government test to know from zero to 10 what's the scale of your baby, according to his genes. And now imagine that you do that test and your baby is a 10. So that means that your baby is perfect. It's going to be a genius, you know? And 10s don't happen so often.

Starting point is 00:21:53 There is no 10s. The last 10 was like 40 years ago. 10s are my high styles. So you know that your baby is a 10 and because you're going to have a 10, your lifestyle is going to improve a lot. They're going to give you the best conditions to raise the baby. They're going to give you a good house, good car,

Starting point is 00:22:08 you're not going to work anymore and so on because you're going to have like a prodigy for society. Like your baby can cure cancer and things like that. So this is perfect, right? Now there is a bad thing, which is there's something wrong with the baby that we cannot figure out what? It's like the baby has a red flag on it

Starting point is 00:22:26 There's something wrong But we cannot see what What is it? Like this could be The mother could die during birth The baby could be like handicapped So there is a risk What would you do?

Starting point is 00:22:39 Would you have the baby or would you abort? Now remember that you have the pressure Of the media to have the baby You have society pressuring you You have a lie So that's basically the story The dilemma of the story would you have the baby knowing that it is perfect but you could die during birth or not?

Starting point is 00:22:59 And that's basically the story. I just hope that nobody is going to hear this and go and make a show. Oh, then I should cut it out. No, it's okay. It's okay because they have the rights for this. I was going to answer it. They bought the rights for two years. So is it like something famous?

Starting point is 00:23:21 Yeah, the story is really famous. the story was the stories like studied in American colleges, you know. There is people like writing essays for this story. Just a quick one. If you enjoy our podcast, please give us a review on your favorite podcast app, subscribe or share it with your friends. For more information, visit the show notes. Thank you and back to the show. I was just curious, how hard was it to get right to adapt it?

Starting point is 00:23:48 It was like the normal process. It was not so hard. I know the guy, the writer, pretty well, not pretty well. We don't know each other personally. We communicated a lot online because he's American. I could never meet him personally. I've been talking to him for a long time, like three years almost. Because I adopted this story, I had to get the rights initially myself, my producer for the short film.

Starting point is 00:24:11 And we got it, of course, for free because we were students and all that. It was just a little short film. So it was happy that somebody was doing something with. this story and he's a pretty humble guy and then like a production company and just paid for it they just did a contract with him i'm not going to give more details but it was pretty normal the process i cannot really like tell more than this yeah yeah it's understandable and can people watch it somewhere your short film or even other projects that you worked on this terror the flag shot film is unavoid festivals now so at the moment it's not public.

Starting point is 00:24:50 The only film that you can watch really like Yard Kings, which was my short film from Middlesex. It won't be festivals as well, didn't it? Yeah, that film was a good surprise, yeah. We won a lot of stuff. It was good. Like that film, nobody really in the crew expected what happened with that film.

Starting point is 00:25:10 How come, you weren't so happy with the result? Nah, there was a lot of things we were not proud of. But we were really happy with the film in general, but we were not confident that the film was going to compete with, you know. We won a Royal Television Society or two Royal Television Society awards. We didn't expect that. It was really, really cool. We won a few things.

Starting point is 00:25:32 We won 13 awards in total. Really? Oh. And do you still send it somewhere, or it was after you filmed it and not anymore? Actually, like, I put a lot of effort when I finished that film. we put a lot of effort in distributing it so like first the festival rounds we actually invested a lot of money in festivals

Starting point is 00:25:53 so when I said that we won a few awards this now because it was getting the idea come from the sky you know we actually we put ourselves out there because sometimes filmmakers they are like they think that they have a good film they're just going to wear all the awards if you don't actually apply to stuff yeah I need to put effort into it

Starting point is 00:26:13 yeah we put effort and money on So that was actually part of our budget, the festival strategy. So yeah, we went to a lot of festivals. We got a lot of rejections as well. A lot of them actually have any more rejections than acceptances, which is perfectly normal. And we were lacking a few of them and we won like Best Cinematography in Cafoscar. We went to Royalty Television Society Awards.

Starting point is 00:26:38 We went to Villette Ocone in Portugal, which is an Oscar qualifying festival. We went to Indy Palos in Bulgaria, Oscar qualifying. across the whole Europe. Yeah. And do you feel like that film and those efforts helped you in your career? For example, when it comes to applying for jobs or even now like during pitching the projects and stuff? Yeah, I don't think they help applying to jobs. I don't think nobody cares. I think nobody cares if you want awards or not. At least myself, I felt that in filmmaking like CVV doesn't matter. Like if you study if you have a master debris

Starting point is 00:27:15 in, you know, nobody cares. They just care if you have a driving lesson and you can work. And how you behave on the set actually? Exactly. And also like having a word or not awards. Who cares? Like of course it helps. And it also

Starting point is 00:27:32 didn't help in pitching our projects now because I'm not enough experience as a director. Those awards don't mean anything. I just keep four short films and that's it. Unless I won't can, which I didn't, that would be a different scenario, but I didn't.

Starting point is 00:27:47 Unless you win, like, the best of the best festivals, then you are the awards count. But if you win, like, little things, nobody cares. It's just like lorers in your poster. And they are like, okay, this guy wants to show festivals, but they don't even see it, I guess. According to my experience, they don't even, like, notice so much. How many films they have you done?

Starting point is 00:28:08 Do you have experience in TV series? No, okay, so. Yeah, well, still looking back at the time when, you know, when you were filming, and what happened afterwards, just a few, I don't know, few days, few months, there was a COVID. You were, like, really lucky that managed to film it. Because I remember that we were just about to shoot and COVID came and, you know. We knew COVID was there. Well, how it changed everything and for how long.

Starting point is 00:28:36 We were so lucky. It seems like it's been a really lucky journey. if you think about it. That film, the Art Kings, happens in that moment. Like, one week after we couldn't shoot it, and it would have been cancelled if we would have George for a week after. I think there was two or three crews that managed to shoot that year. And if that film wouldn't happen,

Starting point is 00:28:58 I wouldn't get so confident on my skills as a director and I wouldn't like understand that I really want to continue that journey. And that film was very important for me, Arkings, because I really understood that I want to keep, directing and I understood that I did all the recognition from all the festivals and things like that made me very confident

Starting point is 00:29:18 so I feel like that was also part of why like I took some decisions after like going to do a master's degree and making more films and things like that I was really lucky that I could you know manage to shoot and everything with and then and when you did the master's degree and filmed those short films was it also somehow affected by COVID

Starting point is 00:29:40 No, no, and then, completely does. The first one, yeah, was a bit affected. We could shoot, but we could not shoot, like, in public locations. We had to shoot it in a neural specific locations that they were providing us. It's okay, like, we could manage. We could use those locations and in a nice way. We just couldn't shoot, like, in public places and restaurants and things like that. I shot in a church, so.

Starting point is 00:30:03 Good location. Yeah, it was like a chapel from the university, and we just addressed it as we wanted. was okay and with the film that you are currently developing with your partner do you want to or can you say more about it as well for example about the plot or rather not well first of all and we need to figure it out ourselves the story like that has been a journey to understand like the story but it's very basically is a horror or it's ideally a horror everything can change right it's a horror and it's supposed to be shot in one location. That's a decision that we took also to help in the purchase for practical reasons.

Starting point is 00:30:50 One main location is not just going to be one location, the whole movie. We're going to go around the location, things like that. But it's like one main location. And I think that's very important for the first feature because we don't have any money. So what are we going to do? Basically, we're going to put my brother cooking for everybody. You know, we're going to try to get that location. for free because they're friends and spend all the money we have in the best equipment we can have.

Starting point is 00:31:16 Need to use your creativity as much as you can. Is it going to be a feature, like proper 70, 80 minutes? Yeah, future, feature. Yeah, I feel like that it's now the time to do a future. And shot in Copenhagen? We still don't know, like ideally not. We wanted to shoot in an island. Maybe we still don't know.

Starting point is 00:31:39 idea is to shoot in Spain in an island. Is it because it's cheaper there? No, it's just because the location is there and it's an amazing location that we, and we have some, my girlfriend, she has a contact there, so let's see, we don't know yet. I don't want to talk much about it because we don't know, nothing is closed. Yeah, sure, that's understandable. Yeah. Because I was wandering that from what I've seen and heard that Copenhagen is quite expensive, isn't it? Yeah. Actually, it depends, you know, like it's expensive. Yeah, of course, it's expensive. Comparing to Bulgaria, it's expensive.

Starting point is 00:32:18 Or to, you know, Lithuanian places like that, where everybody goes to shoot. And what if you compare it to London, how is it? Is it even more expensive than London or similar? Oh, it really depends. It might be it works in London. And we were like checking now for a commercial that we are doing now. We've got to shoot a commercial now in two months.

Starting point is 00:32:39 in the end of April slash beginning of me. We're going to show a little commercial for a vodka brand and we were like checking gear and we want to rent anamorphic lenses, right? So again, amorphic lenses in London are actually way cheaper than here. But then we want to rent other stuff and there is more expensive than here. So it's like it depends. I have like good contact in a rental house so I can get discount so it's cheaper for me. I feel like in London is a bit cheaper most of the stuff.

Starting point is 00:33:09 I would say it. I guess capital is the most expensive, isn't it, out of the whole Denmark? Yeah, it's more expensive than other cities. But what I found is that like in London, for example, you want to rent a location and it's really hard to rent it. They're going to ask you a lot of money or it's impossible to shoot there or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. A lot of safety measurements and a lot of you need to talk with this person, you know, bureaucracies and stuff like that. Here in Denmark, they are a bit more like cowboys, you know. Like, you can just shoot everyone happening. I was first city in a shortstorm recently,

Starting point is 00:33:43 and part of a friend of mine, and we shot in one of the most busy streets in Copenhagen. And, like, nobody cared. You know, we were just like a full crew of, like, a lot of people, because this is an independent little budget production, but 20 people in that street. But we've been also been with a red and, you know, a proper film crew, and nobody cares.

Starting point is 00:34:04 Like, nobody says anything. I guess it's a good thing. I remember how difficult. it was here even like with permissions and worrying if you can actually be there and everything around it. Then you put a tripod in the floor and it's already like a crime. And how come is that? Do you think it's because of what people are like or because of their attitude towards

Starting point is 00:34:28 film or why is that? I feel like it's a mix, right? People here are very open-minded to these kind of things and they want to help you. and that consequently, because people are like that, then there is no laws. There are no laws to forbidding showmakers to shoot in the street like in London. But I'm not sure how it works. I don't have like a proper opinion on it. I don't really know.

Starting point is 00:34:52 I just feel like here people are a bit more open-minded and they want to help you, you know. Like if you say, oh, can I shoot in your coffee shop? I feel like it's easier to get it than in London. The guy probably is going to say, oh, yeah, like we were making films. yeah yeah go go and in London is like everybody has to shooting that coffee shopping he has already like a manual okay so two hours this price yeah or might that also be that it's not so come on there not that here like you know so many people are judan's universities independent and there may be not that many yeah sure that is like when film school really

Starting point is 00:35:31 we want it no there are more of them in Denmark that is like Europe Unchum College and all that, but I feel like there are not so many productions happening, as in London, of course. In London there are so many shroom schools. There are so many showmakers coming out of those schools, and there are so many companies working in shun. It's insane. Oversaturated market.

Starting point is 00:35:53 So then when you are working and looking for a crew, is it hard or easy for you to find a crew? It's hard. Mostly like guffers and persishes. is you really need to have a network to get those people. But I'm lucky because my girlfriend is a producer and we are now working with another producer. I know another director, friend of mine that has more connections. And we always end up somehow building up a nice crew. But sometimes we need to really like go up post on Facebook.

Starting point is 00:36:26 We need to look for production designers, for example. And can you compare what is it like to work with people from there? people from let's say London if there are like any differences i mean i didn't work with so much with people from here just really like a couple of experiences so i don't have like a really formed opinion on that but my girlfriend she worked for example in drengang or tv series or via play as a production coordinator she worked now in a feature film which i helped with as a gopher assistant so there was enough for me to understand how it works and because i was a lot of of times with her on set and so on.

Starting point is 00:37:06 You big productions, I mean. And she also told me a lot about it. So I have an idea. And I can see that it's a bit more like disorganized sometimes. Maybe because specific productions were disorganized, I don't know. Yeah, it cannot generalize based on that. They cannot generalize, yeah, exactly. I don't have an opinion on it.

Starting point is 00:37:24 And is the crew international or are there mostly dance? Mostly Danish people. The productions that she works are mostly Danish people. The productions that I'm working now is just like young people, like international young people, starting their careers. So mostly graduates, so it's a lot of international people. That's different. But where she works, it's mostly Danish people. So the feature film you were working on, is it like a big one for TV or also for some streaming service?

Starting point is 00:37:57 The feature film that she was working or the feature film that we are working? No, she was working where you worked as an effort. Actually, they have a pre-sells, how do you say, like a pre-sells arrangement already, they already have a distribution deal, so I'm not sure where is it going to go for. I don't know if it's TV or theaters, but you have a deal already. And it's big, it's big, it was big. I mean, not as big as, you know. Not so hard to the level.

Starting point is 00:38:24 No, yeah. Not as big as Nicholas Reference kind of thing, but it's big. It's like medium. It's very independent and first feature actually of the direction. So they actually made it happen with no money also they were adopting a novel or something and they made a deal they gathered a lot of crew and they gathered some money and they could make it and I think that's amazing yeah. Is Metz Mikosson starring there? Actually, it's not. No. Must be like quite a star there or not. Such a big actor, great actor, he's done some

Starting point is 00:38:58 amazing films, very famous. Yeah, one day we're going to, I would like to meet him. It's famous here, yeah. Thomas Winterberg. Director, right? Yeah, director, yeah. It's one of the biggest directors here, plus, you know, Nicholas Reffen, Denmark has really good names.

Starting point is 00:39:17 So they have a real strong culture, and I feel like it's really good to learn and to be here to absorb a bit of that culture. And one more director, I think Lars von Trier? Yeah, Lars von Trier, yeah. Yeah, what's the opening about him, he's got quite unusual films, doesn't he?

Starting point is 00:39:37 We actually, we saw Nefomaniac recently. Which one is it? Nefo maniac? Yeah, I think I've seen... By him? I don't remember that well, but I had a like a period of time when I was watching a bit of Danish cinema as well. I think I watched it and interesting.

Starting point is 00:39:53 Yeah, we saw the director's cut, so that was cool. Yeah, but it's not like cinema for everybody. No, no, no, yeah. But I said it's like, those things. were quite successful, weren't they? The Niphaniaks series, they were quite successful, yeah. Yeah, these directors, they came from that generation of the Dolman 95, and they started like this new philosophy in cinema, right,

Starting point is 00:40:18 in which they just wanted to make really like raw movies without sound design, without, they didn't even want to put the director's name in the movie because the movie shouldn't be a product, right? So they wanted to go as simple as possible, no like sophisticated elements and camera movements and things like that. Everything was handheld and very documentary style. So these directors, they got really bumped up in those years, in 95, and then that started like the new generation of the showmakers,

Starting point is 00:40:46 which is very like very specific their style. You don't find it anywhere else in Europe, which I think it's quite interesting. It's interesting as all for me to be here because I can take LMAX and learn from there, you know? And do they still film this way? No, they don't. Not anymore.

Starting point is 00:41:04 Not anymore. You can see that they still follow the same, you know, ideology, but they don't film like that anymore. Actually, it's a bit, I don't know, you might be seen as a bit hypocritic because Lars von Trie made that movie about what's the name, with William the Full, the Antichrist, and there are so many VFX,

Starting point is 00:41:26 so much VFX in that movie. I think I also read somewhere that they've got these seros. I think they cannot use artificial light. Yeah. And of course they were using that somewhere. I'm not saying like in all of those, but one of the films I read about, they broke quite a few rules. No, they were a good of them. Can you share some tips on good Danish films that you like? Yeah, the Nicholas Reefney is my favorite. I really like him. It's just that he got old

Starting point is 00:41:58 and he got what happened to him. And now he started repeating himself a bit and maybe going too radical on his style. Oh, is it Nicholas Winden-Refend? Yeah. He did drive. Yeah, he did drive. He did Neon Demon. It did only but forgives as all.

Starting point is 00:42:16 He did a now TV series called Copenhagen Cowboy. Is it for Netflix? Yes, yeah, that one. And I don't know if I've seen it, but he did also dealer right. It's kind of classic, I think one of the first films of Mitch Mitz Mikkelson. I'm not sure. I don't know. Actually, I should check it out.

Starting point is 00:42:37 Yeah, and some other? They were in the films or? I think Thomas Winterberg is really good, but we already talked about him. There's not really like much happening here, actually. I know a few other directors, but they are not like, you know, the hearing, what I noticed is that there are a lot of TV directors. Of course, in London too, but here I have been not in contact. I also have been in contact, but like,

Starting point is 00:43:02 Mostly because of my girlfriend, I got to know a lot of TV show directors. Not a lot, some of them. And I feel like it's a very common path for directors. But there are a lot of film cinema directors. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that in my journey, I got to know more TV show directors. Also because of the TV show, we were developing, so we were like in that world. And I ended up canalizing a lot of TV show directors, getting to know them and so on.

Starting point is 00:43:30 Tobias Lindover as well is the writer of Drunk. I think he's really good. He's a good director. He should check him out. Easy way to find him is just right. He's the writer of drunk. So the Thomas Winterberg movie Trunk with Matt Mickleson is the writer of that movie. And he's a director too, and he's doing a lot of cool stuff.

Starting point is 00:43:50 I found one as well. His name is Anders Jensen. Oh, he's the one from Kill Jiams, right? Or no. Kill Jans. I'm not sure what it is. But because I saw this film, it's called, I think, Adam's Apples or something like that. It's like one of the classics as well or recently.

Starting point is 00:44:08 Oh, but he was a screenwriter, not a director. And there's the Chilson. Yes. And there's Thomas Jensen. Writers of Justice, yeah. Because it came out a few years ago and I remember that there was a got also quite famous. It was a good one with Mats Mikkelson. I actually don't know it.

Starting point is 00:44:28 See, I need to check it out. I'm checking here is IMDB. I was just having to look as well. Yeah. Because I remember when I watched The Hunt with... I didn't watch that movie yet. Oh, okay. No spoilers then. No, but it's on my list I want to watch it.

Starting point is 00:44:45 That's why it's Tom Thomas Winterburn. Yeah, you know, that's... Yeah, yeah. I think there was this probably from Lars, this TV series from hospital. Oh yeah, like that TV series of a girl, right? I haven't seen it, but I read about it. It was great, and he did the third season after 20 years or something. Not a year?

Starting point is 00:45:05 I think so, yeah. But I haven't watched it. I just read about it. I saw it, the trailer, but I didn't watch it. I need to check it out again. What about you? What kind of films do you watch recently? Did you watch?

Starting point is 00:45:18 Honestly, I must say that I don't watch as many films as I used to before. I probably don't have as much time. When I'm at work, I like, you know, spent holiday at work looking into my laptop so then when I'm not at work I prefer to spend time somehow differently than staring at the laptop again we think we had no the film yet yeah so when I something it's like when I go to cinemas I went to watch avatar too oh yeah I still yeah I still haven't watched it but um have you seen the Oscar winners what do you think I didn't see the ceremony but I saw the highlights what do you think what do you think about the film

Starting point is 00:45:58 that won or? I saw the whale and I saw the Elvis and met. Honestly, I think Elvis. What's the name of the guy Austin Wetter? I think so, yeah. That I should have won the Oscar. That's the only thing that I didn't agree. I didn't see everything everywhere all at once.

Starting point is 00:46:15 So I don't know if the film is actually, if maybe we watch it tonight. It's amazing film, really. I watched it actually as well in cinema. Back then it was like, you know, months ago when it came out. So it was before it got so far. famous and there was such a fame about it. And months after, it was nominated for so many awards, it won so many awards and now.

Starting point is 00:46:36 Seven Oscars, yeah. Yeah. It's kind of unbelievable that it's such a small film, not a big production, not a big director behind it. The trailer looks really like big, you know, like the production value that show looks big. Yeah, but it's really interesting when you see what it is about. If you consider the size of the budget and what kind of effects they managed in the end and how well it's done. What was the budget? I don't know. I don't remember, but it's not like a big Hollywood production, you know.

Starting point is 00:47:09 It's from the Studio A24, which is known for these films that is not like a film from, I don't know, like a Marvel wants with unlimited budgets or spillback or whatever. Yeah. So it's fairly cool, yeah. It really has like a good eye for talents. Yeah, and it often comes out with really interesting films. Yeah. Also like after Sun, have you heard about it? By 8th or the guy from normal people,

Starting point is 00:47:40 actually can't even actually mute his name never, but the guy from normal people, the British TV show. It was his first serious feature film and he was nominated for an Oscar. And this also come 824. And I feel like that guy's performance was also really good. I really like the world. Brandon Fraser's performance in the world, but I think the Oscars once again were like very big. Can I say this?

Starting point is 00:48:03 Like there is a lot of interest behind, right? So quite a big story behind this guy. Exactly. So it's more like an emotional decision. Like, let's give the award to them. I'm not saying this doesn't deserve it. Actually, you worked really hard for that role on the dynamic performance. But I feel like the his story, you know, made it a good story for the Oscars to give the award.

Starting point is 00:48:25 what that's why I mean yeah for in my opinion man the guy performing this was like unbelievable I got out of the cinema when I watched all this and I was like this is amazing it was the oldest that guy you know no I see what you're saying because there is like a big retribution story or such a big comeback after what happened so now he wins it's unbelievable yeah which is okay I mean the Oscars also they serve as an inspiration. Sometimes it doesn't award only the best talent, but also the best story, and that's not necessarily terrible, you know, because this award inspires a lot of other actors

Starting point is 00:49:06 in his situation to keep working and trying red. So it's not like the end of the world, it's what they want. I actually think it's nice. I don't think he was the most talented one. Yeah, and it's similar with everything ever all at once. There is this actor, and he won Oscar for the supporting actor. Yeah. And when you watch it, read about his story as well, because he didn't do any roles for, I don't know, 20 years. And then somehow he got into this film.

Starting point is 00:49:38 And he won Oscar for it. So imagine what kind of story is that. Yeah. The guy was in a refugee camp. Yes, I think so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, in a refugee camp. And I saw his speech.

Starting point is 00:49:50 That I must say it was really emotional, inspirational. So like a really strong one, yeah. Yeah, like Ryan talking to his mom. That was emotional, yeah. I think it's nice to see, you know, that movie winning so many awards. I just don't know if it's nice. I think it's nice, but in this other hand, I don't know. What happened there for this movie to win so many awards?

Starting point is 00:50:12 Yeah. I still don't watch it so I cannot talk awards. But I'm going to watch it tonight and have an opinion. Yeah, definitely. Thank you for listening to Produce Bye. Subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast app, leave a review or send us your feedback. For more information about the host, links from the episode and ways to connect with us, visit the show notes.

Starting point is 00:50:36 If you know someone who would be an ideal guest for our podcast, please get in touch. Thank you and see you soon.

Produced By - #5 - Vasco Alexandre: From Successful Short Films To Writing Own Feature

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.