User - To Feel (Dir: Jens Von Reis)
Sometimes, late, way past my bedtime, on YouTube, you come across old stuff you've done or been involved with that somehow changed you. This is such a moment for me.
Seeing this again made me nostalgic not so much because it's that good, but because by extension, it changed my life. The innocence and enthusiasm and joy in those first small steps as a DP and what they would come to mean almost 10 years down the line makes me both sad and happy. Sad for the innocence lost and the cynic you inevitably turn into after a while doing this. Happy because of the joy this wonderful job still keeps giving me.
I am truly grateful.
I never thought I'd be able to survive doing this and that I would eventually have to get a real job down the line. Here I am, still without a real job.
This video was made about 10 years ago and was the first "big" video I ever did (at least for Swedish standards). It had the astronomical budget of about $10.000, which we thought was fucking huge then (nothing's changed there, then). Still managed to shoot on 35mm and have cranes and stuff (shall we try that today?). This video was a bit of a hit over there and got a lot of play and it pretty much got me my first agent in London, 7 years ago. It kind of set me off in my career in many ways.
The style is a little bit dated and you could tell we were heavily into that Scandi-Acne-Traktor imbalanced framing and off composition stuff, with either loads of headroom or cut foreheads. It was the rage back then. And like Fincher said: film is fashion. But it still holds up, I think. It doesn't make me cringe, which is more than can be said for many other things I've shot.. I remember the band were freezing their nuts off on that barge being constantly wet down in like mid-March or something. Actually, the band was never heard of again, so I hope we didn't kill them with pneumonia.
Sweet days. So cheers to innocence lost and experiences gained. Sorry for this schmaltzy posting, but sometimes I feel there simply isn't enough sentimentality in this world;)
This post deserves comments!
Great post.
the only thing looking dated is that weird aspect ratio... :) love your portfolio btw, you're a great dp!
Well, thanks very much.
"The style is a little bit dated and you could tell we were heavily into that Scandi-Acne-Traktor imbalanced framing and off composition stuff, with either loads of headroom or cut foreheads. It was the rage back then."
hehe, i still dig that look
Agree that it doesn't look dated, unless of course you mean that most videos these days don't look as good as this.
Wow - takes me back! Always thought this track could have got bigger play in UK. Weirdly - this was on our Zimbabwean road trip soundtrack - provided by Danida (Danish Aid) Great DP-ing - the Scandi skin and bone structure always helps :-)
