Advisor for Cultural Participation Fund
As of January 2010, I will be an advisor for the Fonds voor Cultuurparticipatie / Cultural Participation Fund. Based in Utrecht, The Netherlands the fund promotes participation in culture, especially by encouraging people to engage in the arts and culture themselves. The fund does this, for one thing, by means of arrangements with the provinces and municipalities and by subsidising institutions. The Fund also encourages debate, initiates research, and ensures knowledge-sharing in the field of cultural education, the amateur arts, and popular culture.
Efendi Composer Commentary
My composer for EFENDI, Marcus Fjellström, recorded a commentary track for the film, sharing his thoughts on the production. You can find the video on the following link and on the navigation page on the top right side.
http://barisazman.wordpress.com/efendi-commentary/
Marcus Fjellström’s website: http://kafkagarden.com/
Video Update: Larger sizes now
Finally figured out how to get larger Vimeo sizes in WordPress, so here are the two short films again, for your larger viewing pleasure. You can watch them on their respective pages. (upper right side of the navigation, or click on the links under the posters)
Go to the EFENDI page. (info,video and pictures)
Go to the IT HASN’T HAPPENED YET page. (info, video and pictures)
LES REVENANTS / THEY CAME BACK: Robin Campillo interview
In 2005 I had the opportunity to conduct a few interviews with filmmakers who were presenting their first, second or third feature film at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. These were done for a magazine called YDN (Young Designers Network). This is the second of those I will reprint here. (The first one is located here)
LES REVENANTS / THEY CAME BACK (2004)
A film by Robin Campillo
What do you get when you cross a zombie film with a social drama? You get a film like LES REVENANTS, but that still isn’t actually a totally accurate description of Robin Campillo’s directorial debut. Campillo, who has worked frequently with director Laurent Cantet, either as a co-writer or an editor on such films as L’EMPLOI DU TEMPS (2001) and VERS LE SUD (2004) (and four years later on the Palme D’Or winning ENTRE LES MURS) finally has a chance to step up and do his own thing and the toned down and rather offbeat LES REVENANTS shows an interesting look into the zombie genre. Only this time instead of chomping on human flesh, the newly returned dead must somehow get back into society. The harmless zombies have been put in camps at first, but that doesn’t seem to solve the problem, so now the people are faced with the problem of these ‘undesirables’.
St. Joost: Script review
After a little over two months, the screenplay classes I taught at St. Joost are finished. Students received their grades last week (overall good). It was a great chance to teach for a longer duration and on a regular basis. To be able to develop screenplays with the 3rd year students, watching their ideas grow and finally realize into a workable shooting script.
Definitely an experience I’d like to repeat after a while. Congratulations to all the students, it was a great experience.
First Draft of THE MAN WHO GOT LOST
As of a few minutes ago, I finally finished the first draft of my feature film screenplay. It’s been a long time in the making and it’s one of the hardest things I have ever written I think. It’s taken me quite some time too. But there’s a tremendous sense of relief too. Finally that first draft. Beginning to end. Clocking in at 108 pages. Next up, real quick, is the second draft and then it’s going out into the open.
The beginning.
Classes and Seminairs updates
Things have been pretty busy these past weeks. Aside from working on my screenplay, working on a current corporate project, editing for another filmmaker and discussing future projects, I have been teaching a lot. We’re nearing the halway mark with my class at St. Joost. The plans are really taking shape for the students and I am looking forward to the end results. It’s great to see all kinds of different approaches too.
Film By The Sea Festival was a great experience. I had three different classes on one day and I had a chance to visit a ‘black tie’ premiere party. Unfortunately, I was the only one not in black tie. Nonetheless it was nice and I had a chance to talk to some old friends. Thanks to the festival and the filmXperience for their hospitality.
St. Joost – Screenwriting Class
Classes have officialy started. This is my class for the next 8 weeks. We’re meeting once every week for a whole day. Most of the students are third year, but there are a few final year students who wanted to join the class too.
We started with running and gunning through my screenwriting 101 lecture (for the few who weren’t present at my guest lecture a few months back) and then proceeded to discuss several opening shots/scenes of films.
The objective of this semester is, to write a fully presentable and working short screenplay. Some students are a little less versed in the tradition of screenwriting, so everyone will probably have their own pace. Every week we will discuss eachother’s work and comment on it. We don’t have a specific theme for the screenplays, but the students are encouraged to write their ‘dream film’, as in, no restrictions of budget. So they don’t have to think about whether they can actually get a chance to be able to finance it. It’s strictly focused on the writing, hopefully freeing up the creative flow. Though, who ever wants, can write it in such a way, that they can actually get to shoot it, maybe even later on in the same school year. Final year students will write and fine tune their graduation film.
Aside from writing and workshopping, there will also be moments where I will discuss film theory and we will watch films or parts of films.
Forum Istanbul – Assistant Director
At the end of August I was an assistant director on a commercial done for Forum Istanbul. Europe’s largest indoor mall. The production was a mix of Dutch and Turkish professionals. I was approached by Dutch company Boegbeeld to work as an assistant director, which comprised of me overlooking the duties of the day on the set, communicating with the different departments (lighting, catering, security, production) as a translator. And in directing the Turkish actors, since the director himself was Dutch and didn’t speak Turkish. It was a very fortunate thing, because the production was looking for someone who had experience in filmmaking, knew Dutch and Turkish and had worked with child actors before.
It was a really great experience, met lots of good people, had a very pleasant stay in Istanbul. The whole production was top notch (hotel, transportation, catering) and the collaboration was smooth and relaxed. I also had a chance to work with Willem Nagtglas again, my cinematographer on EFENDI, who was shooting this commercial too. During the shoot I was asked to act a small part in the commercial too, so look for me when the commercial airs in Turkey somewhere next month.
I could talk more about the project, but I will let the pictures to most of the talking. Click on More to see some other pictures. (If you’re a friend of me on Facebook, you can see more pictures there)
Images
On occasion I will post some of my photography work. Most of them can be found on my Flickr page, but my cinematic favorites will show up here too.
Teaching Screenwriting at St. Joost for a semester
The lecture I did at the St. Joost Arts Academy in Breda, The Netherlands, went over really well, with students and the board, that I got the call back to actually teach there next school year. I will be teaching screenwriting to third year students at the ‘Audio-Visual department’ at the start of this September, for one whole semester. It’s really interesting teaching and talking about screenwriting, film-making and film theory and I look forward to this opportunity. And I hope to inspire students with diverse subjects and approaches to screenwriting.
The specific approach of the classes is still under wraps, but I will tell more as the classes start.
LiteSide Festival, Amsterdam 2009
On the 15th of August, I will be attending a debate with other up-and-coming filmmakers at the LiteSide Festival in Amsterdam. And I will be showing clips of my films during the debate. Program starts at 8 pm. There’s tons of other stuff going on too, so I think I will be there throughout the day.
From the press release:
Four remarkable filmmakers will go into discussion with eachother about their personal experiences as a writer of a different ethnicity. Orhan Sahin (GANGSTER BOYS, 2010), In-Soo (CARMEN VAN HET NOORDEN, 2009, MADE IN KOREA, 2005), Baris Azman (THE MAN WHO GOT LOST, 2010) and Fedor Sendak (WOLF 2003, FOR THOSE AND OTHERS, 2009) will share their personal experiences and answer questions from the audience. The debate will be led by Sander Jansen, filmmaker and founder of the Dutch Directors Guild.
Date: 15 Augustus 2009
Time: 20.00
Location: Videolounge @ Machine Gebouw, Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam
The festival is held in Cultuurpark, Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Here’s more about the festival from their website:
“The latest and hippest oriëntal and western cross-overs with international performances of dance, music, literature, visual art and film. And the coolest Amsterdam’s underground DJ’s and delicious oriëntal food and drinks!”
Zen Pulp: The World of Michael Mann
Film critic and filmmaker Matt Zoller Seitz (The New York Times, The House Next Door) made a terrific video essay series on the works of Michael Mann. They can be viewed over at the Museum of the Moving Image website. He was gracious enough to credit me in it (research). Even though it’s all his hard work. The series is done in five parts, focusing on various aspects of Mann’s work, ranging from existentialism, reflections, women and the pre-Miranda police procedural. View Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5.
I love the planimetric framing used in the shot above.
Teaching Screenwriting at Film By The Sea Film Festival
On Saturday 12 September, I will be teaching screenwriting at this year’s Film By The Sea Film Festival, held in Vlissingen, The Netherlands. Again, as a part of a program called ‘The filmXperience’, which consists of workshops and lectures about filmmaking. People who are interested can apply at the website of the festival. The festival itself will be from 11-20 September. I will be present at the festival on 11 and 12 September.
I saw on their website, that in an earlier edition of the festival, they screened THE BIG LEBOWSKI on an outside location. So I am curious if I can watch something interesting on the Friday before my class.
THE MAN WHO GOT LOST: Promotional Image
THE MAN WHO GOT LOST has it’s first promotional image. The photo here is by Kate Peters, who has graciously granted me permission to use her work as a teaser for my feature film. This image will accompany the official synopsis of the film and most probably the screenplay. It will be used for the official website of the film until we start shooting and are generating our own visual content.
I came across this photograph on the cover of the magazine EXTRA, published by the FotoMuseum in Antwerp, Belgium. It captures, in a single image, the mood and themes of my film and it’s since then, become one of the main visual inspiration tools for when I am writing. I want to tell more about what comes up in my mind when I look at the photograph, but I will let everyone interpret it in their own way. For now.
Kate Peters’ official website: http://www.katepeters.co.uk/
External Advisor
I was asked to be an external advisor for the graduating class of the ‘Video & Photography’ department at the Deltion College in Zwolle, The Netherlands. Daan Hartoog, a friend and co-producer of my graduation film EFENDI, is teaching there and together with two other teachers we had to decide on which students passed and with what grades. What I saw were very diverse films, ranging from fiction, documentary and even a spec tv-show. I was very surprised at the quality of the films and was glad to see that Fikret Koç, one of the actors of EFENDI, who was in the class also, is becoming a filmmaker in his own right.
They all graduated. Congratulations to the class of ‘09.
Scriptdesk: De Proeftuin Part II
The meeting day SCRIPTDESK: DE PROEFTUIN, where directors, writers, producers and distributors were able to discuss eachother’s work was a great success. It was really good to give comments on other people’s work and get interesting feedback on my project. I got a lot of great insights and some interesting viewpoints on the synopsis of THE MAN WHO GOT LOST. I was particularly glad that the main themes and visual approach got across to most people. It’s really hard to compress an entire feature film plan into two pages, but with all the comments I think I now have more of a grip on how to put my idea on paper in a more concise fashion. Thanks to the people at Scriptdesk, LEV Pictures and everyone who participated and to all the people I got businesscards from.
Scriptdesk: De Proeftuin
My feature film plan THE MAN WHO GOT LOST was selected among 23 other film projects to participate at the SCRIPTDESK: DE PROEFTUIN (rough translation: THE SAMPLE GARDEN) in Amsterdam. Organized by Lev Pictures (film producers) and Scriptdesk (Script Editors), it’s meant to give directors and screenwriters a chance to meet and get to learn more about eachother and to help out each other’s plan, idea, synopsis or screenplay. So that they may advance a step further in the process. There’s also a chance to meet producers. It’s also meant to get some inspiration and feedback and to meet new people and work on your network.
Today I received all the other film projects and I look forward to reading them all and making notes during the next week. Because, as I understand, I will also be commenting on the other participants projects. I get the same rush as I had when I attended the NISI MASA Script & Pitch workshop last year in France. It’s good getting together every once in a while with serious filmmakers and discussing each other’s work and I hope to meet some new and interesting contacts along the way.
This good news gave me a big boost today with my writing. I also got a very interesting and positive comment from a critic today (concerning my previous films), which will be published soon in the promotional booklet for THE MAN WHO GOT LOST. It actually gave me a helluva lotta insight in the writing of my film. More on that quote at later date.
Signed,
Baris Azman
- On the outskirts of the industry
THE MAN WHO GOT LOST: writing
Since I didn’t want to top the blog with a downer, I thought I’d let everyone know I was officialy writing again on my feature film; THE MAN WHO GOT LOST.
Relationship
Fate has decided, unfortunately I didn’t get selected for the ONE NIGHT STAND (this is the second time I applied), so I am going ahead with RELATIONSHIP; as in, my feature film project THE MAN WHO GOT LOST. Back to the writing table. Congratulations to all the people who got selected.
On a side note: extra congratulations to Jochem De Vries, whose short film MISSEN got selected and nominated for the Palm D’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
7th Heaven
I was a guest on the radio at a program called ‘7th Heaven’ (De 7e Hemel) of the NMO (Nederlandse Moslim Omroep/ Dutch Muslim Broadcast) in Amsterdam, where I was one of four guests of emerging filmmakers. We were chosen because of our films that dealt with ’social issues and topical matters’. Alongside me where filmmakers Beri Shalmashi, Bram Vergeer and Camiel Zwart. The host was Abdellah Dami, who asked us questions ranging from why we make films, to what our creative process is. All in all we talked for an hour, which seemed to fly by really fast.
You can listen to it here (program starts after the 02:42 min mark and is in Dutch).
More on 7th Heaven on their website.
Teaching screenwriting at the International Film Festival Breda
I was asked by the people of International Film Festival Breda, to participate as one of seven teachers at the program called ‘The filmXperience’. This is a collection of workshops throughout a single day, where young students (ages 15 – 27) can learn more about filmmaking in all it’s facets. From writing (which I thought), to acting, directing, etc. At the end of the day, there were two masterclasses taught by Dutch director Erik De Bruyn (WILDE MOSSELS, NADINE) and actor Hugo Metsers (SIBERIA). These workshops were all part of the film festival which was held from the 25th till the 29th of March, 2009.
ID CIRCLES presskit
During the exposition of ID CIRCLES (ID CIRKELS), there was a magazine and DVD presented to the public. It was a behind the scenes look about what happened during these workshops. Robert Andriessen was commissioned to make the DVD. Duration of the video is 08:31 minutes. Dutch language.
You can watch the video in a larger size on Robert’s Vimeo site.
More on the workshop ID CIRCLES that I did, in an earlier post.
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE workshop and exposition
At the start of 2009 I was approached by Karlijn Koenen (project designer) to be one of three artists (alongside Anouk Bax and Tijs Rooijakkers) give a workshop to a group of 12 year old children. We had seven weeks (one day a week) to make a short film together. The name of the project was ID CIRKELS (ID CIRCLES) and was organised together with The Krabbedans (platform for professional artists, located in Eindhoven, The Netherlands) and Advicepoint Discrimination (Adviespunt discriminatie) and The Safetyhouse (het Veiligheidshuis). The main theme was to introduce the children to the creative arts and have them reflect on issues such as self-identity and prejudices.
POLSHOOGTE
I was asked by the Krabbedans (platform for professional artists, located in Eindhoven, The Netherlands) to attend an interactive cultural programme called POLSHOOGTE (Pulse Height). Where artists can present their work for a live audience and interact with the audience concerning the created works. I attended the project with a workshop called ID CIRKELS (ID Circles). More on ID CIRKELS in the next post.
Archive: THE BEAUTIFUL WASHING MACHINE: James Lee interview
In 2005 I had the opportunity to conduct a few interviews with filmmakers who were presenting their first, second or third feature film at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. These were done for a magazine called YDN (Young Designers Network). This is the first of those I will reprint here.
MEI LI DE XI YI JI / THE BEAUTIFUL WASHING MACHINE (2005)
A film by James Lee
What happens when your washing machine breaks down? You get a new one. Only the lead character of THE BEAUTIFUL WASHING MACHINE, Teoh, a young guy with a simple job, after looking off into the distance for a long while, decides he’s gonna get that used one on discount, yeah that in the corner over there. After installing it at home he cleans his clothes and just goes about his regular business. But when the washing machine starts going off in the middle of the night by it’s own accord you know something’s up.
Only nothing can prepare you with what that is. One morning, there is a young woman next to the washing machine and Teoh just kind of goes with it and asks his mysterious new friend to do the washing of the clothes. When she doesn’t complain, Teoh decides he’s gonna let her do other choirs too. It isn’t before long that Teoh even starts pimping out his new friend. The mysterious woman never speaks and silently goes along with everything.
People have mentioned that the film has a certain Buster Keaton comedy vibe to it, while Bunuel wouldn’t be misplaced either. Scenes tend to last several minutes and sometimes even in the same shot. You try and predict how a certain scene will end, but more often you’re just flabbergasted and in stitches at what Lee just comes up with for his characters to do. Teoh is the ultimate slacker and the ultimate asshole to boot. He misuses his new friend to the extreme and rarely regrets anything. When a pimpdeal goes wrong he loses his mysterious friend and she ends up in someone else’s car. This ends up being a rather caring father who takes her in and in no time gets used to the fact that she does all the cleaning. The man’s daughter has of course her doubts about what this new ladyfriend of his father’s motives actually are.
James Lee’s ultra low budget digital film is something of a gem. With so many digital films playing at festivals, it’s hard coming across one that actually makes you forget you’re watching a ‘videofilm’. The attention to the framing is something that most digital filmmakers can learn from. It’s beautiful use of space and mise-en-scene is something that elevates the whole look of the film. Usually digital filmmakers just run around with the camera and point it in eachother’s face. Hoping to get some sense of direct contact with the viewer. While in some cases this might work, the audience is usually just left numb and overdosed on immeadiacy. THE BEAUTIFUL WASHING MACHINE is the perfect example of good films that are shot on no budgets with (partially) unprofessional actors. You just need the creativity (and digital video creates that independent freedom) and some friends and time, maybe even spruce up some money and you could make a quality film.
Interview with James Lee
Baris Azman: Being a starting filmmaker myself, I was wondering about the more productional side of the film. What was the budget and how long was the shooting schedule of the film?
James Lee: It was close to 50,000 US dollars and a ten day shoot. Pre-production was about two months and the post was the longest.
ONE NIGHT STAND
Hand delivered my application for the Dutch ‘new filmmakers’ competition called, ONE NIGHT STAND . This is the second time I am applying. Felt pretty good about this year’s application. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Teaching screenwriting at St. Joost, Breda
I was asked by coordinator René Bosma of the St. Joost Arts Academy to do a lecture on my experiences as a filmmaker and screenwriter and do a crash course on the art of screenwriting. The class took a total of four hours and was attended by first, second, third and final year students. We covered basics such as what constitutes a screenplay, working visually, but also breaking the rules after knowing them. Also, how to keep writing, different approaches (outlining or not) and more.
Unfortunately due to delays in the overall programming, we didn’t get to do my running commentary on Joel & Ethan Coen’s NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. But the students and René liked what I did, and there’s a possibility I can come back in the near future to discuss and examine what makes the film so good. Personally, I’d also be interested in doing a longer workshop type seminar with students, where we actually take a few weeks and write a short screenplay together. As in, every student writes their own and even I join in with a screenplay of my own, where we can discuss our progress together.
More on the St. Joost Arts academy: http://www.stjoost.nl/
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