Pay You Back

This holiday I have had a lot of someone saying to me "I've got this" and me reaching into my wallet saying "Oh, you sure" and them saying "Of course!" Or something to that effect. A lot of people doing nice things for me and then saying "Don't mention it", "Of course", or (in Danish) "It was only so little". I started to feel like I've been building up a lot of "karma debt" and it was worrying me. But not because I was going to be attacked by "bad karma" to balance it off. Just that I feel uncomfortable when I'm indebted so much to so many people.

Last night, in a cab ride home from a pub, I offered my cousin Leanne some money to pay for a little bit of it and she reluctantly accepted, explaining to me "But you're the visitor," which started to put things in perspective for me.

I will pay people back. In some form, some day, somehow. Right now, I don't have the means. I have yet to work a proper long-term, full-time job to accumulate enough money that I don't have to hoard it for personal expenses. I have yet to become a rich successful filmmaker, and at the moment I don't really have anything grand to offer except for my presence and my time.

So in the meantime, those who have given me so much - my friend Elliott and his family, my friend Anna and her family, my English cousins in Brighton/Hove and Titchfield, my friend Paul from travelling, and my friend Vilhelm and his family - will all have to wait. I can give little things - little presents I found, maybe buy a drink or two, or give something I've owned for a while that I don't need anymore but might be nice for them to have. In a way, it's all a motivator for me to make a lot of money or have a nice home - so I will have something to share when the time comes.

So I will not forget! When you come to visit me in Canada, or wherever I may be, I will return the favour (either personally myself or with my lovely family). And when I get a good solid long-term full-time with benefits sort of job... 

I will buy the drinks and pick up the cheques.

House-Hopping In Europe

I love it. And as a result, I have promised several families that they are welcome to stay at my home (rather, my parents' home) when they come to Canada. Right now I am staying with my friend Anna's family in Borum, a village just outside of Aarhus, the second major city in Denmark (it's sort of the "university town"). This is the second Danish family I have lived with since arriving in Denmark. And they're certainly not the last family I'll be staying with while I'm in Europe, or even before the end of the holidays.

On Monday morning, I will be taking good ole reliable cheap RyanAir to Stansted Airport in England to stay with my relatives (on me pa's side) for the week surrounding Christmas! After that, I ship off to Stockholm to be picked up in the middle of the night by my friend Vilhelm to stay with his fam for the week surrounding New Year's. And it looks like he'll have at least one other film school friend joining us.

When it comes down to it, there are two main reasons why house-hopping is the best. One of them is logistical: it saves money. If I stay in a hotel in Aarhus, Brighton, (I will be in a hotel for my few days in London but that's still being with family), and Stockholm, it'll be mega-expensive. But if I stay with families, then my rent and food expenses are drastically reduced (or eliminated!). It means I have money to spend on touristy things, like visiting the Gamle By (historic town) in Aarhus! I can spend my money on these things.

Secondly, staying with a family is way more fun than staying in a dumb ole hotel (exception: if you are staying in that hotel with said family). You get to have family dinners, go to family outings (e.g. family birthday parties, holiday celebrations like St. Morten's Day), and talk to the families about cultural/family things ("Oh you do that here, too!", "Interesting! In our country we do things this way," etc.). It's harder to get those interactions in hotels or hostels. You have to work for them.

So this holiday, I will be a loving member of... three families. I plan to join many more before heading back to Canada in the summer.

Feeling Like A Filmmaker

Up until now, I’ve felt only like a film student. I have studied different aspects of film, tried some things out with my personal 10-minute project, and done exercises in editing, sound, and directing.

However, this past project, the 5-minute short story adaptation, has felt different. The music video was the first project where I felt everyone in the crew put in at least 100% effort, but this project is where I felt everyone became, or at least aimed to be, 100% professional. Dev and I discussed the logistics of his script and really worked hard to make it the best it could be. Merissa toiled endlessly to make sure we could shoot in the locations I wanted and that we had everything needed to make our film the best it could be. Vicky and I worked together to make sure we had good storyboards and a clear idea of how the film should look, then she and Anna set up the lights to make sure we had an actual professional-looking film. Anna set up radio mics and placed the boom strategically to make sure we had great sound. Simon then spliced the best bits together to make each cut flow smoothly, pace the film appropriately, and develop the emotion within the story.

And me... I looked at the monitor and yelled “Action!” and “Cut!”

This, of course, isn’t all that everyone did. We had a very small crew, so some had to fill in for extra job roles, of course. But it really felt like everyone worked hard to make a proper film and that, in the end, that’s what we got.

And so now, at least for me, I feel the bar has been raised. Sure, we might not be able to get this level in our course exercises, but those are for learning. The film projects are for applying what we learned. So my goal for my future projects: to be at least as good as our 5-minute. Of course, maybe I’m hyping up our specific film too much and people will be disappointed.

...But I don’t think so...

Letter To Home

Hej Beloved Family!

I am here at my friend Elliott's house in Copenhagen. It is our "homegoing week" and we are not allowed to stay on campus, so a a lot of the foreign students are staying in Copenhagen with various families of our fellow Danish students. Elliott's family is really nice. He is half-American - his dad is a Danish actor (was in Lars von Trier's "The Idiots") and his mom is from Cincinnati, Ohio. I will be staying here for the week and meeting up with various events that this guy Anton planned for EFC students to do together. And there is also the Copenhagen Dox festival going on now, so I want to find a documentary I'd be interested in seeing this week.

I am being taken care of very well here, so not to worry. I am being well-fed and Elliott is a great guy. On Friday, Elliott met me at the Osterport train station in Copenhagen and brought me across the street to play indoor soccer with some of his friends. Yesterday, Elliott gave me a bike tour around his area of Copenhagen (the bike paths are less scary and usually wider than the ones in Amsterdam) and then I went to a birthday party at the Copenhagen University pub for two friends of his. His friends were very nice, especially the ones I had played soccer with, and I even got to show off some of my skills at the foosball table (;D). Today we're going to take it easy (we got home around 5:30 last night) and watch Elliott's soccer team play on TV, then later meet up with some of the Greek students who are here for the weekend before they head off to Amsterdam with some others. But I'm mainly going to take this week off to take it easy and relax.

NB: I was able to fund my bus ticket to Copenhagen with the combo of a student discount and picking up empty beer/pop bottles and beer cases after parties and from friends' rooms. It's a way that students can make some extra money - I'm planning on using it to help fund my Europe-tripping next spring/summer.

As for why I have not been responding much lately, these past couple of weeks have been very busy. I don't think I have ever worked as consistently hard as I have in the last 2 weeks, even when I was doing plays and school at the same time. Two weekends ago, I filmed my personal short film project I wrote and directed, which my roommate Jacob will be editing when we return from holiday. The week leading up to that was very busy because I had to prepare storyboards, do character work with 2 actors, get some pre-production stuff ready (because my Production Manager kind of slacked off in that department), and also work on my Sound course assignments. On the Friday of that weekend, we were filming in an apartment room from 5:30-11:30, on the Saturday, filming at a lake/forest from 9am-9:30pm, and then on Sunday for a few hours more.

After that was done, we began pre-production on our music video assignment. Luckily, I was the editor and actor, so I did not have to do a lot of pre-production stuff, although they still needed me to help out in setting things up so I did some of that. For the actual filming, we spent last Friday filming and setup from 9-6 for outdoor scenes, then took a break until 10:30 when we setup and filmed until 7:15am and finished cleaning up by 8. Then I left for filming at 11am to act in another music video, which finished filming at 4am (and luckily had some nap breaks in between). There is a great video the Production Manager of that crew made of me and this guy Martin wrapped up in a blanket sleeping in a forest during break while eating an entire cracker-cookie solely with our mouths (because our arms were curled up in our delightfully warm blankets). And then this past week, I spent an average of about 8 hours per day in my editing suite from Monday to Wednesday, and then a few more hours on Thursday, to make sure I had everything done juuuuuust right. :)

For our music video project, there were 14 groups doing videos for 4 or 5 songs by this up-and-coming Danish singer RebekkaMaria (who sings in English). She even came and acted in half of the videos. If she and her "image team" particularly likes a video, she will use it as her official music video. We did not get to have her in our music video, so instead I played a guy who walks around with a life-size cardboard cutout of her, thinking she's my girlfriend. We had scenes of me walking down the street with her under my arm, of us walking in the park, sitting on a bench holding hands, and having a delightful dinner together. And then halfway through the song, I get frustrated with her lack of response to my affection, so I start making creepy sexual advances on her. I also start arguing with her over things like not eating my food, not showing me any love, and being suspicious of her checking out other guys. In one argument I go overboard and knock her head off. The song ends with me freaking out and burying her in a field, crying. I intercut the story with scenes of me dancing in front of a wall while being showered with balloons. It was a comedy, and I think it works quite well.

So that's what I've been up to. So far, I have had Editing and Sound as my two courses, and after the break I will be taking the Directing course (with my roommate, too!, who is probably my best friend here at the film college). I am especially enjoying editing film, so it is something I would like to look into when I return to Canada. Editing is a more solid job than director, writer, or actor, and in Denmark it pays more than director (because studios get rid of directors after production, so they can save money). And there's still a lot of fun and creativity involved in that job.

Well I think that about catches you up. I'm going to take off now, do some reading, and maybe some writing later too. Hope all's well and glad to hear you enjoyed your own vacation adventure, Mom'n'Dad! Keep up the good work at Humber, bro! :)

Jeg elsker dig, (I love you,)

:Dan

Making Mistakes / Experimenting

“That’s the beauty of the 10-minute projects here - you can try anything out and see how it looks on the big screen.” - Petru [rough quote]

"It's time to take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!" - Ms Frizzle (The Magic School Bus)

This weekend I had my directorial debut. It felt like it went really well. The actual experience was so awesome and everyone on set was fun and respectful, which I think makes for a great professional set. People also helped each other out, roles overlapped at times, but I didn’t mind. Everyone, at some point, was a runner or a production manager or an assistant director or a camera/sound assistant or what do I know. And maybe that’s unprofessional, but things got done (usually ahead of schedule!) and we all genuinely enjoyed making the movie. 

And what’s the point of doing it if it’s not fun? I suppose there are times when you have to do things that won’t exactly be enjoyable but are necessary. I have come to terms with the fact that it is important to make storyboards with the cinematographer, even though it can be tedious and I don’t like being told that my idea for a certain shot is impossible or breaks the 180-degree rule. And calling actor after actor to leave messages and a lot of that pre-production stuff is not nearly as exciting as the actual on set directing and post-production editing. But now I know they need to be done and once I see how they fit into the entire project, they become exciting.

On set, Dev asked me if I was going to do a remake of my movie when I return to Canada. My initial reaction was “what do you mean, this one is going to Cannes”. Because why not? I am a natural, I have great instincts, I don’t need to be taught anything, I don’t need to make any mistakes. 

And therein is the whole point of school, especially folk high school. We are not here to get good grades, to impress people - we are here to evaluate our every step so we can learn as much as possible. I plan to make as many mistakes as I can while I am here, because that’s how I learn. 

So this past weekend, I tried things out. Some of them I think will work really well and other things might not. But as Petru told me, I can try it out  my way and see how it will look on the big screen in Big Bear. And as Dev suggested, I could do another version back home when I’ve become a little wiser. And then that version will of course go to Cannes, TIFF, Sundance, Berlin, etc. But for now, I am here to make mistakes. Ones that I will learn from so that, when it counts, I won’t fuck up and, instead, make brilliant film!

Perhaps I can use this to excuse my horrible boom operating this past Thursday...

My Roommate

First name: Jacob (pronounced "yacob")

Last name: Møller (pronounced in a way I'd have to remove part of my tongue to do properly)

Over the years, I've had a variety of living circumstances - my own room in my family's house, a cabin with a bunch of fellow campers, roommate at camp, housemates in university, etc. This is the first time where I have had an extended period living in the same room as someone else (no door between us). And the following lists should tell you how this has worked out for me:

Some Things I Like About My Roommate:

1. We have complimentary personalities - we instantly got along and we even hang out outside of our room and we even hang out outside of our room every day!
2. We have the same sense of humour - we watch Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm, & Futurama episodes together and quote them to each other daily (also, we hid a banana somewhere on campus and we check on it periodically and tell people about it to see if they can find it - no one has thus far)
3. He likes my story ideas - and I like his! We seem to think along the same lines when it comes to creative expression
4. He doesn't get stupid drunk - I really don't want to be one of those roommates who will disapprove of everything my roommate does that I don't do, i.e. drinking, and luckily I feel I have not had to be that way. Jacob drinks and he drinks enough to get intoxicated, but he does not puke all over the place, he does not become an asshole, he doesn't even really act any different; maybe just a little more giddy. And I'm reeeeally glad to have a roommate like that while living in the country that apparently drinks the most alcohol per capita
5. We have started a Banana Race! - since both Jacob and I loves us some banana-eating, we have a running tally on my pinboard to see who will eat the most bananas by the end of the year. Right now I am winning by 3 and a half. But I'm gonna have another one later today
6. He is a very silent sleeper - sometimes when I wake up in the middle of night I worry that he's dead because he usually doesn't even make breathing noises. Very thankful to have a non-snoring roommate

Some Things I Hate About My Roommate

1. He's ugly - plain and simple
2. He's stupid - plain and simple
3. He likes Lars von Trier too much - yecch
4. He tracks water all over the bathroom after he showers (this one is an actual pet peeve but isn't something I worry myself about too much)

So yeah, good guy. Take that previous roommates/housemates. You know you are.

Atheism

Warning: do not let my grandma read this.





"Here in Denmark, we have the benefit of being aware that God does not exist." - Tom (the directing teacher)

When I heard Tom say this, it was like a light bulb going on; it explained everything. I had been a bit taken aback by the lack of religious presence in this country. On the weekends, I do not see families walking to mosque, driving to church, or men in black suits with those big Jewish hats and the curls coming down the side of their face walking to synagogue. Even in Copenhagen. This is not a religious country. It seems a significant majority of the people in this country flat-out believe that this whole "god" business was made up by confused people many years ago.

Now back home, I certainly did not grow up religious. My dad came from a Jewish family and my mom came from a Christian family. In school, there was such a smorgasbord of religions present, I felt like it didn't matter which one I'd choose, so I chose none. I'd research one for a little while, and had a brief stint attending a Unitarian church with a friend before I decided even that was not for me. So I just went about singing the barucha songs at Chanukah, wishing people a Merry Christmas, and doing all the fun parts of Judaism & Christianity, without bothering with church or synagogue (with the exceptions of weddings & bar/bat mitzvahs).

But despite this lack of religious guidance, I still don't think I grew up atheist. I grew up agnostic. It wasn't that my family and society preached "God doesn't exist!" so much as it was "it could be that God exists in a different way, or maybe not at all, who knows". And I think it was reflected in the movies I watched, too. I loved Ben Foster in Liberty Heights, the young Jewish boy who wasn't anti-religion, just bored with the monotony of sitting in synagogue every week. Or the major monologue at the end of Hannah & Her Sisters where Woody Allen explains his views on life and whether or not God exists. It's almost as if Canada's national religion is Agnostic or, perhaps more accurately, Whatever.

But here in Denmark, it really is Atheism. There are people who are religious of course, follow the Bible and yadda yadda, but they are the ostracized ones, or the ones who do it in their own little way that no one really pays attention to. And it's interesting. Because it's Atheism that has guided them to be moral people (and I'd say they've done a pretty good job of it). And this has made me reflect on the development (or undevelopment) of my own spiritual self. As well as recent thoughts I had about "this God character" and Nietzsche (who seems to be a more prominent spiritual guide for Denmark/Scandinavia). Because lately I feel like I've been moving on a path towards "no god exists!" My grandma would be saddened by this, but I feel myself getting less and less spiritual every day, but feeling more and more ethically/morally-grounded. So I think it's okay.

Now as for whether or not we have a soul and whether or not we are reborn with a new life after we die... that's for another debate at another time. May whatever you believe in be with you!

Celebrity-ish Encounter

Today I had a lecture from Jan Harlan on various aspects of film production and had the good fortune of sitting down and talking with him in a small group after lunch. He was very kind and curteous and always excited to share his wisdom with us young folk. And furthermore, he genuinely seemed to be excited by the energy we had. He even accepted a manuscript for a children's book written by one of my classmates.

I would be surprised if anyone reading this had previously heard of Jan Harlan and knew who he was. He is not a big-shot Hollywood producer, he certainly seems to have no interest in the spotlight whatsoever. But, he is an extremely important person to be familiar with in the film industry. He was Stanley Kubrick's producer from 1975 until the man's death in '99.

The enthusiasm I got from Jan (he doesn't really seem like a Mr. Harlan) felt so incredible and earnest. I believe he was truly excited for our generation to start making new films and thinking of new creative ways to approach our productions (a big part of his lecture was on production expenses, especially in relation to music).

Even better, he will be around for supper, all 3 meals tomorrow, and has 2 lectures and an introduction to The Shining to give us. So there is much more to come. He has reinforced all my passions towards art & filmmaking, and I don't doubt he will continue to do so with his future lectures and, simply, his future presence at the school over the next 28 hours or so.

Jan said passion is the most important thing. Even if your story is not about yourself, you must have a passion for it, something that draws you into the story. Either you relate to it or it is about something that is very dear to you, that you feel very strongly about. You need to have Knowledge + Passion or Love, as he put it in his lecture. I think he's right.

And I plan to capture this passion in my own filmmaking. Even if it does run the big risk of "putting all my cards on the table" as Jan put it.

Landed

So I've arrived in Denmark, I am at the European Film College (EFC) in quaint little Ebeltoft. It's fuckin' beautiful. I'll make sure to upload the photos I took from my room so you all can be jealous of my beautiful view. It's quaint. I love it.

There's not really too much to say. It's orientation week (frosh week), so we've just been getting a lot of information about what to expect, seeing our way around the college and the local town. I was delayed in communicating with the outside world, however, because upon arriving at the school, we found out the internet was down. Not just in the school, but in the entire town, which I suppose gives you an idea of just how quaint (and remote) this area is.

I had my first lecture today - "On The Performing Arts" by this Danish producer who does some guest lectures at the school. It was really cool. It also opened my eyes to just how different the European (and Danish in particular) approach to film is. At the Canadian film schools I had considered, they had a much more commercial approach to film, talking more about films that simply "addressed the human condition". But when they talk about "the genius of Lars von Trier" or the beauty in various abstract "expressionist" European films, it's... I dunno. It's not like in North America.

We got to have a sneak preview screening of Taking Woodstock (it hasn't come out in Denmark yet) and Soren Høy, our school president, was talking about how it is nice, fine film. But he also talked about how most films are "what you see is what you get" (like Taking Woodstock). And he's right. There might be some metaphors to analyse and so on, but few movies do what Lars von Trier or some other European filmmakers do (like the guy who did Run Lola Run), where they make movies that have many deeper layers to be examined and discussed. I have only seen one von Trier film, although I will be seeing another tonight (Breaking The Waves), and so it will be interesting to see how this movie can be deeply examined.

In the meantime, everything is cool and hunky dorey and I will start actual film projects next week, where we will make several short films a day in an exercise called Shooting Games, and I will (without instruction) get to try writing, directing, producing, editing, camera filming, lighting, and everything else.

Anywho, I am feeling anti-social huddled in the corner of the dining hall on the public computer. I'll write more later. I arrived. I'm alive. And I'm lovin' this shit right here.

Peace!

Algonquin Park / Prelude To Denmark

Hey that rhymes! But more importantly...

I just spent 4 days in Algonquin Park, probably the most beautiful part of Canada (that I've seen, anyway). I went with four good friends from high school and it was wonderful and brought us even closer together in a non-gay way and, perhaps, even in a slightly gay way. Either way, that doesn't matter. We got to do a shitload of canoeing, portaging, exploring, and just hanging out talking and enjoying each other's company. Even in silence. Because in a beautiful place like Algonquin, you don't need to talk in order to enjoy the company of others.

If I were to pick a highlight: the first night, we arrive at our campsite and it starts pouring rain. So we rush to set up camp, I'm a little disoriented - I've had 3 hours of sleep, woke up at 4am to drive for 2 straight hours, and have been paddling & portaging for 6 hours. And this is my first time doing this without a camp/tour leader. But luckily, most of my friends have been doing this on an annual basis, so they knew what to do and we got things set up fairly quickly.

The ultra-highlight: my buddy Aaron was determined to make a fire to cook our steaks and potatoes. Absolutely determined. So, after trying a variety of things, he finally was able to construct a canopy of wood and brush from tree branches to cover the fire pit while setting up the fire and the grill below. I helped him (although I didn't do very much) and we were pretty much shoving our hands inside the fire to get the twigs and logs in the right place and, at least for me, to keep warm.

And so we had steaks, with lighting flashing around us in the pouring rain, ripping the meat from our hands with our teeth. We had reverted to our ancestors, the ones who lived in nature, before the inventions of houses and indoor heating and cutlery. It was fuckin' grand. The whole trip was.

That said, on the way back home, I stopped by at my cottage for 2 days and spent one day kayaking with my brother. We went to this jump-off rock we've gone to for years and years and just spent our time on the cliff meditating and looking over the magnificent land that is giving Algonquin a run for its money for the title of Most Beautiful Place I've Seen In Canada.

And then I came home and started packing

------------------

On to part 2: Denmark.

This Saturday, I'll be leaving to study all aspects of filmmaking for about 8 months in Ebeltoft, Denmark, a small seaside town in the north part of the peninsular province Jutland (next to Arhus, the university town and second biggest city in Denmark). My blog will turn into mostly an account of my studies there and all the major highlights of what's going on (I imagine I will be very busy). And I will also recount any tales of my travels around Europe, because I really hope to get to see some other wonderful awesome places. 

One thing I found out that I love, and that I think affirmed my belief that this is the place for me, is that in Denmark in Danish is "Danmark". So this is the place for "Dan" to make his "mark". 

And so that's the plan. Fuck yeah and such!