Rainy December

We've finished the 1st shooting day. It was very difficult to work because it was raining all the time but we still managed to shoot everything we planned for that day. The actors and the crew were wonderful. I'm very tired, so for the moment just three pictures.



J.J.B.

Elections for Movie

We are a week in front of the shoot. For the film we have to create a pre-election time so one of the biggest steps was to make posters. Here are some of them.

These are main actors: Valter Dragan, Polona Juh and in the role of daughter Pina Bitenc. This will be jumbo size poster.

This is the variation for the end of the film. His party is Slovenian Democratic Union.

This is 1st a.d. Goran Vojnovic together with me. We represent extreme right nationalists with a punch line: Let's stop the corruption.

J.J.B.

Back to the Countryside

I became Boris Petkovic again. For a while. Or a little bit longer. Who knows?
I've got two projects with government money involved so I moved back to Ljubljana - Slovenia (I hope everyone knows where is that:).
We started the shooting of the documentary with working title 100% Luksuz (100% Luxury) in July this year. We had spent almost three weeks on Trska gora (hill above Krsko) shooting two international workshops. One morning, when we tried to get people coming out from their tents, Vava Stojadinovic, one of the tutors, made this picture.

Karim Raoul was D.O.P., Cecile Horreau was in charge of sound and me directing. Because I preferred that we work as a small crew, I was also camera assistant and boom operator:). More pictures you can see here.
The film is for the moment in post-production, it's coming close to the end of editing, I plan to make a first cut in a week or so. I have a lot of fun with archive rushes. They go back to mid 90's when the association started to work.

The other project is a short film with a working title Just One Step. It's a story about violence in the family wrapped in Slovenian political milieu.
Here is a crew meeting, from the left 1st a.d. Goran Vojnovic, production designer Ursa Loboda and costume designer Jelena Prokovic.

And here, as a bonus:), you can see producer Danijel Hocevar, production manager Matija Kozamernik and production assistant Jana Flego.

We are two months in front of the shooting so more about the pre-production is still to come.

J.J.B.

Sstress

It's a good title for what I'm going through at the moment but I will be able to speak about that in few days. Meanwhile I continue uploading my films.
So, Sstress was shot a year after Director's Cut, following two basic ideas: first, film reels are again the leftovers from the frige (this time Danijel Hocevar gave two and Franci Slak one), second, the film should be in one shot following the idea that the specific of the frame is that there are some things outside it that we can't predict or imagine.
So, the crew: Vladimir Vlaskalic sat on a chair, again Bozo Zadravec as D.O.P., Mojca Gorogranc as make-up artist, Marjan Jelnikar as a grip, Julij Zornik sound-mix, editor Janez Bricelj, producer Danijel Hocevar and I operated the camera and directed it (I am credited also as a producer). We shot it during several hours one sunny night.

Trivia:
- the electric chair was primary designed for video clip of a famous Slovenian group Siddharta by Pepi Sekulic

J.J.B.

Films, Films, Films... - Director's Cut

I've just started uploading my short films and other stuff on internet, because I would finally like to have most of my work in one place (which will be on this blog - in several days I will rearrange Filmography section).
I've decided to publish them also on posts, as I will upload them, with the short stories about shoots, festivals, etc...
So, here we go:
In winter 2001 I was sitting in Emotionfilm production office chatting with Danijel Hocevar about god knows what. He prepared me a coffee and I went to get some milk, I opened the frige and I saw inside 3 small reels (120m) of 35mm film (I think two were 500 ASA and one 800 ASA). I asked him what's that for and he explained that those were the reels - leftovers from previous project, they didn't use them and soon they would be out of date. I turned around and told him: "Dane, I have an idea!".:)
As I remember, that year we didn't shoot a lot of films in Slovenia, so for one afternoon shoot I called my friends, Sloveniian film workers to help me. Dunja Zupanec and Blaz Valic accompanied by Jurij Meden were actors, Bozo Zadravec was D.O.P., make-up Alenka Nahtigal, costumes - Sabina Buzdon, grips Stane Podobnikar jr. and Marjan Jelnikar, prop master - Rudi Pozeg, sound post-production Julij Zornik, Danijel Hocevar produced it and I was screenwriter, director, editor and camera operator.
Here is a crew.

And a picture from rehearsal.

Funny thing was that this was really no budget shoot, so we borrowed the electricity from Nino&Jelena's appartment. To fix it over the street it looked like this.


Anyhow, here is the film. It was kind of festivals hit, they really liked it, esspecially showing it on closing ceremonies.:) And the film is really made for cinema, because it uses the cinema hall as a film element.


Trivia:
- the voice of producer at the end of the film is acctually the voice od Danijel Hocevar. As I remember Julij Zornik recorded it directly from his mobile phone.
- Jurij Meden, Slovenian famous film critic and filmmaker plays the role of the director.
- on the first few screenings in Slovenia, at the sound of teared film and blank white frame, the cinema operators were constantly stoping the projection. We had to accompany the film reel with the warning: "In this film the effect of teared film is used. Please don't stop the screening.".

J.J.B.

Slovenia Strikes Again

After Buenos Aires I've rested for two days and then I was again on the shoot. Another Slovenian student Gregor Andolsek was selected to shoot a film on S16 mm. He wrote the script together with Spanish student Ivan Tobalina. Supervising this shoot was quite ok, they were doing a good job so I didn't interfere much. First day, on Monday, they were shooting in the bar.
While Gregor was rehearsing with the actors, Camille, the producer was preparing the food for the crew. I'm glad Gregor "got" his bar in Paris (once you shoot in it, you "owe" it, mine is this one). What I envied him is the name of the nearby street. I would kill to be able to shoot on that street in Paris :). Anyhow, next day we were on the street in Plaine Saint-Denis, shooting the sceene in front of the doors. We had access to the building because we took the electricity from there. However, we didn't have the key from the doors and by Murphy's law, at 2 in the morning someone by mistake closed the doors. Of course a lot of stuff got locked inside. But the window on the second floor was open. We tried with the highest ladder that we could find but of course it was not high enough. Luckily, that night we had a security guy with us (two weeks earlier the van full of equipment was stolen from our students not far away) and he called a friend of him, the fireman. So, he climbed up and opened the doors. That action was definitely the highlight of the day (pardon, of the night). Yesterday, we were again on streets of Paris, nothing really special happened. The shoot finished at around 5 in the morning. Here are more photos.
Apart from that, Brina called me today, she's just got from Buenos Aires and her book went into the print today. We will meet next week to organize next shoots. Tomorrow, me and Mirella will go to Slovenia for a screening of paris.love. Looking forward.

J.J.B.

Short Look Back

Voila, I'm back in Paris since Friday. I've got a bit cold on the airplane, so it made me good to rest for a while. Shooting a film in Buenos Aires was a great experience, a lot of fun but also a lot of hard work. And two days it was really, really cold (winter is just about to start there). Anyhow, I shot a bit for the blog first and last day (in between I was shooting a movie:)), so here is a video. First, crew gathering before the shoot and then final party at Sabina's place where you can see Sergio dancing with Lorena, Brina and Sabina.

Btw, more videos about our week in Buenos Aires you can see on Sabina's blog.

J.J.B.