This is a follow up to How to Not make a Movie – Intro, where I explain why I decided to start this write up. You can skip that part or read it first.
'Een Kerst om Nooit te Vergeten' (An Unforgettable Christmas, 2002)
I don't remember the exact reason, but I made this short film – my first serious attempt at a short film – together with the son of my dentist. We were in the same high school and I must have talked to my dentist about my filmmaking aspirations. Apparently the dentist's son, who was a totally different kind of person than I, was intested in filmmaking too. More importantly – being the son of a dentist- the guy had equipment (a video camera and a Mac for editing).
At the time, I was a member of a film club in the city I grew up in, Gouda. Unfortunately, I was the only young person and almost all other members were already retired / hobbyist filmmakers. In short, I felt I had little to learn there - and as is kind of the story of my life - I didn't feel like 'part of the club'.
Anyhow, via that film club, I was able to borrow a camera for a while and - together with the camera of the dentist's son - we had the luxury (we thought) of using two cameras for out short film.
Writing a Screenplay
At the time, I had been studying film in University, for a year or two. I hadn't had any film making classes though. I'm pretty sure that I did some research on screenplay writing but I can't say that for sure.
Let's just say that this first attempt at screenplay writing, was kind of a joke. I ended up with something that was more of a summary of actions, in chronological order, telling a story, then a screenplay. I guess I was a better storyteller than Boudewijn (the dentist's son) and that is why I wrote our script. Thinking about it, I have been telling stories since I was a little boy so I had some storytelling skills.
Yesterday, I called my mom, to ask if she could look up this 'screenplay' for me. I know there's a shoebox with all kind of movie ideas and screenplays that I've written - or that were written for me - since the early 2000s. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to locate it with the instructions that I gave her.
But I guess that isn't really a big deal. It was in Dutch anyway. But, it might have made you laugh - or if you are an aspiring filmmaker - you might have gotten some hope, as this is how I started out.
No screenplay? What about the Film itself?
Unfortunately, I can't show you the film either. My brother, who - after playing in some of my first short films/ video improvs - decided not to start an acting career but go for (video) game design instead (which later appeared to be the right decision) – will probably be relieved that I can't share this short film with you, my dear readers.
It is kind of a shame though. It would have given you an idea of how I started out and how little talent I had back then ;>)
The making of this short film
It's over 15 years ago, and so many things have happened since then, that I don't remember too much of this film's shoot. This is what I remember:
We hardly didn't prep. I think we shot this 5 minute film in one afternoon and another hour or two in the evening. Having two camera's, that were pretty different, didn't really make things easier. We both wanted to use ours to feel a little more important, I guess. I don't remember there being one director, although I probably tried to direct, being older and being a film student.
My younger brother was cute and fun to work with. Not sure how it felt for him though. I might get back to that later, after he has read this post.
Let me describe the plot/ story to you
A young guy wakes up from his alarm clock. Gets out of bed, walks to his block-calendar on the wall, rips off the page of the 24th of December and discovers that it's Christmas. This puts a smile on his face. He then walks to the window, opens the curtains and his mood changes. It is raining, people with umbrellas are walking by. I now remember one of them was our neighbor's son (a friend of my brother) and another one the dentist's son, haha). Anyhow, imagine rain on Christmas day. It is a little more normal these days, but Winters were definitely colder in The Netherlands, when I grew up.
Slightly disappointed with the weather, the little man decides to head downstairs and wish his family a 'Merry Christmas'. He opens the door of the living room, where his mother, brother ( me ) and sister are sitting on the couch. We also see a sad looking Christmas tree. I believe it was actually around the 5th of January and I told my mom to not throw away this almost needleless tree, before I had shot this film/ scene. When my brother approaches his family with a cheerful 'Meeeee-rrrrrrryyyyy Chrisssstmmmaasssss!', they hardly respond. One of them is reading, the other looking angry and his mom replies with: "Your breakfast is on the table." in a kind of grumpy tone. As if he's too late for breakfast.
Feeling even more down, he walks to the breakfast table, where he discovers a glass of orange juice (inside joke - my brother really dislikes oranges) and a biscuit with cheese, if I remember it well. He starts eating and the look on his face shows that he's feeling sorry for himself. You feel like hugging this little man.
After breakfast, he decided to spend a couple of hours in his bedroom, reading comics. At a certain point, a bell is ringing, followed by the voice of my mom (although, now I think of it, I might have been doing the voice over here): "Dinner time!!!"
In the next scene, we see the family around the table, where my father is serving everyone from a big pan of (typically Dutch) split pea soup. This was meant to be another joke. Even though I enjoy this soup, it's pretty normal food in the colder months of the year and definitely not special enough for a Christmas dinner. In short, kind of disappointing.
After dinner, the young main character - my brother - needs to the dishes all by himself. When he enters the kitchen and discovers how much work this will be - an alarm goes off. He wakes up in his bed and it all appears to be a dream.
Or doesn't it?
He walks to the calendar on the wall. It's the 24th of December. He rips off a page, it's Christmas. Massive Attack's 'Teardrop' starts to play and the movie ends here with a thumping heartbeat.
Reading the above, I start to wonder if I had seen Groundhog Day - where Bill Murray has to live through the same disappointing day, again and again, trying to change things - before I made this film. I seriously don't remember, but I think I hadn't.
What inspired me to make this film/ tell this story
I suddenly remember, how this film's idea came into existence. Back then, late 2002, I was just living on myself. I had left my parent's house a couple of months ago. It was the end of the year and I was sitting in the train. Instead of seeing beautiful, snowy landscapes, I witnessed cows munching grass in a rainy Dutch landscape. This made me think of the movie's theme: A disappointing kind of Christmas. The opposite of what you would expect.
Lessons learnt through this short film
Working with your family isn't easy. It was fun to use my little brother as a guinea pig a couple of times though. I'm joking here, I'm pretty sure he enjoyed this as much as I did. Must be pretty cool as a young teen, doing this with your brother who is in his early twenties. I think we made about 5 short films together. Some of them were more like teasers, but we had great fun. Unfortunately, only one of these shorts can still be found online. It wasn't necessarily our best collaboration.
Long story short
I never made another film with my dentist's son. I believe I needed more freedom and my Ego might have played up a little. You can't have two captains on a ship. I tried to make short films with some friends from University but - one way or another - we never managed to actually make or finish any one of those. I experienced for a while with a camera - that I managed to buy 'thanks to' a terrible factory job - for a couple of years, until sand/ shooting on the beach - destroyed this machine.
My next serious attempt at making a short film - definitely a bigger challenge than this 5 minute short - took place in 2004/2005. I will probably write about it in my next post in this series.
Please bear with me and - if you have any (filmmaking) questions - feel free to ask. We are here to help each other, after all.
Have a great day!
Saludos,
Vincent