EFA Master Class 2006

How the Creative Documentary Can Take Advantage of the Digital Revolution in Camera Equipment with Stefan Jarl

INDEX1 Index & Imprint2 Welcome by Marion Döring3 The Tutor: Stefan Jarl5 Anette Lykke Lundberg

Stefan Ciupek6 The Participants7 The Concept9 Humour Group11 Old Group13 Text Group15 Young Group17 Impressions22 Crew & Partners

IMPRINTEuropean Film Academy e.V.Editor: Pascal EdelmannGraphic Design/Production: Andrés CastoldiCover Photo: Roland SchützPhotographs: Roland Schütz, Mario Striehn, Benedikt Bothe, Tone Andersen, Torsten Oser. All other pictures by EFA.

DVD CONTENTS

- EFA Master Class 2006 (documentation)- Interview with Stefan Jarl- Interview with Stefan CiupekShort Films:- humour group- old group- text group- young group

MUSIC

humour group:"Everglade"written & performed by Tortoise© Thrill Jockey

text group:"Una, dos, patatin, patatán"traditional from CANCIONES PARA DESPUÉS DE UNA GUERRA by Basilio Martín Patino© La Linterna Mágica, S.L.

young group:"Raum der Zeit"written by Axel Kurthperformed by WIZO© Hulk Räckorz

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It has always been one essential part of the activities ofthe European Film Academy (EFA) to allow filmmakersto learn from one another and to exchange ideas. Overthe years, the EFA has organised various differentMaster Classes focussing on many aspects from visualeffects to the relationship between actors and directorsand cinematography. These Master Classes are gener-ally, but not exclusively, addressed to younger filmmak-ers and the tutors are always highly acknowledged intheir field of work, experienced and willing to pass onsome of their knowledge.

When we decided to organise our first Master Class ondocumentary filmmaking it was immediately obviousthat Stefan Jarl would be the perfect tutor for this work-shop. Not only has his vision of the documentary lead tosome of the most exciting European documentaries, heis also always open to sharing his know-how and expe-rience and discussing his views. We wanted this EFAMaster Class to explore the possibilities of HD technol-ogy and Stefan Jarl is a filmmaker eager to explore thismedium. We are especially glad that we could also winStefan Ciupek, one of the most experienced HD spe-cialists, to support this Master Class with his insight.As you will see from the participants' statements, thecombination of Stefan Jarl's vision and philosophy,

Stefan Ciupek's technical know-how and the challengeof making a short documentary in one week created anideal workshop atmosphere to experiment, exchangeideas, and learn from one another.On behalf of the European Film Academy I would liketo use this opportunity to thank all the people whohave invested time and energy to make this EFA MasterClass possible!

Marion DöringEuropean Film AcademyDirector

THE TUTOR:

STEFAN JARL

Stefan Jarl is the most prominent of the Scandinavian documentary filmmakers andrecipient of several awards, among them the European Film Award. He had therenowned documentary director Arne Sucksdorff as a teacher and has beenproduction manager for several Swedish directors, among them BoWiderberg. His feature film debut came in 1968 with THEY CALL USMODS (together with Jan Lindqvist), which came to be the first part in atrilogy. The other parts came in 1979, with A DECENT LIFE and in 1992,with MISFITS TO YUPPIES. With this trilogy he opened up a new pathin Swedish cinema. His films have regularly been chosen for theForum of New Cinema at the Berlin International Film Festival. A ret-rospective of his work has toured the world, and at the TellurideFilm Festival in Colorado he was awarded the Silver Medallion as“one of Europe's leading documentary filmmakers”.

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FILMOGRAPHY:(excerpt)

1968 THEY CALL US MISFITS1979 A DECENT LIFE1983 NATURE´S REVENGE1985 THE SOUL IS GREATER THAN THE WORLD1986 THREAT1989 TIME HAS NO NAME1990 GOOD PEOPLE1991 JÅVNA, REINDEER HERDSMAN IN THE YEAR 20001992 FROM MISFITS TO YUPPIES1993 LAND OF THE LAPPS (short film)1997 I AM YOUR WARRIOR1998 LIFE AT ANY COST1999 HOMELESS (short film)2001 BEAUTY WILL SAVE THE WORLD2001 THE COUNTRY INN2002 THE BRICKLAYER2003 TERRORISTS - THE KIDS THEY SENTENCED

with co-director Lukas Moodysson2004 PARADISE LOST (short film)2005 THE GIRL FROM AUSCHWITZ

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STEFAN CIUPEK

If someone knows about HD technology, it is StefanCiupek. Among his impressive work experience areRUSSIAN ARK by Alexander Sokurov, RHYTHM IS IT –the recording of the first big educational project of theBerlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle,DEAR WENDY by Thomas Vinterberg, MANDERLAY byLars von Trier, MANSLAUGHTER by Per Fly and AFTERTHE WEDDING by Susanne Bier, to name just a few.

ANETTE LYKKE LUNDBERG

Over the years, editor Anette Lykke Lundberg hasworked with Stefan Jarl on various of his films: ADECENT LIFE (1979); THE SOUL IS GREATER THANTHE WORLD (1985); TIME HAS NO NAME (1989);GOOD PEOPLE (1990); JÅVNA, REINDEER HERDSMANIN THE YEAR 2000 (1991); FROM MISFITS TO YUPPIES(1992); I AM YOUR WARRIOR (1997); BEAUTY WILLSAVE THE WORLD (2001).

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PARTICIPANTS

Tone Andersen, NorwayGünter Berghaus, GermanyDiego Borella, ItalyVladimir Bouchler, BelgiumAlessandro Cassigoli, ItalyDalia Castel, ItalyMarianne Eyde, NorwayJean Pierre Gatt, MaltaDulce Gonçalves, PortugalKathrine B. Granlund, NorwayMarta Javierre, SpainAudrius Keme ys, Lithuania Mari Lunden Nilsen, NorwaySusann Østigaard, NorwayJános Richter, GermanyPiotr Roso owski, Poland Peter Snowdon, UK Peter Volkmann, Germany

THE CONCEPT

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The EFA Master Class 2006 HOW THE CREATIVE DOCUMENTARY CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE DIGITAL REVOLU-TION IN CAMERA EQUIPMENT began in Lauchhammer/Kostebrau, a village in Brandenburg. The first two days saw a cou-ple of lectures on different aspects of creative documentary filmmaking by Stefan Jarl as well as a lecture on the importanceof editing by Anette Lykke Lundberg and a lecture on HD technology by Stefan Ciupek. These were accompanied by screen-ings of different films by Stefan Jarl and group discussions.

But from the beginning on, the practical side was an important part of the Master Class: Participants split up into workinggroups on the first preparation day and went on a location tour to identify possible topics for the films they were going to make.Each group then had two shooting days and two days to prepare and edit their film. For the final post-production (colour grad-ing, retouching, reframing, etc.) the entire Master Class moved to Berlin where the results were finally shown in a large screencinema before the Master Class was wrapped up with a group discussion and evaluation meeting.

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ALSO IN A BIGGER WORLD A KIDDOES NOT BECOME SMALLER

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Humour Group: Diego Borella, Dulce Gonçalves,Piotr Roso owski, Peter Volkmann

by Diego Borella

Stefan Jarl explained what a documentary is and what a doc-umentary-maker is and what they can be, always linking thetechnical and the aesthetic to the individual, human element.It was remarkable. And it worked.And we had a second master, another Stefan, Stefan Ciupek,who revealed to us the mysteries and miracles of HD technol-ogy, making the whole thing sound as easy as drinking beer.And it worked. There we were and suddenly we had to formgroups and actually make documentaries. But what around uswas worth filming?

Piotr from our group suggested to structure the short docu-mentary with a certain irony. And humour can be a good keyto approach reality.Loneliness was the subject. Humour was supposed to be theway. All we needed was the substance.On the two-hour research tour we saw a little boy. Was helonely? Are most of the kids here lonely? Is it because theirfathers all had to look for jobs elsewhere? Maybe.We missed a few essential scenes, and had to constantlychange structure. We had to take the best of the good shotsout in order to keep the mood we had in mind. “Our” story hadbecome a different story, it had become the story of that boy’sjourney from his house to a bigger world, our premise aboutfatherhood and loneliness had become a statement: “Also ina bigger world a kid does not become smaller”.This Master Class offered us the chance to do something wewould never have done elsewhere, and to do it with newfriends. It feels as if we have been trained to create problemsand educated to solve them. And somehow we did.

THE WORLD IN YOUR BACKYARD

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Old Group: Günter Berghaus, Vladimir Bouchler, Alessandro Cassigoli, Dalia Castel, Audrius Keme ys

by Günter Berghaus

When we arrived, we found our hero, a pensioned miner,repairing his old doorbell with his even older screwdriver. Hetalked about the character of old things, saying that nowadaysthings were made to be thrown away while in his entire life hehad never thrown anything away! It was strange hearing thisbecause a lot of our work is characterised by constantly re-examining, giving up, throwing out, always on the search - or,as he put it, “You have to move soil to reach the coal!” Our coal,a documentary's gold, is authenticity and poetry. This scene atthe fence was full of it but we didn't shoot it. The camera was

waiting around the corner with the rest of our group which waspart of our strategy to win his confidence. This strategy wasthe next thing to get rid off, we forgot about it at once. And forour new friends it was fun to have this international group intheir backyard. We did some improvisational work with themand filled our HD-tapes with wonderful material. But how were we going to find something to build up suspense,some action to give us a structure? We arranged it so that ourhero, in his original minor-outfit, showed us his former workplace which is part of a mining museum today. Within our groupthis scene led to a serious discussion about authenticity versusarrangement, a very sensitive point, where filmmakers' philoso-phies collide and it is difficult to find a compromise. Eventuallythis lovely scene was thrown out completely - because of its arti-ficiality. That was a painful part of these “hours of truth”, theediting process. Suddenly there no longer is a concept or a strat-egy to reconsider, throw out and replace. The only thing thatyou can still throw away is your material and what is left in theend is your film. It was a struggle to find the magic again in our material andwe tried five different versions of the film but in the end wedecided to go for a simple structure: only the house and gar-den scenes, combined with voice-overs. And then it becameclear, the film is about the wisdom of a man who solves every-thing with his own hands and keeps the rest outside of hisgarden, behind his fence.

TEACHING VALUES

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Text Group: Marianne Eyde, Kathrine B. Granlund,Marta Javierre, Mari Lunden Nilsen, Peter Snowdon

by Peter Snowdon

The ambitious idea was to construct a film out of extracts fromthe school manuals used in former East Germany to teach civicvalues. We wanted to counterpoint these fragments with theruinous-pastoral landscapes around the town of Lauchammer. An hour later we had not only the school books, but also anappointment to interview the retired teacher who had lentthem to us. Frau Mittag became our guiding light. In her smallschoolhouse in Kostebrau - now converted into a museum tolife under the old regime - we found not only the moral centre

of our film, but dozens of untold stories we could only scratchthe surface of. We took turns to frame and light, to boom and mix, to interveneand to withdraw into silence. We broke our collectivist principlesand delegated two of our team to film Frau Mittag in the roomwhere she had taught for 40 years, so as not to spoil the intima-cy, while the rest of us sat and ate homemade cake with retiredminers. We tried to imagine what she might be telling them.When they re-emerged having used up 75% of our tape stock,we got mad. Then we saw the interview, and forgave them.The dilapidated Kulturhaus opposite our hotel turned out to bea pirate's chest of images that re-expressed everything FrauMittag had told us in words. Stefan Ciupek - “the most knowl-edgeable man in Europe when it comes to high definition” dixitStefan Jarl - stood with us for hours amid the dust of collapsingceilings helping us reform our pre-HD ideas about exposure. We filmed abandoned theatres, empty power stations, ridicu-lously green fields. In the video viewfinder, what you see is whatyou get. But this was HD. We crossed our fingers, and prayedto the gods of post-production to help us realise our vision.

FROM RIGHT TO LEFT

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Young Group: Tone Andersen, Jean-Pierre Gatt, Susann Østigaard, János Richter

by János Richter

We visited the youth club of the neighbouring village,Kostebrau, where we found a community of predominantlynationalist young people who all felt very attached to theirhome village. None of them seemed to have experiencedloneliness. However, we heard about two other youths whowere not part of this community - Manuel, the only blackteen-aged boy in Kostebrau, and Lietze, his best friend, a for-mer nationalist who had become a punk.

On the next morning we met them and learned that Lietzewas about to leave his home village for the next three years inorder to undergo vocational training. That gave us the storyidea for our film. Although the two were very hesitant, theyeventually agreed to help us.

Our initial fear was that our protagonists might be too shy to openup. But in fact they acted quite natural in front of the camera.

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With the support of:Apple/Final Cut ProKOPPFILM GmbHmmpro film- und medienproduktion

Partners:MEDIA Plus Programme of the EUMedienboard Berlin-Brandenburg

Project ManagerBettina Schwarz

Executive ProducerRalph BroscheCinebros Ltd.

Accounting Rainer Pyls

Production ManagerMario Striehn

Production AssistantsBenedikt BotheSusann Amir–Moazami

Location ManagerTorsten Oser

DocumentationAnne Petry

A very special thank you goes to all citizens ofLauchhammer and Kostebrau who made this EFA Master Class possible

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Founded in 1988, the European Film Academy currently unites 1,700 Europeanfilm professionals with the common aim of promoting Europe's film culture.The European Film Academy is mainly financed by the German NationalLottery, the Federal Commissioner for Cultural and Media Affairs, as well as bythe MEDIA Plus Programme of the EU, the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg,and partners and sponsors related to EFA's activities throughout Europe.

European Film AcademyKurfürstendamm 225, 10719 Berlin, GERMANYwww.europeanfilmacademy.org

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