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The making process, cocreation and advice of the Artists in Residence of Go Short 2024

The making process, cocreation and advice of the Artists in Residence of Go Short 2024

Musician Thomas Jaspers and filmmaker Laura Heinig are this year’s Artists in Residence of the 16th edition of Go Short International Short Film Festival. Together they joined forces to work on a short film during their week-long residency. For this, they chose to work around the theme of water, sharing and complementing with each other their experiences as musicians and filmmakers.

Thomas Jaspers is a drummer and composer. Among other things, he has composed a solo set about the deep sea, which stemmed from his part-time activism with Ocean Rebellion. Laura Heinig is a filmmaker who focuses primarily on documentaries but occasionally works with experimental elements and fiction. She is studying at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy in Germany and is now close to completing her graduation film.

Collaborating with someone you’ve never met before

Thomas and Laura were both approached individually. Laura by Go Short, and Thomas from Stichting Sinus. They both found it very interesting to work together because, in a short time, you have to find a way to bring together two very different ways of working. Thomas says: ”You get a kind of lightning glimpse into the mind of someone you don’t know at all yet”.

It’s exciting and challenging because this is totally something new. Usually, you already have an idea or an interest, or a path you’re on, but in this case, you don’t even know each other yet. Laura also says: ”We felt like making a co-creation where there was nothing yet, and none of us were already like look, here, I have this. We built it together from the beginning”.

”I think in 99% of the cases one of the two is central. Film or music. So I think 99% of films are made as films, and then someone is asked to compose music to go with that. That’s what we tried not to do,” Thomas said. By working on it at the same time, they didn’t make it easy on themselves. Especially since they only had a week. Thomas and Laura found out together that certain things are very natural to them as individuals. For example, for Thomas it was playing live music, but not at all for Laura. That is a completely different world for her. They both learned a lot from each other by confronting each other’s way of working. As a result, they found new angles and perspectives.

Water … a carrier of emotion, trauma and silence

Before Thomas and Laura began this project, they met once and called to talk about what they were working on. The theme of water came up quickly then. Laura’s last film was about water and the ocean. For her, water is a carrier of emotion, trauma and silence. Since Thomas is also very committed to the ocean, they decided to take that as a starting point. Thomas: ”We didn’t let that go after that, either.” Laura explained, ”From day one, Thomas just put down a bowl of water which helped us in the process. It helped to come up with ideas.”

It is a challenge to make the story into a whole

During the process, there were several challenges for both Laura and Thomas. For example, Laura had found interesting archival material from the Gelderland Archives, but she couldn’t really place it yet. ”There’s something in here, but I don’t know exactly what yet.”

The biggest challenge for both of them, really, was making the story into a whole and fitting all the individual puzzle pieces together. This was a challenge, especially in the short time they had been given to work on the project. For Laura, it was also a challenge to make a film that wasn’t just about telling a story. ”It’s actually exciting and fun to set an atmosphere, for example. But in what way do you do that then that you actually work with that.”

Tips for future Artists in Residence

The advice Thomas would give to others starting a similar project is, look for the commonalities. ”You’re dealing with different mediums anyway, so you have to find something in which you meet and what links you together.” Also try to take time after filming to let it simmer. If you have time, it’s nice to be able to build on what you’ve created now with each other. ”You’ve just created all this material and then it’s also very nice if it can sit for a while and you can look at it again with fresh eyes.”

Laura explains, that even if you have quite a short amount of time, she would still recommend taking all the space. But if you look and think in production terms, you would have to be a bit more strict with when you film what. ”Prioritizing more could definitely be an advantage to make it more manageable afterwards as well.”

Still, it was important for both of them to feel and have that freedom. ”If you start setting all kinds of obstacles from a kind of expediency, it really feels like a restriction to me, too. I think if you get to interesting places, you also feel that you have the freedom to work with that.” Explains Thomas.

To conclude, Thomas says that perhaps the final product should not be the main goal, but more the collaboration, the process, and taking the space to learn from each other.

The screening of the film, supported by the live music of Thomas, will take place Wednesday, June 5, in cinema LUX Nijmegen, during het STROOM Festival.