Case Study: Brug

Where did the idea for Bridge come from?

Bridge was the first of four sketches we made for the pilot of a potential comedy show. The show was based on a short film I previously directed titled Neigbors; a funny look at the quiet life in the East of Holland – the place I grew up. My producer and I wanted to further explore situations that would only happen in the country side. Politeness and patience are key aspects of the people that live in the East. So we figured that it would be funny to show a situation where politeness can be an obstacle.

Was it easy to write the idea into a script?

The script for Bridge was actually very easy to write. The first draft of the treatment was pretty much what we shot, so we didn’t write many drafts. I don’t think it took more than a week, although we developed several other ideas for the pilot over a three months period. We worked together with scriptwriter Niek Penning who adapted the treatment to a screenplay. The biggest difference from the script was a duck, that we couldn’t include because we felt it would take too much time to work with an animal on set. Apart from the duck the film is exactly like the original treatment.

Did the story translate well from script to screen?

Because the original idea came from the director it was already very visual with hardly any dialogue. The script was developed while the director kept a close eye on what he wanted. Therefore the script was already in good shape by the time we started rolling. We already knew one of the characters could not be heard by our main character plus the dialogue was very vague in the script, so this enabled the actors to improvise a lot of their dialogue. And the set-up of the story is very simple, so we could tell the drama in just a few shots. We wanted the story to be simple, so we kept our shotlist very basic. The shotlist was developed by the director and the DOP. Because Casper (the DOP) and I worked together on several projects, the process went very smooth. The biggest issue for production was the crane that we felt we needed to get a stylized wide shot of the cars on the bridge. But the producer understood the necessity of this, so there was no real argument.

What was the production process like?

Because Bridge is a comedy, the biggest asset was finding actors who have good comedy timing. Because the director loves to do his own casting, he found his two main actors very easily without the help of a casting agency. Our two first choices were the actors who ended up being cast. We could approach them directly, because the main actress of Neighbors knew them personally. Because the location was a key element of the story and because we wanted everything set in the East of Holland, we only searched for locations in the Overijssel area. Because the Overijssel area doesn’t have a lot of professional and experienced film crew members, we decided to hire people the director worked with before. Mostly living in Amsterdam. So we spend most of our budget on travelling costs and housing. Because we had a local television station attached to our comedy pilot, we were able to get money from the Mediafund, who want to support local projects. The budget still wasn’t very high, so decided we would only spend one day on every script. And one day for this script felt like something that was very doable.

How did the actual shoot go?

The production of Bridge went relatively smoothly. It was very cold, which actually gave the film an interesting depressing look, with a frozen lake under the bridge. The biggest problem was the fact that after a while one of the cars wouldn’t start. Luckily we already shot the moments where we needed the car to move. Since the car in the script also needed to break down, it was a funny coincidence. It was the first day of shooting of the pilot. Since Bridge was the easiest of the four scripts, we decided it would be the best one to start with this one. We ended up being right, since we managed to shoot what we needed. We didn’t need any additional reshoots.

Did post-production run as smoothly as the rest?

The edit was done by my regular editor Wietse de Zwart. We did the edit in two days. Wietse and I did many projects together before, so our process is very intuitive. We have the same sense of humor, so the edit went very smoothly. There were no major changes from the script.

What about the music?

As with edit I collaborated with my regular crewmembers for sound (Aline Bruijns) and score (Jesper Ankarfeldt). The composer Jesper is from Denmark, which was interesting since he looked at the film from a foreign perspective. I think this gives the score a very interesting tone that is very Dutch, but also very international. Since the dialogue in the film isn’t very important, the score was vital to make the comedy work. But luckily I worked with Jesper before, so I knew he could pull it off. His first draft for the score is pretty much what we ended up with. Same for Aline, who found or developed all the sounds that enhances the humor.

Any specific choices made during post-production?

The DOP Casper likes to do his own color correction. We made a very interesting choice to get rid of all the red in the film. The bridge for example was mostly red, but because we felt it would be funnier to only use brown tones and yellow. The DCP was made by the local television network.

How was the finished film received?

We finished Bridge in March of 2017. Since then Bridge has been selected for several national and international film festivals. We started with Rotterdam Open Doek, followed by Shortcutz Amsterdam. We ended up winning the Film of the Month Award at Shortcutz and we also won our third film festival selection at the Short to the Point Film Festival in Bucharest (Romania). After that we were selected for Slemani International Film Festival in Kurdistan and Cabo Verde International Film Festival. Shift Film Festival is our sixth film festival selection.

Do you have any tips for other directors?

Director Niels is originally from the East of Holland, so I guess the oldest lesson is still one of the best; write (or direct) what you know. The more specific the subject matter, the better your understanding of the subject matter, the more unique it becomes. Also be realistic and don’t try to make something that is not doable for the budget you have. Sometimes the best stories are the most simple. Bridge was always the easiest of the four scripts we had for the comedy pilot. And so far it’s by far the most successful at film festivals. Keep it simple.