Case Study: IJzer in mijn Aderen

“I have always wanted to make a film about motherly love, however I did not know how to approach this subject,” tells young director Guido Coppis. “Eventually I got an idea on what the story was going to look like: I wanted it to be about the bond between mother and son and how their bond was severely challenged. Then I just started writing. The story around them took shape very quickly. Eventually I wrote the script in about one day.”

“I have always wanted to make a film about motherly love, however I didn’t know how to approach the subject.”

Script

“I wrote the script myself. Like I previously mentioned; it took about one day. Later on I rewrote the script about six times during pre-production until I was finally happy with it. It never changed significantly though, for it was pretty much always about changing really small details. Changing these small details however, had a big impact on the overall feel of the script.”

“I made the shotlist together with my DOP. I had worked with him before, so he understood really well what I wanted. The film itself only has about 25 shots in it, which isn’t much for a film that is 19 minutes long. I have always wanted to shoot long takes, so we focused on how we could make these longer shots stay interesting and appealing. We also wanted to make sure that the shots would confine our main character, so we spent quite some time figuring out how we could pull that of the best, and most effective way.”

“Changing these small details had a big impact on the overall feel of the script.”

Production

“I spent a lot of time in pre-production precisely planning out all the scenes and shots. I pretty much knew everything by heart. Most of the actors I found through Facebook. I met the lead actor through an art competition called Kunstbende. The funding was mostly done by our selves. We only had €300,- so the budget was extremely tight. During production CineSud helped us to arrange certain lighting we wanted. And in post-production they helped out with the color grading.”

“The shooting days went pretty smooth. Shooting a film in three days is not easy, but it is doable. The thoughest complication was that one of the actresesses cancelled one day before shooting. Which was not very nice, but it was a problem we solved eventually. The team worked really well.”

“The producer never forced me to change scenes, I had complete freedom.”

Post-production

“I worked with editor Grover Blom who basically edited all my previous projects. He is really, really good. Basically the film was edited precisely how the script was written. We re-edited the film about two times, but yet again, this was in the details. One of the hardest things was deciding when to cut away in the long takes: you basically have zero choice about which angle you are going to take in a scene. So you have to time the cut to the next scene perfectly.”

“My composer called Tjeerd Nijhof is brilliant. His music changed a lot. The tone was much darker at first; we felt that it quickly got too much. So we brightened it up a little, to make it a little less depressing. Just a little though. I think Tjeerd had about 10 different versions or so.”

“IJzer In Mijn Aderen had seven festival selections and managed to get one nomination. We have had a large number of screenings all across the Netherlands, and some abroad.”

“My advise to other directors is to make the film you want to make. Do not make anything other people want you to make. Make what feels good for you because, in the end, it is your film.”