Case Study: Voor je de grond raakt

“The idea for Voor je de grond raakt came to us when we saw a baby in the train and started talking about the responsibility of taking care of someone so vulnerable. We both had experience with babysitting and know the fear of something going wrong with someone else’s child. What would we have done if something had happened? Would it be possible to ever forgive yourself? After talking about it for a while the central question arose: how far would you go in denying reality? From there we started fantasizing and writing.”

“How far would you go in denying reality?”

Poetry & psychology: a 'gesamtkunstwerk'

“We wrote the script together. Most of the times, we talked for a long while and then worked on the script alone, sending new versions to each other. During the shooting, not many thing were changed. Maybe some dialogue.”

“We spent a lot of time at the end of the movie. The chronological line for the beginning was quite clear when we started. But what is going to happen after the incident?”

Gesamtkunstwerk

Bart thinks and writes more poetical and Sophie psychological. This was a good combination. In the script was already written how some things would look like. After the writing Sophie and director of photography Thomas van der Gronde made a shot list and Bart participated in the meetings about which colors and music we should use.

“Some people thought it was strange that the actor/writer was also involved in the production process, but for us it was completely logical and we wanted to treat this as a ‘gesamtkunstwerk’.”

Be daring

Voor je de grond raakt was screened at the Odense International Film Festival, the Nederlands Film Festival, ShortCutz Amsterdam, Interfilm Berlijn and UITKORT Amsterdam. “Sometimes it was hard to distribute this movie, because it isn’t a really happy and joyful film. But in the end it went quite well.”

“Our advise for other directors is: be cheeky, be unpretentious and be daring.”