Case Study: Coquille

48 Hours

When I just started making films a couple of years ago my dream was to become a director, but slowly I started to like directing less and less after making a couple of short films. But there is still one large exception, namely 48 hour projects. The fact that you suddenly have to make an entire film in just two days makes the whole directing process way more interesting for me.

In the regular process of making a short film I started to dislike the slow pace when working as a director on a film. In pre production you are mostly just busy with talking and thinking about your film, but there is not much action going on. The real fun only starts when you start shooting the film in my opinion. That’s when things are getting more intense and you are suddenly shifting from the talking phase into literally putting your words into action.

This is also why I prefer the production side of film. From the moment a director comes up with a script you can already start making a lot of progress like gathering crew, locations to shoot etc. You are way more active during pre production and if you did all your work perfectly, you can mostly relax during shooting days.

Slow

The thing which bothers me the most about the directing during pre production is the really long decision making process. You constantly have to make decisions but after you’ve made them they keep lingering inside your head and make you doubt again about if you actually made the right decision. This is why I decided to quit focussing on directing, except for one reason. 48 hour film projects.

Here, there’s actually not much time for thinking about your decisions. You just have to be sure and make them really fast. I also think the role of a director is very different during these kind of projects like ‘Coquille’. The best way to compare it is to being a conductor. You have a bunch of people who are really good at one specific thing, but all together they make one product. Everybody is doing their own thing but also working together at the same time. The conductor is only there to guide everyone in the right direction. This is what making a film in 48 hours is like for me as a director. I only guide them in a certain direction.

There is no time for lots of feedback or talking, you just have to trust your other crew members in doing their own thing. I provide them with a direction and they all execute it with their own input. This is a really exciting process to me and often the result is just amazing. Providing everyone with freedom was very important to me during this project.

Nerve-wracking

For example the story. Since it is a 48 hour project it’s not possible to already write your script but I had an idea of the direction I wanted to take with this project. I really wanted to make an absurdistic film for a long time which is in a way still grounded in reality and doesn’t completely estrange the viewer. A few weeks before the 48 hour project I met with writer Thijs van Dijk to talk about this direction I wanted to take. The story he and his team came up with during the weekend fitted perfectly. During the weekend I was still a bit hesitant since there is a lot of crazy stuff in the film. It was one of these films which could become a disaster or work out really well. The moment we had a first complete version of the film, with all the music, sound design and voice overs was also the first moment for me to tell if it worked out or not. This was about 20 minutes before we had to start driving to deliver the film. It was nerve-wracking but at the same time incredible to watch the film for the first time with the entire crew, knowing there is no way back and discovering all the hard work in the past 48 hours were all worth it.