Search for happiness

"During my summer trip to Scandinavia in 2018 I struggled to find a good story. All kinds of ideas went through my head, but not any of them was interesting or original to me. The more I thought about it, the more frustrated it became. Then I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The themes presented in that story really interested me. I wanted to combine the idea of looking for happiness with the search of finding the woman of your dreams. Because everyone has this."

"Then I came up with the idea of creating a story about a writer who was in the same position as me. I imagined myself what it would be like if a character, a product of your imagination suddenly came to life. What would that interaction look like? While making the film, it was important to me that there was a big contrast in how the different settings felt and looked. The scene in the bar had to feel warm and a little bit romantic compared to the cold and grey looking environment of the writers’ apartment."

A close team

"In the beginning, when I started writing I had no idea where the story would go. I took bits and pieces of inspiration from other films. At a certain point during writing the screenplay I did ask my fellow student, Cock Melis, to help me with parts of the second act and the ending of the film. Together we had a few really good discussions about the character motivations, the themes of the film and with his supervision I wrote the final version of the script."

"The team that worked on the film was a group of friends. We all knew each other because all of us followed the same film education at SintLucas in Eindhoven. Because of that we all knew what our capacities were and what we could expect from one another during the production. We all worked very closely together and everyone was very motivated to make this film. That created a very pleasant group dynamic."

"The same goes for the cast. I was lucky to work with these talented young actors who took it very serious and understood my vision for the picture. Especially Laurens (the lead actor) came up with a lot of interesting attachments to his character. Leona and Laurens had great chemistry already because they went to the same performance school. The fact that they are a couple in real life also helped a great deal!"

The biggest lesson

"I could go on for hours about how much fun it was to make this short film but I would get bored of hearing myself talk. The greatest lesson I learnt by making this film is that it’s so important to show others their value. Showing gratitude is one of the most crucial things about teamwork. Because when you show gratitude it reciprocates and creates beautiful things. In this case not only a beautiful short film to be proud of, but a great memory as well. Hopefully it’s just the start of other films to come."