Fiction
Subversive
When Georg Isenmann and Florian Graf told me their idea for a short mockumentary about Aktionskünstler Olf Graphenheim, I immediately felt enthusiastic about it and realized this was something that could be done guerilla style with relatively little preparation. Following a brief discussion of their screenplay, we shot the movie in Basel (Switzerland), mostly outside on one of those last days of summer when temperatures are considerably less stifling. We had rented an HDV camera with a radio mic and a small, portable LED light which was also used as a picture light in the underpass scene. I thought it was a cool way of shooting a movie – small footprint, just the three of us, hence easy-going pedestrians, less pressure and technical issues. Most of the exterior shots came out of improvisation, and I must say that Florian Graf did a great job playing his alter ego (he is an artist himself, not an actor!). Of course, not everything went smoothly that day, but we didn’t realize it until post-production. The sound recorded during an interview turned out to be problematic and Florian had to come back to re-record the dialogue. The next step towards completion took me several weeks. Basically, I was responsible for putting it all together and even went about doing the soundtrack, for which I ended up using a music creation app running on my iPhone. Sounds easy, however, when you set out to make a movie, it doesn’t happen exactly the way you have it in your head. There is this exploration, there is this evolution or unfolding of the material, and once you have sifted through all the pieces of information, you have to rely on your instinctive abilities in order to make it work. So, the day I learned that ‘Subversive’ had been selected for the shorts competition at the 25th Warsaw International Film Festival, I was thrilled, because it showed me that my instincts had led me well. In fact, ‘Subversive’ was also selected, among others, at the International Short Film Festival shnit in Bern (Swiss competition), the 25th International Short Film Festival interfilm Berlin, and the 32nd International Short Film Festival of Clermont-Ferrand (short film market). Furthermore, ‘Subversive’ is listed in the Swiss Films catalogue of 2010.
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