012. Nicola von Leffern
Director, Filmmaker and Cinematographer
Hi Nicola, thank you for coming! I watched your two most recent and impressive music video productions, together with the “behind the movie”-movie, and I find the style very clean. One plays out in a factory and the other one is in a winter landscape. They express a sort of “raw minimalism”, for me at least.
You can see my handwriting on them? I am not outside enough to see it.
Definitely. And when I see that in a work where a lot of creative heads are involved, I’m curious to how much of a say the director/filmmaker gets to tell the story her or his way. So, for example, when you meet together with the band to decide what the story will be or what the style will look like, do they listen to you, or is it the other way?
There are more music videos I have made, but these two are 100% me. They didn’t say anything, I had complete creative freedom and they trust me very much. Often people come to you with an idea, or a frame, and you get to play in that field. But here I could just do what I wanted. So yeah, when people ask me what I do, I would send the two videos to them, it’s very much what I want to do.
The one with the dancers in the factory, I know the lyrics of the song, I was analyzing the lyrics and it was about dying together in happiness, about a couple drifting into afterlife. I also played it to some people and asked them what images they were getting… they were saying: a couple driving in the car, then maybe a crash and so.. then I said no no, that’s too immediate, that’s what you think at first. I would like to do something that gives you a second thought. Like, if the song is developing to the point of when they die, I can do it the reverse way. I start with someone who is dead and bring them back to life. That’s how I found the storyline. Trying to flip it.
You pitched your idea to your friends…
…and then I didn’t use any of that! (laughs) But it helps, you hear what they say, the first thing that pops into their mind. I never want to do the first thing, you know? I wouldn’t want to do a thing more than once, so you kind of can see the connection. Not so obvious.
I was intantly hooked when I saw it the first time, so I kind of forgot to read in the story. Which makes me want to go see it again, to understand it better.
That’s what I would like people to do. Not everyone would do that, now it’s nice to hear what people take away from it because everybody takes away something completely different than you would ever have imagined! And that’s also fine. I read really nice reviews and thought OK, wow, that’s what you see?
That’s what art should be I guess, open for interpretations. The “winter movie” and the “factory movie”. Are they connected?
Yes, they are supposed to be. The main characters are breaking out from something. They feel enclosed, the need to make a drastic change. The backthought about the girl shaving her head.. her storyline begins with her opening the door, the light is falling onto her face. She is coming home and sees her beloved one with another. Later you see her tearing the mattress to the outdoors, pouring gasoline on it and lightning it on fire. To free herself from this traumatizing moment. She’s crying then. You can see what you want in it. It’s a bit about me, but not about myself. About strict ideas of how a woman should be. She is that typical woman in there, and I just don’t want to be that anymore.
Then there is the main guy, who is also in the band, the only real man in there. He’s also running away. There’s other people too, but the bottom line is: everyone has a moment when they’re about to break out from what they’re experiencing.
And then how do you proceed, do the band have any say in the idea development?
I show them storyboards, I make a moodboard, the classic way of doing it. I do one more thing, and I’ve noticed not everyone does this, but I always add a “mood video”, where I take the song — if it’s a band I’m working with — with found footage. For this video I was desperately looking for people that could shave their head.. and people running in the woods, stuff like that. Trying to find mood to the footage. Then I can add it to the music to see if it’s working or not. If I can’t find anything that would fit to the scene, I will ask friends that I can film with my iPhone and then add it to the video.
I think I picked up this method from shooting commercials, everything has to fit into 20–30 seconds, every little shot has to be on spot. For that type of work it’s important to make a mood video. Like making the same video, only it looks like shit (laughs). You can pre-edit it and see if the characters are looking in the right direction and so. Does it make sense? Do the idea transform? Do we need to add anything? So that before the actual shooting, you see if you need additional angles or so. You ask everyone you know to act out on silly shit.
I’m working on one more now, he was really nice, saying that he likes my stuff and wants some more ideas. But that’s so hard! Because if you’re given complete freedom.. you need boundaries.
What’s the band?
He’s called Monolink, a German. He just came back from the Burning Man festival. I think he had a really great time there and now he wants to live up to that.
I think doing music videos is kind of my thing. I’d say I am now in the position that I can choose who I want work with. I have turned down a lot of offers this year, I just don’t want to do stuff that I don’t like the music from. You have to get your heart into it. I really like Monolink, so I’m pretty excited about it.
And if you could choose whoever you want?
Maybe you can get Apparat to call me? Do you know them? He’s an amazing musician. He did a whole album on War and Peace. He played in Bratislava last night, I had to drive there just to see it. We played War and Peace at the Burgtheater. I was there with three friends there and we did video art for it. It was on there for six or seven years, last year they quit it. And I’ve never seen him perform War and Peace. I had to go see him do it. He had two visual guys on stage live. If you like music and film, it’s very inspiring.
I’ve been looking for him if he’d play in Vienna for years, then I found out about him playing there. I’d love to make a video for him. If I could choose between any band, it’d be him.
Spread the rumour maybe?
Right, I should be more pushy, I’ll write him later. “Hey Apparat, how you’re doing?”(laughs)
Being picky about who you choose to work with sounds like a great approach to work.
Yeah, because I think people underestimate exactly how, excuse me, fucking much work get into it. Because what ends up being three or four minutes long, in order to make people sit down to watch something without a storyline or such, and stuff gets shared on the internet.. people get bored after one minute, they don’t have the patience to watch through if it’s not on your facebook feed or something.. in order to get people to watch to the very last minute, you have to have a lot of ideas. I think people underestimate it, also as an art form. It’s slowly trickering in. You know the VIS? The music video section just started there. More and more festivals are making a section for just that. I think it’s a very legit art form. Very free and experimental.
MTV used to be that cool place for music video art, then not so much.
Yeah, then there was like ten years of desert, and budget died. 90’s music videos? Oh my God! Oh my God. (laughs) And now, nobody has money, but cool stuff is coming out. You gotta be creative.
By the way, you won the Night of the Light-contest for 2015, congratulations! You won it in the documentary section. The topic was “Black Out” - you went to Lebanon and documented the life during the many power outages they are enduring there. How did this story come to you?
I had been in Lebanon four years earlier, working there. I wrote it in my treatment, when I was there the first night, I thought: my God this place is dangerous. They took us out in the night to a street restaurant, and out of a sudden there was a power outage. I didn’t know they were occuring all the time. So suddenly you are sitting there in the pitch black, all I could hear was gunshots being fired. My heart dropped.. “Oh my God it’s actually really dangerous!”. The light goes on again, and I see it’s just fireworks! (laughs) Really, really loud fireworks. So as the trip continued, more and more of those funny moments happened during the outages. People live with this. It is a third world country, but also very westernized, with american shopping malls and everything. Once we were in Top Shop as it happened again, and when we were there in the pitch black, we thought “should we just take everything and walk out?” (laughs).
So I thought about these moments, how funny it was, like more what people do when it happens. People just adjust in their everyday lives, it’s about how adjustable we are as humans, whatever problems we have. You will always find them. So I wanted to tell this story, then I saw the topic of the contest and thought it was a perfect fit.
You also went to a refugee camp.
Yes, and they have the exact same problem. It was before the syrian refugee crisis became a topic here, it was back in April, so nobody here gave a damn about it then. Lebanon of course, at the time, already had about 2 million refugees in the country. Lebanon has maybe 5 million inhabitants, then all the syrian refugees and the palestinians. There are tons of refugee camps. And of course they have the same problems like with the power, except they already don’t have anything to begin with. They have a water well, but it only works one hour per day, because they need electricity for it.
I also want to do a bigger documentary about Lebanon outside of this topic, and it has to do with Tinder, Lebanon and Israel. So when I was talking with a film consultant about my idea, she asked what else I wanted to do in Lebanon. She thought it was cool. But when we were there, everything takes much longer than you think it would.. the language barrier, and so on. You come to the refugee camp in the morning, they are having the morning prayer, two hours later, they go for next prayer. Things were moving much slower than I thought.
How did you find the people in the movie?
I knew that they had these apps, which I thought was really funny. They don’t have electricity, but they have apps to monitor the times when there is no electricity. So I contacted the guy who made the app before I went there, to interview him, and he was supposed to be the “frame” of the movie. Then, more or less, everything else happened along the way. I had a friend there too, she was working at the main university, she said that several times per day, all the power shuts down and whatever you have written on the computer is deleted. And this is completely normal for them! She told me, oh we have a really nice seaview on the rooftop, so we go there for a smoke during the power breaks (laughs).
Anyway, this Tinder topic.. I was planning on doing it parallel, I did some research, got some cool contacts, made some interviews.. but I just couldn’t do it. This consultant lady, she became really interested in the other topic (laughs), so we ended up not talking so much about the real topic I was to film for the competition.
I was going to ask, since you go all the way there, and having the possibility to film on location, you come back with all that material and I guess you have much more to show than the three minutes for the NOL-competition?
Oh yes, I was there for three weeks. We have a lot of footage. The hard part is how to slim it down in the frame that they give you. I have so much more, also stuff that could be used for a music video. Really cool ruins.. you end up excited about shooting life and kind of overdo it.
How did you get into social documentary to begin with? I saw your video about a birth clinic (Lärm & Stille), your film from Turkey. Is this topic close to you?
I was filming for the Impact Hub and they are opening a chapter in Istanbul. As a kick-off event they invited all kinds of professionals that they wanted to have on board. I happened to be one of them, and they flew us over there to work with people there who are social entrepreneurs. They already have the topic fixed. I was working with a guy who are making a film festival for kids in rural areas, where they don’t get to see movies on the big screen. His idea is that everybody should be able to get in touch with art and films, see alternative ways of living. He has a travelling festival that goes into really small villages. Really nice. He only works with volunteers from other parts of the world, so the kids also get in touch with people who are not from Turkey, or from their village, to widen the horizon a little bit.
The guy who does this already has a huge following, great funding from Turkey, too. We came there to see from an outsiders point of view, how can we even better his strategy. He is going to Harvard to pitch his project. But he doesn’t speak English, he’s actually himself from one of these small villages, used to be one of these kids.. who saw Casablanca one day with big eyes.. so he was going to Harvard and we were helping him doing a film about his project to show for them, help him with a social media campaign, help him streamline everything a little bit. I’m actually going back to be volunteer on his festival, because I think it’s amazing.
So yes, I am definitely interested in social matters. Always has been, also with experience from NGO work. Until I came to the age where I thought; I could spend two months in the summer breaks for NGO work, or I can just be a filmmaker and use my skills and combine that, you know?
All these experiences add up in the end, it all comes back to the basket where you pull out the ideas from, later in life.
You also travel a lot between Vienna and Berlin, for different assignments?
Yes, I have done that a lot before because I was in this long-distance relationship, over the last eight years, so I spent a lot of time there and ended up working there a lot also. Now I have management there. So far, they have only done music, but they are taking in filmmakers now also. They have become a platform for arts in general. They host mini-festivals there, too. So I am represented by them, and now I’, waiting for Apparat to get in touch (laughs).
I mostly shoot here (Vienna) because most of the cinematographers that I like are here, I have great ideas for locations here, too. If I could, I would always prefer to shoot in Vienna. For example, the Hippies-video, in the woods, I mean, Austria has some amazing landscapes, everything except the sea.. but the sea is not far away if you go to Croatia or so. So it’s kind of cool to be here, I think. I even learned that if you go to Prague, there is a desert!
No way.
There is a desert outside of Prague! So there are a lot of cool locations around. I am actually looking for a desert right now..
I like hearing opinions about Vienna vs. Berlin from a creative point of view. What’s your take on it?
Vienna has a different pace, has its focus on different things. Berlin is very “now” and pop-culture, this kind. Vienna is holding up its old arts, which is amazing. People actually give a shit about theater here. I told you about War and Peace before, it was sold out six years in a row, every single night. It would’ve still been sold out every single night. Nowhere else in the world, that I know of, theater actors are actually recognized on the street. People care here, about the fine arts. Also film art.. Austrian film actually matters! In the international league. I mean, you have Germany also, but they are 19 million people there. So I enjoy it here. And if I want to work in a more pop-cultural context, there is always Berlin.
Everyone get tolds that “if you wanna do music or film, go to Berlin”. But since everyone gets told that, go somewhere else where cool people are needed, I would say. It sounds silly, but.. and in terms of money, Vienna has it. I went to the Film Academy here in Vienna, and they’re the most expensive university in Austria. After Haneke won an Oscar for his Amour, the education minister funded the university with some two million extra Euros and told them to go on a shopping spree for equipment. This is what happens here.
Then people start claiming their nationalities, like after Christoph Waltz got famous, countries were like “no, he’s German!” or “no, he’s Austrian” (laughs). It ends up mattering, where you work and where you’re from.
You went to the Viennale, did you see anything good?
Yes! I saw the Lobster.
I am dying to see it, also because the polarizing reactions it has been receiving. Some say it’s too weird.
It’d definitely disturbing. But it’s worth seeing, especially because of that. Well, I think I said earlier that you have to have more than one idea, and this has so many in it. So many details that are beautiful. It’s set in the future where people only can live as couples, and the life partner you choose has to be somebody that you not only love; you have to have something in common with them. If you end up without a partner you, get turned into an animal of your choosing. There’s one guy who is desperate to find a life partner.. he meets a girl who has nosebleeds and he doesn’t. To be able to be together with her, he needs something in common, so he hits his head into the walls to get the nosebleeds. I found that detail a cool idea. There are the “loners” who didn’t find a life partner, so they choose to live alone. They never dance in pairs, they only listen to electronic music with their headphones on in the woods (laughs). Raving individually.
And definitely the mood. I think it was shot in Ireland, in available light. It looks beautiful.
I read the director (Yorgos Lanthimos) was very sparse with equipment on set.
That is so inspiring. He also said that he comes up with “surreal ideas and follows up on them realistically”. I think that’s very well put. He thinks up something completely out of your mind, but then it’s not a fantasy film, you know. It’s all super-realistic. The camera, the whole look of it, everything. But the idea is so crazy, I love that!
I remember reading the premise, about some guy turning into a Lobster. In a normal mainstream movie, this would have to be explained, like some scientifical explanation to how the transformation happens. In this film, it just happens and no explanation is given. No big deal.
It’s so genious, he just cuts that part out. It’s just a door called “Transformation Room”. And it’s full of these great scenes with attention to details; a woman responsible for the transformation comes up and tells the main character that his choice of animal (lobster) is an excellent choice, because most people say they want to be a dog, and “that’s why the world is full of dogs” (laughs).
I had a teacher at the academy, he used to say: “Genauigkeit und Seele”, when you direct a film. I try to remember that. So just not a big idea with no attention to the gaps, but film the gaps with a lot of precision. Research of course, and bla bla..
Do you like Miranda July?
I do, I saw that one.. about a couple who want a child..
The Future. I’ve seen it, I didn’t like it so much. But I liked her previous one better, the You Me and Everyone We know.
What’s the story again?
I’m trying to think if there is one. It’s more a lot of characters intertwining, with their different stories. And there’s a million small ideas in it.
She has an app, too.
I know! I love that. I think the app wasn’t so successful first, but then she got “endorsed” by Lena Dunham lately, they’re both talking about each other how great they are. So they have both risen to fame as of lately. So now people use the app a lot more.
So basically you text somebody, and the person who receives it has to deliver the message personally to somebody else, right?
Yeah. And if somebody you know has the same app, you can see them on your “radar” or something like that.
She had this e-mail project, too..
I know, I know everything about her!
I obviously can’t tell you anything new, you already know everything. So back to the Viennale, any other good catches?
I saw something called Minotauro. It’s a mexican film with an interesting length, one hour. It’s interesting because you can’t say it’s a short film, and not a feature either. Which I think opens it up for more slots in festivals. Minotauro was probably a film I would have hated two years ago. It doesn’t have a dominant plotline, not a lot of stuff happens.. it’s more like a Kammerspiel.
It plays out in an apartment. I was like “cool, I’m gonna see a mexican movie!” and then it’s just in an apartment, could’ve been anywhere. Not a lot happens, and I started to really enjoy that. It’s like in the theatre, it gives you so much space to think. And the images were beautiful, also not composed in a very common manner, always a little bit off frame. Which is not super pleasing, but it makes you look a little bit sharper. I still don’t know what the movie was really about, but I came out really inspired!
The movie was good enough that you feel inspired, but not intimidated. It was like “I can do that”. It was just in this apartment, three actors. You could probably shoot that in a week if you wanted. Very nice moods in there. I was behaving like you shouldn’t do in a cinema, I was up with my phone, screenshooting the production. Probably very annoying for the other moviegoers.
I know a good Swedish movie, it’s called Piren. It’s like documentary-art movie, guys from Malmö make a hidden apartment at a pier. They find a way under the pier when they move some rocks aside. Then they spend a lot of time and money to build a really nice apartment under there.. and when it’s finished they give it away to “people and nature”.
Once it’s there and it’s nice, they throw one party, and then anybody can do what they want with it. You could assume some bums are living there now and later nature takes over, and it’s gone. It’s more about the process than anything else.
More like an installation type of thing?
Yeah. But I think it looks very genuine. I don’t think they are artists nor filmmakers, they just got passionate about this thing, you know? “Normal” people.
There’s another film I’d like to see again if I can find it. It fits to the category of films with “cool ideas” or the “surreal-idea-follow-through-realistically”-category. It’s called Hotel Infinity. I think it’s supposed to play out in the Swiss Alps. It’s about this hotel that is never full. Anybody can get a room there. At the reception is a Rechenschieber, they have a way to use it so they can calculate it that the hotel is never full. And then comes a kid and plays with it, messes it up. Out of a sudden, the hotel is overbooked. In the hallways you see people wanting to switch rooms, trying to figure out the way that it’s never overbooked again. It’s a short movie and I love the idea.
Finally, can you tell me a little bit about the rooftop project you’re working on?
It’s artists who are working with electro-magnetic noise. And they visualize that. They have these receivers that can translate the waves into acoustics, then they translate the acoustics into visual lights, LED:s. So we were climbing on rooftops and going close to these 3G-masts, antennas. Where the waves go out from. So we were doing long-exposure photography on that.
Who’s behind this?
Artists from the Angewandte. They’re doing this on their own and needed a film/photography person to help them visualize it, which is me. They are planning a much bigger thing with it later on. They also go into the U-bahn, where there are a lot of electro-magnetic waves. You will find out that we are really covered with these waves, they are everywhere.
I like the idea of using long-exposure footage and video together, it looks really nice.
Interview by Anders Khan-Bolin
