INTERNSHIP HUGO VAN ESSEN
AT FILM PRODUCTION COMPANY WORLDVISUALS FILM
By Hugo van Essen
American Studies
Placement Providing Supervisor: François Pieneman (+316 14450227) [2591138]
Bachelor Placement RUG Dr. Martinez 15 April 2017
1015 words
Preface
The reason I took on this internship was because I wanted to be introduced to the film industry of the Netherlands. For my Bachelor Thesis I had made an hour long documentary, and I wanted to use that to get my foot in the door.
I made a top 30 list of all the film schools in the Netherlands (read: Amsterdam) and I started calling from number thirty towards number one. I had ranked them on size, location, the description of people working there, and of course their previous work. Around number 16 I started getting somewhere. I talked on the phone with François and I told him all about me. He then invited me for an interview a month later.
Worldvisuals Film
Worldvisuals Film (WVF) is a company that makes corporate videos, short films, and documentaries. It’s a one-man company run by François Pieneman, who hires others to work for him. He started the company ten years ago, and by now makes about 20 films per year.
During my stay here I got to fully produce one corporate film, and one short film.
Introduction
The learning competences described in the placement plan were as follows:
• To creatively produce in assignment of others
• To use research skills not for writing academic essays, but to set up projects
• Basic knowledge of the filmprofession
• To work on team-basis to fulfill projects
• To work independently
• To learn how to budget
• To learn how to plan
I shall digress on all these points. Note that my internship was part-time, two days a week for a five-month period.
First of all, I had greater creative agency than I had imagined at the start. François let me organize and produce an entire video for the University of Applied Sciences of
Amsterdam. This film had a budget about 5.000 euros, and I had the agency to interview the interviewees prior to production. I was able to write the entire script and make all
preparations. François had careful supervision over my activities, and was a guiding hand through the entire process.
The film “Living Together” was about showing the research of the University of Applied Sciences of Amster (HvA) within the Amstelhuis.The Amstelhuis is an experimental
new form of living, where elderly people have small appartments within a bigger block. It closely resembles huge student flats in Groningen, but then for elderly. The purpose was to fight loneliness and isolation.
It was my job to interview all these elderly people about their living conditions. From their experiences and the goals of the HvA, I had to extract a script which a filmcrew would be shooting in two days. Here my research skills I obtained from American Studies came in handy. François left me in complete charge, but checked up on me every now and then. With only two weeks left until shooting, I didn’t have enough elderly to interview in the film. Some were plain rude, others not fit for camera or didn’t want to appear on camera, and even some who did not recognize me anymore after a single week had passed. Once you reach such an age as the inhabitants of the Amstelhuis, you simply do not care about things a lot anymore.
So either they were fine with being on camera, or they didn’t even bother showing up to their appointment.
Nearing the end of my internship François asked me to help with his new fiction film Turn it Around. Initially I wasn’t as interested in corporate films, they were just necessary for making money. Fiction film and storytelling fuels my burning passion to pursue a career in film. As I’m writing this, I can say that we concluded the hectic filmmaking process in a fruitful manner.
I am now confident in organizing small films and producing them. Right now I’m producing a new 48 Hour film project, wherein filmcrews have 48 hours to make an entire film from scratch! I do not know how to hold a camera professionally, or sound, or editing (only a bit), but I do know enough to guide professionals through the entire process. I demonstrated this in my second project at Worldvisuals Film, which was the production of a fiction short film Turn it Around which will air very soon on Nederland 3.
François gave me the agency over all the financial endeavors of this 20.000 euro budget film. Every receipt and invoice was under my jurisdiction. I also had to figure out all the legal matter amongst the extra’s, crew, and the actors. But these are just small parts of creating a short film. Therefore we worked together with 3 others. Me and my colleague Larissa both had the responsibility of leading the production; and we divided amongst ourselves multiple smaller responsibilities such as finding extras, and finding a location to shoot. François supervised us and used his connections and knowledge to help us in places we could not progress.
For both of these productions I had to make a planning. I had no idea how much time any of the processes such as pre-production, financing, editing, etc, would take. Luckily François taught me the ropes about time management in the Dutch film industry.
Evaluation
First of all I want to acknowledge that I am extremely happy with finding François. I’m very stubborn and I detest being micromanaged. François, however, set goals or tasks for me and let me decide how I would achieve them.
However, this was sometimes done too loosely whereby I felt lost or unclear what I had to do or how to do it. So although I liked the freedom, I think our goal setting can still be more clarified. I think this was the biggest problem of the internship.
Furthermore I can improve on my communicating abilities. We found that I have a hard time admitting that I’m struggling with certain things. For example, I was in charge of searching 50 extras for the short film. But I had never done something like it before, and I was unclear what François exactly expected of me. So, through the chaos I kept meandering about instead of communicating my problems sooner. This resulted in some last minute stress that could have been avoided. In short, I have to know the difference between knowing I can do something by myself, or when I have to seek the help of others.
To conclude, while I did not have a specific assignment of research, I did learn a tremendous amount. Leading the proverbial charge in two film productions has been
extremely thrilling and exciting. I look forward to the future of my career, which I shall seek in film but in more creative positions than in producing. I’ve learned a lot about every single facet of filmmaking, and now I know the people within the industry as well.
Last year I had made a documentary which quality is extremely subpar regarding to my work in film now. As I’m finishing my thesis in the documentary, it dawns on me how much I have learned in the past year and a half. Thank you very much for this opportunity.
To conclude: What I foremost need to work on, is my communication within a team and a more precise manner of operation. Never leave things to fate, expect the worst, and plan ahead to circumvent that.
In the appendices I have added some photos from my internship, thank you for reading.
APPENDICE
the director speaking to some of the actors
The sound guy checking his gear amidst fifty extras.
The production crew of Turn it Around, from left to right: Larissa, Ingeborg, François, me (Hugo van Essen), and lastly the sound guy who just wanted to be in the picture.
The entire crew of Turn it Around with me in the middle!
