synopsis

SYNOPSIS
A burning piano falls from a skyscraper in 1920s New York.
Selected for:
UK Music Video Awards 09
onedotzero_adventures in motion 09/10 London / World Tour
Bristol Encounters Short Film Festival, UK 09
London Independent Film Festival 09
London Rushes Soho Shorts Festival 09
London Young Film Festival 09
New York Rooftop Films Summer Series 09
Munich International Short Film Festival 09
Tabor Film Festival, Croatia 09 (WINNER)
Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne (Red Hot Shorts)
Canary Wharf Film Festival, UK 09
Zero Film Festival Los Angeles & New York
Bornshorts, Denmark 09
Shnit International Kurzfilm Festival, Switzerland 09
Darklight Film Festival, Ireland 09
Shoot Me, Dutch Music Video Competition 09
Braunschweig International Film Festival 09
Museek International Music Video Festival, St. Petersbourg 09 (WINNER)
International Festival of Documentary and short film of Bilbao 09
JEFF DESOM (director / www.jeffdesom.com)
DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Before going to filmschool Jeff had made The Plot Spoiler (2006), a no-budget film
about a video store clerk who, in the first scene, spoils the ending of the very film he
is in. At the time Jeff was only 17 and unexperienced enough not to envision that writ-
ing, directing, producing, shooting and editing a 40 minute long film all by himself
would take up 4 years of his life. In 2007 it won the award for best Luxembourgish
short film.
Later that year he graduated from the Arts Institute at Bournemouth (UK) where he
had specialized in directing. Bloksky (2007) is his graduation film and tells the story
of Hektor, a music composer plagued by a writer’s block that manifests itself as a
bone growing from his skull. The main part is played by German experimental pianist
Hauschka who also composed the soundtrack. Morgenrot (2009) was his second collaboration with Hauschka and his first mu-
sic video. Once again, Jeff applied his do-it-all-yourself experience to achieve the illusion of a vintage film depicting a burning
piano falling from a skyscraper in 1920s New York.
His latest short film X on a Map (2009) starring Sean Biggerstaff was part of the official selection at the 31st Moscow Inter-
national Film Festival.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
“The idea came to me during the late editing stages of Bloksky, the short film for which Hauschka did the acting and wrote the
soundtrack. It’s about a composer who’s plagued by a writer’s block that physically manifests itself as a bone growing from
his skull. For some reason I thought that the image of a burning piano dropping off a building could have served as a recurring
dream of this character. Similar to the dream sequences in Elephant Man if you wish.
I rendered a very short clip in the style of D.A. Pennebaker’s Daybreak Express and sent it to Hauschka. By then his music had
been deeply engraved into the footage. It turned out he liked it very much and wanted me to make a video from it for the song
Morgenrot on his forthcoming album Ferndorf.
There wasn’t a budget available, so I started to work on it whenever possible in my free time. On and off it took me about four
months to make. The finished animation is mostly made from early twentieth century photographs that I found while browsing
through the vast collection of the U.S. Library of Congress. I also used old post cards from New York that I purchased at a flee
market in Paris. Most of the time I would only zoom into a tiny portion of the picture and utilise that as my frame. Or I would
combine the foreground of one image with the background of another and add the piano. Some of those elements are entirely
computer generated.
The hardest part was to make it look as if it had been cut together from a lost reel depicting this curious experiment where
they’d lightened up a piano and thrown it off a building only to see what would happen. Like a bullet being fired at a balloon
filled with water. The kind of unnecessary crash test executed under the sole purpose of drooling over the beauty of slow motion photography.”
FILOMGRAPHY
2009
2009
2007
2006
2005
2005
2001
2000
X on a Map
Hauschka - Morgenrot
Bloksky
The Plot Spoiler
Reisswolf
Last Man On Earth
Incarnation
The Butcher’s Little Son
Short 35mm
Music Video
Short 16mm
Short DV
Short 16mm
Short 8mm
Short DV
Short DV
LUX
LUX
UK
LUX Filmpräis 2007 Best Short
UK
LUX/UK
LUX
LUX
HAUSCHKA (music/artist)
aka VOLKER BERTELMANN
Following previous releases by Set Fire To Flames, Sylvain
Chauveau, and Max Richter, the stunning “Room To Expand” album sees the addition of Hauschka, a new artist to FatCat’s 130701
imprint.
picture by Estelle Klawitter
Hauschka is the alias of Düsseldorf-based pianist / composer Volker Bertelmann, whose work is based upon an exploration of the
possibilities of the ‘prepared’ piano - a playfully disruptive intervention into the preconceived idea of the piano as a pure-toned,
perfected instrument waiting for a gifted virtuoso to play on it. Instead, Volker explores and influences the outcome of his playing
by getting right down inside the instrument - clamping wedges of
leather, felt or rubber between the strings; preparing the hammers
with aluminium paper or rough films; placing crown corks on the
strings, weaving guitar strings around the piano’s guts, or pasting
them down with gaffa tape. These little modifications throw up an
array of rustling, drumming, shivering, scraping, resonating sounds
which either provide the focus / drive for a piece or hook the ear
into an intriguing, slightly unusual frame.
Hauschka has previously released two albums on the Karaoke Kalk label - ‘Substantial’ (2004) and ‘The Prepared Piano’
(2005); and a 7”, ‘What A Day’ (2005) on the Ear Sugar label. Besides working as Hauschka, Volker is a member of
Music A.M., a collaboration with Stefan Schneider (To Rococco Rot) and Luke Sutherland (Long Fin Killie); and of the
electronic / club tracks duo Tonetraeger, his project with Torsten Mauss. A remix album of tracks from ?The Prepared
Piano? will be released on Karaoke Kalk in May 2007, including mixes from Nobukazu Takemura, Tarwater, Mira Calix,
Frank Bretschneider, Vert, Wechsel Garland, Eglantine Gouzy, and Barbara Morgenstern.
taken from: www.hauschka-net.de
QuickTime™ and a
Photo - JPEG decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
CREW
Writer, Director, Producer,
Animation, Editor
Music
JEFF DESOM
HAUSCHKA
Song “Morgenrot“
Album “Ferndorf“
released on 130701 FatCat 2008
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
Length
Screening Format
Aspect Ratio
Sound
Language
Subtitles
Budget
Country
Date of Production
3 minutes 35 seconds
DigiBeta/BetaCam/MiniDV/DVD
4:3
Colour
Stereo
No Dialogue
n/a
n/a
Luxembourg
January 2009
CONTACT
Jeff Desom
[email protected]
4, rue de la Corniche
L-5518 Remich
LUXEMBOURG
Hauschka (Volker Bertelmann)
[email protected]
www.myspace.com/hauschka
FatCat Records
Dave Howell
[email protected]
PO Box 3400
Brighton BN1 4WG
UK
www.fat-cat.co.uk
+44 789 176 2966
+352 621 720 603
www.jeffdesom.com