At our second event we exclusively screening Julien Pietri’s heartbreaking short Les Soirs. The film was met with overwhelmingly positive reaction and was one of the stand out films of that evening. Due to Julien recently moving abroad we could not conduct a Q+A on the evening so here is a written interview with myself Tim Porter & the filmmaker discussing the making of his wonderful short.
Q1: Can you describe the genesis of this production, how it came to form and your initial intentions for the piece was?
I started to work on the screenplay few months ago when I was in Berlin. My intention was to talk about childhood. When the screenplay has been ready, I worked on the storyboard, trying to imagine all the different shots and things I wanted to show inside the movie. I sent the screenplay to the actors and we shot the film in 2 days at a friend’s place in London.
Q2: Where did the idea for Les Soirs come from?
The first idea was to make a music video for the compositor Oskar Schuster.
Oskar works with different music instruments as piano, accordion and music box. I listened his album for few days trying to create some pictures in my head. His music inspired childhood and sadness to me and when the first picture appears, the rest come by itself… When the first version of “Les soirs” has been finished, I asked to Dimitri Galuret (a director and also really good friend of mine) to work on it and try to improve it.
Q3: Can you tell us a little bit about the casting process, how did you go about it and how you found Nancy Boo Orchis Evans.
The casting was difficult because it’s really hard to find good actors when you don’t have any budget. I discovered Nancy and Priit on Mandy.com. I met Nancy and her mother few weeks later but I was already pretty sure about my choice.
Q4: Many practitioners advise other filmmakers never to work with Dogs or Children as they can be potential difficult to work with. How was working with Nancy on this project considering the dark content and context in which this story is set.
To be honest, I was really afraid to work with a child because “Les soirs” was my first “real” short film and I’ve never worked with professional before. But Nancy has strong acting skills and it was a real pleasure to work with her. She understands everything very fast and seems really comfortable with sad scenes even if she’s a really happy and funny little girl. Her showreel already contains several scenes in the same way. In 2 days, the movie was shot.
Q5: How did this project differ from your previous work?
As I said before, “Les soirs” is my first real short film, I usually work with 3D & motion design. I directed few short films with my friends as first try but I was looking forward to work with professional people.
Q6: Does this project share similarities or raise recurring themes with other projects if so what would you say is your philosophical or overall arching message about your work?
I’m trying to make movies to express myself. I don’t have a real personal style yet but I’m pretty sure my film work will always talk about the sadness of our world. If you compare “Les soirs” with “About a man” or “Toss-up”, you can see loneliness, sadness or death. More or less the real life…
Q7: What are you working on next?
I’m working on different 3D projects but I constantly work on personal stuff as 3D and video animation, short film or screenplay. I’m writing a new screenplay (a kind of “love” story) for several months and I’d love to shoot it next year!
Q8: How long did this production take to produce and what was the budget for it.
We made it in few weeks, from the first day of shooting to the final version of the movie.
It’s an “homemade production”. No budget… But it’s good to work like this and try to make the best as you can because the day when you get a budget, you’ll be able to make really better!
Q9: Do you have any advice for filmmakers or aspiring ones in the making?
Not really. Buy a camera and press the record button! I learned everything by myself and I’m really sure that’s the best school ever! Today you can learn almost everything on internet. The only secret is to spend as time as you can to work and improve yourself. If you are passionate by what you do, it shouldn’t be a problem.
We would like to thank Julien for taking the time out of his day for this opportunity. We will continue to screen anything from him in the near future. Check out Les Soirs now exclusively here for a limited time.
