Gerard Butler, Bubbi, Michael Brook, Björk & more — The Drop-In #19 with Jón E Gústafsson

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My name is Jon Enerson Gustafsson.
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I'm a film director.
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I have a film opening in Bio Paradise on September 10th.
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Film called Anorgasmia, All the Things We Do to Survive.
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It's about a generation that has a hard time committing to anything.
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So I put them up in the Highlands of Iceland, but they cannot swipe left to get rid of each other.
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Hello and welcome to the drop-in.
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I'm Jon Truste.
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And I'm Bark Cameron, the editor of the Great Vine.
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Uh thank you for dropping in, Ion.
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Nice to have you here.
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Thank you guys.
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You have had such a long career in in television and in documentary making and filmmaking that it's very kind of hard to not kind of start at the beginning.
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Because uh for me personally, because it's uh it's uh you you you were a very strong presence on television in Iceland in the 80s and uh did a lot of shows there.
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Well you you're leaving out my early years.
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Let's start with the early years, yeah then.
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We're gonna begin at the beginning.
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I started in music.
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You started in music.
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Music was my first love.
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Oh that's funny because in this this new movie you have Michael Brooke doing your doing your uh What a treat.
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Doing the score, and he he's amazing.
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He's the guy who he's the guy who did Joshua Tree sound on the guitar.
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I mean, among other things, not the not the taught you too, but you have one of the most influential musicians.
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I can I can do you do you want me to talk about Michael or or or me?
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Do you I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.
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But that's this is how you found Michael?
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You're a musician at heart?
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I didn't know that.
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Um the the reason I found Michael Brooke for my movie is that I was we were struggling to find the right composer to find the right music.
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I wanted to work with an Icelandic composer whom I love, who's a great friend, um uh and I've worked with before.
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No, no, uh I have worked.
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I love Hilmar, yeah, yeah, and I've I've Hilmar is incredible.
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But for this movie, I was going to work with um um another composer who's lived in the US for a long time, but he had a heart attack.
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So he he had to cut back on work and go into like hospital and rehab.
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So we were struggling to find the right.
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I almost made the joke that you were gonna get Dirk because you're we all knew your your video work because you did the Kook video that we always watched, right?
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Oh no, I got there was a show on on Icelandic television.
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Yeah.
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But but so we were looking for music, and my wife watched a movie called The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
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Yeah, that was Emma Emma Watson.
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Emerald is that Emerald Fennel or anyway, that's a major movie.
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Yeah, it is and um and she said you have to watch this movie, you have to see and listen how they use music and score in this m movie.
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So she kind of forced me to watch this, and I absolutely fell in love with the uh score.
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Right.
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So we found out who who composed the score, right?
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And I was just like in my you know inferiority.
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Um I was just going to show this to some composers and say, hey, take this as an inspiration.
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But then I realized what an idiotic thing that was.
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I should at least ask the actual composer.
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Yeah.
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So I found out, you know, his agent, and we sent out an email.
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We sent the cut of the movie to to um to Michael's agent.
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Um and two weeks later I got an email back saying he he he likes the movie, he he wants to score it.
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And here's the guy who has like his probably his most famous sound score is for a Sean Penn movie called Into the Wild.
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Yeah, okay, that's fun, yeah.
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That Sean Penn directed.
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It's it's it's one of my favorite scores.
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Yeah.
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Um, so luckily, I didn't know anything about this when I started working with Mike.
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All I knew is that he had done perks of being a wallflower, he had he was Canadian, and that allowed me to hire him because I had for this movie, I had find funding from Iceland, funding from Canada, and the Czech Republic, Czech Republic.
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So I for key creative positions, you have to hire people from these countries.
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So um he was originally from Canada, so I was allowed to hire him.
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And during the process of working with him, I start discovering all the things, other things that he's done.
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So we're we're we're in the middle of a session for for one of the pieces of score for the movie.
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And him and his assistant are talking about some channels, saying, Oh, that's the that's an infinite.
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And and that channel is also an infinite.
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So I asked like an idiot, like, what's an infinite?
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What is that?
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Is that an instrument?
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And Mike said, Oh, yeah, in infinite guitar.
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It's uh it's um my instrument.
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So I started researching and I found out he had invented this guitar called infinite guitar, where he takes an electric guitar with three pickups, changes one of them into a speaker, and then he built this some sort of technology that feeds the signal into that third pickup.
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So you strike one note and it plays forever.
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Therefore, the guitar becomes a different kind of instrument because you can play it in a completely different way.
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Right.
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You don't have to strum, you don't have to pick, you can just do other play it in different ways.
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So um he had a friend called Daniel Lenoir, who was uh um a music producer.
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Even I have heard of.
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Right, it would bring the Lanoise, but we we know him because we're a big bob Dylan fan.
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Yeah, he's gonna be a good one.
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Well, yeah, you know, like so, but Michael used to work with Peter Gabriel for for for a few years, and I didn't know this when I was working with him.
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We started working with him.
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And but we talked about Peter Gabriel in our sessions.
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So, but so he and his friend Danny Lenoir called him one day and said, you know, can you come to the studio and and uh bring your guitar?
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I need to want to show this to this young band they're called U2.
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And so he brought the guitar and showed the infinite guitar to them.
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The ads fell in love with his guitar.
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And the ads demanded that Michael build another copy for him.
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So the ads used it, for example, on With or Without You.
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Yeah.
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Back then, when that song came out, nobody knew where these sounds were coming from, these long, sustained, um, high notes.
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And this was the Infinite Guitar.
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And then Daniel Lenoir demanded that he build also one for him.
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So there are three copies of this guitar that exist in the world.
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It's only three infinite guitars exist, and one of them was used on on the score of my movie by the guy who invented the guitar.
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By the guy who invented it.
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Sorry for the for the distraction, but I was I was obsessed with this because when I saw his name, and you know I had known it from the he did the score for Brooklyn too, yeah, which is kind of a cool score.
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He did Brooklyn, the fighter?
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Oh.
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With of course Mark Wahlberg.
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So basically you just run down your academy.
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He did the uh score for the Al Gore documentary, the environmental documentary.
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Um the one that that nobody remembers now, but there was that inconvenient truth thing.
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In fact, it turned out to be all fiction, right?
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Now we find out, yeah.
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Just coincidental that all everything you said came true.
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Sorry.
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Whoops.
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Yeah, but the score was of course fantastic.
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But yeah, yeah.
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No, the I think the movie was the inconvenience of the truth was also inconvenient.
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Painfully accurate.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, no, he then he he did like a long list of of movies, and many of them big and very successful movies.
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So I I I'm still in awe that he wanted to score my little movie.
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Because it's it's a small film.
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Your little movie's done pretty well.
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You and I talk whenever you're getting off the plane, going back.
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You're going off to I remember you're going off to I think Amsterdam was.
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We we um we premiered in Warsaw at the Warsaw Film Fest.
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And uh which is an A-list festival.
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Um it's a which like s we had our world premiere there.
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Yeah.
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And um it's it's a big enough festival that like Michael was willing to to fly from LA to to attend.
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And I got got like, you know, the core crew to to come.
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And a great response.
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I mean I was following online.
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We've been to like twenty you know, over twenty festivals, won some awards, and it's it's um it's it's better than I hoped for.
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Because like I keep saying, it's um it's it's not like um yeah, you know, I don't have megastars, I just have really, really, really good actors.
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You you come out with such a tempered view, and I guess this is because you started your life as a musician, so you're used to like not low bar, right?
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Okay, okay.
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So I started as a musician.
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I was in a in um in um in like a synthesis synthesizer band called Sonus Future.
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Oh, okay.
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I know that.
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I've heard of that.
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So we had we had like uh we we had like one hit called Skir Meryoma.
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Uh-huh.
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And um Which is something people wouldn't be able to consume now, unfortunately.
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What?
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Well it's hard to get actual skir, but yeah, we're gonna we were in we were in high school and we got some attention, we got on television and and we were noticed at the time.
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Okay.
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We were like the first Icelandic band who that used only drum machines and and synthesizers, and um sort of new new romantic influence, you know, Yasu, uh Japish mode kind of time period.
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And uh I was a really bad musician.
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I was the guy with ideas, and um, but I was never a good musician.
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So I the the others were great musicians, so I I I my job became more and more recording and and so on, so I I ended up buying my way into a studio with some other guys and um I started producing, recording and producing.
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Um bands and and individuals that that were very successful.
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May have heard of a guy called Burpy Mortens.
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Vaguely Familiar.
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We did uh uh album called Corner.
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Also vaguely familiar.
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Okay, it's biggest album, basically.
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And uh you did that.
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Yeah.
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Well, yeah, I mean I I I was there was another guy who started recording his which was supposed to be demos.
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Yeah the guy was not that good.
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And don't tell me this was in Norway or something.
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No, this was not this is 1984.
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So so he he showed up the the other guy showed up late for booby sessions, so but became like quite aggravated.
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Yeah.
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So after two weeks, this guy called me and said, You have to please come and take over the sessions.
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You have to record Bubby.
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He's he's he's driving me nuts.
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Yeah.
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So I took over and I I just made sure that I showed up 15 minutes before.
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I went to the bakery and had some something to eat.
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I made coffee.
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Booby calmed down.
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And we started we continued recording, and this this became so good that the record label guy decided to make it into an album.
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So it developed into an album.
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Oh, Connor started as a demo?
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Yeah, it was a demo originally.
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Oh my goodness.
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So the session started at that time.
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The session started as a demo.
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Wow.
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And um the so at that point, um I had played keyboards on some of the tracks because they just needed a filler.
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It was it was um it was a um a drummer, bassist, and booby.
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And then I would fill in on on some keyboards.
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Okay.
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So when they decided to make it into an album that was gonna be released, they hired um a guy called Thomas Thomason, who was the bass player from from Stunner.
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And to to to take over.
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And so I spent two weeks just teaching him how the studio oh, because he he was not wasn't used to the studio.
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I sort of taught him uh the basics of the studio and put him into you know where we had recorded certain tracks and so on.
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So in the end, he took over.
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Wow.
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He replaced a lot of the instruments on that had been recorded before.
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So I'm one of the few people who heard the actual and remembers the actual original demos of Corner.
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Okay.
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But this of course became a very polished sophisticated record.
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And Thomas Thomas on Tommy Tom, he was such an incredibly nice guy.
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He left some of my keyboards on some of the recordings.
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Okay.
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Or at least he left my name on the uh tracks.
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So Well, congratulations, you're on possibly the best albums of the 20th 20th century, right?
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Well, at least probably one of the best Bippi albums.
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Yeah, it's uh he just re-released it again on vinyl.
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Yeah, yeah, and it was it was a fantastic, interesting time with Bobby Mortens because he was at the beginning of this, he was still using.
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Yeah.
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In the middle of it, he went for a rehab.
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And um so in the first half of the recordings, I I I had decided I'm not gonna try cocaine.
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I just I'm too cheap, I don't want to spend all my money on cocaine.
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So I never I never took cocaine in the studio.
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So when he went for rehab and he came back, I was basically the only person he could work with because he had to distance himself from the use, the the use of substances.
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Yeah.
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So I was on the on the safe side, so I I could continue after he came home.
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Came from rehab.
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There is uh there was a s I mean th th there were these documentaries this spring on on Roof, and one of them about Bippi's career, and one of them covers these first four years, uh, where he's doing at least two or three solo albums.
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He's doing two or three echo albums, and he's doing a couple of Gut Dagansman albums all in like three or four years.
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And the joke was the I the the take up for some people was that you know this is a great advertisement for drug use because the output is amazing.
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Yeah, though I I spent I spent a lot of time with him just recently.
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But he would have obviously this was had to come to an end, but uh it was it you caught him at at the kind of his torti force of creativity.
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Like, you know, this was an amazing period.
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It was it was absolutely amazing both before and after rehab.
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Yeah, and and I think that's it's um drugs don't create art, just you know in my No no no no he he he is the a creative um force in in himself.
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Yes.
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The um and he he of course I liked him much more after rehab.
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Um but there would there was like these fantastic moments before when he had not slept the whole night.
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He had been writing songs, and he would stop at a friend of his place for for breakfast and for coffee, and she would read his the lyrics and and like you know massage them, you know, fix them a little bit.
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And he would come to the studio and record.
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Um these these were these were fantastic times.
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I I I back then I knew too much about him.
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I knew a lot all his secrets because it's um it's an intimate environment in the studio, but but I've I've I have loved him ever since, you know.
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He's a difficult man to dislike.
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I I disliked him greatly for for 20 years, and then I ended up spending about a week with him to cover the to cover him for the grapevine.
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Yeah, for his for his anniversary contract.
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And he if he if he decides you're gonna like him, you're going to like him.
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He's very charming when he wants to be.
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And uh, but I did find him to be shockingly intelligent and shocking.
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Hardworking, and uh, and I can't you said like he's an advertisement for drug use, but uh those are people I mean it's a joke.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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But you have to see it to believe the energy he has.
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Oh, I mean.
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And the and um it's all it's overwhelming, but it's also an advertisement for sobriety because he comes in and now he doesn't even have coffee in the morning, it's just water and and he's he's jumping through the ceiling.
00:17:55.039 --> 00:18:00.559
Like no, I I have I have a lot of respect and love for him.
00:18:00.799 --> 00:18:01.440
Yeah.
00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:08.880
There were many, many days where I had to buy him lunch because he just didn't have money for for for for lunch.
00:18:09.200 --> 00:18:12.880
So I had to go out and buy a hamburger to put into the microwave oven or something.
00:18:13.119 --> 00:18:13.279
Right.
00:18:13.519 --> 00:18:16.160
Uh uh so that so that he could have some food.
00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:16.720
Yeah.
00:18:17.200 --> 00:18:31.200
But w during the the the you know, the previous time period, if he needed some substances, you always found a way to of course to to to finance those.
00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:52.079
But I I think, you know, back to my joke on this, I think once you've like spent time with Bippi or seen how his w how he works, or talked to people who have worked with him, you realize that uh it it isn't it is actually amazing he did those albums in that period given the situation because his out like because it was inhibiting him, not the other way around.
00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:52.240
Right.
00:18:52.400 --> 00:18:53.839
I believe to an extent.
00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:54.559
Do you know what I mean?
00:18:54.720 --> 00:18:59.279
Yeah, yeah, because he his his energy is obviously incredible.
00:18:59.759 --> 00:19:06.559
But I've I have quite a few friends now who close friends who have stopped using.
00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:07.279
Yeah.
00:19:07.599 --> 00:19:09.599
And for some reason I connect to them.
00:19:09.680 --> 00:19:11.519
I I I find them fascinating.
00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:17.440
There's there's this really interesting ADHD going on, fantastic brain.
00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:21.599
It's always something that that that that makes them interesting to me.
00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:22.240
Yes.
00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:35.440
I find that more and more that people who are getting off off of the substance abuse, you realize they they were probably just medicating to try to control, make themselves uh look normal to the outside world sometimes.
00:19:35.759 --> 00:19:36.799
I could be wrong.
00:19:37.039 --> 00:19:43.440
So that was your first stint in in music was I actually produced one of the greatest albums of the 20th century?
00:19:43.759 --> 00:19:44.880
It was was one of the first.
00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:46.960
We were recording a lot of different albums.
00:19:47.200 --> 00:19:50.000
Um I I played on children's albums.
00:19:50.319 --> 00:19:55.759
Um Every Kid at the time had an album called Oliprik.
00:19:55.839 --> 00:19:56.319
Yep.
00:19:56.640 --> 00:20:02.960
And um I made that album with Magnus Thor Simonson, who is who wrote Island El Lante.
00:20:03.839 --> 00:20:09.440
He's one of the best pop music composers of composers of Iceland.
00:20:10.400 --> 00:20:15.200
He's a he's a good friend of mine since those days.
00:20:15.599 --> 00:20:19.519
Um and uh that album was quite successful.
00:20:19.759 --> 00:20:19.920
Yes.
00:20:21.599 --> 00:20:31.200
I worked with Bergthora Arnodotir and um for a song called The Leaf Spoken, which is a beautiful song.
00:20:31.839 --> 00:20:39.200
I did a music video for her also after we finished the recording, and she said, I have 7,000 kroner, can you make me a music video?
00:20:40.400 --> 00:20:44.799
So we did we did the first Icelandic music video that is just one shot.
00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:46.640
No no cut.
00:20:47.279 --> 00:20:54.720
I put a um a deaf girl in front and she delivered the lyrics with sign language.
00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:55.440
My goodness.
00:20:55.599 --> 00:20:57.519
And back through playing behind her.
00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:00.400
It's a it's a classic video by now.
00:21:01.279 --> 00:21:01.680
It's cool.
00:21:01.920 --> 00:21:02.480
It's really cool.
00:21:02.799 --> 00:21:03.119
Beautiful.
00:21:03.359 --> 00:21:03.599
Okay.
00:21:04.240 --> 00:21:12.720
So just to keep this going, because we could we could we could we could stay in this era of your life for probably another hour.
00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:14.000
Oh, that was the early years, yeah.
00:21:14.160 --> 00:21:14.240
Yeah.
00:21:15.440 --> 00:21:20.720
So you then you then started hosting TV in the mid in the 80s.
00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:21.440
Yeah.
00:21:21.599 --> 00:21:29.839
I during high school, um, I my my the guy who sat next to me became a very close friend.
00:21:30.079 --> 00:21:38.799
He um he had a radio show on on um on Icelandic national television because his father was the head of the technical department.
00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:44.559
So he sort of grew up in radio, and I thought it was a great idea to make little extra money.
00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:46.799
So I found my way into Icelandic radio.
00:21:47.359 --> 00:21:55.200
I got a radio show at the very moment when Channel 2, Raoul, was starting, so there were vacancies.
00:21:55.279 --> 00:21:59.279
So I sort of snuck in, got my training in radio that way.
00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.559
And I realized I want to I can I can see myself doing this as a living.
00:22:04.720 --> 00:22:08.480
This is this is a great great you know profession.
00:22:09.119 --> 00:22:16.960
So I went to the BBC in London and uh studied radio production for two or three months for the the BBC in London.
00:22:17.200 --> 00:22:22.160
And I came back and suddenly there was no job for me in in in radio.
00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:27.440
So I figured maybe television is the similar, you know, can use the same techniques.
00:22:27.599 --> 00:22:38.720
So I walked over to television station and a guy called Rap Gunluxon, um film director, had just started uh as the head of programs.
00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:41.039
Yeah, of course he's in the 80s.
00:22:41.359 --> 00:22:45.200
He was he was throwing bombs, he was changing things around.
00:22:45.440 --> 00:22:49.200
So I got a meeting with him, you know, like a five-minute meeting.
00:22:49.279 --> 00:22:50.880
So I presented myself.
00:22:51.039 --> 00:22:54.160
I've done this and this, you know, I want to work in television.
00:22:54.400 --> 00:22:55.519
Please hire me.
00:22:55.759 --> 00:23:02.960
And he said, Okay, I'll give you one day in the television studio.
00:23:03.759 --> 00:23:05.359
Give me three shows.
00:23:06.559 --> 00:23:06.880
Go.
00:23:07.759 --> 00:23:10.480
If I like those three shows, maybe I'll hire you.
00:23:10.880 --> 00:23:12.000
That's a tall order.
00:23:12.400 --> 00:23:15.359
So I had the studio for a day.
00:23:15.599 --> 00:23:17.039
I was working with a producer.
00:23:17.119 --> 00:23:20.799
We decided to do like a uh Rab wanted to do a music show.
00:23:20.880 --> 00:23:23.039
He wanted to bring Icelandic music.
00:23:23.200 --> 00:23:23.680
Yeah.
00:23:23.920 --> 00:23:40.559
So I called some friends of mine from from the the music world, guys that I'd been, or people that I'd been working with, got them to to to spend the day with me in the studio and play their music, and we came out with three shows.
00:23:41.359 --> 00:23:49.440
And um which was the first time Icelandic bands had been given this opportunity.
00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:50.319
Yeah.
00:23:50.559 --> 00:23:55.680
So and this show ran for a whole year, and it became quite an important venue.
00:23:55.920 --> 00:24:03.119
And I think Icelandic television hasn't done such a thing for Icelandic music ever since.
00:24:03.440 --> 00:24:05.759
No, it's pretty complicated and pretty difficult to do.
00:24:05.920 --> 00:24:15.119
I mean, yeah, you don't see many countries actually having a proper live music uh well they g there was something called American bandstand back in the days.
00:24:15.440 --> 00:24:15.839
Yes.
00:24:16.079 --> 00:24:19.440
And so I I I never seen it, but I understand it's similar.
00:24:19.839 --> 00:24:21.519
There's you know, there's top of the pops and stuff like that.
00:24:21.759 --> 00:24:24.160
So those are always lip synth syncing kind of situations.
00:24:24.400 --> 00:24:27.680
We're talking more shindig or this was old grid.
00:24:28.480 --> 00:24:33.519
This was these were bands playing live in studio, and then I would interview them.
00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:37.599
And I was very young, I was 22 years old.
00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:45.119
I was very naive and dumb and and um not the same thing could be naive and not dumb.
00:24:45.200 --> 00:24:45.759
That's what I'm expecting.
00:24:45.920 --> 00:25:10.880
No, but I you know, I so so but I was I was doing my best to introduce these bands and so on, and then um people that I'd been working with in the studio, some of them had formed a band called The Kirk, um, and including Einar Arden, who I had known since we were 12 years old, because we were in the Boy Scouts together, you know, and counting and so on.
00:25:11.119 --> 00:25:51.119
So they had started this band called Kirkland, they had a singer called Björk, and they had about 10 fans, if that they were a complete underground band, but I got them to be on the show, and they didn't want to be interviewed, but I got got to introduce them in the beginning and the end, but they decided to trace my very cheesy 80s sh set, and they did this show where they had um um um stripper on the States, a girl who was a part of a stripper group that was uh active at the time.
00:25:52.079 --> 00:26:09.599
She was supposed to be the danger, but Björk was heavily pregnant at the time with her first child and she was like the the cutest uh person ever in that you could ever see.
00:26:10.640 --> 00:26:18.720
She went and they they recorded the show, but when the show was broadcast, Iceland went crazy.
00:26:19.039 --> 00:26:21.440
All the old ladies in Iceland went nuts.
00:26:21.680 --> 00:26:26.000
There were hundreds and hundreds of phone calls to the TV stations, there were letters.
00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:30.559
There were because Pure did um Madonna spoof.
00:26:31.200 --> 00:26:32.640
She called that a Madonna spoof.
00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:37.920
So you had a a bra and a mini skirt with a naked pregnant belly sticking out.
00:26:38.319 --> 00:26:39.680
And she was heavily pregnant, right?
00:26:44.400 --> 00:26:49.599
And um so I got called into the boss's office.
00:26:49.839 --> 00:26:54.960
Rap Golusen called me in and he was gonna fire me for doing this.
00:26:55.119 --> 00:26:55.440
Yeah.
00:26:55.599 --> 00:26:58.400
This was like an embarrassment apparently.
00:26:58.799 --> 00:27:17.119
So this band that nobody liked, and then they do this scandal, you know, on on so I I managed to talk my way out of it to to be like given another chance.
00:27:17.920 --> 00:27:23.279
And he made a rule like could only have bands that sang in Icelandic.
00:27:24.319 --> 00:27:26.880
No English shit on this show.
00:27:27.440 --> 00:27:37.359
So but I I managed to talk my way into like being able to allow to continue at least you know a couple of more shows that I had been committed to.
00:27:38.160 --> 00:27:44.720
A few months later, they changed the name to Supercubes and they had like a hit song called Birthday.
00:27:45.039 --> 00:27:51.759
And for many, many years, Icelandic television repeated this show every year.
00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:52.960
They were so proud.
00:27:53.119 --> 00:27:56.880
We had them before the famous.
00:27:57.279 --> 00:28:02.880
Yeah, we we were before the before the before everybody else.
00:28:03.039 --> 00:28:08.400
Yeah, but I mean it's it's it's it's level as a scandal at the time.
00:28:08.559 --> 00:28:26.720
Uh it it was it was so high that, you know, because I I mean I'm four years old or so at some point or three when this happened, but somehow this is still something that uh sort of leaks into my existence.
00:28:26.880 --> 00:28:30.880
And I I've known about this as being a scant tool since I was like twelve or something.
00:28:31.119 --> 00:28:31.599
Somehow.
00:28:31.759 --> 00:28:33.519
So it's it was a big deal, is what I'm saying.
00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:49.839
Um and she tells a story that some woman threatened to take her to court because her that woman's mother had a heart attack watching the show.
00:28:51.920 --> 00:28:53.680
This is the you know, this is a while ago.
00:28:53.759 --> 00:29:02.079
This was before um that famous American actress appeared with a naked pregnant belly on a cover of a of a magazine.
00:29:02.319 --> 00:29:02.799
Right.
00:29:03.039 --> 00:29:23.039
So early days of the the And I you know, I think I think Sh Björk and the um Supercubes and that group of people are responsible for our success in Icelandic music or Icelandic success in music ever since.
00:29:23.279 --> 00:29:41.920
I think they gave Icelandic musicians the confidence, Icelandic artists the confidence to to be unapologetic and and just just and you know whenever people ask me, well, how come we're so we come up with all these great things in Iceland, I I I say it's them.
00:29:43.039 --> 00:29:44.400
It's them in the confidence, yeah.
00:29:44.640 --> 00:29:51.920
Yeah, I mean the idea of uh Doing their own thing instead of trying to copy something else is uh I think an element to it, if that makes sense.
00:29:52.160 --> 00:29:52.880
Yeah, absolutely.
00:29:53.200 --> 00:30:00.559
And that somehow then became an exporta exportable thing to do through them.
00:30:00.799 --> 00:30:06.720
And it's only very recently where you can actually do the other thing and get away with it, which is to copy stuff.
00:30:07.119 --> 00:30:09.519
The um As as a local musician.
00:30:09.759 --> 00:30:21.039
Because I'm this old, I remember time before the Chicago's when all the bands were just trying to copy some Americans, some Brits, British bands, and so on.
00:30:21.200 --> 00:30:25.599
So they they they gave them confidence to be just ours ours ourselves.
00:30:25.839 --> 00:30:33.359
Well, I think it had uh I think it had had an effect on the attitude of how bands sounded and what they wrote subsequently for a long time.
00:30:33.680 --> 00:30:34.000
Absolutely.
00:30:34.640 --> 00:30:36.880
Yeah, I think it was still the vibe here.
00:30:37.440 --> 00:30:40.319
No, you you still hear it deverberating today.
00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:40.799
Yeah.
00:30:41.119 --> 00:30:44.319
Um so but uh from I love them for that.
00:30:44.640 --> 00:30:49.440
So that that's uh that's a snapshot of your career in television.
00:30:49.519 --> 00:30:51.680
You did one other thing on the television thing.
00:30:52.000 --> 00:30:54.000
Do you wanna do you wanna talk about the the quiz show?
00:30:54.079 --> 00:30:54.640
Yeah, the quiz show.
00:30:54.720 --> 00:30:55.039
Oh yeah.
00:30:55.359 --> 00:30:59.279
It's such a huge part of Icelandic identity that we've never talked about in this in the in the paper.
00:30:59.519 --> 00:31:09.920
No, well the the uh the every year there's a quiz show on roof where uh three persons from each of the high schools.
00:31:10.160 --> 00:31:14.720
High schools in Iceland uh compete in uh you know in in a quiz show.
00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:19.759
And you you basically produced and and ran the first season of this.
00:31:20.079 --> 00:31:23.359
I I I um uh I was hired.
00:31:23.440 --> 00:31:30.960
This was an idea from two high school students who are today very, very successful investors and businessmen.
00:31:31.200 --> 00:31:32.160
Oh boy.
00:31:33.279 --> 00:31:36.079
They uh very successful guys.
00:31:36.319 --> 00:31:48.960
So they they they came up with this idea, and the Icelandic television called me in and asked me to, well, Icelandic broadcasting asked me to um to create a show.
00:31:49.599 --> 00:31:56.400
So I took the idea and I started researching other game shows, quiz shows.
00:31:56.559 --> 00:32:03.839
I studied Mastermind, which was run by um what's a BBC show run by an Icelandic guy called Magnus Magnuson.
00:32:03.920 --> 00:32:05.440
Yes, one of my favorite writers, by the way.
00:32:05.920 --> 00:32:06.799
Outside of his television.
00:32:07.200 --> 00:32:09.119
Yeah, I got to know him through this.
00:32:09.279 --> 00:32:10.319
You got to know Magnus Magnussen.
00:32:10.480 --> 00:32:11.119
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:32:11.359 --> 00:32:12.480
Oh, no gosh.
00:32:12.720 --> 00:32:13.440
I love his work.
00:32:13.759 --> 00:32:20.960
And I visited him, stayed with him in Scotland, uh, you know, and so so this was this was my inspiration.
00:32:21.119 --> 00:32:37.519
I decided to take the best, you know, steal the best pieces to to structure a show, this quiz show, and I I decided to give it a lot of respect and ask a lot of these students who were coming in.
00:32:37.680 --> 00:32:37.920
Yeah.
00:32:38.079 --> 00:32:39.759
So just like Mastermind, right?
00:32:40.079 --> 00:32:51.039
I wanted to aim high, so we called it uh Spurtinga Kapney Framhotskola, the high school uh quiz competition show, yeah, you know.
00:32:51.359 --> 00:33:12.799
And um we the the interesting thing is what I find interesting before that when anybody was invited to come to Icelandic television, they would put on their best clothes, they would look polite, and they would sit there and and clap like this.
00:33:13.680 --> 00:33:16.480
So I had to stop the first recording.
00:33:16.640 --> 00:33:27.839
I had to step in front of the audience and I had to ask them, can we please Imagine that we are uh uh a football game?
00:33:28.160 --> 00:33:28.400
Okay.
00:33:28.880 --> 00:33:30.240
Can we please loosen up?
00:33:30.319 --> 00:33:31.680
Can you cheer for your team?
00:33:31.839 --> 00:33:35.599
Can you can you if you want to stand up, stand up?
00:33:35.759 --> 00:33:36.880
Can you clap louder?
00:33:36.960 --> 00:33:38.079
Can you make noises?
00:33:38.559 --> 00:33:38.720
Okay.
00:33:39.119 --> 00:33:40.640
And people were kind of in shock.
00:33:40.720 --> 00:33:42.720
Oh, we're allowed to do that.
00:33:42.799 --> 00:33:43.359
Can we do this?
00:33:44.079 --> 00:33:45.039
Untie the ties.
00:33:46.000 --> 00:33:46.799
That's amazing.
00:33:46.960 --> 00:33:49.440
So that that's that's I mean, that's been the vibe.
00:33:49.920 --> 00:33:54.160
We should name that what the show has has since changed his name, something less respectful.
00:33:54.480 --> 00:33:57.119
Get to better, yeah, which means guess better.
00:33:57.279 --> 00:34:01.440
You know, you make a better guess, yeah, or something like that, which I find demeaning.
00:34:01.519 --> 00:34:15.280
I I th I think it's a wrong name for this show, because nowadays you have students who study for a whole year to to be to prepare for the show because they take it seriously.
00:34:15.440 --> 00:34:19.920
And these are brilliant, brilliant minds that compete in the in this show.
00:34:20.159 --> 00:34:24.320
I have a bit of a panic attack when I watch it because it yeah, it's kind of a high wire act.
00:34:24.639 --> 00:34:25.280
Absolutely.
00:34:25.360 --> 00:34:33.679
It's it's um so you know, maybe, maybe I'm wrong, but I I I don't like the name get a bit.
00:34:33.920 --> 00:34:39.280
Yeah, I mean, I I I really don't know it under another name, so I've never really thought about it in that in that way.
00:34:39.519 --> 00:34:42.400
No, so I I hosted it the first year.
00:34:42.639 --> 00:34:51.039
I did we started in radio, and um there was a a friend of mine who had been also been studying at the BBC at the same time.
00:34:51.199 --> 00:34:52.880
I got him to be the radio producer.
00:34:52.960 --> 00:34:56.400
It was the first time Icelandic radio show had a producer.
00:34:56.639 --> 00:34:56.960
Okay.
00:34:57.760 --> 00:35:03.039
So we me and him, Stefan Jörgelson, we we structured this together.
00:35:03.360 --> 00:35:04.639
Then it came to television.
00:35:04.800 --> 00:35:10.800
Icelandic television didn't trust me because it didn't have a history, so they hired another guy to host it with me.
00:35:10.960 --> 00:35:16.000
There were two hosts at the first year, was me and a guy called Thorkir Austoltson.
00:35:16.880 --> 00:35:20.480
And we've been on he's been on radio more or less ever since, I think.
00:35:20.719 --> 00:35:21.039
Yeah, yeah.
00:35:21.280 --> 00:35:23.039
Yeah, he was he was a known name by then.
00:35:23.119 --> 00:35:24.480
I wasn't unknown.
00:35:25.119 --> 00:35:28.800
So we were the hosts for the first year.
00:35:29.760 --> 00:35:36.639
And um uh everybody expected me to continue, but I I wanted to go to university.
00:35:37.440 --> 00:35:44.400
So I I left my career in television and went to England to to to study.
00:35:47.280 --> 00:35:47.599
Okay.
00:35:48.400 --> 00:35:51.199
Um so you're invented by subiculture there?
00:35:51.440 --> 00:35:55.440
Yeah, so it's now I I'm so I'm so proud.
00:35:55.760 --> 00:35:57.760
Yeah, I mean that this show is still going.
00:35:57.920 --> 00:35:58.320
Yes.
00:35:58.639 --> 00:36:00.960
And it it's it's it hasn't changed that much.
00:36:01.199 --> 00:36:01.360
No.
00:36:01.760 --> 00:36:04.719
So it just shows that when you do things properly in the beginning.
00:36:05.039 --> 00:36:09.519
It has maintained its format, I think, more or less almost completely, if I don't.
00:36:09.840 --> 00:36:19.840
But I well, I don't remember much before the mid-90s on that show, but it it felt at least quite similar now and then.
00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:20.719
So yeah, yeah.
00:36:21.199 --> 00:36:25.119
I think it's really cool that Magnus Magnuson is is involved in the founding of this show.
00:36:25.599 --> 00:36:26.320
I did not know that.
00:36:26.559 --> 00:36:31.440
That isn't I did not know that till you spoke, and I and I genuinely love Magnus Magnussen's writings.
00:36:32.239 --> 00:36:34.800
He has a nice Iceland book, right?
00:36:35.039 --> 00:36:36.320
Is that called Easton Saga?
00:36:36.639 --> 00:36:37.599
What's what's what do you find?
00:36:38.079 --> 00:36:38.719
I don't remember that.
00:36:38.960 --> 00:36:46.880
He has an interesting Iceland book, and then he has an amazing Scotland history, casual history book called the history of Scotland, but it's it's it's just so charming.
00:36:47.679 --> 00:36:48.239
I don't know.
00:36:48.320 --> 00:36:58.079
I love calling out this this what I find to be a fascinating individual, and that that he ended up shaping because I felt like a lot of people when they leave Iceland, they don't get to come back.
00:36:58.159 --> 00:37:08.079
As is kind of how you and I met, because there's a lot of like uh some things that develop in Iceland that go away, they feel connection with Iceland, but Iceland doesn't feel connection with them.
00:37:08.400 --> 00:37:14.559
Speaking of one of my favorite documentaries that's ever been made, that you you and I that's how you and I met.
00:37:14.639 --> 00:37:19.840
I didn't know you were I actually thought you were my age because we've been in the same circles for a long time.
00:37:20.159 --> 00:37:40.000
But uh and you'd made I didn't know about your television history or anything, but you made this amazing documentary called The Importance of Being Icelandic, which is about the Canadian Gimli, uh town of Gimli and their their connection to Iceland and how they're kind of living uh how these Western Icelanders live and how they celebrate their identity.
00:37:40.159 --> 00:37:41.280
Uh yeah.
00:37:41.920 --> 00:37:44.320
You ended up producing that with the CBC, as I recall.
00:37:44.639 --> 00:37:45.840
Yeah, I I directed it.
00:37:45.920 --> 00:37:48.320
Um I had a Canadian producer on it.
00:37:48.559 --> 00:37:58.960
But but I I found out found out that there were these people in the middle of Canada that walked around saying, I'm Icelandic.
00:37:59.679 --> 00:38:07.199
And they were so proud of their their heritage and are proud of so proud of their their their island.
00:38:07.679 --> 00:38:13.599
Back then, we're talking about a few years ago, I wasn't necessarily that proud of Iceland.
00:38:13.760 --> 00:38:18.239
Iceland wasn't in a good place when when I made this documentary.
00:38:18.559 --> 00:38:22.400
It wasn't like you were doing as compared to this week when we're doing fantastically well.
00:38:22.800 --> 00:38:24.320
Sorry, this is the week of the referendum.
00:38:24.400 --> 00:38:26.719
We were speaking off mic about our difficulty in the referendum.
00:38:26.960 --> 00:38:29.280
Anyway, yeah, what a what an excellent contrast.
00:38:29.760 --> 00:38:30.639
Anyway.
00:38:31.199 --> 00:38:46.000
Yeah, well, it was it was um so so I I I found out about these these people and I wanted to get to know them, and I I found out I thought there was a story in it, and pitched to the CBC.
00:38:46.079 --> 00:39:05.599
The C B C bought the idea and um put money into this documentary, and it became a documentary about three Canadians of Icelandic descent who had been spoon-fed identity from early childhood.
00:39:05.840 --> 00:39:12.719
You're Icelandic, you're Icelandic, you're Icelandic, without understanding what it meant to be Icelandic.
00:39:13.039 --> 00:39:20.000
So all three of them decided at a certain point in their lives to go and spend a year in Iceland.
00:39:20.239 --> 00:39:22.000
And they were all in Iceland at the same time.
00:39:22.159 --> 00:39:26.880
These are people that like finished their university degrees, two of them.
00:39:27.199 --> 00:39:32.480
So now they had to spend a year in Iceland to find out what it actually means to be Icelandic.
00:39:32.800 --> 00:39:45.760
So they came here and they studied Icelandic, they tried to become Icelandic, and all of them went home after a year with the understanding that they were Icelandic Canadians.
00:39:47.119 --> 00:39:49.199
That they were really Canadians with an Icelandic descent.
00:39:49.440 --> 00:39:52.559
They understood that where they came from.
00:39:52.800 --> 00:39:54.000
Yeah, okay.
00:39:54.239 --> 00:40:01.039
I mean that must be has to be that has to have been quite a journey for them, given in a sense.
00:40:01.360 --> 00:40:01.519
Yes.
00:40:01.920 --> 00:40:06.320
I was I was again, I was very young, I was very arrogant, I was very stupid.
00:40:06.559 --> 00:40:16.400
I was I was um I made this documentary, I was pointing a camera at um um a community that is that is felt very genuine and honest.
00:40:16.880 --> 00:40:21.440
But you have an American North American festival, weekend festival.
00:40:21.679 --> 00:40:23.280
It's called the Day of the Icelander.
00:40:23.599 --> 00:40:24.559
Eastern Nicotine, yeah.
00:40:24.719 --> 00:40:25.920
Eastern Nicotaverin.
00:40:26.159 --> 00:40:31.440
And there's a huge the biggest parade in m Manitoba is on that day.
00:40:31.599 --> 00:40:32.239
Yeah.
00:40:32.639 --> 00:40:48.320
And 90% of the parade is people in clown costumes, people in you know, Scottish outfits and kilts, the so it has really very little to do with being Icelandic.
00:40:48.960 --> 00:40:57.519
And just by pointing the camera at these things, um a lot of people turned against me.
00:40:57.760 --> 00:41:06.320
There were fishermen in Gimli that threatened to um beat me up if I ever showed my face in Gimli again.
00:41:06.880 --> 00:41:09.920
There were people that tried to get me deported from Canada.
00:41:10.719 --> 00:41:17.360
Um there were people that tried to make sure that CBC would never put money into anything that I did again.
00:41:18.400 --> 00:41:39.280
Um there was I was staying in a summer house in in Gimli on the beach one weekend, and in the middle of the night a fisherman, drunk fisherman, drove one of these bombadeers, like a huge big snowmobile, you know, like the vehicle they take out on the frozen lake to fish.
00:41:39.760 --> 00:41:45.599
He was gonna drive it through my my um the summer house where I was sleeping to to kill me.
00:41:45.920 --> 00:41:51.840
Um he was so drunk he got stuck in a ditch and and never made it to the summer house.
00:41:52.000 --> 00:41:58.559
So So this was controversial documentary for the local people.
00:41:59.360 --> 00:42:00.960
I'm sorry, I didn't know the controversy.
00:42:01.119 --> 00:42:12.800
I just thought it was a I what I've always found fascinating with this relationship between Iceland and Gimli and the people of Icelandic descent is how one-sided it is, in a sense.
00:42:13.039 --> 00:42:17.920
They think about they they they think about themselves as Icelanders, they think about Iceland.
00:42:18.159 --> 00:42:19.679
We never think about them.
00:42:21.119 --> 00:42:22.079
That's my experience.
00:42:22.400 --> 00:42:24.880
Yeah, no, it's not to the not to the same extent.
00:42:25.039 --> 00:42:33.679
No, but I have some of my best friends and people that I consider almost family now are are there.
00:42:33.920 --> 00:42:40.719
Yeah, but I I I I you know I I I I love a lot of people there.
00:42:40.960 --> 00:42:42.719
I understand where they come from.
00:42:43.119 --> 00:42:46.800
It's a it becomes a a part of the need to belong.
00:42:47.039 --> 00:42:48.079
It becomes tribal.
00:42:48.400 --> 00:42:57.760
But what what I I I say this because I've I I it kind of troubles me that there isn't a bigger relationship from here to there.
00:42:58.079 --> 00:43:00.639
Like I I think it's a loss for Iceland.
00:43:00.719 --> 00:43:04.400
I think there should be a stronger connection, institutionalized connection.
00:43:04.559 --> 00:43:25.519
I've gone there with uh I went there uh to Gimle and Winnipeg for one of those Iceland Iceland-related things with a band, you know, 15 years ago, and it was it was so it was such an amazing experience to hang out with uh to hang out with what was it, Janice G.
00:43:25.679 --> 00:43:30.880
Johnson or something, and and uh with uh Robbie Rosso who's the uh Rob Robbie's great.
00:43:31.119 --> 00:43:31.760
Robbie's amazing.
00:43:31.920 --> 00:43:32.639
Robbie's great.
00:43:32.800 --> 00:43:41.519
And all of these people were terrific, and I was like, I I this you know it's it's it's a connection that should be fostered more than it is.
00:43:41.760 --> 00:43:43.920
Well, I I think because I love it.
00:43:44.239 --> 00:43:45.599
I I did my I did my best.
00:43:45.840 --> 00:43:46.559
I did my best.
00:43:46.639 --> 00:43:52.400
I um after this documentary, after people threatened to to beat me up and and kill me and so on.
00:43:53.599 --> 00:43:57.280
In fact, I was gonna take you with us when we go, because I want to go down there cover for the grave.
00:43:57.840 --> 00:43:59.760
Now I'm I was gonna take you with us, but now I'm afraid.
00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:01.280
No, you're gonna be a higher pitch.
00:44:02.079 --> 00:44:03.760
I'll just put you in front of me at all times.
00:44:06.159 --> 00:44:14.880
Following that, I found out that some of the young people came to me and said, Finally, finally somebody gets us.
00:44:15.119 --> 00:44:15.440
Yeah.
00:44:15.679 --> 00:44:25.280
So I was insulting the the older people who were who who um nobody had ever put a mirror up to their to them.
00:44:25.599 --> 00:44:28.719
But the younger people became my friends.
00:44:28.880 --> 00:44:29.199
Okay.
00:44:29.679 --> 00:44:33.599
And um so I stayed for a long time.
00:44:33.679 --> 00:44:39.840
I put on like three stage shows, uh directed three stage shows because I'm also a theater director.
00:44:40.159 --> 00:44:48.639
And I made a movie, a really, really low budget movie, um, that we shot on 16mm film, but it was a full-length film.
00:44:48.800 --> 00:44:57.039
So I wanted to show it in in Gimli because I had shot it there, and I realized if I put it into the little cinema, I will get 10 or 20 people to show up.
00:44:57.519 --> 00:45:07.199
But if I start a film festival and I put it on the beach and make up make it into a free screening, I'll get lots more people.
00:45:07.920 --> 00:45:12.639
So I decided I'm gonna start a film festival called the Gimli Film Festival.
00:45:13.039 --> 00:45:25.760
So I you know, got in touch with some of my friends from the film industry, one of them being Guy Martin, who's a uh director uh of Icelandic Descent, who had made a film called Tales from Gimli Hospital.
00:45:26.159 --> 00:45:33.599
He's uh he's an he's an um you know makes these sort of really, really archy movies.
00:45:33.920 --> 00:45:34.239
Okay.
00:45:34.719 --> 00:45:37.199
So I called a couple of other guys.
00:45:37.360 --> 00:45:42.320
So once I had four films, I s I I said, you know, I can now call it a festival.
00:45:43.199 --> 00:45:53.760
So managed to scramble together some funding, talked to Senator Janice Johnson, forced her, twisted her arm to be on the board of the festival to give it some prestige.
00:45:54.239 --> 00:45:56.320
And we put on this festival.
00:45:57.519 --> 00:46:00.800
Thousand people showed up for the beats the first night.
00:46:01.039 --> 00:46:05.039
We have a screen on the water, sticking out of the water.
00:46:05.280 --> 00:46:10.159
People show up with blankets and and chairs and watch the movie From the Beats.
00:46:10.480 --> 00:46:10.880
Wow.
00:46:11.039 --> 00:46:13.599
And an incredible festival.
00:46:13.920 --> 00:46:21.519
And um I was the festival director for the first three years because I wanted to keep it going, then I I moved away, but it's still going.
00:46:21.760 --> 00:46:32.239
I was gonna say, I think uh this is named Donald Garth, one of our friends from uh Canada from British Columbia, maybe has presented there.
00:46:32.320 --> 00:46:34.320
But this is amazing, so yeah, that's that's fantastic.
00:46:34.400 --> 00:46:36.960
And that movie that you're talking about, is that the Canadiana?
00:46:37.199 --> 00:46:38.239
It's called Canadiana, yeah.
00:46:39.519 --> 00:46:43.199
I I haven't seen that yet because No, no, very few people have seen it.
00:46:43.280 --> 00:46:48.639
It it it went to a number of festivals back at in the back when it came out.
00:46:49.039 --> 00:46:55.519
But then the um the two actors, I made a mistake, I made them 50% um partners in the film.
00:46:55.760 --> 00:46:56.079
Okay.
00:46:56.639 --> 00:46:57.840
They stole the film.
00:46:58.239 --> 00:47:02.079
And um it was like film prints, 35 milliliter film prints.
00:47:02.320 --> 00:47:03.440
Wait, they stole the actual film.
00:47:03.840 --> 00:47:05.119
They stole the actual film.
00:47:05.519 --> 00:47:13.679
Okay, and uh and and um they they then they submitted it to festivals and it played in Tehran, for example.
00:47:14.719 --> 00:47:20.239
And I found out that they had told the festival, no, the director is not available.
00:47:20.559 --> 00:47:21.039
Yes.
00:47:22.000 --> 00:47:27.679
So they got to go to present the film in Dublin and Tehran and many places.
00:47:27.920 --> 00:47:30.320
So it was it was kind of wow.
00:47:30.559 --> 00:47:33.760
No, but it's it's it's it's not a film worth watching.
00:47:33.920 --> 00:47:43.760
It's just I I'm I'm in love with low budget films that are done for very little money done but without big heart.
00:47:44.079 --> 00:47:44.400
Okay.
00:47:44.639 --> 00:47:47.440
That's always been the only thing that excites me.
00:47:47.679 --> 00:47:49.119
Yeah, I like that.
00:47:49.280 --> 00:47:55.199
So the I I'm fine, I'm finding some of that everything you can get close to you add color to.
00:47:55.519 --> 00:47:55.920
Yeah, yeah.
00:47:56.079 --> 00:47:58.159
Well, this is this gets me to the next one, though.
00:47:58.320 --> 00:47:58.480
Yes.
00:47:58.639 --> 00:48:06.400
There's another documentary that I love that you did, and it's actually a big I think it was a big budget movie because it was the launch of Gerard Butler's career.
00:48:06.639 --> 00:48:11.440
Uh that you played a what he hadn't been in anything else, had he?
00:48:12.239 --> 00:48:13.440
We we put him on the cover.
00:48:13.519 --> 00:48:24.239
I was obviously the editor of the Grapevine at that time, strangely enough, and I guess I'd heard that there was a big Scottish guy coming, and he was going to be at that time they thought he was gonna be maybe James Bond.
00:48:25.039 --> 00:48:34.480
He he was at the time, he was one of these guys that are upcoming, and everybody sort of knew he's gonna he's gonna go places.
00:48:34.719 --> 00:48:36.000
Right, but I didn't know why.
00:48:36.239 --> 00:48:38.800
But he hadn't hadn't he hadn't he's just a doctor, right?
00:48:39.119 --> 00:48:41.840
He's a large, handsome doctor who just had good acting.
00:48:42.239 --> 00:48:43.440
No, he said he was he was a lawyer.
00:48:44.320 --> 00:48:55.920
So he was he was kind of like uh I I kind of remember the vibe being because this was being talked about like kind of in and around the office at the time, that you know, we should guide put this guy on the cover, he's about to get big.
00:48:56.079 --> 00:49:00.320
Yeah, and this might be the movie that breaks him through, like this breakthrough movie.
00:49:00.400 --> 00:49:02.079
I don't think it was his breakthrough movie.
00:49:02.159 --> 00:49:04.719
I think that was later, but it was bound to happen.
00:49:05.039 --> 00:49:15.360
Because I think it it's the I don't know if this is one thing that's curious about being an editor or being in the media that we hear these names so many times before they actually break, and you're like, why is this predetermined?
00:49:15.440 --> 00:49:20.480
And especially with him, because we didn't have charming experiences with him until we saw your movie.
00:49:20.800 --> 00:49:25.679
Okay, so here's the but it becomes it's not it's not my movie, I was hired to act in it.
00:49:25.760 --> 00:49:27.440
No, no, I mean Wrath of the Gods.
00:49:32.480 --> 00:49:41.519
But this is 2004, 5, and then whenever 2300 comes out, he is he becomes a superstar.
00:49:41.599 --> 00:49:44.000
And I don't think was there anything in between that I'm gonna do.
00:49:44.320 --> 00:49:46.559
So here's here's the here's the thing.
00:49:47.039 --> 00:49:53.760
Um some people in the industry knew that this was a guy with potential.
00:49:54.000 --> 00:50:00.559
Uh, one of those people was an old classmate of mine from Manchester, shown an hour back.
00:50:01.119 --> 00:50:18.480
She did a small Scottish movie called Dear Frankie, and she hired Emily Mortimer for the female lead, and she hired Gerald Butler for the male lead, and she had to argue with her producers to get to hire Cherry Butler because he was unknown.
00:50:18.719 --> 00:50:20.320
She just believed in him.
00:50:20.639 --> 00:50:28.159
So that movie was ready early 2004.
00:50:29.840 --> 00:50:31.599
I was living in Toronto.
00:50:31.920 --> 00:50:36.719
This movie was picked up by Miramax and distributed all over the world.
00:50:36.880 --> 00:50:43.440
So my friend Shona and her husband Graham called me and said, We're gonna play in in uh Trebacca.
00:50:43.599 --> 00:50:46.159
Come and come and you know, spend some time with us.
00:50:46.320 --> 00:50:52.880
And uh, because Harvey Weinstein is giving us a limo 24 hours, like for days.
00:50:53.199 --> 00:50:55.280
The limo will just be waiting outside our hotel.
00:50:55.440 --> 00:50:57.840
We can go party in Manhattan, so come down.
00:50:58.079 --> 00:51:00.400
So I took the bus down, I was completely broke.
00:51:00.880 --> 00:51:03.199
Uh took the bus down to New York.
00:51:04.079 --> 00:51:11.440
And just before I went down to New York, another director called me, a friend of mine called Sturla Gunderson.
00:51:11.679 --> 00:51:14.239
He's born in Iceland, but he grew up in Canada.
00:51:14.400 --> 00:51:17.679
He was preparing a Viking movie called Beowulf and Grendel.
00:51:18.400 --> 00:51:20.639
And he said, I'm gonna run a list by you.
00:51:20.719 --> 00:51:22.159
You know, I have this list.
00:51:22.400 --> 00:51:25.840
Scott Speedman, how do you like Scott Speedman for the role of Beolf?
00:51:27.280 --> 00:51:30.639
At the bottom of the list there was a name, Gerald Butler.
00:51:30.800 --> 00:51:33.039
Somebody had suggested Gerald Butler to him.
00:51:33.199 --> 00:51:40.480
So I said, Hey, I'm going to New York, I'm gonna party with Gerald Butler, come with me, and I'll introduce you.
00:51:40.880 --> 00:51:59.280
So Stirdler had money, he flew down, he got a hotel room, I slept on this floor with the cockroaches and some Manhattan hotel room, and we partied with my my friend Shona and Jerry for uh uh two or three days.
00:51:59.760 --> 00:52:03.599
And so I introduced him to Jerry who was on his way somewhere.
00:52:03.760 --> 00:52:04.000
Yeah.
00:52:04.239 --> 00:52:09.519
Sturdla pits the idea of playing Beywolf uh there in New York.
00:52:11.039 --> 00:52:20.719
Jerry ended up liking the this idea, so he signed on for Beywolf and Grantel, which was supposed to be shot in Iceland that summer.
00:52:21.440 --> 00:52:27.920
So Studler hired me to pay play Beowulf's Warrior number two.
00:52:28.639 --> 00:52:30.559
There were like ten soldiers.
00:52:30.960 --> 00:52:32.639
Beowulf was the hero.
00:52:32.800 --> 00:52:34.159
He had an army of ten people.
00:52:34.559 --> 00:52:38.400
So I was one of those that didn't have a name, just Beowulf's Warrior number two.
00:52:38.960 --> 00:52:47.440
So and Sturdler gave me a little camera and box of fifty tapes, and he said, film everything that happens, film everything behind the scenes.
00:52:47.679 --> 00:52:47.840
Okay.
00:52:48.239 --> 00:52:49.679
Just shoot everything.
00:52:50.079 --> 00:52:51.840
Like a mini TV kind of a thing.
00:52:52.880 --> 00:52:56.159
On DVDs back then, there was B material.
00:52:56.800 --> 00:52:57.360
Yeah, of course.
00:52:57.679 --> 00:53:02.000
Like you could have watched the movie, and then you could watch like behind the scenes kind of stuff.
00:53:02.960 --> 00:53:09.519
And the we all went to Iceland and moved into the mountains.
00:53:10.079 --> 00:53:18.800
There was there was Jerry, there was um uh the second lead was uh an amazing Swedish actor called uh Stellan Skarsk.
00:53:20.159 --> 00:53:36.159
And then in the army there were like Scottish actors like Tony Curran, who has done well since, and a guy called Rory McCann, who um later became the hound on Game of Thrones.
00:53:36.880 --> 00:53:38.480
Big, big intimidating guy on camera.
00:53:38.719 --> 00:53:39.360
Big Rory McCann.
00:53:39.440 --> 00:53:39.760
Oh my god.
00:53:39.920 --> 00:53:41.440
Big intimidating man on camera, at least.
00:53:41.840 --> 00:53:43.119
So of course.
00:53:44.239 --> 00:53:52.079
So we we we all moved to this country hotel uh in in the mountains in Iceland.
00:53:52.400 --> 00:53:57.440
And then the the filming the the shoot was delayed.
00:53:57.679 --> 00:54:10.559
So there was three weeks where we had nothing to do but just drink and smoke and tell stories and become like crazy friends in this country hotel.
00:54:11.199 --> 00:54:13.119
So now what city was it?
00:54:13.199 --> 00:54:14.639
I mean, what town is it exactly in?
00:54:14.719 --> 00:54:20.960
It was it I remember you when you were there because I'd kind of caught wind of it, and I think you and I had talked a lot at that time.
00:54:21.199 --> 00:54:23.679
Was it out east or no no it was close to Vik.
00:54:23.840 --> 00:54:34.159
We showed most of it around Vik in the highlands, and there's um there's some if you go five kilometers after week week, you get to a little country hotel, Havdebreca.
00:54:34.320 --> 00:54:39.599
Yeah, you drive up to that highlands, Havelbreca, and we built a set there.
00:54:39.920 --> 00:54:40.159
Okay.
00:54:40.639 --> 00:54:44.159
Uh on on the way to Ketlikadar or something.
00:54:44.559 --> 00:54:50.400
And um so in like the the the windiest, wettest place in Iceland.
00:54:51.440 --> 00:54:54.719
So so bad part of the drive if you're driving the ring road around.
00:54:55.119 --> 00:54:56.639
So really tired of that.
00:54:56.880 --> 00:55:04.000
Like Rory McCann had spent his whole pay for the movie on beers because he bought beer drinks for everybody and the whole crew the whole time.
00:55:04.239 --> 00:55:04.960
Well, that's good.
00:55:05.280 --> 00:55:10.400
Um sorry, it was just nice to hear good things about buying people drinks is I'm sorry.
00:55:10.719 --> 00:55:18.800
Many a night with that ended with me and Stella and staggering through the hallways looking for the the the you know anybody still alive.
00:55:19.039 --> 00:55:19.199
Okay.
00:55:19.760 --> 00:55:20.639
Dead drunk.
00:55:21.119 --> 00:55:26.400
Um incredible, incredible times.
00:55:26.639 --> 00:55:28.320
And then we started filming.
00:55:28.639 --> 00:55:32.960
And the because we got delayed into the fall, we ended up in storms.
00:55:33.199 --> 00:55:33.679
Oh my god.
00:55:33.840 --> 00:55:36.559
One day we lost eight cars because of flying rocks.
00:55:36.719 --> 00:55:40.800
The wind was so strong it was picking up rocks and smashing windows.
00:55:40.880 --> 00:55:44.239
So when you got the front windscreen blown out, you can't use the car anymore.
00:55:44.400 --> 00:55:47.039
So eight cars out during the day.
00:55:47.280 --> 00:55:52.400
Another morning we woke up after a stormy night and the whole set had blown out to sea.
00:55:53.440 --> 00:56:04.480
Um, so I soon soon realized in the middle of this, I I had material on my little camera.
00:56:04.719 --> 00:56:06.719
I had material for a documentary.
00:56:06.880 --> 00:56:07.519
Yeah.
00:56:07.840 --> 00:56:24.800
And uh the moment was when I was sitting in the car with a producer, and he's arguing with a director who's standing out in the storm, and in the middle of that argument, a rock comes flying, it smashes the rear window of the car, and I look back and it's a smashed rear window of this vehicle we're sitting in.
00:56:25.360 --> 00:56:29.199
So, and I realized, okay, I have a story.
00:56:29.360 --> 00:56:49.920
Yeah, this documentary ended up being what was supposed to be B material on the DVD, became a standalone documentary, uh, full-length, feature-length documentary, and for some strange reasons it traveled better than the actual$20 million Viking movie.
00:56:51.280 --> 00:56:59.840
And um I'll tell you I got to use the Hillmarts score that he scored for the movie.
00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:04.880
He allowed me to use it for my documentary, which made it much, much better.
00:57:05.199 --> 00:57:11.119
But Jerry was supposed to break through and become a star, and that didn't happen.
00:57:11.360 --> 00:57:14.800
He got a role playing Phantom of the Opera.
00:57:15.360 --> 00:57:15.920
Oh, yeah, of course.
00:57:16.159 --> 00:57:16.639
Oh my god.
00:57:17.360 --> 00:57:18.559
Oh, that was a disaster.
00:57:18.800 --> 00:57:21.440
And then, like, you know, a mask covering his face.
00:57:21.599 --> 00:57:24.559
I completely recognition after that.
00:57:25.119 --> 00:57:38.079
So when I'm finishing my documentary, we met up in Toronto, and Jerry told me, Oh, I'm doing a movie now that is much tougher for me than the Beyboard.
00:57:38.639 --> 00:57:40.800
Uh The Icelandic Adventure.
00:57:41.039 --> 00:57:41.440
Really?
00:57:41.599 --> 00:57:42.800
And that was 300.
00:57:42.880 --> 00:57:46.079
It was physically so demanding.
00:57:46.400 --> 00:57:50.400
So I finished my documentary.
00:57:51.519 --> 00:57:54.480
One or two months later, 300 came out.
00:57:54.719 --> 00:57:55.119
Yeah.
00:57:55.360 --> 00:57:57.119
And he exploded.
00:57:57.199 --> 00:58:00.480
Like he became a megastar overnight for that film.
00:58:00.960 --> 00:58:05.360
And that meant suddenly everybody wanted to see my documentary.
00:58:06.079 --> 00:58:06.239
Okay.
00:58:06.480 --> 00:58:08.639
So it was it was this timing and luck.
00:58:08.800 --> 00:58:09.199
Yeah, yeah.
00:58:09.519 --> 00:58:11.360
But also, you know, perseverance.
00:58:11.679 --> 00:58:13.679
Yeah, I mean, and you're catching.
00:58:13.840 --> 00:58:20.400
Well, I mean, I guess that's You're catching kind of like this this thing that could have been the breakthrough.
00:58:20.559 --> 00:58:22.960
And it's not like there are it's it's problematic make.
00:58:23.199 --> 00:58:25.920
It's it's like it's full of great people, but it still doesn't work out.
00:58:26.000 --> 00:58:28.239
I mean, that's a great theme for a documentary, isn't it?
00:58:28.480 --> 00:58:29.519
In a sense.
00:58:29.840 --> 00:58:31.840
You know, if that's a reading of it, I don't know.
00:58:32.159 --> 00:58:32.960
Of course, of course.
00:58:33.199 --> 00:58:36.079
It's um it's it's it's also Man Against Nature.
00:58:36.320 --> 00:58:36.639
Yes.
00:58:36.880 --> 00:58:49.360
And um it's a s it's a story about this director trying to sturgla trying to make this this documentary, you know, to make this movie in this in this harshest, most difficult conditions.
00:58:49.679 --> 00:58:56.239
And also like a tall author, because like uh like it's been people have tried so many times to make like a Viking movie.
00:58:57.039 --> 00:58:59.119
Including your old employer, Herab Goodnocks.
00:58:59.360 --> 00:58:59.519
Yeah.
00:58:59.760 --> 00:59:02.719
And it's uh it's uh it's a very it's a it's a hard thing to do.
00:59:02.960 --> 00:59:04.239
And there were successful.
00:59:04.800 --> 00:59:10.719
There were people that tried to kill my documentary that wanted wanted it not to be made.
00:59:11.039 --> 00:59:12.880
They they threaten threatened legal action.
00:59:13.360 --> 00:59:15.679
Did they believe it was an embarrassment to them or something like that?
00:59:15.760 --> 00:59:21.840
Or they were people who said and thought that I would destroy Iceland's reputation.
00:59:22.079 --> 00:59:22.719
Oh, yeah.
00:59:23.039 --> 00:59:37.519
Um but what what really was going on is that the the documentary could potentially expose nasty things they did, you know, illegal financial things.
00:59:37.679 --> 00:59:40.960
Uh but but it was never my intention to to expose anybody.
00:59:41.119 --> 00:59:46.000
Because I respect people who actually you know lie to get movies made.
00:59:47.119 --> 00:59:49.280
I think it's an I think it's an honorable quality.
00:59:49.760 --> 00:59:50.880
That is an excellent quote.
00:59:50.960 --> 00:59:51.760
Thank you for that.
00:59:53.360 --> 00:59:55.119
And stop the process.
00:59:55.440 --> 00:59:55.760
Thank you.
00:59:56.079 --> 00:59:58.880
Lie and cheat, do anything to get movies made.
00:59:59.280 --> 01:00:01.760
Do anything to get art made is what I would say.
01:00:02.159 --> 01:00:06.880
So but Jerry wanted the story to be told.
01:00:06.960 --> 01:00:10.880
So he became um uh co-producer on the documentary.
01:00:10.960 --> 01:00:25.519
He put his name on it, he was going to narrate it, and I was supposed to go to Ireland to record his narration because he was busy shooting a film with Hillary Swank something.
01:00:26.480 --> 01:00:33.199
And um then he ended up never having time because his career was taking off.
01:00:33.519 --> 01:00:34.159
Sure did.
01:00:34.559 --> 01:00:42.559
So I ended up um narrating it, but he loves the documentary.
01:00:42.880 --> 01:00:48.239
He he stood behind it, and we we're still still good friends.
01:00:49.519 --> 01:01:08.320
I I felt terrible for you when when I saw the documentary, because I knew you as I guess somewhat like me, somewhat of an academic person, somewhat of a as a documentary and as a as a you know, because I knew yeah, again, I knew your Canadian work, and then we would always talk, you always helped me with kind of Icelandic background uh information.
01:01:09.199 --> 01:01:16.800
And then I thought this poor guy got put in a Viking costume in the middle of the worst weather possible, and had to watch somebody kind of struggle through making a movie.
01:01:16.880 --> 01:01:17.360
I don't know.
01:01:17.440 --> 01:01:19.199
Uh the patience was amazing, I thought.
01:01:19.519 --> 01:01:21.119
A close, close friend of mine, it was painful.
01:01:21.199 --> 01:01:25.519
Sturdle is uh is one of my closest friends, okay, and uh still is.
01:01:25.920 --> 01:01:34.000
And um um I I I I consider him a brother, you know, he's like absolute fantastic guy.
01:01:34.320 --> 01:01:36.400
And I was watching him suffer.
01:01:36.559 --> 01:01:49.199
Yeah, yeah, and it was I had to remind myself every day, it is my job to document this with him going through the toughest time of his life.
01:01:49.920 --> 01:01:58.159
And there are moments in the documentary where people ask me to turn off my camera and put their hand in front of my lens and all of this.
01:01:58.480 --> 01:01:59.280
Of course, yeah.
01:01:59.519 --> 01:02:00.159
Yeah.
01:02:03.360 --> 01:02:04.400
Uh fascinating story.
01:02:05.920 --> 01:02:07.920
A fascinating story after a fascinating story.
01:02:08.239 --> 01:02:14.719
I mean, we we this is like the the original point of this is to talk about your new movie.
01:02:15.119 --> 01:02:22.639
Another, which comes out uh September 10th at BioPartadis, which is a really cool theater that we don't talk about enough about.
01:02:23.039 --> 01:02:24.559
Is it impossible to talk enough about it?
01:02:25.920 --> 01:02:32.320
Right, we're trying to figure out how to get them more in our in our wavelength because they they show every Icelandic film that comes out.
01:02:32.480 --> 01:02:38.639
But they also do something interesting uh with something like anergasmia, they they keep it around for a while.
01:02:38.800 --> 01:02:43.760
They don't do like, you know, four showings a day for five days and then on.
01:02:44.159 --> 01:02:47.199
I think this will probably have like a three-week run, maybe.
01:02:49.199 --> 01:03:06.800
So yeah, for those of us if you live here in in Iceland or if you're visiting, Be Aponet is constantly mentioned as one of the best theaters in Europe uh for this reason, because it's got this small organization with the Icelandic Film Fund, and they they show Icelandic films, but they give it the proper its proper due.
01:03:06.960 --> 01:03:08.159
So you'll be September 10th.
01:03:08.239 --> 01:03:10.320
Will you do a Q ⁇ A on that first on that first?
01:03:11.039 --> 01:03:24.719
Yeah, what what we're gonna do on September 10th is like a pre-screening where I want to invite as many students as I can um find.
01:03:25.039 --> 01:03:29.280
Students of film, film theory, students of filmmaking.
01:03:29.440 --> 01:03:40.400
Um I want to I want to try to fill the theater with people who are genuinely interested in the art of filmmaking.
01:03:40.800 --> 01:03:43.360
Uh, because those are the kind of people that I like.
01:03:44.159 --> 01:03:46.079
Um I want to fill it with friendly people.
01:03:46.239 --> 01:03:46.400
Yeah.
01:03:46.559 --> 01:03:53.840
I don't I don't I don't want to do a show with like the cyllaps or whatever you know in place.
01:03:53.920 --> 01:03:55.199
I want the the film students.
01:03:55.280 --> 01:03:58.960
I want the people who are genuine film enthusiasts.
01:03:59.360 --> 01:04:02.239
Unless there's a slight overlap in those two groups, let's see.
01:04:04.480 --> 01:04:06.320
Arieltiot is allowed.
01:04:06.400 --> 01:04:07.679
Ariel is allowed.
01:04:07.920 --> 01:04:09.360
We were talking about our current cover story.
01:04:09.440 --> 01:04:09.599
Yeah, I think it's a good idea.
01:04:09.679 --> 01:04:11.039
Yeah, Ariel show up.
01:04:11.280 --> 01:04:15.039
No, he's uh he's a he's a champion champion for for for film making.
01:04:15.360 --> 01:04:21.599
And a genuine like gen like a guy who genuinely knows Icelandic's Iceland's film history really well.
01:04:22.000 --> 01:04:22.400
Absolutely.
01:04:22.639 --> 01:04:22.960
Yeah.
01:04:23.199 --> 01:04:31.119
So because they I um I I mean I studied film directing in in um many years ago.
01:04:31.360 --> 01:04:36.960
My mentor was um um uh an old British director who did some E Link comedies.
01:04:37.119 --> 01:04:43.760
He did like the original The Lady Killers, uh, for example, and many other great films.
01:04:44.400 --> 01:04:48.559
So I studied classical filmmaking, classical film language.
01:04:48.800 --> 01:05:01.360
Um but lately I've been so bored with most of the stuff that I see, and um streamers like Netflix are just destroying the art of filmmaking generally.
01:05:01.840 --> 01:05:08.400
The only thing that excites me has been small films.
01:05:09.119 --> 01:05:10.639
I'll give you an example.
01:05:11.280 --> 01:05:16.719
A film called Vera that played um in Reykjavik in 22.
01:05:17.760 --> 01:05:20.000
Um Italian film.
01:05:20.320 --> 01:05:24.159
And when I started watching it, I I I had to look at my ticket.
01:05:24.239 --> 01:05:28.559
I said, I I I thought I bought a a ticket for a fiction film.
01:05:28.719 --> 01:05:30.480
Why am I watching a documentary?
01:05:30.719 --> 01:05:30.960
Okay.
01:05:31.599 --> 01:05:40.400
And then I slowly realized it was a film that managed to blur the line between fiction and reality.
01:05:40.639 --> 01:05:40.800
Okay.
01:05:41.039 --> 01:05:44.159
And I became so thrilled with this film.
01:05:44.320 --> 01:05:49.679
There was a QA after, and I found out they had made it with a two-man crew.
01:05:50.000 --> 01:05:50.400
Wow.
01:05:50.800 --> 01:05:59.760
The uh a man shot the film on 60 millimeter, a woman, their husband, husband and wife, she directed it, and she recorded.
01:06:00.079 --> 01:06:01.679
Caught its sound at the same time.
01:06:02.000 --> 01:06:02.639
Wow.
01:06:02.960 --> 01:06:12.320
And I was absolutely fascinated by this method of working because they managed to get performances that blurred the line for me.
01:06:12.480 --> 01:06:17.199
I wasn't watching actors doing, you know, clocking in for their work day.
01:06:17.519 --> 01:06:19.840
It can be painful to watch actors act.
01:06:20.239 --> 01:06:25.440
My opinion, I I get really frustrated watching classically trained actors act really hard.
01:06:37.119 --> 01:06:46.800
Okay's actress, uh Attel Patopoulos or something, it's like some Greek name.
01:06:47.360 --> 01:06:49.119
She was in blue as the warmest colour.
01:06:49.280 --> 01:06:49.599
Okay.
01:06:49.840 --> 01:06:52.960
So they did the film in the same way.
01:06:53.199 --> 01:06:57.679
Small crew, tiny, tiny crew, very small, flexible camera.
01:06:58.239 --> 01:07:06.880
So I had known for a while I wanted to do a film in the same way, and this gave me the courage to go ahead.
01:07:08.239 --> 01:07:11.360
Because Vera was winning awards in festivals and so on.
01:07:11.440 --> 01:07:16.239
They they won Best Director and Best Actress in Venice in 22, for example.
01:07:16.559 --> 01:07:25.920
And so I decided now it's the time has come for me to make a film like a story that had been living with me for a while.
01:07:26.639 --> 01:07:36.559
And um I tried to get some financing for a story called All the Things We Do and didn't get any money.
01:07:36.880 --> 01:07:41.840
So I changed the name to Anor Gasmia, and suddenly money started flowing in.
01:07:43.039 --> 01:07:46.639
And film funds started giving me the money.
01:07:47.440 --> 01:07:48.559
The packaging.
01:07:48.800 --> 01:07:49.920
The packaging.
01:07:51.119 --> 01:07:58.559
And I um I auditioned 2,500 actresses for the lead part.
01:07:59.840 --> 01:08:05.519
And uh went through 2,500 auditions to find because I had to find the right person.
01:08:05.840 --> 01:08:10.079
Do you deliberately try to make parts of your life a living nightmare?
01:08:10.400 --> 01:08:10.559
Yes.
01:08:12.320 --> 01:08:12.719
Yes.
01:08:12.880 --> 01:08:15.920
It's um it's um It's a choice.
01:08:17.199 --> 01:08:19.600
No, it's my it's my my shortcoming.
01:08:19.680 --> 01:08:26.079
It's my it's my I'm This is your I'm I'm not very clever, I think I made that clear.
01:08:26.560 --> 01:08:32.720
You've been trying to establish that, but then everything you've done seems to fly directly against uh that claim.
01:08:32.960 --> 01:08:42.079
So So but but it's it you could call it kind of a part of a method, I guess, of trying to like build what you want in a sense.
01:08:42.319 --> 01:09:00.319
So you you do like you you have Is it like Is it like crorry that I'm trying to like is it like kind of like because some ideas kinda are unclear, so one fumbles around in the dark for a long time before finding the thing you knew you were looking for, but you didn't know what it was.
01:09:00.479 --> 01:09:03.600
Is it kind of that kind of a does that make any sense?
01:09:03.920 --> 01:09:04.479
Partly, partly.
01:09:04.800 --> 01:09:31.680
I wanted you because the film making is like music, yes, it's can be one of the most um giving collaborative art endeavors because when you when you have your shortcomings like I do, you know, I'm dyslexic and and not very clever.
01:09:32.079 --> 01:09:40.800
I try to surround myself with good people that can take what I'm what I want to do further and make it into something better.
01:09:41.199 --> 01:09:51.439
And that includes the the director of photography, Graham Dunn, who's uh an old classmate from Manchester University film school.
01:09:51.600 --> 01:10:02.319
Um and I had to find the right actors and I had specific ideas that they actors that could take my ideas further.
01:10:02.560 --> 01:10:05.600
I wanted it to be a collaborative process.
01:10:05.840 --> 01:10:09.520
It took this time to find all these the to find the right actors.
01:10:10.640 --> 01:10:15.199
I worked with some actresses for a long time in between.
01:10:15.520 --> 01:10:24.000
One of them the one of the greatest coming actresses of of France worked with her for a whole year.
01:10:24.319 --> 01:10:43.279
When we got the financing, she got an offer from Netflix for to be in a series, so she chose the money, and so I had to find another one, and I found this Mathilde Barnier in uh very short time, and she is absolutely fantastic.
01:10:44.079 --> 01:10:57.439
And I had uh gone through over a thousand auditions for male actors, and I matched her with a guy called Edward Hayter, um uh an actor from London.
01:10:58.159 --> 01:10:59.600
Brought them to Iceland.
01:10:59.680 --> 01:11:07.279
We spent a week in a summer house um in Scotadeller, and we talked about the script and the characters.
01:11:07.359 --> 01:11:17.680
We drove around the country, we played music, we we sort of just at the end of the week, we um we all agreed we want to make this film.
01:11:18.800 --> 01:11:23.760
They went home and packed for a week or two and came back and we started shooting.
01:11:24.000 --> 01:11:28.239
We made the film with um there was four of us in the crew.
01:11:28.800 --> 01:11:34.000
Um biggest reason was that I wanted to make uh make it with a small, intimate crew.
01:11:34.319 --> 01:11:40.880
Second reason was that there was tourist season in Iceland, so I couldn't find hotel rooms for for a big crew.
01:11:41.199 --> 01:11:48.000
A friend of mine owns a farm that is not used, it just stands empty on the south in the south of Iceland.
01:11:48.159 --> 01:11:50.640
I borrowed the farm, it had six bedrooms.
01:11:50.880 --> 01:11:56.800
So I had two actors, so I knew I could have, you know, I was gonna be there, so I had to have three more people.
01:11:57.359 --> 01:12:04.800
So I ended up with um with me, director of photography, sound recordist, and one more guy who did everything else.
01:12:05.279 --> 01:12:11.439
Um fantastic um artist, musician, and actor called Gudmund Durin Kithor also.
01:12:11.760 --> 01:12:12.079
Oh yeah.
01:12:12.720 --> 01:12:14.239
Gumilegare, I know him.
01:12:14.479 --> 01:12:20.880
And uh he even even plays a role in the film, but he was everything else.
01:12:21.119 --> 01:12:22.960
Wow He's a fan he's a fantastic guy.
01:12:23.119 --> 01:12:24.960
He he's a he's an amazing guy.
01:12:25.279 --> 01:12:31.680
And um if you know if if you want a collaborator, you you need to find a collaborator like him.
01:12:32.079 --> 01:12:34.960
Because he never says no, he just finds a solution.
01:12:35.199 --> 01:12:40.720
Yeah he talks us out of talked us out of problems, sticky situations.
01:12:41.359 --> 01:12:53.279
I decided never to ask for permissions, permission anywhere, never to close the street, never to to to um just go guerrilla style and make this film.
01:12:54.319 --> 01:13:10.960
And we ended up in a situation where a farmer showed up and and and said, Well, you're actually gone by land, and Kumminder found out some family relations and talked his out of that.
01:13:11.199 --> 01:13:15.760
Kumadur is raised in Porkerfjurder in in rural Porkafurder.
01:13:18.239 --> 01:13:21.760
Yeah, but to be fair, you'd seen the opposite side of the coin.
01:13:21.840 --> 01:13:28.399
You'd seen your friend Sturt try to make uh Beowulf and Grendel with every permission.
01:13:28.720 --> 01:13:30.239
Huge cast, huge crew.
01:13:30.399 --> 01:13:30.720
Yep.
01:13:30.880 --> 01:13:35.119
And you've looked you've seen where that takes you, and it can or can, yeah.
01:13:35.359 --> 01:13:48.239
I mean, even Sharp Kunluck when he was doing his Raven series, at the end of the last few attempts to make the Raven Viking movies, just massive spending on these things with limited results.
01:13:48.319 --> 01:14:00.159
I mean it it seems uh it seems natural that now that the technology is a little bit better, because I I haven't seen uh I I hate to say call it anachasmia because it that's not even really the titles.
01:14:00.479 --> 01:14:02.800
The th the things we do to survive, I guess.
01:14:03.119 --> 01:14:12.159
I haven't seen the full movie, I've only seen the previews from uh um the festivals that were showing the trailer, sorry.
01:14:12.720 --> 01:14:14.239
But it does not look cheap.
01:14:14.479 --> 01:14:17.359
It in fact looks very not very professional.
01:14:17.520 --> 01:14:17.840
Yeah.
01:14:17.920 --> 01:14:24.560
Um I guess because the technology is there, you can get the equipment that's that doesn't require uh lighting crew and stuff.
01:14:24.880 --> 01:14:29.680
Well the g the the you know the camera equipment is is so good by now.
01:14:30.800 --> 01:14:33.039
It becomes a question of good lenses.
01:14:34.239 --> 01:14:43.439
Um but there were there there are scenes in this film, I sh I shot a little bit of it myself.
01:14:43.920 --> 01:14:49.119
So I'm in the Kaplovig airport with the actress walking through the airport, just holding it.
01:14:49.199 --> 01:14:50.560
I'm I look like a tourist.
01:14:50.720 --> 01:14:51.359
Yeah.
01:14:51.840 --> 01:14:58.159
Um and I I tried to I called somebody and said, should I get permission?
01:14:58.399 --> 01:15:03.520
The guy said no, don't bother, because then we have to have like security guards and shit.
01:15:03.760 --> 01:15:07.119
Just just buy a ticket, check in, and shoot the thing.
01:15:07.359 --> 01:15:15.600
This is also, I would like to point out very much the advice you would get when you try to do anything in Iceland somehow.
01:15:15.680 --> 01:15:21.199
Um we shouldn't be saying this, I guess, which is like just do it, don't shoot first, then ask.
01:15:21.520 --> 01:15:22.640
Yeah, absolutely.
01:15:22.800 --> 01:15:23.039
Yeah.
01:15:23.279 --> 01:15:27.199
But but you know, this this is not an amateur production.
01:15:27.279 --> 01:15:35.439
This is Graham, my director of photography, he has shot movies that were distributed by Miramax all over the world in cinemas, you know.
01:15:35.680 --> 01:15:37.439
Just he's a real professional.
01:15:37.760 --> 01:15:44.159
Do you so I have a c I have a kind of a half-formed question here, uh which is very useful to me.
01:15:44.239 --> 01:16:10.079
But now we've kind of talked about we briefly mentioned Netflix and uh and maybe we haven't really talked about kind of how big movie companies, what direction they've been moving in in terms of their output over the past 10, 15, 20 years, but there is this feeling that you're always watching the same big budget franchise, and there's you know there's not a lot of variety on in what you see and where the money is.
01:16:10.640 --> 01:16:43.840
Is like is it right for me to kind of see this as a maybe a reaction to that reality where you can actually go with a tiny crew and no real overhead, almost doing things with with equipment that doesn't require pork and you can just walk around with it to actually create something that is interesting in a world where most of the stuff we're fat is becoming quite narrow and not very interesting at all.
01:16:44.000 --> 01:16:47.760
I mean, i I don't know if I'm phrasing this right, but do you know what I'm does that make any sense to you?
01:16:48.720 --> 01:16:53.359
This requires a whole another episode because we'll go off a rant.
01:16:53.520 --> 01:16:53.680
Yes.
01:16:54.000 --> 01:17:00.640
But basically the film world has been hijacked by venture funds.
01:17:00.800 --> 01:17:01.199
Yes.
01:17:01.520 --> 01:17:09.439
So their priorities are to deliver some sort of safe um results.
01:17:09.760 --> 01:17:10.000
Yes.
01:17:10.319 --> 01:17:14.399
The objectives of Netflix are not to make good films.
01:17:14.560 --> 01:17:14.720
No.
01:17:15.520 --> 01:17:17.600
That's not what they aim for.
01:17:17.840 --> 01:17:25.199
They aim to hook you as a subscriber and keep you subscribed because it's so difficult to cancel your subscription.
01:17:25.439 --> 01:17:30.640
So they've never put money into development of projects they put into production.
01:17:30.800 --> 01:17:32.800
So the development has been left out.
01:17:33.119 --> 01:17:41.680
Film making used to belong to the artists that are companies like you know, Charlie Chaplin and others started, you know, United Artists.
01:17:42.000 --> 01:17:42.800
United Artists, yeah.
01:17:43.039 --> 01:17:46.000
And and so this is that's where it came from.
01:17:46.319 --> 01:17:54.720
But there is still a lot of people, there are still a lot of people who are still there, love it for the art of filmmaking.
01:17:55.039 --> 01:18:07.199
And many years ago when I was a student in California and I was studying classical film language, I worked at the Sundance Festival for four years in a row.
01:18:08.399 --> 01:18:12.800
And that was the golden era of American movies.
01:18:14.239 --> 01:18:20.399
For five days I I was hanging out with with, for example, a director called Robert Rodriguez.
01:18:20.720 --> 01:18:26.479
He was there with a film called El Mariazi that he shot for$7,850.
01:18:27.600 --> 01:18:29.680
Did he not do the 300 movie later?
01:18:30.000 --> 01:18:30.880
Is that Robert Orriz?
01:18:31.119 --> 01:18:33.359
No, that's um another green screen guy.
01:18:33.439 --> 01:18:36.960
Because Robert Rodriguez became famous for using green screen, right?
01:18:37.279 --> 01:18:38.960
He he he did all kinds of films.
01:18:39.119 --> 01:18:42.720
With Spy Kids and all kinds of films after that.
01:18:42.880 --> 01:18:44.880
He became a very big name.
01:18:45.039 --> 01:18:46.239
But Zach Snyder.
01:18:46.640 --> 01:18:49.520
But he shot that film alone.
01:18:50.479 --> 01:18:53.439
That very Ashi is and recorded sound afterwards.
01:18:53.600 --> 01:18:53.920
Yeah.
01:18:54.159 --> 01:18:56.640
It was just him and a camera and some friends.
01:18:57.039 --> 01:19:02.000
And he is my original hero in the filmmaking world.
01:19:02.319 --> 01:19:05.039
And you said you spent time hanging out with him as he made that moment.
01:19:06.560 --> 01:19:12.000
Because we talked off off off mic about you hanging out with Robert Bradford, which of course.
01:19:13.199 --> 01:19:13.520
Sorry.
01:19:13.760 --> 01:19:42.720
No, uh no, I guess somebody explained this to me when I was describing my uh unenlightened uh frustration with what I was being offered as a movie consumer in Iceland or elsewhere, that at some point the studios, and this is the analogy, would have sp spent a million dollars on a hundred different movies, a million dollars each, knowing that they didn't really know what was gonna get big, because that's just how things work.
01:19:42.960 --> 01:19:57.840
But now, because it's run by you know Hats funds or something, this is now basically five or ten movies for the total of uh the hundred million, and they're batting on each one of them, and it cannot fail, therefore it cannot do anything interesting.
01:19:58.079 --> 01:20:01.279
Well, that seems to be kind of the theorem of uh backrooms, though.
01:20:01.520 --> 01:20:03.920
Yeah, but this has been kind of the case for the for a while.
01:20:04.079 --> 01:20:04.239
Yeah.
01:20:04.399 --> 01:20:11.359
Maybe this is why you get like the the sixteenth adventure movie and and whatever the pendulum luckily swings.
01:20:11.760 --> 01:20:21.680
Yes, yes, and it seems to be and um which which you know gives people like me some hope and that there might be interesting films, more interesting films coming out.
01:20:21.840 --> 01:20:22.319
Yeah.
01:20:22.640 --> 01:20:32.880
I go to a lot of film festivals, so I get to see a lot of these these interesting films, these fantastic, fabulous films that only travel in the film festival circuit.
01:20:33.119 --> 01:20:33.279
Yeah.
01:20:33.439 --> 01:20:38.399
And they have a really hard time getting out to the general public.
01:20:39.119 --> 01:20:46.720
Because Netflix if they buy small indie films, they pay them nothing.
01:20:47.199 --> 01:20:48.079
Almost nothing.
01:20:48.239 --> 01:20:51.680
And it's uh and they demand the world, they want like the world rights.
01:20:51.840 --> 01:20:57.439
So they are destroyers of the film world in my mind.
01:20:58.239 --> 01:21:05.039
And they because of the simple fact that it's not their objective to make best films possible.
01:21:05.359 --> 01:21:09.279
And so I I have a So these films still get made.
01:21:09.359 --> 01:21:09.439
Yeah.
01:21:09.680 --> 01:21:12.720
They are out, and I get to see them in film festivals.
01:21:13.039 --> 01:21:15.680
But they don't get an audience anymore in the same way they used to.
01:21:15.920 --> 01:21:17.279
Don't get an audience anymore.
01:21:17.600 --> 01:21:28.640
Not only like it's a it's a side note, but I think the Netflix contract says not the world, but the universe, just to make sure they own your rights in case we find alien life.
01:21:29.680 --> 01:21:30.239
It could be.
01:21:30.720 --> 01:21:31.359
On that note.
01:21:31.920 --> 01:21:32.239
Never mind.
01:21:32.640 --> 01:21:35.520
On that note, because we we have a finite amount of time in the world.
01:21:35.600 --> 01:21:41.920
Yeah, I think we basically Yes, you this has been a delightful experience.
01:21:43.920 --> 01:21:44.479
No, no, no.
01:21:44.640 --> 01:21:46.319
I mean, I've loved every second of this.
01:21:46.479 --> 01:21:49.520
I uh thank you so much for talking to us.
01:21:50.399 --> 01:21:58.000
Thank you for for um you know giving a little bit of because the time for to promote um uh a small Icelandic film.
01:21:58.319 --> 01:22:03.279
Uh I I mean it's it's uh we'll we will you know we'll be putting this online.
01:22:03.439 --> 01:22:14.399
We'll be I'll be putting uh your like the whatever URLs I have to put in there to our into our newsletters and just see if that does anything.
01:22:14.560 --> 01:22:18.640
And uh I hope to be able to see it or be there on the test.
01:22:19.680 --> 01:22:20.640
It's a Friday, right?
01:22:20.800 --> 01:22:22.399
No, that's five Thursday.
01:22:22.720 --> 01:22:23.279
It's a Thursday.
01:22:23.520 --> 01:22:25.119
It's our it's the night we go to Bride.
01:22:25.359 --> 01:22:26.399
Yeah, it's the night we go to Bridge.
01:22:26.800 --> 01:22:29.760
Yeah, either way, our problem our our problems aside.
01:22:29.840 --> 01:22:31.520
Uh I look forward to seeing it.
01:22:31.600 --> 01:22:39.680
Yeah, and I hope all of you who are in Iceland and have a night off will find the night off in uh in the next two weeks.
01:22:40.319 --> 01:22:43.119
Go check out this movie and you can see those other documentaries I mentioned.
01:22:43.520 --> 01:22:50.000
Like what I can safely say, the movie has a fantastic score by Michael Brooke.
01:22:50.640 --> 01:22:51.680
One of my heroes.
01:22:51.920 --> 01:22:52.479
Yeah.
01:22:54.239 --> 01:22:58.720
So if everything else fails, you can just lean back, close your eyes, and enjoy the music.
01:22:59.199 --> 01:23:00.399
He's he's so beautiful.
01:23:00.560 --> 01:23:07.119
You know, he he'd like he make he decided to make the core instrument of the score a harmonium, a foot-peddled harmonium.
01:23:07.199 --> 01:23:07.359
Yeah.
01:23:07.680 --> 01:23:12.000
And then as the score builds, he adds a piano that he has also in his studio.
01:23:12.319 --> 01:23:16.239
And the harmonium and the piano are a little bit out of tune.
01:23:16.560 --> 01:23:17.439
Yes, perfect.
01:23:17.680 --> 01:23:20.800
He could have so easily fixed it with with today's technology, right?
01:23:20.960 --> 01:23:23.279
But he said, no, let's embrace the imperfections.
01:23:23.359 --> 01:23:23.520
Yes.
01:23:23.680 --> 01:23:25.680
And this becomes one of the magical elements in the score.
01:23:26.079 --> 01:23:30.079
Reminds me of the Lenoir Lenoir productions that I like so much.
01:23:30.159 --> 01:23:30.640
Yeah, yeah.
01:23:30.880 --> 01:23:33.439
I mean, I think that's a good thing to end on.
01:23:33.520 --> 01:23:35.439
Let's embrace the imperfections.
01:23:35.600 --> 01:23:37.600
Uh, thank you all for listening and watching.
01:23:37.680 --> 01:23:38.479
This was the drop-in.
01:23:38.960 --> 01:23:39.520
Bye-bye.