A while back I was asked to submit Maud & Leo to the online film festival We Speak Here. Now it’s finally up on their website, be sure to check it out and help us win the viral price by sharing the movie.
So far well over 20 000 people has downloaded the movie from Clearbits. If you’d like to download the movie you can do so here.
Finally it’s time to say hello to the two stupidest guys in Stockholm, Patrik & Eric. This spring we’ve been working on a hilarious project called DUMMAST.tv. It’s a documentary styled humor show about two guys in Stockholm and their journey to get their tv-show on the road.
They struggle to understand the television-industry and try out breaking new stuff as they become the worlds first male bloggers. It’s a partly documentary, and partly fictional story, where the line between what’s real and not is blurry. The show aims to play with the industry’s conceptions of how you should make television and not.
Our goal has been to make a garage type of television that feels like a friend just started to film his friends. Something that is partly true, we’ve deliberatly tried to make it feel like anybody could have done it. By building the story from the reality, in this case three friends that want to make TV. We feel like we have a killer simple but just as brilliant concept. The program should have the feeling of not having a clear concept or direction, the more chaos the better. Because Patrik & Eric has no idea what they’re doing, we’re aiming for the audience to be in the same place as they watch the show. We’ve gone live with four episodes at the moment, unfortunatly they’re in swedish. Check out the website and like us on Facebook.
Then something just happens. You suddenly realize that you have enough pieces to put the idea together. You start to see the people and stories that you’ve been looking for. I think we’re moving towards that place at the moment. It’s not exactly the way we set out for it to be, but I think it feels better than the original idea. Mostly I think it feels better because it’s for real, actual people that is living the idea.
At the moment we’re thinking of financing the project one step at a time. I have all the equipment for the production, so all that we’re actually in need of is financing for the costs of shooting the project. Recently I started to break down my projects into these kind of stages.
Stage 1
First research + pre-shooting, in that phase there’s no funding.
Stage 2
The second stage is financing the actual shooting and then shooting it.
Stage 3
Then when that is done, we jump into the editing room and build the whole story, when that’s done we actually will be trying to finance the whole project.
This way we have far more control and ownership of the project, something I think is vital to realize and be true to our visions.
This process is really inspiring to me. It’s like sculpturing, you slowly shape the story piece by piece. Where you often have no idea of where your going. Creative minds work this way, I feel at most creative when I just do things without planning too much. I have a clear idea, but I’m open to things that just happens on the spot.
I find myself really locked in when working in more structured ways. Something I believe create predictable stories. That being said, let’s see where the project ends up. Even though I work in a creative chaos many times I try to keep extremely structured. Recently I read “Making Ideas Happen” by Scott Belsky. It’s a great and inspiring book that makes the obstacles of making ideas happen really clear. A lot is common sense, but it was great to just hear it in an obvious way.
I recently got the fantastic news that I will get funding for the development of a documentary that I’m working on. It’s great news that give me the possibility to focus on finishing the first stage of the project this fall. I’m going to do the last couple of interviews and then edit the movie together. After that I will be applying for more funding to finish off the project. For now that’s all I’m going to say 
.
Yesterday we entered Maud & Leo into the “Get It Made”-competition over at Openfilm.com. There will be six finalists, nominated by you the audience, then a jury will pick the lucky winner. Please help us by voting for Maud & Leo. The winner get financing for a feature film.
If you haven’t already watched the movie you can do so below or at Clearbits.net.
Maud & Leo has reached 15 000 downloads! That’s well exceeding our expectations. We’ve done some online marketing for the movie but not as much as we should have. Even without that notion it’s a great number for a independent short film. I have some hope that the movie itself will make the audience themselves want to keep sharing the movie, but that’s not exactly a certainty. We won’t leave it up to them to decide if the movie is spread or not, but I have a great feeling that they will keep seeding the movie and sharing their experience with friends and lovers.
To watch the movie you can do so online at Openfilm.com, and if you prefer to download the movie that can be done at Clearbits.net
Please keep sharing the movie with friends and lovers, and be sure to join us on Facebook for full listing of download locations and news about the movie.
It’s busy times. For the last couple of weeks I’ve been making a short-form “tv”-series, 10 minute episodes for the web. It’s a comedy show about two guys, supposedly the two most stupid guys in Stockholm. They are trying to make a tv-show and that’s what the show is about, following? A story about them making a tv-show.
The show is called DUMMAST.tv, which means dumbest.tv. It’s a hilarious documentary styled show, which is based on the two characters, but them driven too their extremes. It creates a kind of reality where you don’t know what’s happening for real or what is fiction.
A lot of the show is improvised and there is a feel of total chaos. The show will air exclusively on the internet, through various platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook etc.
Here you can watch some of the swedish teaser movies.
About two months ago we got an idea that we should make a tv-show for the web. There’s really a big shortage of people using all the possibilities that Internet has brought. Since I usually work with digital media as a platform for distribution it sounded like a great idea.
Right now I’m working on the web-tv series, Dummast.tv. It’s a comedy show in swedish about two guys making a “TV”-series. A semi-documentary story that is based on the two guys, but in the extremest situations.
The project is growing every day, we basically had an idea that we will make about 5-8 episodes of the first season, then we will go live and start the financing of the show. We will sell ads on the webpage, in the episode and also we will try to use product placement as much as possible. The show is really a great test in how you can finance a show without the traditional ways of distribution. We’re thinking, free for all on Youtube, Facebook and iTunes.
This week we have started to test the show on people. We’re doing a survey through Facebook, trying to find out what works and doesn’t work. So far it’s all positive reviews, which is great, but also a little scary. More to come about the project in the future.
Freedom of expression is something many of us take for granted. But what do you do when someone strips you of your right to free speech and what are the tools you use to circumvent the censors and push for change in your society?
Together with two colleagues I’m making a documentary film about individuals and groups in the Middle East and Persian Gulf who have found creative ways of expressing themselves and generating change, including through art and music, in places where free speech is controlled and censored. A significant part of the film will be dedicated to the role the Internet plays, particularly social media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs, in getting the free word out in the modern age.
Here’s an image from an interview I did last week with Charles Leadbeater.
We recently opened up our Facebook page for Maud & Leo. It’s the first step towards spreading the movie across the Internet. We’ve licensed the movie as a Creative Common. Which mean that we will be spreading it for free all over the place. Our wish is that everybody who like the movie will be spreading the movie to their dear friends and lovers.
All download links are available on our Facebook page.
