Nisimazine February 09 by NISI MASA

ÂŠ Still from Ooh Yeah by Matteo Bernardini

NisiMazine *18 February 09

Cinema & Music

Editorial M

usic plays a major role in movies, not only in music - or musical - films but also in every other kind of movie genre. Music can drift us into different moods depending on how it is used by the (sound) director of the film.

Have you already selected a special song or a whole soundtrack for your own movie? If so, you can surely tell about the problems of not only getting the music which fits your film, but also of getting “free” music for it by legal means. Moby, the famous Techno DJ, created a special website where you can download music tracks for all kinds of audiovisual projects for FREE! Last year he launched a contest which asked filmmakers to shoot the video for his next song Ooh yeah. The Italian Matteo Bernardini won the contest and made the official video for the release of the song (read our interview with Matteo on page 4). In this special issue on Cinema & Music you will find three different focuses: First a personal report by two sound designers who travelled along the TransSiberian railway with the Cine-Train Project last summer.

On page 4, we examine the rights of use regarding music in films: where can you get legal music for your films? The third part of this dossier is about the connection between music and film: there are more and more film festivals (Lausanne, Auxère, Cardiff) which are screening music-related films or which pay homage to music composers - as the Berlinale will do this week to Maurice Jarre. Even on our “News” page you can find a special call for music films! Of course, you will also find the good old quiz - this time you have the possibility to check your knowledge on the composers of famous movies. Finally, Nisimazine is continuing its tour of the NISI MASA network, allowing you to discover members from all over Europe. The portrait of the month is about Beril Sonmez from NISI MASA Turkey and in the spotlight is Nisi Mini from Sweden. Enjoy reading, hopefully accompanied by some nice background music…

Nina Henke

For more info on NISI MASA activities, check out www.nisimasa.com!

Agenda February, 6 - 8 Berlin (Germany) NISI MASA Board Meeting Berlin February, 15 - 22 Andé (France) European Short Pitch February, 28 All the network Deadline for applications for Nisimazine Cannes (film journalism workshop)

Next Issue...

NISIMAZINE # 19 ~ March 2009 Special focus: CAMERAS

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: CINé SCRIPT (BELGIUM)

Nisimazine is a monthly newsletter published by the association NISI MASA. EDITORIAL STAFF Director of publication Esra Demirkiran Editor-in-chief Nina Henke Secretary of the editorial Jude Lister Layout Nina Henke Contributors to this issue Nina Henke, Esra Iyidogan, Florian Krebs, Marta Musso, Atso Pärnänen, Julien Pierrefeu, Gülcin Sahin, Lina Sundén, Maximilien Van Aertryck NISI MASA (European Office) 10 rue de l’Echiquier, 75010, Paris, France; Tel/Fax: + 33 (0)1 53 34 62 78 + 33 (0)6 32 61 70 26 Email europe@nisimasa.com Website www.nisimasa.com

Cinema & Music

Julien Pierrefeu and Florian Krebs traveled together 9288 km across Russia as part of a film crew (the Cine-Train project), making six short films in and around the Trans-Siberian Railroad. These are some of the impressions and challenges they experienced in their work as sound designers / composers.

Trans-Siberian Thoughts J.P.: Tonight I can’t sleep. As a sound and musical person - which means I make use of my ears a lot, but by no means in a wiser way - I feel distracted by every little detail of the sound made by the machinery, the wagons, the railroad, and the noises of human activity on the train which add an additionally confusing layer of sound. I am listening to all these more than focusing on sleeping; everything around me becomes a tool to make rhythm against my will, developing melodies around them over and over, unable to stop this process of my brain. F.K.: Sometimes the borders between music and noise seem to vanish. Last night the railway workers checked the brakes of the railroad with small iron hammers at a stop after a long journey, I was suddenly listening to a surreal polyphonic xylophone piece. In a similar way, every time the wheels passed the connection of two railroad tracks this rhythm appeared: Sometimes calm and relaxing, sometimes dynamic and frenetic, depending on the speed of the train. J.P.: I spend lots of time between wagons; the microphone pressed down to record these rail tracks as close as I can. Armed with a small mixer and the Tascam hanging on my shoulder, the train reveals its deepest secrets to my ears through the headphones. Yet the most amazing sounds stored in my library are from the mountains near the Baikal Lake, in a stone pit where they dig deep holes in the ground to put dynamite. There was an unbelievable echo and reverberation. F.K.: Hunting samples. With my small Zoom H4 in my bum bag I go out to extend my ears to places where ears normally never get into. Sometimes it is necessary to hide the microphone and boom stick with a plastic bag when going to public places

(mostly in the big cities in the west) as people somehow don’t like to appear in the press. They relax when we tell them that this is not TV but cinema. J.P.: With my ukulele friend, I’m killing time between two working sessions, watching the landscapes through the windowpane. Looking for some tunes for the film, I stop wandering. I’m thinking I don’t need more instruments really. I have the railway road for the base of the musical piece, a choir in Oulan-Oude, amazing voices and all the other sounds that come with it. My soundtrack will be the trans-Siberian itself. Now I just need some more time to organize all the sounds previously recorded, and that’s a long job I cannot do because my laptop is out of battery. F.K.: When I find time and electricity I sit down curiously to bring order into the files I recorded. Listening to them I am travelling back to the places we have been to and suddenly the whole world turns into a big orchestra, and we are within the score, somewhere as a small solo part between two movements. J.P: After a long editing process in the hotel room of Blagoveshensk, I’m satisfied with what I have achieved: My focus and my obsession turned what I heard throughout the trip into what will be reflected in the film. A same feature is present in all of the six films made - each one shows what the makers experienced from the journey. And it will make people understand something of the place as I heard it, as we saw it. During these times of sleepiness my mind took part of a creative process without sometimes my consent. I needed a long time to get rid of some of my imaginative obsessions. For now I can sleep, my job is done.

Florian Krebs & Julien Pierrefeu

1. Which famous director composed the score for the indie film Grace is Gone, which he did not direct? 2. Name a French film composer whose son has done concerts in the desert near the pyramids. 3. Who was the author of the pink panther theme? 4. Ennio Morricone is so energetic that he has sometimes had to use pseudonyms, but was also confused with another Italian composer. Which composer was this?

5. Which name did Morricone use for A fistful of Dollars? 6. Who did the music for Rocky and For Your Eyes Only? 7. Bernard Hermann worked with Hitchcock, Orson Welles and Ray Harryhausen, composing many unforgettable tunes such as the main theme of Psycho. But he won an Oscar only once. For which film and by which director was this?

1. Clint Eastwood 2.Maurice Jarre 3.Henry Mancini 4.Nicola Piovani 5.Dan Savio 6.Bill Conti 7.William Dieterle’s The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941)

??? NisI music&cinema Quiz !!!

Atso Pärnänen

Cinema & "Free" Music

“It’s free” is a sentence that most people think is too good to be true, associating it with some kind of small print on the bottom of the contract stating: “it applies if you purchase 5 before…” But free music on the WWW for your soundtracks is for real. I’m not talking about DRM-free music either, but music that everybody can use without jeopardizing his or her project because of copyright issues. Whether it’s a Wilhelm scream or a siren with Dopplereffect you’re looking for, hit Google and search for free sound effects, the humongous library in the outer space will astonish you. www.soundsnap.com & www.freesound.org & http://tinyurl.com/6f2xqu

M.V.A.

Mobygratis

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Still from Ooh yeah! by Matteo Bernardini

Mobygratis” is a section of Moby’s official website that allows the free download of music tracks to be used in audiovisual projects. For a non-profit film the download is entirely free; for a lucrative one there has to be an agreement with the singer, but according to the website it is a symbolic payment that goes to charity. Moby created this very special on-line store after thinking about his university years, when he ventured into film-making and realized how hard it is to solve the issue of royalties. Considering he is one of the most famous and versatile DJs, that he sells millions of copies all around the world and that his songs are used in top blockbusters and commercials, mobygratis.com can be considered a very good opportunity for young filmmakers in need of a soundtrack.

Q&A: Matteo Bernardini

few months ago Moby gave young directors another big chance by launching a contest: shoot the video of my next single track, Ooh yeah; the best one will become the official video for the release of the song. Smiting other 90 competitors from all over the world, 25-yearold Matteo Bernardini won the competition. We met him in his hometown, Turin.

What is the difference compared to shooting a short film? Well, personally I did not see any big difference, because my video was a narrative one: it was like a mute short film. Actually music videos are nowadays the closest thing we have to the language of mute cinema I think. Besides, music to me is absolutely essential to film projects, not only for the soundtrack but in the early writing and inspirational aspects; I always listen to music when I write, when I draw, whatever. Many of my ideas were actually born from different music pieces. I wish I could use a lot of Mozart in my films and a lot of Vivaldi, who was the forerunner of rock music. But the problem of royalties concerns also classical music of course! Moby’s initiative is indeed very useful.

How did you know about the contest? I was looking for songs on Mobygratis for another project and when a friend of mine told me about the contest I decided to participate. The song was catchy and I found the perfect idea for its 70s dance sound: the fake backstage of an American porn movie set in that period. I was very satisfied with the product, but frankly when Mute Records called me to tell me I’d won I could not believe it! To see my name on MTV’s “directed by” box is an immense satisfaction!

Are you going to shoot other music videos? I really hope so! Thanks to the video’s success, I have a few projects I am currently working on, but I won’t say anything out of superstition. Then I would love, LOVE! to shoot a video for David Bowie’s Space Oddity, I have a fantastic idea in mind… I really hope Bowie reads Nisimazine!

You work as an assistant director at the Opera and on film sets, and you have already shot several short films, but this was your first music video.

www.moby.com www.mobygratis.com

To watch Matteo’s video, just search “Bernardini+ Moby” on www.youtube.com!

Marta Musso

This year, the Berlinale (5th to 15th February) will pay homage to the French composer Maurice Jarre who made the soundtrack for a long list of films, among these one of the famoust like Lawrence of Arabia. At the same time, the Cinémathèque Française (Paris) is honouring Michel Legrand, jazz musician and composer who worked with Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Demy. Other film festivals are concentrating on the connection between music & cinema, like the festival in Auxèrre (France).

Homage to Maurice Jarre

efore Before Steven Spielberg and John Williams there was David Lean. “Even if you would not remember a single line of dialogue from a Lean film, you will remember the images”, is a comment that has often been said. Whether they be jungles, deserts, or Venice in all its beauty, Lean would take people to places at a time when low cost airlines and web-booking were not there to give almost everyone a chance to see some part of the world. To go with these majestic images of Lean’s there was also music. But how to create something that would not be less or more, but that would fit and support? Enter Maurice Jarre, who is now being honoured at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival. Jarre scored four of Lean’s films and his orchestrations for Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago brought him two Oscars. He has worked with Visconti, Huston, Zefirelli… The list is long and the tunes continue to be played and found on CDs of the best soundtracks in cinematic history.

Music Composers & Music Film Festivals

Jarre’s style at the start of his career fit well with the big epics of Lean, and would have surely found a place in the giant Hollywood productions of the 50s too - when Jarre was composing for numerous French films. Written mainly for orchestras, the world of Jarre’s music changed in the 80s when he started to become more interested in synthesized music. This again led to a selection of more unforgettable themes in films such as Witness, Fatal Attraction, The Year of Living Dangerously, Gorillas in the Mist, Dead Poets Society and The Mosquito Coast. While Jarre’s final screen credit might be for the 2001 TV movie Uprising, the name will be seen on-screen for some time to come. Maurice’s son Jean Michel Jarre has taken electronic music even further, while his even younger son Kevin is a screenwriter (Rambo 2, Glory, Tombstone) and daughter Stefanie a set decorator. In the same way that Lean’s cameras swept locations and created memories and experiences in our minds, the tunes by Jarre made them even more vivid and rich.

Atso Pärnänen

Music Film Festivals

here are more and more film festivals appearing which concentrate on music films in their programmes. Probably the most known one is the Festival International Musique & Cinéma in Auxèrre (France) which will be held this year in its 10th edition. At least we hope so… the French website Cinezik.org (for all the Francophone’s among you, check it out! It features the most complete selection of film soundtrack reviews, interviews, forums, music online, etc.) announced that this year the festival has serious budget problems because of the financial crisis. Another important festival is the Lausanne Underground Film and Music Festival (LUFF), which takes place in Lausanne (Switzerland) and is devoted to underground culture. The festival is the creation of a nonprofit organisation with an artistic mission. Their first aim is to present films that are generally unknown to the public, often experimental films. The films are followed by live events featuring underground musicians at night. Originally called Underground Nights, the festival drew its inspiration from the New York Underground Film Festival. The LUFF programming now stretches beyond Swiss borders. In late November 2008, Wales' capital city hosted the most ambitious and innovative creative film and music festival that the UK has ever seen: SOUNDTRACK: The International Film and Music Festival for Wales. Centred around the historic Bay area from 26 - 29 November, Cardiff became home to internationally renowned filmmakers and musicians alike, as they came together to be a part of the festival. Celebrating music and cinema through a schedule of film screenings, master classes, keynote speeches and workshops - alongside exceptional live music performances from classical to contemporary rock and roll fringe gigs, its audience was as varied as its line-up.

www.festivalmusiquecinema.com & www.luff.ch & www.soundtrackfilmfestival.com

Gülcin Sahin

Latest news istanbul FILM JOURNALISM Workshop (turkey) Nisimazine is spreading around not only on a European but also on a national level. NISI MASA Turkey is organizing a film journalism workshop in Turkey which has a similar structure to the good old Nisimazine: during the !f Istanbul Independent Film Festival (12th to 22nd of February) NISI MASA Turkey will publish the daily magazine "!fzine".

Ciné-pudding (France) NISI MASA France will soon celebrate the 7th edition of the Cinépudding short European film sreenings! Taking place in the alternative cultural venue Les Voûtes, each evening has a special theme: “Urban Crossings”, “Absurd, Pop, and Other Curiosities”, “Page/Screen”… A debate with the invited filmmakers is followed by an aperitif, accompanied by real home-made pudding!

Apart from general film screenings, the 20th edition will have as one of its themes: (World) Music on Film. The focus will be documentaries that put (world) music in a social and cultural context. Special attention will be given to films dealing with the changes within different types of music as a result of the intermingling of cultures and musical styles. Submission deadline: February 13th www.beeldvoorbeeld.nl

www.ifistanbul.com http://nisimasaturkey.blogspot.com

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MISS_COMMUNICATION Marianne Griolet, who wrote the 2005 NISI MASA script competition award-winning script and directed Lily, has made a new short film called MISS COMMUNICATION which can be viewed at: http://lily.pyramus.org/misscomm.html

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So, if you have a short film of any sort (narrative, documentary, animation or experimental), please don’t hesitate to send a DVD or mini-DV copy. Don’t wait; the deadline is February 27th! MIE (Maison des Initiatives Étudiantes), NISIMASA France, 50, rue des Tournelles, 75003 Paris. http://blog.nisimasafrance.org nisimasafrance@yahoo.fr

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Call for Music films The THE BEELD VOOR BEELD is a documentary film festival dealing with cultural diversity which will take place between the 8th and the 14th June 2009.

• call FOR SHORT FILMS (FRANCE) The French TV channel France 3 is doing a contest for short films (maximum length: 5 minutes!). You can send the films between the 3rd of February and the 30th of April 2009. The jury will select 24 of them which will then be judged by the website users. The three best ones will be screened on the channel. If your film has dialogue, it has to be in French ;) Please check out: http://librecourt.france3.fr

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In the spotlight: Nisi Mini isi Mini was formed in 2005 in N Malmö (Sweden) as an immediate link to the NM network. Nisi Mini's aim is to be a resource and an inspiration for young Swedish filmmakers and to provide a gateway to international collaboration through NISI MASA. In 2008 Nisi Mini decided to set up three different groups, one in Malmö, one in Göteborg and one in Stockholm.

Anna Nilsson Anna Nilsson studied acting before turning to filmmaking, which she has studied at the Kulturama film school in Stockholm. Anna participated to the Rush Up project, organized by NISI MASA France in 2008.

Activities

Jessika Jankert Jessika studied scriptwriting at Broby Grafiska. She recently made a behind the scenes film for the feature Karaokekungen (Almost Elvis) and she's just finished a short film called Read my mind. Jessika participated in the One Take workshop in Kars in 2008.

In March this year Nisi Mini will organize their first international project in Malmö, a mini-KinoKabaret in collaboration with the Swedish Children & Youth Film Festival (BUFF) and Austrian Kino5. The Kabaret will be open to all young filmmakers attending the festival and the hope is to attract many new members to the network!

Pictures from the top: Anna W., Amalia , Anja, AnnaN., Jessika, Frida, Lucia, Stéphanie, Lina Compiled by Lina Thanks!

Anja was a member of the Swedish script contest jury in 2008.

Further on, plans are being made for a documentary workshop, also in Malmö, on the theme nationalities and identities. Filmmakers from different NM countries will be invited to make a short documentary about a Swedish person with whom they share the same national heritage. The subjects will be first or second generation immigrants who speak their native or parents' language, thus all participants will make their films in their own language.

Some members Anna Weitz Anna has studied journalism and is a long-time member of filmmaking collective RåFilm, with whom she travels around the world to make documentaries. Most recently she's been to Cuba, doing research for a new project. Anna participated in the Nisimazine Tehran workshop in 2008. Amalia Linninger Amalia has studied the film production programme at University West in Trollhättan and now lives in Göteborg working as a producer for KMV (Bergsjöns kultur & mediaverkstad). Amalia was a member of the Swedish script contest jury in 2008. Anja Holmström Originally a dancer, Anja has studied filmmaking at Skurup. She's currently attending the KY scriptwriting programme at Broby Grafiska.

Frida Nordström Frida studied filmmaking at Skurup. She has participated in various international filmmaking workshops and most recently worked as assistant photographer on the feature film Nasty Old People. Frida was a member of the Swedish script contest jury in 2008. Lucia Von Horn Pagano Lucia studied filmmaking at Fridhem and then moved on to the Leon Schiller film school in Łódź, Poland. Her short film Close premiered at the Göteborg International Film Festival this year. Lucia participated in the KinoKabaret during NISI MASA's 5th anniversary in Paris in 2006. Stéphanie Giertta Stéphanie studied filmmaking at Fridhem and was one of the founding members of the film collective Accordion. She's also studied scriptwriting at Broby Grafiska and is currently a student of the Lund University's Writers' School. Stéphanie has been a member of NISI MASA's international script contest jury twice; she participated in the 20 visions of Paris workshop and the Nisimazine Cannes workshop in 2006. Lina Sundén Lina has studied acting at Calle Flygare Theatre School in Stockholm and is currently studying Russian at Lund University. Lina is the president of Nisi Mini. She is a three time member of NISI MASA's international script contest jury, she participated to the Short Pitch workshop in 2007 and to the KinoKabaret during NISI MASA's 5th anniversary in Paris in 2006. Lina Sundén

PORTRAIT

Beril Sonmez (NISI MASA Turkey)

n April 2007, in the basement of a small Kebab restaurant in Istanbul. The Turkish and European participants of the “Visions of Istanbul” project are eating their first dinner together. The Nisi Masa Turkey team is counting the people to be sure not to have lost someone, trying to translate the menu for them, and searching for a solution for the vegetarians! A beautiful red-haired woman has taken my attention in this crowded scene. This was Beril, who we (fortunately) met during this enjoyable workshop. After we got used to the shining redness around her head, we figured out that every characteristic of Beril made her worth getting to know. Going back to much earlier, Beril Sonmez was born in Istanbul in 1978 and now lives there. However she is in love with Artvin -the town her parents come from- which is on the north-eastern edge of Turkey, near the Black Sea. She graduated from the Bogazici University Psychological Consultancy Department. After that she undertook her graduate studies in the Cultural Studies Programme, focusing on Street-Art. Besides Street-Art, she is concentrated on the Sociology of Art, Public Art and Youth Culture. Nowadays she is working as an assistant in the Sociology Department at the Bilgi University. She doesn’t hesitate to open the door of the university seminar room to the Turkish script contest jury. Her NISI MASA adventure began with her participation in the “Visions of Istanbul” project of Nisi Masa Turkey. When she has firstly attended a NM Turkey meeting she listened to everybody very carefully and asked her first question: “So, what is NISI MASA exactly?” By doing so she provoked all of the people to think again and evaluate their motivation for being in the network. Since then she has never given up being in Nisi Masa Turkey, and has made us think that a NISI MASA team without Beril is like tea without sugar.

Beril has been in the national jury of the script contest for two years and was the tutor of the Turkish team for the “May 68: A Springtime in Europe” project in Brest, France. Besides being a taker of initiatives, dynamic and creative, she supports all projects with her smile, spreading energy to other members. She is good at English, French and “charades”. It takes a maximum of 9 seconds for her to guess a movie title. Joking aside, she is a kind of cinema addict and a loyal follower of all film festivals. Moreover, in her free time she takes photographs and does handicrafts. She finds it very easy to make friends and get closer to people, because others can feel the sincerity, find an issue to talk about and have fun together. She has an endless cheerfulness which takes away your negative energy at the first moment and makes you to get lost happily in chatting and laughter. During a short time we shared so many things; got drunk, danced at parties, dreamt together and told each other our secrets. As long-standing smokers and Istanbulians we searched for the fresh air points of the city during our rare meetings, and in this way we discovered the most beautiful scenes of Istanbul on different hills. It’s not so easy to have a connection with her via internet tools. She is one of those busy people who rarely spend time on the internet, since she always has to read and evaluate some undergraduate student exam papers or something like that. Also, she refuses to use credit cards or have a Facebook account. (There is a Facebook group called “It’s enough, Beril should give up resisting, she must have a Facebook account!!!”, to which all other Nisi Masa Turkey members are joined). We still don’t know whether she has an opposition towards popular culture or a problem with technological developments.

Esra Iyidogan