creative showcase 1 4 commercials review
the icemen cometh home The word ‘rockumentary’ doesn’t really do
To the Asbyrgi gig in the north of the
justice to the staggering achievement that is
country the band added a date in Reykjavik
Sigur Rós’ recent film, Heima. Part travel
to the south. From there it made sense to
diary, part elegy to the breathtaking beauty
expand the tour across the country, and
of their native Iceland, the film shows the
soon the idea evolved into a national series
band touring their home turf and performing
of free gigs for small local communities –
a series of free concerts across the four
family, friends and fans.
quarters of the country.
Having committed to a worldwide tour of
The film’s title translates as ‘home’ or
their new album Takk, the project was put on
‘homeland’, and while the temptation is to
hold until the summer of 2006. In the
see the film as a sort of idiot’s guide to how
meantime, Best and the band continued to
to listen to Sigur Rós’ music, there’s actually
refine ideas of how the film might work, and
a far more personal agenda at work.
decided to go with an Icelandic crew
The possibility of shooting a film first arose
organised by Reykjavik-based production
in 2004 when keyboard player Kjartan
company Truenorth.
Sveinsson suggested performing at the
“The two films we drew inspiration from
canyon in the national park at Asbyrgi.
were Walkabout and Jazz on a Summer’s
Manager John Best explains: “I was in
Day,” Best reveals. “Walkabout we liked
Amoeba records in LA and I noticed that
because it managed to make Australia seem
Björk had about a dozen DVDs in the rack
like a huge inhospitable place and that’s how
visit as many different places as possible, so
a skeleton team of 60 in comparison to the
and it dawned on me that we hadn’t made
we wanted to convey Iceland. We didn’t want
I started brainstorming locations to give the
usual 200. “My main agenda was to get
one,” he recalls. “I remembered Kjartan had
it to feel like a Eurovision Song Contest film
film the diversity it would need,” Sturluson
people around the country to participate and
discussed the possibility of a gig at Asbyrgi,
with geysers and bubbling mud. And Jazz on
explains. “We really wanted to give
help us as much as they could, which was
so I suggested filming a live show there. We
a Summer’s Day gave us a sense of how we
something back to Iceland, to visit people in
actually a lot easier than I’d thought it would
were planning on changing the format of the
wanted to frame the film, the length of
their everyday environments, so it was
be. People responded well to the tour and
live performance on the next tour anyway, so
editing and the crowd involvement.”
important that we should go to the audience
respected that we were going to the effort
the timing seemed right in terms of
The logistics of the tour were organised by
rather than them coming to us.”
for these small communities, so they were
documenting where the band were at. And
Kari Sturluson, a veteran promoter and
Unusually for a tour on this scale, Sturluson
usually willing to help prepare venues and
from there the ball started rolling.”
concert manager in Iceland. “The goal was to
decided to keep the permanent road crew to
assist with moving equipment.”
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11/12/07 12:07:40
commercials review 1 5 creative showcase
“We didn’t want it to feel like a Eurovision Song Contest film, with geysers and bubbling mud...”
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The 120 hours of footage shot by Denni
Best says. “We’d naively thought we could
Karlsson was sent to Dean DeBlois, director
make something out of it in post. Let’s just
of Lilo and Stich and former head of story at
say it was a learning experience.”
Disney. DeBlois constructed a narrative from
Best adds: “We’ll definitely be recording
the assorted landscape and performance
more of the band’s activities in the future,
shots and travelled to Iceland to film extra
and I imagine we’ll start filming earlier on
sequences and several acoustic
the next tour. Content seems to be what
performances. “We’d shot a film but we
people want – not just the record – so
hadn’t written a script beforehand, so we
without disrupting the process, we’ll
needed someone to knit the story together,”
definitely document more activities.” SW
11/12/07 12:07:47