The Les Arcs Film Festival and Ólöf Birna

As was previously reported, Ólöf Birna Torfadóttir was chosen from a group of applicants to go to the Les Arcs Film School Village at the end of last year and we got her to tell us about her incredible experience

I along with Bjarni Guðmundsson, one of the producers of MyrkaMyndir, got the amazing opportunity to take my film “How to be a Classy Tramp” to the Les Arcs Film School Village last December
What an experience and adventure. It was incredible fun, we learned so much and of course the beauty of the french Alps is stunning. It was partly like being in Whoville, inside a snowflake far away from reality. Or like Thomas, one of the managers of the Film School Village, said ; “Its a beautiful mixture between Disneyland and The Shining”
We arrived late on the opening night, I believe we were the last of the participants to arrive. Suzy and Thomas welcomed us, but they are the managers of the Film School Village. Wonderful, top people, always smiling and always helpful
The next day we all met with Suzy and Thomas and went over the program ahead and straight after lunch we started on the one on one meetings. We all got signed a table with the name of our project on it. Producers, sales representatives and others that were interested walked between the tables. Each meeting was about 30 minutes and was closed by the ring of a large cow bell
The first meeting went incredibly well and got us amped up. Of course one was stressed to begin with and really with each meeting, but when it begins one has to plow through. Before we left for Les Arcs I was asked to put two short films I had made on the Festival Sco Pro where both producers and other participants were able to watch if they were interested and our first meeting was with one who had watched “Last summer”, my graduation film from The Icelandic Film School, and immediately started to talk to us about it and that is why he wanted to come and meet with us. It was certainly a shot of energy to hear that in our first meeting
The next day we met our composer. The Film School Village has had a certain program for the last few years where directors are put in touch with composers a few weeks before the festival. I think this is a great idea. They spoke about the fact that the music sometimes gets forgotten until nearing the end of the film making, even though the music is such a big part of the film. A film is not the same without the right music. I will most assuredly from now on while writing a script start thinking about the music from the very beginning and be able to see the scenes more clearly and write accordingly
But when I was there and I was put in contact with my composer, David Piérre, I had not started to map out the music at all. But I sent him some reference and thoughts which he then worked from. We then met at the festival and and got to hear some demos and oh my lord how this man had everything in order! I was thrilled ! I looked at Bjarni and said “He just gets me dude”. I knew immediately that I wanted to continue working with him on the film. What was even better was that he was so excited to continue the work as it is his dream genre of music to make and that settled it. He is the music composer for “How to be a classy tramp”
There is also a giant plus to the equation that I learnt from Suzy after I told her. If a continued cooperation occurs between a director and composer on the project, you have a right to apply for a grant from the festival fund for up to 5000 EUR that then would be used for the cost of the music making. Which is amazing
We got to meet some wonderful people that were also in The Film School Village and the group just clicked so well, it was difficult to say goodbye. But we will keep in touch and who knows, maybe we will join together again for future projects
I learnt alot from this experience. I have of course never done anything like this before but this was an incredible experience. It teaches one to be aware the whole time and to be prepared for anything and any questions. It is a forceful trial and you are constantly trying to improve after every meeting. Which shows that you never really learn the perfect pitch, but you continuously relearn to make the pitch good
I am tremendously grateful to The Film School for choosing me to go. On the whole it went very well and there were many both interested and had faith in the project. I am optimistic about the continuing progress and do believe there will be some kind of a cooperation from this in making the film
My advice to those that will go next time is to simply continue. Do not be disheartened even though some meetings might not go as well, as that will happen in between. Bjarni and I were continuously improving and fixing the pitch between meetings, finding out what worked and what did not. Then there is also the difference in what people are looking for. Try to read what they are looking for and then present why your film is exactly that. That may be the biggest lesson I got from this. There is quite alot of selling involved. But above all believe in what you do because if your heart is in it it will shine through