Melinda Jansen - Multiple titles

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Who is Melinda Jansen?

Female / 35 years old / Educated (in chronological order) as a painter, a video-artist, an animator and multimedia designer.
My last school was the Binger Filmlab, where I studied scriptwriting and directing feature film.
I work for television, museums, advertisement and theatre.
I’m working both as an animator and as a drama writer and director. I can be a one-man show, doing camerawork, editing, producing, writing, animating and directing all in one, but I prefer projects where I’m just writer and director.

Why filmmaking?

Since I was eight years old I knew exactly what I wanted to be: I wanted to be a biologist. Two years later I still knew exactly what I wanted to be: a chemist. Throughout the years I’ve always known what I wanted to do in life, with a fierce dedication, but every two years this dedication focussed on something else. So I’ve wanted to be a psychiatrist, a journalist, economist, painter, gardener, animator, writer and a few odd things I’ve forgotten
When I was 25, I discovered a wonderful profession which seemed to combine al my former passions: being a filmmaker. Directing is being something like a writer, painter gardener with a strong taste for psychiatry and technical equipment.
I don’t have any fame-and-glory-fantasies about making films. It’s just that when I write, I can dream with my eyes open, and when I direct, I have the feeling I’m coming home. Making films beats everything, including good sex.

Your work is about...

It’s always about small fragile people-stuff.
And I can’t talk about something I don’t know, so yes, I assume all my work is linked to my life.
“Leda” is about a person who wants to die, and I have had a period in my life in which I wanted to die.
“Sister little sweetie” is about a woman who’s demented, but in a more general sense it’s about how scary it is when you’re body and mind are betraying you. Something I’ve known myself and something I’ve seen in the lives of people around me whom I loved, like my mother who died of cancer, my grandmother who died of cancer and my brother in law, who’s younger then me, but who’s also struggling with cancer. Unfortunately a betraying body isn’t just the burden of old people.
And “Belly” is, well, definitely about my own belly.

I do believe in small stories, because I think that when you tell something very detailed and with a lot of care about the life of one human being, you can tell something bigger about humans in general. (which sounds like a cliché, but: I also believe that clichés are true)

Financing your movie?

I’m progressing on the finance side of my films. Leda, my graduation film, almost bankrupted me, because I financed 90 percent of the budget and only got 10 percent from subsidies (and I had sponsors). Sister little Sweetie was a 50–50 project: only half the money was paid by me (I had a lot of sponsors again) Then I got smart and I made a film which didn’t cost me anything, the film Belly.

My current project is a feature film with a feature film budget and there is no way I could even think about financing it myself. The good news about it is that I finally don’t produce myself anymore, I have two respectable production companies taking care of finances, which is wonderful.

New Media; a challenge for film makers?

Apart from fiction, I also make a lot of computer animation, make stuff for the internet, made multimedia theatre plays, work a lot with digital video composite programmes and so forth. I use so called new media constantly, but I don’t really have a philosophy about it, I just earn part of my money with it. And I think I just see them as one extra tool to tell a story. Some stories are made for paper and a pen, others are made for interactive and digital storytelling.

Do your films have style, just as some painters have?

I have the feeling that I finally have found my voice, a voice which is both funny and tender.
Belly is a small example of this voice; my next project, the feature film, will have this voice going on for 1, 5 hours. But this is the style of my scriptwriting. Concerning the visual style of my work: my style is changing, from being a bit old fashioned and composed to being more sensitive and fragile. But ask me again in a few years what my style is, I’m still discovering.

Influences?

Tarkovski- because Stalker was the first art house film I ever saw and I still love it.

Gabriel García Marquez – because he showed me that you can fill stories with everything life has to offer, and that a story both can be very funny and very profound at the same time.

Meir Shalev – because he showed me that Marquez isn’t the only profound/funny storyteller around, which meant I could follow my taste, instead of being scared that I imitated just one writer.

Emir Kusturica – who showed me that profound/funny works indeed in cinema.

And then a list of films..
Elling / Fucking Amal / Schulze gets the blues / Together / One hand Clapping The man from the grave next door.

All of them films which showed me that I’m not fit for epic drama, but that I’m better off trying to be profound/funny with stories about small people. And which showed me another thing: with the exception of one, all these films are Scandinavian. So I should move to Denmark or some place like that.

And last but not least: Alex van Warmerdam, who is the only Dutch filmmaker who dares to be nuts.

Individual film making or co-operation?

I like both. Working in a large team is much more inspiring, but making a film all on your own has the advantage that you can do it immediately, without having to wait for money or having to abuse your friends again by not paying them.
But working with a normal crew and some money is what I like best.
I have done camerawork, editing, producing, art-direction and so forth, but when I don’t have to do all that stuff, I can focus on what I really truly passionately want to do, which is writing and directing.

Your plans and dreams...

Every three years I want to make an art house feature length film with a normal budget and a normal crew. And in between I’ll have fun with small experiments. And I want to be paid for all my projects, so I never have to do things “just for the money” again.

Quite a modest future dream, don’t you think?

The kind of films I want to make are a continuation of what I’m doing right now with my first feature: to tell small stories about everyday people, in a style which is both touching and funny.

Digital or classic?

It depends completely on the project. Some stories I have in mind only work on film, others only work on video. I shot “Leda” for instance on eight millimetre, which has a wonderful dreamy texture and mood, but I definitely want my next film to be shot on 35mm. And another project I have in mind must be shot on DV. I have a professional DV camera and editing equipment.

Prizes were:

1998
Nominated for student film at the Dutch Film festival with short film “Leda”
Nominated for de Prix D’Europe Young Talent Award in Berlin with short film “Leda”
Nominated for NPS culture prize as producer for multimedia project “a saxophone and his shadow”

1999
3rd prize at the Cinekid festival with “The story of the Rooster” in the series “Biblical Animals”

2005
1st prize in the Keying into the Brain Festival for most innovative multimedia project

2005
Nomination for NFTVM filmmaker of the year award

2005
1st prize NPP development award at the Dutch Film Festival with feature film “A recipe for Hendrik Hadders.” (Dutch Title: Witte Wieven)

2006
1st prize Talent Highlight Pitch 2006 at the Berlinale with feature film “A recipe for Hendrik Hadders.” (Dutch Title: Witte Wieven)

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