Jaap Ruurd Feitsma - Journal » DOP

‘Letting Go’ premiere at the Northern Film Festival!

Jaap Ruurd Feitsma — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:07:37 +0000

On the 11th of november I went back to the Netherlands for 6 days to be at the Northern filmfestival (NFF) in The Netherlands, Leeuwarden. Thanks to a teacher from my faculty in The Netherlands I was able to enter a workshop ‘Making Documentaries’ given by two famous Dutch documentary makers Pieter Verhoeff and John Appel.

The next day the short films that were nominated a few months earlier were shown in the ‘filmhuis Leeuwarden’ which included my short film Letting Go which ended up in second place in the highest catagory (Semi-Pro). I’m very happy with the second place of Letting Go, also because at first I wasn’t planning on sending it to a festival in the first place! I added the film in this blog below.

The competition was also very enjoyable because some friends & family came along and also the crew and actors were there. Koen Leerink (DOP), Arne Mulder, (DOA) Boa Mulder (set photographer), Christopher Morgan (actor) and Vassilena Valchanova, who was the actrice in the film, came to the festival from Bulgaria to the Netherlands. In the end it was a great week for me of networking, inspiration, motivation, agknowledgement that we made something good, and off course meeting up with family and friends.

And now it’s finally time to put the short film Letting Go on my blog! Hope you enjoy it

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CheckTheGate – part 1 – “Welcome aboard”

Jaap Ruurd Feitsma — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:39:12 +0000

Yesterday I went for my first meeting with Jose Mineiro at the film production company Check The Gate, where I will be doing my internship for the upcoming months. And it allready was a learningful expierence by only talking to him. I learned he works with the best equiptment (RED for example) and people in Portugal. He basicly only does international projects, which is pretty awesome as well! I will be able to work on the set a lot of times and learn more about DOP and directing. Also working in postproduction is a possibilty and maybe even working as a scout together with a professional every now and then. A wide range of jobs which is just great, really. Our conversation ended with a bica (a small Portugese coffee) and Jose shaking my hand while saying “Welcome aboard”.

Down here are three photos I made yesterday. Photo 1 one is the ‘view from the office of Check The gate.’ Photo 2 is ‘Metro life at ‘Cais do Sodre’, Lisboa’. And Photo 3 is ‘People become art in a metro hall of ‘Cais do Sodre’, Lisboa.’ The last two photos I shot on my way back home.

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Set photos ‘Letting Go’

Jaap Ruurd Feitsma — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:20:28 +0000

Sunday 21st of june was the day we shot my short film ‘Letting Go’. The day started out with rain so we decided to enjoy a coffee at a cafe where we ran through the script and got to know each other a little better. Currently I’m putting the whole thing together in Final Cut Pro and After Effects. Looking good so far!

Koen Leerink did the camerawork (DOP) of this film, Arne Mulder held the boom mic. Boa Mulder was our set photographer and I directed the scenes during the day.

The actors I casted were Vassilena Valchanova from Bulgaria and Christopher C. Morgan, orignally from Scotland, now living in the Netherlands. They did an amazing job and it was a delight to work with them and get to know them. In this blog you will find several set photos by Boa Mulder and some portrait stills of the actors by me.

So, before we click on ‘read the whole story’ and go to the photos, I would like to thank everyone that helped before and during the making of this short film for there enthousiasm, professionalism and inspiration for new things to come. Thank you, guys! All of you!

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