Jaap Ruurd Feitsma - Journal » film

Filmography Showreel 2010 – Jaap Ruurd Feitsma

Jaap Ruurd Feitsma — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 09:27:33 +0000

Just recently I have finished my showreel 2010. It’s been on YouTube for a short while allready, but I haven’t even had time yet to put it into my own blog. But here it is! The reel contains material that I have either directed, co-directed or shot myself. To get a discription about each project in the reel, have a look on the YouTube page itself by clicking on the YouTube logo in the lower-right corner in the video of this blog, or feel free to ask. I hope you enjoy my one minute reel!

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

CheckTheGate – part 3

Jaap Ruurd Feitsma — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:25:47 +0000

The last few days were pretty interesting. Did some video editing and photography editing to begin with and apart from that yesterday was an interesting day as well especially. I went with a photography scout all over Lisbon to look for interesting places for one of our films. We took pictures from various locations – places I hadn’t seen before. For me personally it was great for two reasons; the first one is that I simply love photography, the second reason is that we came through places where we found ‘the real Lisbon’, instead of the more tourist parts of the city.

So far, I hadn’t had the chance of looking for the ‘real’ Lisbon yet. For people who read this and want to visit Lisbon, keep it in mind that a lot of areas in Lisbon are pretty unsafe (drug addicts, criminals et cetera), so don’t wander of f too far from the main roads. My iPhone being stolen last weekend is nothing compared with what can happen, especially when you carry a professional camera that you are not willing to give up easily. Try to blend in as much as possible (a bit hard for me with blond hair and blue eyes, but what the heck!)

Anyway, some even more interesting days are coming up as well! I’ll be working first hand with the Assistent Director (AD) on the upcoming film where we did the scouting for. Apperantly he is the best AD in Portugal, so no doubt that I can learn a lot! More info soon!

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Croatia 2004

Jaap Ruurd Feitsma — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:25:54 +0000

Yesterday I rediscovered a few videos I made years ago. In this blog post I’ve added the introduction of a film I made about a journey in Croatia in 2004 with a close friend of mine. Allthough the voice-over is hardly hearable because I had no real microphone at the time.

Nonethelless, I was surprised about the video because I actually still like (allthough the voice would have been better in English instead of Dutch) and I’m planning on capturing all the raw material again and edit a better film out it. For the time being, I hope you enjoy watching this one

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

An ode to Bela Tarr

Jaap Ruurd Feitsma — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:27:55 +0000

One of the best filmmakers in my oppinion is the Hungarian Bela Tarr. I came to know him a short while ago through Henk Penninga, a Dutch Filmmaker and teacher on my university. Bela Tarr most famous films are Sátántangó (1994) and Werckmeister harmóniák from 2000. He shoots his films in Black & White and very long takes with minimal editing. The stories are slow going and minimalistic which for some reason makes it so special! I posted a link here below of a scene here frin Werckmeister where someone is running. It’s one single shot and simply amazing. The way everything falls into place is just stunning. The way the camera moves (there is even a zoom in it that doesn’t bother you at all) and the way it was directed is perfect. Enjoy!

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!

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

South Pacific – Ocean of Islands

Jaap Ruurd Feitsma — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:53:20 +0000

Truly unbelievable footage. Amazing camerawork. I can watch this for hours! Last monday I saw the first part of the documentary ‘South Pacific’ on BBC 2. They filmed a lot of shots in super slow motion using the best equipment.

The first part included a great shot of a crab filmed from a very low perspective. The camera would move intirely to the right, making its way around the crab. The shot made the crab look like 15 foot high, something out of a Stephen King novel almost. But in this case it wasn’t a fictional horror creature, but a real one..

The documentary, in a way, was a little bit like the great BBC production ‘Earth’ but in my point of view even more stunning than Earth already was! If you missed it, have a look at a short piece of the making off and the final shot that came in the beginning of the film in this journal post. Watch it on HD quality to fully appreciate the shots. Personally I hope they will bring out a DVD with both parts of the documentary. A must have!