I haven’t told it earlier, but actually I had been nominated for the Förderpreis Design of the Master in Design of our university (advancement award).
It came quite by surprise since it’s been pretty quiet around my film. I had felt like everybody was talking about other things. And I had worked for two other graduation films as well, for one in a minor role (additional compositing, “Die Früchte des Ginkgo” by Jenay Vogel), for the other one I did the sound design (AAA by Andreas Hummel). So even I had other things than just my film on my mind. Unexpected or not, I felt very honoured… and nervous!
I was told I had to present my work the the jury in the afternoon prior to the opening of the graduation exhibition. Which was in less then two days time. There at the exhibition. 10 minutes max. Followed by 10 minutes of questions and discussion. I was glad I was granted the extra time to show my film outside the 10 minutes of presentation. At the final presentation at the university I had 20 minutes and I had a beamer and a PDF presesntation to work with. There I had pretty much NOTHING! With film it’s always the question of what you want to exhibit. Your final work is on the screen. I was glad I had at least a crappy cardboard model of the room the film takes place in which I used for shooting light and camera angle references. And it’s a design award, it’s not like on a film festival. So what do they want to know?!
The morning of the presentation I started boiling down what I had put together in my mind and on paper. 15 minutes. Too long! 14 minutes. 13 minutes. 11 minutes! Ok, that’s managable! Time to hurry to the exhibiton and check if all the technical stuff is working. They’re setting up things. I help them set up a screen since I can’t do anything else but wait until they get around to do my stuff. They’re uploading the films on the media player. Checking sound. 30 minutes before presentation. I’m slowly going nuts! I start preparing my note cards. 15 minutes before the presentation I finally can set everything ready to show the film to the jury.
And then the presentation. I was the first of the three nominees to present. At the beginning I’m totally tense inside but I start feeling more relaxed when I show them pictures in the documentation and the cardboard model. 10 minutes 3 seconds later I’ve finished. After screening the film they start asking questions. They seem very interested. Maybe it wasn’t all that bad. But as always, the really good answers turned up in my head after they went to the next persons presentation.
Later that evening the exhibition is officialy opened and the prizes are anounced. Corina Schaltegger from the Master in Fine Arts receives the Max von Moos prize. Next is the Förderpreis Design. The worst thing about awards is that even if you don’t believe that you have a chance that last spark of foolish hope won’t go out until you know for sure. A friend of mine comes walking. We start chatting. I hear my name… what was that? I start realizing that I’ve won the award. I give a hug to my friend standing next to me, then start walking to the front. Damn, I want to have a written version of that laudatio so I know what he said. And then I give a short thank-you speech. Late people told me it was nice but came unexpected since no one else (in the history of these awards) has ever given a thank-you speech. Well, I had the impression that Corine before me had given one. But the accoustics were terrible where I was standing.
So next to being the first to have given a speech at the Förderpreis Design, TADAIMA is the first film in the history of the Master in Design to have been nominated. I feel so happy. Thank you to everyone who has supported and believed in me and my film in this long and challenging period of time.
Thanks for the flowers!
Jotha W. 