We set out to make this film for another artist, who pulled out the last minute, leaving us with a ready to shoot script, a small crew lined up and a location on the ready but no budget to shoot. As it happens in film so often, the project was shelved.

However…

First, let’s watch the film.

Something seems wrong. Something unnerving that could be rooted in crime, mental illness or is a dark fantasy?

Monster explores non-linear storytelling through association, gut feeling and an unsettling sound track.

This is how I convinced people. I’m surprised they went for it:-)

However, it kept gnawing at me ‘cause I really wanted to try out some of the ideas and scenes so when the location called me to say they were closing indefinitely we decided to give it one last try. With the help of lots of goodwill of some very talented people we set out to shoot it on basically no budget.

Mid-edit and randomly trying things. Not really knowing where I was gonna go with this.

Cut to a few months later. I’m editing the material with some random tracks found on the internet, some strange dialogues, some soundscapes, just to see what sticks, but everything is so so.

Trying more things…

Then this happened and things came together.

Image credits: www.boredpanda.com

It’s also mid pandemic and I’ve had a lot of time to work on other projects, like my recycled and found material sculptures and I get a mail from Rutger Zuydervelt. He has seen my sculptures and wants to use it as album cover art for his next release as Machinefabriek.

I was really digging his work as well and we agreed that rather than use money we could exchange work. That’s how I found this great track and everything fell into place. The intensity that I was looking for in the edit and the story picked up from the unsettling sound, the police radio adding a layer of urgency.

I did most things like VFX, edit and titles myself, so it took a long time from idea to finish, but the wait was worth it.

The track is:
Jean D.L. / Rutger Zuydervelt – Scrambling 4
Inexhaustible Editions, 2020

And you can find the artwork in a different Bored panda post if you click on the link right under the picture of me holding the CD.

No budget = existing light and some improvisation.

Not only did we have limited light budget, we also shot on the shortest day of the year since it was the only available time slot for the location.

But behold! Bas Andries, the DoP is very good with minimal and existing light.

Some shots didn’t make the cut.

Oh, did I mention it is an old building and it was freezing inside?

This must have been our actress Nastassia’s favorite scene having a blanket and all.

More ideas that never made it. Hopefully in some next project.

On projects like this I tend to be very fragmented. Which totally works for me, but might be a bit odd to work with if you’re not inside my head. Oh well.

And last, as you’d expect, the credits.

A bit dark, so here they are legible:

Written and Directed by Henk Loorbach
With: Nastassia Firestone
Director of Photography – Bas Andries
Gaffer – Martin Roozeboom
Make-up – Ibolya Fülöp
Production Assistant – Gino Wouters
Grading – Efraïm Gons
Edit & VFX – Superelectric
Camera Rentals – Camunit
Lighting Equipment – Lightunit

Music – Jean D.L. / Rutger Zuydervelt – Scrambling 4
Inexhaustible Editions, 2020

Thank You
De Pastorie Diemen – Gwendolyn Wilthuis – Kelli Bowen
Tom Jaspers – Adam Oostenbrink – Kjell van Norel

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