In the Fresh Faces-series we curate together with KONKAV we put a spotlight on creators originated in Noord-Brabant. This time we present Auke de Vries: Auke graduated from AKV St. Joost 9 years ago. His graduation film allowed him to do an artist residency in Iceland for 2 months. After that he started working at Wenneker and together with the company he grew from motion graphic artist to 3D artist to VFX supervisor. At the end of 2016 Auke was ready for something new and he started freelancing so that he could also visit other companies and focus more on his direction and his own work.
We asked Auke to react to three quotes by three creatives:
“An idea for a film is, in my opinion, nothing. For me, there must be a sort of illumination of something that will crystallize in me. […] It’s a sort of vague question I’m asking myself. […] Normally, I start stupid and the film makes me ask the question more and more intelligently. “
– Claire Denis
I assume that for every film maker the story to be told starts with a tiny piece of the puzzle that * poof * originates somewhere in the crevices of the brain. And from there all the cogs turn. That start might be a question, or a word, or a restriction you impose on yourself. With me these ideas arise suspiciously often in the shower, on the toilet or when I am busy pacing in my workplace.
“The most honest form of filmmaking is to make a film for yourself.”
– Peter Jackson
Making a movie for yourself sounds great, of course, but I always make movies with the viewer in my head. If I were told today that no one else can watch my movies except myself, I would immediately stop filmmaking. In 2015 I did 6 artist residences in 6 countries in 6 months together with Ruth Taylor (freelance 3D Animator and full time girlfriend). There I did a lot of work and a lot for myself. That’s great, but at the end of our trip I was really craving commissioned work. It could be a moderate compliment from a customer or a YouTube comment looking for meanings behind things that were never meant to be. When I make, I do it more for that than for myself.
“Art has always been the raft onto which we climb to save our sanity. I don’t see a different purpose for it now. ”
– Dorothea Tanning
Yes, I agree. In difficult times such as wars, crises and at 2:30 pm during a meeting, when you actually had to send a file to Kirsten from the administration an hour ago, art can play an important role in getting people out of it. I don’t know if it is “the” raft, but at least an important one. In addition, I think that it not only applies to the common sense of the spectator, but I think that the maker benefits just as much if not more. This would be nice if I had a nice anecdote about a difficult period that I had and that a specific piece of art helped me through this. But I don’t have one. But Dorothea Tanning was 91 when she came up with this quote. Perhaps in 60 years I will be full of juicy anecdotes.
Interested in Auke’s work? Watch the making of of the music video of “Read Between The Lines“: