 Pelle & Markus - behind the scenes of "Spillkråkan / The Black Woodpecker" |
As most of you who follow Unearthed Mirrors probably already know, the creative minds of Markus Ahlbom and Pelle Åhman have been working together in the past year to bring to life "SPILLKRÅKAN / The Black Woodpecker", a film of which, so far, we have been offered a glimpse at through some intriguing trailers and photos.
Today, it is with great pleasure that we present this recent interview with Markus and Pelle, where they discuss some interesting and fascinating details about their upcoming movie,
and also unveil a new extended trailer that you can
watch right below our written conversation.
Hope you all enjoy as much as we did!
- To begin, how would you introduce "Spillkråkan / The Black Woodpecker" to someone who is reading about it for the first time?
M. & P.: It's a film that explores the surreal world of dreams, with a hint to old Swedish folklore.
Perhaps you could say it's about the symbolic nature of reality and the phantasmagoria that arises when a person is invaded by the deeper nature of reality and the dream of reality.
- How did the very first idea to create this film come about? Was it more of the visual kind (e.g. you envisioned one or more scenes upon which you later constructed the script), or vice versa, did you first had in mind a part of the plot, which then guided the structure of the scenes?
M. & P.:We started to plan and shoot the film in August 2018, but we had some technical issues and the material was lost. But we managed to get it back. That material became the first minutes of the film. We had a few ideas and scenes that we wanted to do. We took it from there and started filming, writing and planning.
The process has been like building a puzzle without a picture on the box. The plot and storyline have grown out of ideas and different key scenes. Much of the scenes also focus on the nature that was our main interior.
Initial ideas for some of the key scenes in the film started to form around the Spring of 2019. These first ideas floated around in our heads during that Summer and in the Autumn of 2019 as we began working on the first parts of the movie. These first parts in turn lead us onwards to the next scenes and the larger concept and story of the film started to form. From there on things evolved and grew organically as the work went on, as they do in any creative work. This part of the process is harder to explain. Sometimes it felt like there was a story there underneath all along, even before we had found out what that story was for ourselves. When we did, it made a lot of sense.
- We noticed in the trailers released so far some indoor scenes which look quite "Jarmushian", so to say, and very intriguing. With that in mind, we are tempted to ask you: would you say that "Spillkråkan / The Black Woodpecker" does indeed rely a lot on that subtle, minimalistic yet effective flavour?
M. & P.:We have focused a lot on the details and all the things in the film (like paintings, products ect.) we made ourselves. We had no budget at all for 'Spillkråkan', so we had to improvise a lot and figure out how to make our own special effects. It has been very fun to invent solutions so we could make it look the way we wanted. A lot of things in the film are internal jokes and hints to former projects we created over the years. Those who really want to analyze the film have a good chance to find a lot of hidden treasures.
We were very conscious of the details we would incorporate into the film and how they were presented. All the details in the scenes are there to build up a wholeness or at least point to a larger outline of the film and where it plays out.
- What was the most challenging part (if actually there is any that you would call so) in making this film?
M. & P.:Mostly the weather, for example we had to wait until the 1,5 meter snow had melted so we could shoot the last scene.
The whole ordeal of making the movie was in itself was one big challenge. The amount of time and energy that was put into making it outruns the length of the movie (which is roughly an hour) with months and months of meticulous work. That work is also what makes the whole process worthwhile in the end.
- What instead was the most fun, or memorable, part of working on the film?
M. & P.:I would say the crayfish-party scene. It took about 12 hours to shoot, but it was a blast to make. The day and night that we made that scene was very fun and memorable. Another scene that was special was the ending of the film. We enjoyed making these scenes the most because they were the most elaborate ideas that were the most challenging to make and it was very satisfying to see the end results. Along with that there were many fun and memorable moments while making the other scenes and during the editing of the material.
- Did you leave room for improvisation during the filming, and if so, did it actually happen often?
M. & P.: Yes, a lot of the film is based on improvised scenes. When we make music together its often or almost always improvised. And making this film is much like jamming. For certain parts of the film that were there to tie things together and expand the narrative, we left a lot of room for improvisation when we were making the scenes. Mostly these improvisations were based on ideas that we got on spot and they were tested out a few times and talked through a bit before we started filming.
- A more pragmatic question, especially for all your non-Swedish followers: does "Spillkråkan / The Black Woodpecker" contain any dialogue, and if so, are they in Swedish or in English?
M. & P.:The only scene that has dialog is in Swedish, but there will be subtitles. We decided to let the music do the talking and setting the mood. So if you want you can see it as a long music video.
- Let's talk for a moment about the sounds of the film: was the soundtrack entirely based on what the scenes demanded, or did the music and the film in some cases mutually inspire each other?
M. & P.: We have sent pieces of the film to Gottfrid and let him write almost with no restrictions. But its been a dialog with him all the way and both of us have been writing some music for the film.
- In the credits, it is mentioned that the score to "Spillkråkan / The Black Woodpecker" has been created by Gottfrid Åhman and the Grey Mountain Orchestra: is there any plan to release it some day?
M. & P.: It would be nice to release the soundtrack on vinyl, but right now we don´t have the budget for it.
...Here's hoping they will one day, and of course we are looking forward to seeing the full movie, now actually even more intrigued by this behind-the-scene details!
Thanks a lot to Markus and Pelle for their time, the images and the trailer. If you are on Instagram, don't forget to follow them: @diskbankssurrealism.
Here below you can find a new, extended trailer which let us have another glimpse at the bizarre and twisted world of "Spillkråkan / The Black Woodpecker"! All the previous trailers can be seen on Markus' YouTube channel.