Case Study: Pistol

Andreas Thaulow, who has worked as a freelance video editor, photographer, writer and director in the advertising and film industry in Denmark and Norway, about his film "Pistol".

Geplaatst op 8 maart 2019

Seven year old Bilal aims and shoots. His enemy, another young boy falls dead with a bullet in his heart. Or so it seems until the war-game is interrupted by Bilal’s father who drives a taxi and has come to collect him. They are not in a war zone, but in a Copenhagen schoolyard, and Bilals gun is not a real one. But before long, Bilal and his father find themselves in a dangerous situation, when a mad junkie highjacks the cab. He is on the run and he too carries a pistol.

“Do what feels right for you and try not to obsess about every project.”

Getting Started

“The scriptwriter Malene Rykjær gave me the script and she had already secured the funding. I then changed the script together with Malene. The main storyline is the same but we added the opening scene for instance. In the beginning we had lots of plans with the script that didn’t work out as intended but in the end we winged it.”

Shooting According to Plan

“The project was funded by the Filmworkshop, under the umbrella of the DFI. The most difficult part during the production was casting the kids. Luckily the production itself was then relatively uncomplicated. We shot everything during the days we had planned.”

A Limited Timeslot

“We edited in small timeslots for about a year. Eventually we had to migrate from Avid to Premiere for me and the editor to be able to work on it more efficiently in the limited timeslots we had for it. For the music we had two composers and it was great working with them.”

Festival Distribution

“By now Pistol has been screened at lots of festivals. I don’t keep a list so I can’t even tell anymore at how many festivals it has been screened exactly. Regarding the promotion for the film I don’t have a certain strategy as I don’t know how and also can’t find the time for it unfortunately. It just put it out and see who picks it up.”

A Piece of Advice

“Everyone has their own process in the long and short term. There is no right or wrong way to go about anything. Just do what feels right for you and try not to obsess about every project.”