Danish

With a background from filmstudies at University of Copenhagen and a broad experience in communications and project leadership prior to the studies, my professionel life in the film industry has centered around recognizing, developing and producing stories.

For five years I was responsible for development and production support on feature films for children and youth at the Danish Filminstitute. I have worked as screenwriter and script- and development consultant on featurefilms and tv-series for several of the largest danish filmcompanies.

On national television TV2 I have been filmcritic and presenter in the filmprogramme Filmkanylen and the talkshow Go’morgen Danmark, and have made documentaries and talkshows on film and art for the channel.

I have been founding editor in chief on the filmmagazine EKKO, filmcolumnist and national newspaper Politiken, contributed to books on filmtheory and genre and written and edited educational material on filmanalysis and filmlangue.

Danish
I´m not a regular "Citizen (D)ane" but an "Alien", and part of a "Space Odyssey (since) 2001", all artists are. Just look at "Psycho" Adolf Hitler. He wanted to be a painter but the art school wouldn´t let him in. What a mess we all got out of that one! That is basically why EFC in
Ebeltoft was created: to prevent World War III.
Welcome to "Cinema Paradiso"! We will introduce you to "The French Connection" and "The Italian Job" on "Sunset Boulevard" - all distributed through your "Taxi Driver". Yes, He´s also "Driving Miss Daisy". At EFC you either become "Sleeping Beauty" or take a walk down "Revolutionary Road" with your "Golden Compass" logged on "North by North West", which won´t make you "Jesus Christ Superstar" but more like a "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" eager to make films "For a Few Dollars More".
In directing class we will "Walk the Line" back to "1984" and together with the "Usual Suspects", we will create a "Fight Club" between the contrasts: "Sense and Sensibility" or similarities that fit like: "Jaws" and fear...or conservative parties and "Intolerance". Have your "Breakfast at Tiffany´s" if you can´t stand the "Heat" of "The Conversation" but "Once Upon a Time in the West", we had space for "Lawrence of Arabia". Today´s leaders are "Reservoir Dogs", who just gets "Dumb and Dumber". We are totally "Lost in Translation"! Where are "All the President´s Men", anyway? Humbleness is not "Heaven´s Gate" but a key word to film directors. "Reality Bites" so throw your ego out from "The Bridge on the River Kwai" and be responsible or you´ll never be "Saving Private Ryan". And...be original, or you´ll go "Down by Law" sooner or later, just ask "Fanny and Alexander".
Make up your own mind about all this. You don´t need "A.I" for that. You´ve got your "Basic Instinct" and "All That Jazz" so just pretend I´m "The Elephant Man" or "The Man Who Wasn´t There". In directing class every day is "Independence Day"!
Now...I love the smell of napalm in the morning so tell "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" to send me "Back to the Future" with such a "Speed" that I´will be "Gone with the Wind"...

American
I grew up near Boston, in an area noted for its writers (Thoreau, Emerson, Alcott, Hawthorne) and an appreciation of literature was instilled in me early on. I studied English at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida and filmmaking at Ithaca College in upstate New York. After graduating I spent a year in the former Danish island of St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, then returned north to write a humour column for a Boston newspaper. In the early 1990s I moved to Los Angeles, where I wrote over 15 screenplays and worked in development for a variety of film and television production companies, including Centropolis (Independence Day, The Patriot) and Carsey-Werner (Cosby Show, Roseanne, etc). I also worked for a production company that specialized in Australian authors, helping them adapt their work for the screen. In 2000 I and my Danish wife moved to Denmark and since then I have taught scriptwriting at the European Film College.

Australian
I grew up in Australia’s capital city, Canberra, and I have a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Australian National University with a Film Studies major. After graduating I was hired by Bearcage Productions, where I worked on more than 40 corporate videos as director, editor, producer or all three. I was thrown in the deep end and I loved every minute. I also worked in crew roles on short films, documentaries, music videos (e.g. silverchair), and made a few shorts of my own.
In 1999 I found the EFC in a list of film schools. I signed up, flew to Denmark and breathed an enormous sigh of relief when the bus pulled up in Ebeltoft and the school actually existed! I loved it and have been hoping for a chance to come back ever since. Next I moved to Sydney and worked at the Australian Film Commission, researching the production industry and preparing catalogues of new Australian films for international markets. My strategy was to understand how the funding agencies work from the inside. Most recently I was the Governance Manager of Screen Australia for its first year of operation as the new Australian Government film agency. I have been an active member of industry organisations, serving on the Australian Directors Guild Conference Committee and the Sydney Film Festival’s Film Advisory Panel. In 2007 I produced a documentary entitled "Projecting the Body", which has screened at gay and lesbian film festivals in Australia and the US. Finally, 10 years on, I’ve found my way back to EFC.

Danish
Originally trained as an electrician, I later graduated as an electronics engineer from the Technical Institute of Copenhagen. In 1972 I joined Scandinavian Airlines to work with navigational and communication equipment in aeroplanes. In the mid-seventies I joined a trans-Pacific expedition as the radio operator, diver and navigator aboard a replica of a 2000-year-old Chinese junk, and was camera assistant and sound engineer on a BBC documentary about the expedition. From 1978 to 1993 I travelled worldwide as senior technical consultant and lecturer in computerised equipment at Radiometer International Ltd., and produced and edited the company’s instruction and promotion videos. In 1995 I was given a grant by Nordisk Film to develop the ‘gyrocam’, a gyrostablised camera system designed for steady filming from moving vehicles, and set up a company specialising in aerial filming. The company has been involved in a number of feature films and numerous commercials, working with directors such as Nils Malmros, Lars Von Trier, Morten Arnfred and Peter Flint. I have taught editing and audio-visual techniques at the European Film College since 1993.

Danish
I was born in Arad in the Western Transylvanian region of Romania and graduated in Cinematography from the Institute of Theatrical and Cinematographic Arts, Bucharest (1983) and in languages from the University of Bucharest (1990). After completing my film studies I worked for seven years for the Motion Picture Studio in Buftea, Romania, participating in the production of twelve features, eight documentaries and various commercials, instruction and corporate films, while working simultaneously as a freelance journalist. I have taught cinematography at the European Film College since 1994. I am a member of the Dansk Filmfotograf Forbund (Danish Association of Cinematographers) and a member of the Board of FAF (the Union of Danish Film Workers).

Danish
Since the age of 3 I have repeatedly tried to kickstart a career as an artist or creative person of some kind, be it with crayons, playback performances to records or making "wonderful" worlds of sound with my favorite toy, my little cassette recorder. I expanded into graffiti, garage rock and 8MM film-making but had to simplify my life a bit during the difficult years of adolescence where pressure was on to choose a sensible career. This I tackled by working dead-end jobs and playing a lot of unsellable prog-rock that NOBODY liked. The very, very rare gigs had zero audience so we decided to never try again. The world was not ready! Instead I bought a four-track cassette recorder and went into making "low-fi" demo-tapes. That nobody heard. But simultaneously I was sometimes helping out some friends that were shooting short films and music videos with a bit more success.
Somehow my cassette skills and my film skills connected and I started traveling around Europe as part of a film crew shooting an art house feature on mini DV-tape. This experience made me decide that film sound was my field and I worked in it ever since. Not always with great financial success but with artistic reward and as a wonderful life style. My experience with young talented filmmakers forms a natural foundation for the teaching I'm doing at the EFC.
Not so long ago I graduated myself from the National Film and Television School in the UK, having learned both a lot of sound design tricks, but also more about how it feels to study film. So I really look forward to teach and work with the EFC students!

Danish
I have worked with TV for most of my life. In 1976 I started working for the public Danish television company, Danmarks Radio. I began as a producer assistant and later on TV producer. In the middle of the 80's I took a leave from the TV-business and traveled to Kenya, where I worked for a German organization working with refugees. I stayed there for 3 ½ years.
I am very interested in culture and have always tried to combine this with my work. As a result I have a lot of experience with cultural programs - both small music programs and large shows and quiz-programs. I have produced cultural reportages from small and large stages all over Denmark and this means I have a well functioning network within Danish cultural life. During my years as TV producer I have worked within all fields of multi-camera production. Consequently I know how to work with cameras in different ways - whether in a live quiz program, in OB productions or in a game show produced live-to-tape in the studio.
In my opinion it is the intensity, the cooperation, coordination and the matter of capturing content, picture and sound to form an entity which makes TV- and film work unique and exciting.