NEWS

Unsigned: Laerke Herthoni

Look out. This girl is HOT. And she’s unsigned. We found her in Denmark making music videos for Rebecca & Fiona.

When did you first know you wanted to direct?

I’ve always worked with the art form of telling stories. As a child I danced ballet at The Danish Royal Theatre, when I was older I helped out at my godfather’s studio, looking at him painting every single tuesday. But it was first when I was 19 and somebody showed me the movie Betty Blue, that i realised the magic of living pictures. I realised that the artform of creating film, in any kind of way, was so powerful if you learned to master it.

Have you studied film making or did you learn on the job?

I really would like to have studied filmmaking, but my way has been through learning of other directors I’ve been working for and also learning through my mistakes.

How did the video for Rebecca & Fiona come about? What was the brief and did you come up with the narrative?

I contacted Rebecca & Fiona, whom I knew from the past and kind of said: “I think you should let me make a video for you, it can’t be worse than what has already been done”. It was at that time they hadn’t realised Jane Doe yet and was pretty famous in sweden for making crappy videoes. So as they didn’t have anything to loose, the sent me four tracks so I could pick one of them. I instantly liked ‘DANCE’ because of the dark feeling in the song and wrote a treatment, that the girls, luckily for me, liked. The story was from the beginning a story about them and two guys being on the run because they’ve done something bad. But because of productional situations I had to cut three locations and rethink the hole story from scratch while we were shooting.

Did the video end up the way you planned?

If you look at the treatment and compare it with the result, then definitely not. But in my opinion it turned out much better. It’s a video that enhances the feeling and mood of the song and I like the fact that it makes you as a viewer ask questions about what’s going on between these characters.

What were the main challenges of making the film?

Definitely the car scenes. We couldn’t get any walkies, so I was directing from the lowloader through a phone where the signal went out a lot of times. So Rebecca & Fiona and the guys were being directed by my yelling so they could hear me, meanwhile I was doing a lot of idiotic signals with my hands. That was pretty difficult, but nonetheless it worked out:)

What are you up to now:

I’m working on writing my next short movie, pretty exited about that. Hoping to finalise a video for a really really great Swedish indie band. And then I’m slowly starting to work on my next Rebecca & Fiona video. We want to make something completely different, something political, that really has a greater purpose.

Are you signed with a production company?

Unfortunately not. That’s something I really want to do and are hoping will happen during this year.

And what’s your Plan A?

Work HARD!!!

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