Tobias Gundorff Boesen:

1. Following imagination and intuition: idea development

   I spend a lot of time just doodling and searching. This is the intuitive phase of the filmmaking, when I don’t have any clear script or plot – just dozens of ideas, visions and situations that make up a universe, and a belief that if I keep drawing and searching for the underlying “story”, the film will reveal itself. So it’s more a process of discovery, as I try to put the pieces together.

2. Visual language development: storyboarding

   Then I spend days storyboarding, fleshing out the film. I’ve yet to do a script. I wouldn’t even know how to do one. I write a lot, and formulate my ideas and vision. But the storyboard is the blueprint, not the script… which might sound like madness, but it makes sense from a visual storytelling point of view, and a lot of sense from a production point of view (giving me a complete overview of how to realise the film). So I’m often pretty far along with boarding before I start applying for funding, or crew up. I need to have a sense of control and a vision. Thanks to my animation background, I can do a lot of pre-production work for free in my spare time, which makes it possible to do visually-impressive, low-budget stuff.

3. Juggling tasks: directing and shooting, while line producing

   Then I shoot the thing, often with Andreas Berg, my DOP. In the case of “Ghost”, we produced the whole thing ourselves, trying hard to be line producers, while directing and shooting. This is not advisable. It just happened that way; it was my first live-action film. I thus learned the hard way why a good line producer should always figure prominently in the film credits!

4. Loads of coffee recommended: simultaneous editing and compositing

   After shooting, I simultaneously edit and compose the rough version, often on my home computer, drinking loads of coffee and staying up late. This is a lonely process, but a rewarding one, during which the film starts taking shape up and revealing itself. Compositing myself enables me to get what I want visually, and make sure the film reflects my vision.

5. Final postproduction

   When I’m pretty far along with compositing, I start involving the other crewmembers in postproduction, sound design, editing, compositing, etc. I often set up a parallel workflow, in which I continue to compose, while spending time supervising and directing the other postproduction crewmembers. Then everything goes on my home computer and is rendered for the internet! Violà! – low-budget indie filmmaking.