When did you decide to become a photographer?
I got introduced to photography and filming at the age of 13 in an art class I had in school during 7-9th grade. When I was 16 I did my first still photo work for my town’s local newspaper, and I think you can say that it was there that I made the decision to try to make a career out of it. During this time I shot band photos and did album covers for local bands in my hometown, so the creative music part of my work was already in place. I shot some stuff for a local metal band called Eternal Autumn for their album The Storm (it’s on Spotify and check out the song Moonscape).
You writes on your website "I expanded onto filmmaking in the early 2010s". What were your early works like?
Before I started filming I did still photography. I got a degree in photo journalism after highschool and started to work full time for two of the largest newspapers (Göteborgsposten and Expressen) in Sweden. After I had done my first book in 2009 the Way out West festival in Gothenburg asked me if I could do a video web series. I said yes knowing almost nothing about digital video, ha ha! So I learned the basics as I went along. That led to some video work for commercial clients I did still photo for. So you can say that the early work was very much learning by doing. Since I’ve always been into music I started doing some music videos and stumbled onto Avatar in 2011.
When you get invitation to do a photo session or you just go to a concert, what is your basic gear and what gear you prefer to make films?
The type of gear depends on what I want to achieve. But when it comes to documentary style video I like the camera to be as small and light as possible. Since I come from a still photo background I like cameras with form factor resembling still cameras. So I’m not a shoulder cam guy. When shooting music videos the idea always comes first and then I chose camera and gear to match that idea. Sometimes a small action camera is best, sometimes a large cinema camera with cinema lenses is best. It all depends on the idea.
When I studied filmmaking, we used Avid Media Composer, though I like Adobe Premiere Pro better. What is your favorite video editing software?
For straight cutting I use Premiere. For colours I use DaVinci Resolve. For effects I use After Effects.
What software/softwares do you use for making special/visual effects, CGIs?
Mostly After Effects and for 3D stuff I use Element 3D. Since I come from still photography I use Photoshop a lot together with After Effects. My goal next year is to learn Cinema 4D.
Mostly metal fans know you due to Avatar. How did you meet the band?
I got introduced to them in 2011 by Andy from Within Y. He was in Amaranthe at the time (I shot that band’s first two album covers by the way) and I worked with them since me and Jake E are old childhood friends (he was in a band called Infinity back then, and I did some stuff for them too). My first time meeting Avatar was actually quite interesting. It resembled a job interview in a lot of ways, and I showed them some stuff I had done up to that point. The band was dead silent the whole time and when I was done showing stuff John’s first, and only, question was ”but are you a metalhead”? I’ve never dressed or looked metal I should add. But despite the lack of a metal exterior they decided to give me a shot, we did Black Waltz and have been working ever since. Another fun story. It was I who came up with the name Black Waltz when that song was just a demo. It has a waltz tempo intro so I named the song Black Waltz after a trio of bosses in Final Fantasy IX. And the name stuck.
When you make a music video, how do you decide the visual concept of it?
It’s 100% how the music sounds. Although lyrics are important, for me the sound and feel of the song is most important. I also like to work close with the band. Having discussions about concepts and visuals. Making sure the band feel the video is right for them. When I work with Avatar I usually pull the most weight on the script and storyboard front, but I always develop the ideas with the band. For example, when we did New Land Johannes wanted it to be set in space but looking old and retro. I took a lot of inspiration from filmmaker Karel Zeman for the visual style and came up with the idea of the band being split up into two parties to create tension.
We can see that the band members "torture" themselves in the Smells Like A Freakshow video. Who decided in what way they did it?
That video was a group effort when it came to script and concept. The idea of each band member being split into a good and a bad clone and acting against themselves came during a brainstorm meeting with me, Johannes and John. We talked about dualism and I mentioned the episode of Star Trek the original series when Kirk gets cloned. One clone gets all his anger and aggression and the other clone gets his kindness. Then we built from there. About each members scenes, I remember I came up with Jonas scene and him raping himself (I had just watched Midnight Express).
The Eagle Has Landed is a one-shot music video. How difficult was to make it thinking of the "different locations", the timing and so on?
It was very difficult. First I did a simulation synched to the song in After Effects with a spinning camera and stick figures. That way we got the timing for it. Then we did a special version of the song with voice cues for scene transitions and so on. And we spent an entire day with full crew and all the actors just rehearsing it. On the day of shooting I think we got it somewhere around take 12-15. To not be tempted to use more than one take we deleted all takes on set except the one we choose. The idea of a one take was John's, and it was something that we discussed for every video from Torn Apart and up to Eagle.
I think, the biggest challenge was the Avatar film Legend Of Avatar Country so far. Did you think of it as a full movie from the beginning or it just came in the course of the process?
Yes, the Avatar Country film is my largest project to date. When John first pitched the idea of making a film my first reaction was ”are you out of your mind!” Since a project like that would be super expensive and take a lot of time. But John promised to make it work, so directly after we had made Statue of the King we started outlining the film.
Where did the inspiration come from to create Avatar country and its surrounding? What locations did you shoot at?
95% of it is shot in studios in and around Gothenburg in front of a large green screen. We also built some sets, like the cabin interior in Harvest, in a studio. The design of it is inspired by the album and classic metal. The design is done by me, the band and an artist friend of mine called Sebastian Ericson.
What was the most memorable scene for you?
I have to be goring and say all scenes, since the project as a whole is what made is so memorable. But if I have to choose just one scene that stuck with me. When Johannes is mind reading John in Legend and we see flashbacks from the city they’re escaping from. There’s a dolly shot from the side where the evil soldiers run in, shoots a girl, tackles another guy and just a lot of stuff happening in the screen at the same time. All done in one take. When you both direct and shot these large scenes are hard to get right, and I was a bit concerned about it. But we nailed it on the first take.
How dit it feel to think about the film and to plan it without being sure of its financial cover?
Funny story about that! The week before we launched the Kickstarter campaign Volvo Cars contacted me about doing a quite large editing job for them. Like 10 000 euros large. But I had to turn it down since it would collide with the Avatar Country Film. So up until we got enough money through Kickstarter I was a bit nervous and though ”I might have passed up 10 000 euros and pissed off my contact at Volvo for a project that might not even be made”.
When we were lucky to do an interview with Johannes, we hit the silent films, as well. He mentioned, you were also a big fan of this genre and it had an effect on many Avatar music videos (Hail The Apocalypse is a good example). Why do you like this genre? What plus does it have that films made with modern technology don't have? I like these films because for example many times they express the drama more intensively (Broken Blossom, Battleship Potemkin...). Anyway, the video for King's Harvest is also similar to it.
Those are some great films you mention there. But I must say I like all genres of film. As long as it’s good films. So I watch a lot of modern stuff too. But I like old black and white silent films because of the sense of pioneering. Inventing the media as they went along. They weren’t just making a film, they were inventing film.
You mentioned, that "...I like all genres of film. As long as it’s good films.". In your opinion, what makes a film good?
It needs to have a sense of nerve and rawness to it. You have to feel that the people behind it really wanted to make that film and tell that story. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what that is, but when you see it you feel it. It's the same with music I think. Or any expressive art form really. It needs to have soul.
Do you have a permanent crew or you prefer to do almost everything from beginning to the end?
During the years we've built a crew of people that we enjoy working with. So we assemble them for every video, but between videos we all do other projects and things. The person who's been around the longest, besides me, is Emma Falkensjö who does hair and make up. Torn Apart was the first video she was onboard for.
Could you mention some of your previous works that were particularly interesting or exciting to you?
I have to say my first book Otystad. I got the idea while following a band during the last year of photography school. Since Gothenburg, at that time, had a very interesting and vital music scene and I moved there after photography school I decided to try and make a book about it. So I got two journalists I had meet through that line of work on board and just started making it. We did it on our spare time, the journalists quit after a while but I replaced them with two new ones, and by the time we had some great content we got a book deal and two large sponsors. It had a bit of an impact here in Gothenburg when it dropped, and you can still see traces from it here and there. The last example of that was a large exhibition that Gothenburg’s city museum had about the city’s music scene. And they asked me if they could have some of my photos in it, which they of course could.
Your book Otystad about Gothenburg's music scene was released in 2009. Can we expect similar work in the near future?
Not in book form. But I’m actually heading up to Stockholm soon for a meeting about a one hour TV show focusing on music. That I will film, direct and edit.
What aspects do you keep in your mind when you make commercials? How do you approache a theme?
Commercial work is 100% making the client happy and 0% you. I see it as two parts of my work. One (corporate) is for making money and the other (music videos and such) is for feeling that I create something I’m proud of and that people enjoy.
What is your opinion on the current Hollywood trend that they make remakes of almost everything? (In most cases, the result is weaker - my own opinion.)
I’m with you 100% on that. Modern remakes are boring cash grabs. I actually fell asleep during IT.
What films are your all-time favorites and your current ones?
There’s so many. But in no particular order and from the top of my head:
Fight club, Det sjunde inseglet (Ingmar Bergman), Stalker, Akira, Eraserhead, Grand Budapest hotel, Happy together, Firmafesten (Swedish), Dancer in the dark, Metropolis, Gold fever, The tenant, There will be blood, The lighthouse, Caché, A clockwork orange, Nosferatu (1922), Big trouble in little china (it can’t be all doom and gloom)
What projects are you working on now?
Right now, on the commercial side, I’m doing an editing job for Volvo Trucks. On the creative side I’m planning the new videos for Avatar’s upcoming album. Plus doing the album cover and some other things around it. I can’t go into details, but the visuals will be quite different from Avatar Country.
Thank you for your time!
Thank you!
Links:
https://www.johancarlen.nu/
https://www.facebook.com/johancarlen.nu/
https://www.instagram.com/johan_carlen_photography/
(The photos are from Johan's website and Facebook page!)
