5 Questions with Konstantin Enste
The NEVER-MIND™ is a product that gives your tears a purpose, as illustrated in “Living with the NEVER-MIND,™” a new informercial mock-up by German director Konstantin Enste. We asked him where the idea came from, how he put it into action, and what comes next for him…
1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in movies?
As a child I always loved imagining stories, so I dictated them to my mother, she wrote it down and I drew the images for it. When I grew older I forgot about it more or less, I still enjoyed writing but never really thought of it as a profession. The first films I made were little skateboarding clips as a teen, and somehow I tried a more scenic approach someday and put a little story into it. A few clips later I shot my first short film with my father. It was the skateboarding that made me combine a camera and a story. After that I shot two more short films and studied film at the University of Applied Science in Mainz (Germany), it’s basically a small film school. Right now I am working as a freelance director and editor, but I also got a part time job in a film production company, where I worked full time until two years ago.
2) What inspired this project? General sadness?
I realized that I can take a lot of creative energy from sadness, this is where the tears/plants metaphor comes from. Of course the final film isn’t exactly emotional, but after 3 years of thinking about far more emotional stories I came to the conclusion that this approach is the best for me right now and that I just have to get the shit done. So in a way, the film is me talking to myself. After finishing university I had to make some safe money and went into a full time job. Unfortunately I wasn't able to spend that much time on making short films anymore and that always bothered me. Although I went into part time and started working as a freelancer, I spent almost 3 years of just thinking about making a new personal project and that was really really frustrating. I did some free stuff besides the jobs, but nothing was that personal like “Living with the NEVER-MIND™,” which I did just for myself, just for the fun of it, like my first films. I gave myself the restriction to be able to shot in my 13,5 square meters (145 square feet) office at home and with almost no budget, so this is where the idea for a small scenario came from in first place.
3) I’d love to hear a bit about the production of this: How long did it take? What’s your planning process like? You did all the production design yourself?
It’s hard to tell how much time went actually into it, because I worked on it in the evenings after work, on the weekends and on free days, during a span from end of December until the end of March. The first 3 weeks I did nothing besides being unsure wether to do it or not. Then I did a first previsualization with myself. It was pretty basic and looked like shit, but I thought it was surprisingly quite fun, so through that I gained confidence and that was like the kickoff for the production. From that on the production design process and the general production started.
I did all the production design myself, a lot of the stuff is gathered from the flat where I live with my girlfriend. For me the hardest part was the NEVER-MIND itself. One afternoon Flo (who also did the sound recording and helped me with the tears, we used a dropper and some onions) and another friend on mine tried some things out, but the design turned out quite difficult. I somehow managed to finish it that night, it was two days before the shot. My first ideas where way to fussy, so in the end I kept it more basic.
4) What is a film(s) you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
I recently saw the "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" from Julian Schnabel again. It’s such a sad movie and so pure. The organic feel of the film is incredible. For me that’s a good example of taking energy from something sad, even though it’s heartbreaking, it’s so fun in parts. It really fuels my brain.
5) What else are you working on at the moment?
I’m having a few side projects right now, but I also have a few ideas for another short film in the summer, I hope that I can realize it similar to this one, maybe I will put a little bit more story into it. In the end it also depends on my general workload, so we’ll see! Since I started making personal movies again, I really don’t want to let that slide once more.
Contact Info:
Email: hello@konstantinenste.com
Website: konstantinenste.com
Facebook: facebook.com/konstantin.enste