Restless

This music video/shortfilm-hybrid features Rubin Henkel, an up and coming post-classical musician based in Berlin, and his metaphysical journey through the creation of his second album, ‘Ruhelos’ ( Restless).

Written and Directed by Dan Braga Ulvestad
Executive Producer: Juri Wiesner
Director of Photography: Cedric Schanze
Underwater DOP: Jan Hinrich Hoffman
1st AC: Micheal Schneider
Gaffer: Jacob Sauermilch
Steadicam Operator: Lucas Heinze
Diving Coach: Jessica Schäfer
Production Runner: Takehiro Nozu
Production Company: Cobblestone

Edit: Timo Fritsche & Dan Braga Ulvestad
Colorist: Richard Fearon @Black Kite
Sound Design & Final Mix: Alexander Inggs
Sound Supervisor: Jaś Miszewski
16mm Lab: Cinegrell
Equipment Rental: FGV Schmidle
Lens Rental: Vantage Berlin

The moment of creative epiphany is a fascinating thing. The moment of illumination – an idea. It’s the overwhelming but addictive energy that creative people long for and live for. A rush like no other that keeps them going. However, when starved of that energy, an unbearable restlessness takes over. A restlessness that can quickly spiral into doubt and destruction.

My ambition with this film was to depict these two opposites, and portray Rubin’s personal experience with creation. How he uses seemingly alternative methods in order to kick start his creativity, through to how he finds beauty in his chaotic surroundings in order to tackle self-destruction and pull himself out of a dark place – a dark place that is as much part of a life committed to your craft as the bloomy highs.

As a director, I can truly relate to Rubin’s turbulent path. Pursuing a creative passion can at times feel like being in deep waters, and at worst, feeling like you’ve come to a dead end. Ironically, I was struggling with many of the emotions depicted in the film while trying to figure out how to best tell this story.

We shot this with a barebones crew in Berlin back in August, originally planned for a three day shoot, but after Rubin concussed himself falling into the water from a boat for the 6th time, we had to call it a wrap and reschedule the underwater shots. However, it was one of those setbacks that turned into gold as we later found a crystal clear lake, and we managed upgrade the shoot with scuba divers and whatnot.

We shot this on 16mm film, which is always fun. I love it, not only for the timeless look and texture, but because it makes every “ACTION!” count so much more, and crew and actors tend to be sharper and more on point. It’s also a bit mental to wrap a production without really knowing what you have, then packing the one and only negatives in a box and shipping it to a different country.. but at least its a nice slow burn waiting for those scans to get delivered!