Sylvia Steinbrecht, artistic director: “Having studied in ESCAC opens doors”
Sylvia Steinbrecht (Berne, 1977) is one of the most known directors in our country. With a fifteen year career, she created a strong professional journey working with some prestigious international productions in Catalonia. The Machinist, The Perfume, Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Biutiful lead a list of around thirty films, where there are also distinguished Catalan films such as Floquet de Neu, Una pistola en cada mano or Tres bodas de más, the latter being nominated in the Gaudí Awards. We can currently watch two of her last works: El rey tuerto, in which she also works as co-producer (“because a few times you read a script and you like it that much” she says) and Summer Camp. In November there will be her last film: 100 metros, a drama by Dani Rovira and Karra Elejalde.
Steinbrecht is another talented person coming from the Higher Education on Cinema and Audiovisuals of Catalonia (ESCAC) -attached to the University of Barcelona- where she is a lecturer now. Creative, restless and passionate for her job, she talked about cinema and about ESCAC in her professional life.
Sylvia Steinbrecht (Berne, 1977) is one of the most known directors in our country. With a fifteen year career, she created a strong professional journey working with some prestigious international productions in Catalonia. The Machinist, The Perfume, Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Biutiful lead a list of around thirty films, where there are also distinguished Catalan films such as Floquet de Neu, Una pistola en cada mano or Tres bodas de más, the latter being nominated in the Gaudí Awards. We can currently watch two of her last works: El rey tuerto, in which she also works as co-producer (“because a few times you read a script and you like it that much” she says) and Summer Camp. In November there will be her last film: 100 metros, a drama by Dani Rovira and Karra Elejalde.
Steinbrecht is another talented person coming from the Higher Education on Cinema and Audiovisuals of Catalonia (ESCAC) -attached to the University of Barcelona- where she is a lecturer now. Creative, restless and passionate for her job, she talked about cinema and about ESCAC in her professional life.
You graduated with the second generation promotion in the School. What did ESCAC mean to your professional career?
First of all, it allowed me discovering the cinema and the different works related to this job. Then I also saw all the people that wanted to work in the same field as me. My parents were sure I could not make it in this world without knowing people here (Iʼm from Andorra). But in the end I think I did, thanks to ESCAC, it opens doors and gives you strength. Actually, it is all about being involved in this group of people with the same interests and doubts. When you leave school, everyone tries to do things and use the contacts they have there. The School is what creates these bonds.
It is said ESCAC ex-students are like a small family…
Mostly because when ESCAC was created, it was very practical and it gave opportunities so that people could work in this field and could meet others. In my case it is incredible the amount of people coming from ESCAC that I meet in films or I choose to work with me. I am a lecturer in the School and I always try to pick students. For instance, in the last film I made -100 metros- I picked four people. In art direction, teams are big and we always need a lot of people.
In the end, it is not a matter of success or not because I think this is random and depends on each oneʼs talent, but having studied in ESCAC gives you human background: you meet people who will enable you being in a project and making others.
Tell us about the job of an artistic director.
It is related to space creation, not only corresponding to the beginning of a sequence (for example “Girl room. Indoors. Day.”) but as an artistic director you have to see all the decoration that will appear in the film and you have to create an aesthetic cohesion so that the audience gets the feeling that it is all the same product. Moreover, in decoration, you give dramatic intention to the moment the characters are living in. The most important thing is the character -because thatʼs what you see on screen- but everything in the background helps a lot.
How is this work done?
When you get what the director wants, how he wants the camera to turn in each space and what happens to the character, thatʼs better for you to create accurate spaces for every moment. Because in the end you want the audience to see that sequence even if it lasts seconds -because there are decorations that you spend a week dealing with and then they are seen for some seconds- you gave the dramatic feeling you wanted to share. Sometimes are better than others. There are decorations that are more mechanic to go from an audience to another and then you try to find something else, which works better. There are cases that are more dramatic and then you try to take care of them and fill everything with details. For example if you have to fill a shelf or make a mess, there are some things that are not there due to the script, and you have to invent them, such as the charactersʼ hobbies or their past history, etc. That is why it is interesting to talk with the actors as much as possible because they are building a character and they have to grow within the space you have created for them.
You have worked with great directors from here and abroad: from Cesc Gay to Woody Allen or Alejandro González Iñarritu. How was this experience?
It depends on the director; with some of them you feel they like the direction, like Cesc Gay (Una pistola en cada mano) or Andrés Schaer (Floquet de Neu), who are wonderful people to whom it is very easy to talk. Others are not. It is also understandable that their job is difficult. They are in charge of everything during the film and they are very busy. It is impossible for them not to get stressed with so many questions and decision-making.
With Woody Allen, for example, I didnʼt propose almost anything, everything was through his assistant. Firstly because he is old and gets tired and also because he knows that he is in charge of the scripts and the actors, so he relies on the fact that the rest of the team works efficiently. I mean, he is not conscientious in that way. There are some things he dislikes, like the color blue. But that is not very strange. I myself sometimes have not used a color in a film because I didnʼt like its concept. Other than that, filming with him was really fun.
However, with Iñarritu we spoke a lot but he was a complicated person. He thinks creativity comes out when you are demanding and he created a fearful feeling around the team. After making Biutiful I even considered stop working in the cinema. I didnʼt even watch the film again -I couldnʼt- and didnʼt watch any other by him. All filmings have been great except for this one. Thatʼs why I continue, I guess.
You created an impressive career working on some international productions, filmed here. How was that project?
The first one was with Darkness (Jaume Balagueró, 2002), starting to be international. That was when Filmax had Fantastic Factory and started to make films as if Barcelona was America. After that came The Machinist (Brad Anderson, 2004) -it wasnʼt very successful here but it was in the States- and Sahara (Breck Eisner, 2005). I made some of them one after the other. It was cheaper for them to come here and film and they saw there was industry.
And then here you have The Perfume (2006), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), Biutiful (2010) etc. How can you have a place in this international production wheel?
On the one hand, speaking languages. People from abroad want people who understand them from the beginning. Therefore if you speak English -and I also speak French- they will contact you. And if you work properly, thatʼs it. If you have the first thing then it gets easier. But of course you have to go through an interview.
Is work very different in international productions?
Yes, they are different production levels. There are lots of people and each oneʼs work is more categorized. I find it nice. The problem is that you get far from the product. In the productions here, with less people, you can see what you started and how it ends and you have the feeling that it is very personal to have been in each step.
In El rey tuerto (Marc Crehuet, 2016), for example, creating the decoration was fun. We did a strange thing: the ceiling stood on some walls -instead of the other way round which would be normal- so the ceiling didnʼt move and the walls opened. What we wanted was for it to look like a box. We also had a look at what skylights to use so that everything was lightened and the filming was quick. We tried to find a nice aesthetics proposal, but useful for the filming. We filmed the Catalan and the Spanish version in 12 days, it was crazy!
It must be a difficult task…
I always say that an artistic director has to be like a Wikipedia, because everyone asks you questions and you have to know everything: history, architecture, decoration, upholstery and textile, landscape… Even botany and zoology! Of course it is impossible to know about everything but you have to know where to look for the answers. The perfume (Tom Tykwer, 2006), for instance, was a very interesting work because we had to study the arts and jobs in 1800.
I think it is complicated to make films in general. It is a crafty work and each one has a job, which is quite limited but at the same time has to be connected to the others, thatʼs why it is difficult. I work with cinema because I like the team work that goes with it. It is always hard, no doubt. Being creative, leaving your ego behind and sharing, itʼs a fight but when you get it, itʼs fantastic!
What advice would you give to a student who is finishing the studies in ESCAC?
One of them is to learn languages. The other is not to look for success. Because the problem in ESCAC is that you know there are successful ex-students so people think that by being there they will have contacts after leaving the school. Thatʼs not true. It takes a lot of work and being constant, and being good people. Knowing more things or less is something you can change, but being a good person, you have to do it from the start… and we need good people to make things and go forward.