Håvard Gjelseth

Jazkamer, Live at Club Urga, Tokyo Stop motion, 1'39'', 2008 Norway

Tell me something about you and artistic background.
Graphic designer and photographer. Lover of lists, vinyl and sushi. Proud father. Fascinated by the either extremely simple or the extremely complicated, be it art, philosophy or music.

Tell me about this film, initial idea and work process.
Noise music has always fascinated me. It has so many of the ingredients of the music I grew up with and love (from grindcore and doom to improvisational jazz). Especially live I find noise music very interesting: the music becomes more physical than most genres. Most noise musicians seem to be a combination of being both extremely expressive in their music, and reserved in their appearance. It seemed like a challenge, then, making a live music video that visually expresses some of the energy in the music. I have always loved stop motion, be it Aardman, Švankmajer or the Quay Brothers - and the editor (Snorre Ruch) is educated in traditional animation. Stop motion seemed like a very relevant technique for this video to try to express what I wanted, and having photographed since I was a boy, still frames comes very naturally to me.

Are you working on new projects at the moment?
This year I have two larger projects I'm working on: making a film-based music video for a Norwegian black metal band, and publishing a book of my photography.

Do you have specific influences in your film/video making?
Being a graphic designer and photographer, the references of those worlds are very close to me and something I bring into my film/video making.

Why is it important for you to show your film/video in a festival?
The Internet is all nice and well for spreading your work, but festivals are the only way to show film/video in its true format: large and loud. It is also a great chance to show the work to people who are not into the genre. 

What role do you think Oslo Screen Festival should have to promote your work?
I'm honored to be a part of the programme of a festival that keeps growing both in size and recognition, and just being a part of that is great.