About me
My name is Matthijs, and I’m a 30 something father, freelance director and photographer with a focus on documentary. I live and work in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I started directing about two years ago. Before that, I was a freelance camera operator and video editor, organised exhibitions and travelled a lot.
Here i'm directing this video
I’m a single parent on paper. Being a single parent might have a bit of a sad connotation but in reality, it means that I have a solid relationship with my ex-girlfriend, her new husband and their nine months old daughter. They live three blocks from my house, and they mean the world to me. We meet up on a weekly base and have a very relaxed system when it comes to shared parenthood.
This is my son Titan holding my 8mm camera two years ago. He shot a few scenes for a film that is currently in post production.
This is one of my son’s birthday posters. It’s a family tradition. Each year I ask him to make a list of topics he likes. We then search the web for content and make the poster together.
How I got into filmmaking
At the age of 15, my dad gave me his old Sony CCD-FX700E. I started using it instantly, mainly filming my friends when we were hanging outside at the skatepark fooling around. My father’s camera served as a gateway to filmmaking and later on photography. I started editing by recording the camera footage on VHS then play it on TV and re-record it on my camera while the headphones of my Walkman were pressed against the camera mic. My mind was blown! I could edit! This DIY process is what brought me to art school.
The Sony CCD-FX700E in current state. My son uses it as a Pokémon-lazer-gun-time-bending-device.
I choose art school over film school because I didn’t want to stick to one direction i.e. editing, sound or camera. I just couldn’t commit myself to such a predestined way of studying. So I opted for art school and had four crazy years, met amazing people and built an international network of artists, journalists and techies.
Future Food
Currently, I’m working on a documentary project in which I will play the leading role. Soon I will start on a diet of strictly future foods for the period of one year. Below is a list of future foods that I'm planning to cover in the film.
• Meal replacement shakes such as Soylent, Joylent and Huel
I’m genuinely fascinated by the fact that today's technology and scientific research makes it possible to create all these types of new nutritional products. I consider myself to live in a world where food consumption has become a commodity. Within this context, I want to focus on the social aspects of food consumption. These questions will function as a fundament of the film;
• What happens with my social life once I stop eating regular food?
• Can I improve my physical or mental being by solely living on these types of foods?
• What is the latest in future foods?
You're not the first one to do this...
There are loads of people who solely eat future foods. I’m not special by changing my diet drastically. But I am a filmmaker, and that’s an essential difference. My goal is to tell a story about the future of food like it has not been told before and use the Steemit community in the production process of this film.
Use of Steemit
My intention is to use Steemit as a “behind the scenes” for this documentary. Typically a behind the scenes or making off comes after the film is finished. But I figured that for this film it’s best to turn this process around and involve people while the film is in production.
Most of the time the social media output of films is pretty passive.
It is my goal to start interacting actively with the Steemit community in regards to this project, and that’s what I find very exciting. Due to the structure of Steemit, it can function as a response group. The Steemit community could have an actual saying in the direction that the film could go.
I like to see this project more as an organic transition through the medium of documentary film. It’s an experiment in documentary filmmaking and one I’m glad to initiate.
Conclusion
If you have relevant information, don't hesitate to comment! You can also mail me at futurefooddocumentary@gmail.com
I made an introduction post before but made a few mistakes and couldn’t figure out how to post pictures. #newbie #forgiveme I also got hacked, so this POST is not mine. Could it be possible to get it removed from my blog?
I’m looking forward to sharing my project with the Steemit community!