A Day in the Life of Torben Kjelstrup

Waiting for our pickup at the hotel - can’t stop admiring the bamboo scaffolding - crazy!

A view of today’s location; Tai O. A small fishing village on the outskirts of Hong Kong. The city is partly on land and partly built on beams on top of the shallow water. Every household is connected through an intricate web of wooden pathways and bridges. A very impressive sight!

Our talent is ready to work! It’s 40 degrees and the humidity is... humid! We are in for the long haul.

Lunch! We are all at the melting point by this time, and this spot actually has a fresh breeze - as noticeable from the DP's hair.

We benefited greatly from street-casting on this project. Here I am directing(?) actors found on the street and the owner of the house - which we also scouted on that day. I love the challenge of picking up random people passing by who I think would fit the part we are looking for. You never know what you are going to get and sometimes they bring something completely unexpected to the table. Regardless - it’s always great meeting new people, and certainly an interesting challenge to direct.

The language barrier was definitely tricky! We had our local producer Sophia help run the translation during the day - without her it would have never been possible to render up the people and good spirit we did!

Last scene of the day. Phie Hansen - the mastermind producer of this setup - is enjoying the view before she has to handle our new set-up in Morocco.
Our days were packed from morning to evening and we needed to make the most of the hours with sunlight. This was only possible through tight planning through storyboarding and scouting days ahead. This day we actually wrapped an hour early for the first time - for us - in history.

Sophia celebrating - It’s a wrap!

The car is packed - tight! We had to leave directly for the airport and bring all our gear and personal belongings in the minivan. This was pretty much like most days on this project, as everyone on the team are running tight schedules and had to turn down commercial jobs to be able to go along for this ride. I prioritize doing at least one personal job a year to develop myself and try out things I can’t usually do in commercials. Although it means turning down paid jobs I have never regretted this approach, as it means the world to my motivation and development as a filmmaker.