Thomas Anker Interview(s)

Directing film
Commercials, branded content, VR, animation.

Worked as a Creative Director and Art Director in Ad agencies for 14 yrs, then turned Director and became partner in a Production company called Babusjka in Oslo, Norway.

In our field of work, we live and breathe emotions. At some level you need to connect to the same emotional base as the people around you, but we all have different preferences from our experiences in life. Getting people to see the the film that I see in my head before we go into production can sometimes be challenging. You end up putting in a lot of effort explaining, clarifying and selling what's going on in your imagination and storytelling. The more unique your vision is, the harder it is getting people to embrace it.

To see the final result of a creative process and be damn proud of it.

25% explaining a vision. 25% shooting. 15% pitching. 15% writing. 10% Inspiration. 10% bollocks.

Focus. Everybody needs to know what the hell they're doing. An do it well.

My best job is the next job. My worst I have forgotten.

You need the passion. You really need to go all in. If not, find something else.

Maybe the first film that got me an award. A low budget film for the Police in Norway asking you when it's time to get out of an unhealthy relationship. Done in an Instagram format. It came out pretty real I think, and did what it was supposed to do. It went viral and was one of the top ten watched films on youtube in Norway. vimeo.com

You spend less time actually directing than most people think, most of your time goes into planning, co- and post production.