A beautiful stream of Nonsense

Master Class with Johannes Stjärne Nilsson

Filmmakers Johannes Stjärne Nilsson & Ola Simonsson have been making films for 25 years. Fueled by curiosity and playfulness, they’ve banned all rules, challenged the preconceived and embraced their artistic intuition.

Their ideas have taken them all across the world; they’ve climbed mountain tops in suits and had coffee 1000 meters under ground, they’ve dressed up as bears, crashed garbage trucks and played drums on the bottom of a swimming pool. They’ve been kissed and hugged by Ukrainan students, rocked Antonio Banderas and made a city blink in rhythm. They even performed a conga line with rubber pigs in front of a live audience.

In an inspirational master class, Johannes delves into his artistic approach and creative process through clips, anecdotes and conceptual art work. A talk about the essence of ideas and trusting your instincts, the beauty of collaboration and daring to lean on others. And how a scribbled note in a desk drawer ended up on the red carpet in Cannes.

This is a master class for schools and universities, organizations, festivals and businesses.

A beautiful week of Nonsense

Master Class week with Johannes Stjärne Nilsson

Ideas are like mysterious creatures; nobody knows where they come from and they appear when you least expect it. What are they, how do you spot them and how do you make them grow?

An inspirational week about finding your unique voice and the keys to the creative process. About cherishing the playful, learning to trust your artistic intuition and daring to lean on others. The class spans from scriptwriting and the wonder of words becoming film, to exercising the art of listening and recognizing the power of sound design.

During five intense days, lectures and case studies are interspersed with work shops and individual guidance. Johannes delves into his artistic approach, talks about his work in progress and shares the secret anecdotes from his artistic adventures; the difficulties of turning a human into a bear, how to make music with a 10 ton bulldozer and how a scribbled note in a desk drawer ended up on the red carpet in Cannes.

This is a master class for schools, universities and organizations, tailored for specific needs.

The Soundtrack of Ourselves

Master Class with Six Drummers

How do we spark the potential music within a household object? What if the vacuum cleaner sounded like a spring forest or a Porsche Carrero? Is it possible to perform Bolero on a food processor? These are the essential questions Six drummers are dedicated to find the answers to.

Six Drummers explore the sounds of ordinary objects in search for potential music, an adventurous venture based on curiosity and playfulness. The everyday sounds of our lives are approached from a musical perspective, unfolding the object’s hidden potential and making us see our world in a new light.

In an eye-opening and unconventional master class, Six Drummers talk about their conceptual work and the creative process. They immerse themselves in case studies, inspirational material and clips, and share their secret anecdotes - from the unannounced Music for one Ballroom and six drummers at the dinner for Melanie Griffith at the Cannes Carlton, to Music for one golden beetle and six drummers at the Golden Beetle Awards. They describe the challenges of making music with an eight story building or a 10 ton bulldozer, how to play the drums at the bottom of a swimmingpool and using a 100-headed audience as an instrument. They tell the story of how they used a surgery room to make upbeat disco and how their feature film Sound of Noise took six rogue drummers to the red carpet in Cannes and Hollywood Hills. And how traffic, city life and Spanish voices was made into beautiful music in Soundtrack of Mexico City.

This Master class can be extended with a tailored work shop and aims for schools and universities, organizations and businesses that strive to reinforce innovation and creativity,  empower collaboration and highlight the potential of the individual. The cornerstone of innovation is to challenge our preconceptions about the world as we know it. Creative collaboration is the natural habitat of great ideas.

Johannes Stjärne Nilsson

Johannes Stjärne Nilsson is a director, screenwriter and producer born in Lund, Sweden. He has a MFA in Industrial design at the National College of Arts and Crafts in Stockholm and is also a graphic designer and illustrator.

He has been making films for over 20 years and has amassed an exceptional body of work including the widely spread short Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers and the multi-award winning feature Sound of Noise. Johannes has reached a wide international audience in both the cinematic world and in the art community, and has been awarded with some 70 international awards including two Golden Beetle awards and nominations for a Palme d’Or and Camera d’Or at Cannes Film Festival.

His work is known to be visually oriented and conceptual, with sparse dialogue and a special focus on sound design and music. In a rare balance of pensive existentialism and surrealistic comedy, he takes on philosophical themes such as the absurdity of the subconscious, the element of time and the complexity of being human.

Johannes is also founder and member of the internationally acclaimed music group Six Drummers that makes music, art and live performances. He is a strong believer in collaboration with other artists, filmmakers and musicians.

Get in touch for more information and fees:

johannes@kostrfilm.com / +46 709 108700