Porsche Awards 2014 Winners: Sandin Puce
As proud partners of the student filmmaking competition, we talk to the winners of the event. Taken from shots 155.
Sandin Puce
Third Prize
adidas Take Your Stage
Bosnian, aged 29
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, diploma year
Representation Driven By Creatives, element-e, Fox Devil Films (Germany), Rocket Film (Switzerland), Smooth-Prod (France)
You can’t just pluck ideas out of the sky. Or can you? It was when Bosnian director Sandin Puce stepped out onto a roof for air that he came up with the concept for his third-prize-winning spot Take Your Stage.
“I discovered a small bucket 30m below on the ground,” Puce recalls. “I stepped to the edge of the roof and asked myself: ‘If I was to jump now – could I hit the bucket?’ The moment caused my knees to tremble and one thought after another went through my head. At the end, the whole movie was there.”
Created with adidas in mind, the piece is one of two that Puce worked on for his diploma while studying at the Filmakademie.
The spot opens on a young girl sizing up a jump from the top of a building. The scene initially causes concern, but before long it emerges that she’s actually a competitive diver and is simply preparing for her next big plunge into the pool.
“The actress is my niece and comes from Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Puce adds. “She started doing gymnastics at three years old and at six began ballet. Because of that training she has a great awareness of her body and an enormous discipline.”
During the award judging sessions, the jury was impressed with Puce’s courage to face the tough transitional point of his film, when the scene switches from a mundane residential estate to a diving arena full of fans.
The director chose to approach the task with a brave technique that tackles the challenge head on, allowing for a seamless transitional shot instead of cutting away. “I love it when technical aspects merge with pure reality,” says Puce of the scene. “To me this always creates something magical. I call it film, dream, illusion.”
At 16, Puce accidentally attended a film workshop in Bosnia which is how he discovered his love for moving image and from then on began shooting his own music videos, short animated movies and commercials. His passion for the medium has seen him launch a film club and the Short Film Festival in Mostar with friends and he has also worked with New York film critic Howard Feinstein and the Sarajevo Film Festival.
Reflecting on his latest achievement at the Porsche Awards, Puce concludes: “It made me very happy to win the Porsche Award and to get the opportunity to meet all the great directors and jury members from all around the world. I had some great conversations after the awards ceremony and was very pleased it took place at my old academy; on the night the occasion was connected with some really nice old memories.”
