Frank Scheffer
Encyclopedia
Frank Scheffer is a Dutch
cinematographer
and producer
of documentary film
, mostly known for his work Conducting Mahler ((1996) on the 1995 Mahler Festival in Amsterdam with Claudio Abbado
, Riccardo Chailly
, Riccardo Muti
and Sir Simon Rattle
).
).
People (1982), a documentary on Francis Ford Coppola
and his studio with Wim Wenders
, Tom Waits
, Vittorio Storaro
and others, as well as documentaries on the Dalai Lama
and various socio/cultural subjects. In 1985 he directed the music video A Day for the band XYMOX on the 4AD Records label, leading him towards musical subjects. 1987 saw his short experimental films Wagner‘s Ring, a distillation of The Ring
in 3'50" conceived with John Cage
; and Stoperas 1/2 which was created to be shown with Cage's Europeras 1 & 2. Collaborations with Cage continued with the conceptual film Chessfilmnoise (1988), a documentary on Cage and Elliott Carter
Time Is Music (1988), and From Zero (1995) in collaboration with Andrew Culver.
's work conducted by Michael Gielen and The Final Chorale (1990) on Igor Stravinsky
’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments
conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw.
Further documentaries include films on Louis Andriessen
(The Road, 1997, conducted by Peter Eötvös
), Luciano Berio
(Voyage to Cythera from 1999 on his Sinfonia
conducted by the composer), Pierre Boulez
(Eclat, 1993), and (Helikopter String Quartet, 1996) with Karlheinz Stockhausen
and the Arditti Quartet
.
and Squarepusher
, was the subject of Sonic Acts (1998). This was followed by three experimental projects searching for the influence of the digital medium in film and music: Sonic Images (1998), Sonic Fragments / The Poetics of Digital Fragmentation (1999) and Sonic Genetics (2000).
In 1999 Scheffer made Music for Airports, a video on Brian Eno
's music of the same name as arranged by Bang on a Can
founders Julia Wolfe
, Michael Gordon
, David Lang
and Evan Ziporyn
. The sprawling In the Ocean (2001), on present day New York composers, features Steve Reich
, Philip Glass
, Elliott Carter
, John Cage
, Brian Eno and the Bang on a Can founders.
Scheffer is also working on several in depth films on specific composers — The Present Day Composer Refuses to Die on Frank Zappa
, in cooperation with the Zappa Family Trust (2000, featuring The Mothers of Invention
, Pierre Boulez
and Ensemble Modern
), and the 90-minute Zappa feature Phaze II, The Big Note (2002), to be followed by a third film which will complete his Zappa trilogy. Scheffer has been following and filming Elliott Carter
for 25 years; this culminated in A Labyrinth of Time (2005), a portrait on the composer as well as a view of the history of modernism in the 20th century. In 2005 Scheffer also finished a documentary on the Tea-Opera composed by Tan Dun
, with Pierre Audi
(Director) and Xiu Ying Li (libretto), Tea.
and most recent with a smaller retrospective at the Mumbai International Film Festival (2008).
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
and producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
of documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, mostly known for his work Conducting Mahler ((1996) on the 1995 Mahler Festival in Amsterdam with Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , is an Italian conductor. He has served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera,...
, Riccardo Chailly
Riccardo Chailly
Riccardo Chailly, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI is an Italian conductor. He started his career as an opera conductor and gradually extended his repertoire to encompass symphonic music.-Biography:...
, Riccardo Muti
Riccardo Muti
Riccardo Muti, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI is an Italian conductor and music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.-Childhood and education:...
and Sir Simon Rattle
Simon Rattle
Sir Simon Denis Rattle, CBE is an English conductor. He rose to international prominence as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and since 2002 has been principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic ....
).
Education
Scheffer was schooled at the Academy for Industrial Design (Eindhoven), the "Vrije Academie" Art College in Den Haag, where he studied with the famous experimental filmmaker Frans Zwartjes and is a graduate from the Dutch Film Academy (AmsterdamAmsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
).
Early films
Early films include ZoetropeZoetrope
A zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures. The term zoetrope is from the Greek words "ζωή – zoe", "life" and τρόπος – tropos, "turn". It may be taken to mean "wheel of life"....
People (1982), a documentary on Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
and his studio with Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders
Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders is a German film director, playwright, author, photographer and producer.-Early life:Wenders was born in Düsseldorf. He graduated from high school in Oberhausen in the Ruhr area. He then studied medicine and philosophy in Freiburg and Düsseldorf...
, Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
, Vittorio Storaro
Vittorio Storaro
Vittorio Storaro, A.S.C., A.I.C. is an Italian cinematographer.In 2003, a survey conducted by the International Cinematographers Guild judged Storaro one of history's ten most influential cinematographers.-Biography:...
and others, as well as documentaries on the Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...
and various socio/cultural subjects. In 1985 he directed the music video A Day for the band XYMOX on the 4AD Records label, leading him towards musical subjects. 1987 saw his short experimental films Wagner‘s Ring, a distillation of The Ring
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
in 3'50" conceived with John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
; and Stoperas 1/2 which was created to be shown with Cage's Europeras 1 & 2. Collaborations with Cage continued with the conceptual film Chessfilmnoise (1988), a documentary on Cage and Elliott Carter
Elliott Carter
Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
Time Is Music (1988), and From Zero (1995) in collaboration with Andrew Culver.
The great composers
Scheffer’s films on music constitute an overview of the great composers of the 20th century — from Conducting Mahler (1996) on the 1995 Mahler Festival in Amsterdam with Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Riccardo Muti and Sir Simon Rattle, to Five Orchestral Pieces (1994) on Arnold SchönbergArnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
's work conducted by Michael Gielen and The Final Chorale (1990) on Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments
Symphonies of Wind Instruments
The Symphonies of Wind Instruments is a concert work written by Igor Stravinsky in 1920, for an ensemble of woodwind and brass instruments. The piece is in one movement, lasting about 9 minutes...
conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw.
Further documentaries include films on Louis Andriessen
Louis Andriessen
Louis Andriessen is a Dutch composer and pianist based in Amsterdam. He teaches composition at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague...
(The Road, 1997, conducted by Peter Eötvös
Peter Eötvös
Péter Eötvös is a Hungarian composer and conductor.Eötvös was born in Odorheiu Secuiesc/Székelyudvarhely, Szeklerland, Transylvania . He studied composition in Budapest and Cologne. From 1962, he composed for film in Hungary. Eötvös played regularly with the Stockhausen Ensemble between 1968 and...
), Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...
(Voyage to Cythera from 1999 on his Sinfonia
Sinfonia
Sinfonia is the Italian word for symphony. In English it most commonly refers to a 17th- or 18th-century orchestral piece used as an introduction, interlude, or postlude to an opera, oratorio, cantata, or suite...
conducted by the composer), Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
(Eclat, 1993), and (Helikopter String Quartet, 1996) with Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
and the Arditti Quartet
Arditti Quartet
The Arditti Quartet is a string quartet founded in 1974. The quartet is associated particularly with contemporary music.-Early history:The quartet was founded in 1974 by violinist Irvine Arditti together with John Senter, Levine Andrade and Lenox Mackenzie...
.
Contemporary composers and experimental projects
The history of Electronic Music, from Stockhausen to DJ SpookyDJ Spooky
Paul D. Miller , known by his stage name DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is a Washington DC-born electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics or his fans as "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntablist, a producer, a philosopher, and an author...
and Squarepusher
Squarepusher
Squarepusher is the performing pseudonym of Tom Jenkinson, an English electronic music artist signed to Warp Records. He specialises in the electronic music genres of drum and bass and acid, with a significant jazz and musique concrète influence....
, was the subject of Sonic Acts (1998). This was followed by three experimental projects searching for the influence of the digital medium in film and music: Sonic Images (1998), Sonic Fragments / The Poetics of Digital Fragmentation (1999) and Sonic Genetics (2000).
In 1999 Scheffer made Music for Airports, a video on Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
's music of the same name as arranged by Bang on a Can
Bang on a Can
Bang on a Can is a multi-faceted classical music organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1987 by three American composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon...
founders Julia Wolfe
Julia Wolfe
Julia Wolfe is an American composer. She was born in Philadelphia, holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Princeton and Yale, and currently works in New York. Wolfe's music is rhythmically vigorous and often clangorously dissonant...
, Michael Gordon
Michael Gordon (composer)
Michael Gordon is an American composer and co-founder of the Bang on a Can festival and ensemble. His music is associated with the genres of totalism and post-minimalism.-Early life:...
, David Lang
David Lang (composer)
David Lang is an American composer living in New York City. He was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Music for The Little Match Girl Passion.-Biography:...
and Evan Ziporyn
Evan Ziporyn
Evan Ziporyn is an American composer of post-minimalist music and music for Balinese gamelans. He plays the clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone, and metallophone, borrowing from classical music, avant-garde, and jazz...
. The sprawling In the Ocean (2001), on present day New York composers, features Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
, Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
, Elliott Carter
Elliott Carter
Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
, John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
, Brian Eno and the Bang on a Can founders.
Scheffer is also working on several in depth films on specific composers — The Present Day Composer Refuses to Die on Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
, in cooperation with the Zappa Family Trust (2000, featuring The Mothers of Invention
The Mothers of Invention
The Mothers of Invention were an American band active from 1964 to 1969, and again from 1970 to 1975.They mainly performed works by, and were the original recording group of, US composer and guitarist Frank Zappa , although other members have had the occasional writing credit...
, Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
and Ensemble Modern
Ensemble Modern
Ensemble Modern is a chamber ensemble dedicated to the music of modern composers. Formed in 1980, the group is based in Frankfurt, Germany and made up variously of about twenty members from numerous countries....
), and the 90-minute Zappa feature Phaze II, The Big Note (2002), to be followed by a third film which will complete his Zappa trilogy. Scheffer has been following and filming Elliott Carter
Elliott Carter
Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
for 25 years; this culminated in A Labyrinth of Time (2005), a portrait on the composer as well as a view of the history of modernism in the 20th century. In 2005 Scheffer also finished a documentary on the Tea-Opera composed by Tan Dun
Tan Dun
Tan Dun is a Chinese contemporary classical composer, most widely known for his scores for the movies Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero.-Early life in China:...
, with Pierre Audi
Pierre Audi
Pierre Audi is a French-Lebanese theatre director and artistic director.Pierre Audi is the son of the Lebanese banker Raymond Audi and Andrée Michel Fattal, the eldest of three children. Audi's family were originally from originally from Saida, but he attended the French Lycée in Beirut...
(Director) and Xiu Ying Li (libretto), Tea.
Selected filmography
- ZOETROPE PEOPLE 1982, 60 min. (director)
- AVALOKITESHVARA 1983, 58 min. (director)
- BGTV (VPRO, Dutch TV) 1983-84
- A DAY 1985, 5 min. (director/producer)
- WAGNER'S RING 1987, 3'50” min. (director/producer)
- STOPERAS I & II 1987, 2'50” min. (director/producer)
- TIME IS MUSIC 1987, 60 min. (director)
- ETUDES SOLARES 1988, 24 min. (director/producer)
- OBSESSION 1989, 5 min. (director/producer)
- THE FINAL CHORALE 1990, 50 min. (director/producer)
- LANDSCAPESTUDIES I & II 1991, 5 / 7 min. (director/producer)
- AND THE EAREYE SEESHEARS 1992, 60 min. (director/producer)
- THE NATURE OF SPACE 1993, 73 min. (director/producer)
- ECLAT 1993, 54 min. (director/producer)
- FIVE ORCHESTRAL PIECES 1994, 55 min. (director/producer)
- LENT, VAGUE, INDECIS 1994, 10 min. (director/producer)
- THE HIDDEN FRONT 1995, 90 min. (director/producer)
- FROM ZERO, A GROUP OF FILMS 1995, 84 min. (director/producer)
- FROM ZERO, the DOCUMENTARY 1995, 52 min. (director/produ cer)
- HELICOPTER STRING QUARTET 1996, 77 min. (director/producer)
- CONDUCTING MAHLER 1996, 75 min. (director/producer)
- THE ROAD 1997, 90 min. (director/producer)
- SONIC ACTS 1998, 60 min. (director/producer)
- KONTAKTE 1998, 10 min. (director/producer)
- TOUCH 1998, 10 min. (director/producer)
- ATTRAZIONE D'AMORE 1998, 55 min. (director/producer)
- VOYAGE TO CYTHERA 1999, 52 min. (director/producer)
- EPOXY 1999, 50 min. (director/producer)
- MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS 1999, 48 min. (director/producer)
- RING 2000, 2000, 3 min. (director/producer)
- CHROMOSONIC 2000, 15 min. (director/producer)
- FRANK ZAPPA: THE PRESENT DAY COMPOSER REFUSES TO DIE 2000, 55 min.
- IN THE OCEAN 2001, 54 min. (director/producer)
- CHESSONIC 2001, 10 min. (director/producer)
- FROM ZERO, THE INSTALLATION 2001, (director/producer)
- FRANK ZAPPA – PHASE II, THE BIG NOTE 2002, 90 min (director/producer)
- SOMETHING OLD SOMETHING NEW IN RED GREEN AND BLUE
- A LABYRINTH OF MEMORY (tv version) 2003, 2x 55 minutes (director/producer)
- QUINTET 2004, 15 min. (director/producer)
- MAHLER: ICH BIN DER WELT ABHANDEN GEKOMMEN 2004, 55 min. (Director/producer)
- A LABYRINTH OF TIME 2004, 94 min. (director/producer)
- TEA 2005, 96 min. (director/producer)
- STREAMING PAST, PRESENT MOMENTS 2005, 6 min. (director/ producer)
Other
In addition to numerous critical and festival awards, Scheffer was honored with a complete retrospective of his films at the 2001 Holland FestivalHolland Festival
The Holland Festival is The Netherlands' oldest and largest performing arts festival, and takes place every June in Amsterdam. It comprises theater, music, opera and modern dance. In recent years, multimedia, visual arts, film and architecture were added to the festival roster...
and most recent with a smaller retrospective at the Mumbai International Film Festival (2008).