With recent concerns over contentious and disturbing imagery online driving some troubled individuals to take their lives and worldwide reflection taking effect on what parents should allow their children to see online, as well as how much they should be watching each day, Swedish director Jonatan Etzler has crafted an award-winning short, GET READY WITH ME, which focuses on a teenage girl’s desire to upload a video to YouTube that has far-reaching consequences for herself and the teacher who allows her to show it in class.
Film And TV Now recently interviewed the director about his work and his own perspective on such an important and timely issue in today’s society.
FILM AND TV NOW: Your film highlights two very serious issues facing the youth of today – the power of social media, and how it affects people’s mental health. How did you develop the idea and screenplay?
JONATAN ETZLER: The idea came to me originally when I was working at a school as a film teacher för 13 year old children. They were given the assignment to make a film with a pocket camera, and one of the groups of children made a pretty disturbing film about suicide. When it came around to making my thesis project at Stockholm University of the Arts, this event came back to me and the writers Amanda and Axel and the producer Johan Lundström turned this idea into the powerful storyline of Get Ready With Me.
FTVN: Bullying has become an even bigger concern throughout the world because of the eruption of social media and feeds that we take for granted. Has this been something that has been a major concern to the Swedish Government.
JE: I think this is a very important issue and it’s definitely relatable to the increase of mental health issues among young people today. The Swedish Government hasn’t been talking about this issue at all though, so I think it’s important to make films like this to make people more aware of this issue. Social media changes the way we think and communicate and the people should be made aware of it.
FTVN: Tell us about your relationship with the writers of this short, Amanda Hogberg and Axel Nygren.
JE: We are all film students at Stockholm University of the Arts, class of 2018. For our thesis project, we were very much focused on making something different, and really compelling, and this mutual ambition made us work together really well. Although the process was really long and tough we’re happy about the result and all the attention the film has been getting.
FTVN: What’s quite disturbing about Vendela is she is troubled, but she embraces the bullying from others and her YouTube channel becomes a safety valve, as well as a means to express. When did social media grow within the Swedish schools system?
JE: A lot of schools have forbidden students to use their smartphones during the lessons, but this doesn’t really change the fact that social media is still a major part of their lives. Also, a lot of teachers use iPads and computers and different types of social media for communication.
FTVN: It’s also interesting to see the vulnerability of Lukas as he tries to understand Vendela’s situation after the first video view in class. How has social media affected the pupil-teacher relationships locally?
JE: This is one of the things that interested me from the start when we developed this film. The relationship between the student and the teacher and how he steps over the line and becomes too personally involved. I’m not sure about how social media has affected Swedish teachers. I think a lot of teachers are not aware enough of social media. Also, the Swedish schools suffers from a lack of resources. There’s too many students to each teacher.
FTVN: Where did you shoot and how long did it take to make?
JE: We started working on the idea in April 2017, worked on the script until December 2017. Then we shot the film in February, we had a 10 day shoot, and finished the post-production in the end of May 2018. And now it just had it’s first public screening at the film festival in Göteborg, after winning the Student Academy Award in October. So it’s been a long process, but I’m happy I was a part of it.
FTVN: Finally, are you more comfortable working in a short film context or are you developing feature scripts?
JE: I’m currently making a short film which I plan to shoot in the summer, but I’m definitely interested in features and series, and I’m currently developing both feature projects and series projects. Get Ready With Me, even though it’s just 30 minutes, made me aware of the power of longer stories.
