A Case Study
Narrative | Dramatic Features
Film Name: Rising Moon
Genre: Family, Comedy, Drama
Length of film: 92 min.
Date: 2020
Director: Lydur Arnason
Producer: Lydur Arnason
Writer: Lydur Arnason & Sigurður Olafsson
Editor: Iris Sveinsdottir
Composer: Hrolfur Vagnsson
Cinematographer: Gudmundur Bjartmarsson & Johannes Jonsson
Production Company: Lyris Films
Budget: US $200.000
Financing: Private finance
Shooting Format: HD
Screening Format: 16:9
World Premiere: Global Nonviolent Film Festival 2021
Awards: Best Cinematography Award at the 10th Global Nonviolent Film Festival
Website: https://www.lyrisfilms.is
Available to Watch: https://globalcinema.online/programs/rising-moon
Watch the Official Trailer of Rising Moon directed and produced by Lydur Arnason
Lydur Arnason (Lýður Árnason) was born in 1962 in Iceland. He is a medical doctor, self-educated in filmmaking. While he continues to practice medicine, he is also producing films since 1996.
Lydur has written, directed, and produced short films, documentaries, and features. Most of his films have been shown in local cinemas and on TV (the Icelandic state TV RUV). His feature film Rising Moon received the Best Cinematography Award at the 10th Global Nonviolent Film Festival.
Lydia Arnason is the co-founder of Lyris Films.
indieactivity: What is your film about?
Lydur Arnason (LA): Rising Moon is based upon a true story that happened in the northwest part of Iceland not so long ago.
This film is about surrogacy and is based on a true story and it’s partly supernatural. The shootings took place in the northwest part of Iceland, during the winter and summer months. The young main actors were chosen locally. The whole community of the village was our big supporter during the shooting period and every scene was filmed on location.
The purpose of this film is to draw attention to the pros and cons of surrogacy and also to reveal the open-hearted vision of the child against the practical view of the elderly.
Give the full Official Synopsis for your film?
Lydur Arnason (LA): Two brothers disagree about their mother’s heritage. The older brother has a lot of children but no money; he is living in his mother’s house, in a small seaside village with his wife and four children. The younger brother has no children but a lot of money; he is living in the city with his unsatisfied wife who desperately wants a child but cannot have it.
The older brother’s wife unexpectedly gets pregnant. The younger brother proposes to adopt the unborn child while the older brother gets to keep the inheritance. The older brother and his wife accept the proposal. When their youngest daughter discovers this, she gets very upset and makes an effort to destroy the agreement.
Development & Financing: How did the story develop into a screenplay? Talk about how you secured finance for the film?
Lydur Arnason (LA): This film started with a friend’s idea. We were living on the opposite sides of one of the most known avalanche mountains in Iceland (twenty people were killed in an avalanche on my side in 1995).
I was working there as a doctor but my friend was a manager at a fish factory. We knew about each others’ film interests and he called me over for a meeting. He told me about his idea of a film based on a true story from his village.
I thought this was something new and we decided to take action. Over the next few months, we wrote the script together and got a small grant from the Icelandic film fund. That convinced us that we should make the film and applied for a production grant from the same fund.
This time, it was denied. It forced us to change direction and we went for private funding: we invited the local fishing companies to buy a share in the film. In this way, we managed to raise US $150,000 to which we added more from our own pockets. The film was financed by local companies and ourselves.
Production?
Lydur Arnason (LA): The first step in the process was to find actors willing to participate. In 2010 we announced a casting test for kids in the area and about 60 of them came to the auditions. We choose three and trained them for their roles for a couple of weeks. The other main actors were professionals and mostly chosen from the same area.
The crew was also made-up of local people with the exception of the director of photography. Then tragedy struck; just before the shooting started, my friend got a stroke and lost his speech and power. That was a huge shock to all, but he insisted that we proceeded in making the film without him.
We began filming in his hometown, Sudureyri, in the middle of the dark winter. We worked for a month, shooting mostly at night time to capture the dark atmosphere. The second shooting period lasted two weeks and took place in summer. The entire film was shot on location.
The editor, who is my wife and who is also a medical doctor, completed the first cut around Christmas 2011.
Festival Preparation & Strategy?
Lydur Arnason (LA): The film was shown in cinema in Iceland and also on TV RUV, the Icelandic state channel. We tried to distribute it in the northern countries but without success. In 2020 we decided to try the path of film festivals through FilmFreeway. The Global Nonviolent Film Festival selected it and awarded us for Best Cinematography.
Where can the film be watched today?
Lydur Arnason (LA): As a result of our film’s participation at the Global Nonviolent Film Festival, we were offered a distribution contract from Global Cinema Online and the film is now streaming on their channel.
Advice for other Filmmakers?
LA: Making film is a passion but the accessibility to funding is not the same for everyone. What we can do is adapt our stories to our budget. Even when financing is missing, if we have friends sharing the same passion, we can make it happen. My advice is not to wait too long, your creation is in your mind, you just have to find a way to overcome the difficulties.
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