Film Craft > Production

THE SQUARE METER

HEIMAT\TBWA, Berlin / HORNBACH D.I.Y./ HOME IMPROVEMENT SUPERSTORES / 2024

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Overview

Credits

OVERVIEW

Why is this work relevant for Film Craft?

The movie shows a great attention to detail in all aspects. Everything is lovingly crafted, from the hand-built rooms and buildings that took weeks to construct, to the musical score and carefully selected cast.

Please provide any cultural context that would help the Jury understand any cultural, national or regional nuances applicable to this work.

Like most of the world, Germany is heavily affected by the ongoing cost of living crisis. Inflation, stagnating wages, and sluggish urban development make adequate housing impossible to find for most. In the news, this development is often illustrated with the soaring price of rent per square meter, which in some areas has doubled or tripled in just the past few years. In the public imagination, the square meter is symbolically linked to a decrease in living standards and an increasingly restricted way of life. This gives our effort to reclaim this particular space as a stage for fun and creativity added significance.

Write a short summary of what happens in the film.

A man sleeps in a tiny bedroom, as the enchanting sounds of a tuba player sitting in an adjacent tiny chamber wakes him up. When he gets up, the bed turns and transforms into a tiny bathroom. What kind of house is this? As he goes about his day, we gradually learn the answer: through doors, hatches, and ladders, he moves from room to room, all of which share the same dimensions: he climbs a ladder to water his square mushroom farm, moves from a square restaurant to a square ping-pong table, to a square art room. Finally, he opens a last door leading to a big stage - and earns the applause his ingenuity deserves.

Background:

In Germany, HORNBACH has established itself as the hardware store chain for ambitious, large, and joyful projects. But as the cost-of-living crisis hits Europe, fewer and fewer people feel like they have the kind of space that is necessary for big projects. HORNBACH was at risk of becoming irrelevant to urban city-dwellers living in tight, increasingly expensive spaces – by far the biggest and fastest-growing target group in European markets. As the cost-of-living increases, and people pay more money for less space, we need to show that the HORNBACH ethos – creativity, skills, mischief – is still applicable in the homes of potential DIYers today.

Provide the full film script in English.

We open very close on the face of a man.

He is in his mid 30’s, his hair slightly receding. Maybe his snoring blows a tuft of his forelock up and then down. An alarm sounds and the man slowly opens his eyes.

The camera tracks back away from the man to the end of his bed. We realize that the room is very small. But the man is in no way glum. He smiles happily as he sits up and rubs his eyes. His head is very close to the ceiling. Unexpectedly, as the man stands, the room rotates, so that he is standing on what was previously the wall. He opens the small window on what was the roof, as the soft morning light fills the room.

The man pushes the roof with the window, and it opens like a doorway. The camera, attached to the ceiling, pivots around to become the floor of another room - a very small, cleverly designed bathroom.

We cut to a camera in the bathroom as the man, now partially undressed walks into a very small, inventively designed shower. There is a small ladder connected to the wall at the back of the shower.

We cut to an overhead shot of the man who climbs up the ladder and pushes the camera away. The camera rotates revealing a small kitchen.

The man climbs into the kitchen now dressed for the day in casual clothes.

He pushes the wall which opens onto a very narrow and very tall vertical garden or mushroom farm. The man climbs up a ladder on the wall, stopping midway to water one of his plants.

He pushes open the top of the room and climbs into a small pottery studio, where the wheel is already spinning. The man squeezes the pot, and it changes shape magically into an elaborate vase.

He pushes his chair back, and we track with him as he rolls into a very small dining room, where his chair comes to rest at a small table. In front of him is a delicious looking meal. Above him, sit other people on chairs suspended from the walls. The man waves to one of them, before he stands and pushes the side wall open.

The camera pushes back to reveal another small room with half a table tennis table. The man begins to hit the ball against the wall.

The camera now tracks across past the wall of the room onto another similar sized room, where a woman is also playing table tennis against herself.

The camera cuts wider to see the two room, and the ball moves almost as the two are playing one game. Around the two central rooms we see other equally sized rooms - In one, a man is dancing in a very small nightclub, in another room a woman is performing an opera aria, whilst in other rooms people might be playing a very small piano, (that becomes the soundtrack of the film) or sleeping in front of a TV or playing football on a very small pitch or climbing a ladder in a store room, or simply staring out the window with a cup of coffee.

We cut back to the man who folds up the table tennis table and the wall falls open onto the ground. the camera which had been fixed to the wall now becomes the floor of an adjacent room, which feels familiar – the kitchen from the opening scenes.

The man walks in and hangs up his jacket, before he reaches down and pulls up the floor, which again the camera is attached to. The floor of the kitchen now becomes the roof of the bedroom. Moon light now washes over the room, as the man climbs down away from camera, now dressed in his pajamas. He pushes open the wall once again, however this time it unexpectedly opens onto a theatre stage where a large, well-dressed audience is watching intently.

We see the man upfront now, walking with an unsure smile, awkwardly towards a stage. (maybe he still has a toothbrush in his mouth). He looks around, self-consciously, unsure of where he has found himself.

The audience breaks out into enthusiastic applause.

The man, finding himself with no option, embraces the moment and bows graciously.

A title appears:

Every square meter deserves to be the best in the world.

End on HORNBACH Logo and Soundlogo.

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