Een dag in 't jaar

12 Months in 1 Day is the project with which Margot Schaap graduated from the master’s degree programme at the Netherlands Film Academy. Her aim was to look for a way of making films that would be less slow and cumbersome than usual. She came up with a strong concept: for a period of one year, there would be one day of filming every month, irrespective of the conditions. This ‘strictness’ resulted in a great deal of freedom. Between shooting days, work could be done on developing the story and the characters; if an actor was unavailable, improvisation would take place on the spot.
This remarkable mix of strictness and freedom is this film’s greatest asset. On the one hand we are constantly aware of the shooting concept and dealing with time. During the time frame of one day, we also undergo the passing of one year. On the other hand, these jumps in time are taken so easily and matter-of-factly that the film feels completely natural.