Mixtape #1

'This is the first in a series of profiles of people who I think are interesting, and who I see on almost a daily basis,' says Nathaniel. 'I don't want to limit the series to people who live "on the fringe," but it would be appropriate to say that most of the people I interview are eclectic, eccentric, and just a little bit unique. I hope to turn my lens on individuals that don't always color in the lines, whether they can help it or not.'

Music is 'Blue Bicycle' by Dusseldorf-based pianist / composer Volker Bertelmann also known as Hauschka. The film was shot on a Sony EX1, 1080p with a Letus Extreme 35mm Lens Adapter and a Zeiss Planar T* f1.4/85mm lens. The piece was edited in Final Cut Pro and color tweaked with Magic Bullet Looks.

'Technically speaking, I prefer this to anything I've done before', says Gilles. 'To me the character is completely enclosed in an acute paranoia. His speech seems coherent, but actually, he confuses everything: migration, the 2005 riots, global warming... I found it interesting to study the evolution of character with its gradual changeover, rather than to start the movie with a character already on the brink...'

In a country whose government has recently been taking a hard line against copyright infringement and piracy, Gilles is committed to distributing his films via the net. 'Without the Web, I'd have achieved 10 per cent of what I have. It's a great tool for sharing information. I learned how to shoot through forums: you have all these technicians, a great source of knowledge for editing, and special effects too. It's also through this medium that I choose to distribute.'

'I recommend reading the excellent Wikipedia article devoted to [the French legislation] Hadopi. And here's a quote from Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize in Economics: "Byte after byte, all that can be digitized will be digitized, making intellectual property ever easier to copy and ever harder to sell at more than a nominal price. And we must find economic models and business models that take this reality into account."

Yurat Safarov has just started his career as a film director and lives in Moscow, Russia. 'Bitter Sweet', his first film, has been shown at festivals including Florida, Dallas, Nashville and Brooklyn.

Sean Donnelly grew up in Santa Cruz, California, but has lived in Brooklyn since graduating from NYU's Film and Television program. His thesis film, 'The Couch', won a screenwriting award, acting ensemble award and was a Wasserman Semi-Finalist at the NYU First Run Film Festival. It went on to play at South by South West.

Sean's feature documentary film, I Think We're Alone Now, is an intimate portrait of two obsessed Tiffany fans. The film has played at festivals around the world, including IDFA, Melbourne, Slamdance, Raindance and Fantasia, where it won the award for best documentary. The film has been featured on NPR, Rolling Stone, Variety, Esquire, Vice, Entertainment Weekly and many more. It will be released on DVD in North America, Europe, Japan and Australia soon.

Sean is currently working on developing an animated television show called Basement Gary. The "Drug Simulator" short recently won the Playboy Animation Contest. He is also developing a couple of documentary projects and writing a feature film based on "The Luckiest One".

You can see more of his work at mrseandonnelly.com.

Fredrik Andersson studied animation at Konstfack art school in 2002. He lives and works in Eksjö, Sweden and has been a member of Eksjö Animation since 2006.

Fredrik makes all kinds of animation and likes to experiment with different materials. His current interest is in experimenting with light and sound. In the evenings, he delivers newspapers to finance his work.

'I don't believe that one should go to an institution or big company and ask for permission to make a movie. It ought to come directly without any consideration,' says Fredrik, 'that is the real poetry.'

More of his work is available on his Myspace page.