How did you end up directing this particularly movie?

For the last ten years we’ve been doing commercials all over Europe and the US. In France we have been represented by Dog Productions since 2000. Dog is the commercial film department at EuropaCorp - owned by Luc Besson. In 2001 we wrote a script together with Andreas Roenning called “The Lake”. EuropaCorp picked it up and it was close to production when Besson called us one day and said that he had good news and bad news. The bad being that “The Lake” was not happening - the good being that he had another project for us called “Bandidas”, starring Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz. There was only one problem; we had to convince the girls by making some sort of a video presentation of ourselves, telling them why we where the right guys for the job. It was probably the worst thing Luc could have asked us. We hadn’t been in front of a camera since we where fourteen years old, playing around with Joachim’s dad’s camcorder back in Sandefjord, Norway. Luckily we where on a commercial shoot in the redwoods outside of San Francisco, and were able to gather up a small team and shoot a little film during lunch hour. What we did was to take a passage from the “Bandidas”-script where the girls go through a bankrobber-bootcamp, and turn it into a scene where we go through a directors-bootcamp in order to become the directors of “Bandidas”. Luckily, Salma and Penelope though the little film was very funny, and the job was ours.

Was it particularly exciting to work on a genre movie for your feature film debut?

A big yes! And the western-genre is probably one of the most defined ones. One thing we where nervous about, though, was the mix with comedy. We didn’t really remember ever having seen a great western-comedy, except some of the old Bud Spencer & Terrence Hill films from when we where kids. But the script was great and as we became closer with Salma and Penelope we discovered their great sense of humour. Hopefully we’ve been able to catch that on screen.

What did surprise you the most during the whole process of directing a feature film?

The complexity of the editing process. Coming from a commercial world where 45seconds is really long, it was a huge difference managing over 120 hours of raw material that was supposed to end up as a 90-minute movie. Luckily Luc was there to guide us.

How much had you learnt working on commercials?

Tremendously. Making commercial is the best school any director can have. You learn how to efficiently tell a story, because you have to be economical when it comes to the amount and lengths of shots. You learn how to run big sets and complex action. You are constantly working with the newest and best equipment, keeping you up to speed on the growing technical advantages you have theses days making movies. And you are able to work with the best crews all over the world.

Have you always worked together? How do you share?

Yes. We grew up together in a small town south of Oslo, Norway, called Sandefjord, making little films with Joachim’s dad’s camcorder since we where 12 years old. Directing as a team is very natural for us. Espen deals with the actors and Joachim deals with the visual side. But before any shoot we discuss thoroughly how everything is supposed to be - together.

You were quite lucky to begin with such a sexy cast!

Very lucky indeed! Salma and Penelope are great actresses, very funny to be with and great human beings (and did we mention extremely good looking and sexy). We will forever be thankful to them for giving us the opportunity to work on such a great project.

The technical crew members (Thierry Arbogast, Hugues Tissandier, Olivier Beriot...) were used to working together : how much did it help you?

It helped a lot to work with such a tight crew. We are very thankful that Luc was able to gather these people together for “Bandidas”, and that we where let into the family. Every day Olivier Beriot amazed us with the one great costume after another. Especially the girl’s wardrobe is fantastic. The marvellous sets of Hugues Tissandier brought us back to 1888 Mexico every day. And then there is Thierry Arbogast - wonderful Thierry. His lighting and insight into the core of the story was a tremendous kick to observe. Truly the best DP we have ever worked with. And that’s not an offence to all the other DP’s we’ve worked with - it’s just that this guy is not of this world.

Can you talk about the choice of filming the train scene in slow motion? The result is particularly surprising and exciting...

Although the movie takes place in 1888 Mexico we wanted to have a scene that was cutting edge modern - something that showed that we could also direct high-end special effects. Something that we hadn’t seen before. So we came up with trying to capture the climax shoot-out towards the end of “Bandidas” in seemingly one take. The idea was that we wanted the camera to move around, handheld like in a documentary, in an extreme slow-motion environment. You would be able to pan around with flying knifes and dodge bullets. It is our modern take on the old shoot outs at the end of every classic western.

We achieved the effect by shooting the actors in 300 frames per second, which actually became a small problem because we couldn’t use professional stuntmen for difficult falls and explosions, because at that speed we saw the actor’s faces to clearly. But the cast was up for the challenge and did a great job. After that we did an empty pass with a handheld camera, calculating where the action would take place when, and put it all together at MacGuff in Paris. And they did an amazing job!

Do you expect to direct a movie that you would have been written?

Having Luc as our hero, that is our dream.

What are your next projects?

Right know we are on what they call “our feature film honeymoon”, where everything is possible. There are a couple of projects up in the air, and we hope one of them will land. Thank you.