Film Craft > Production

THE SQUARE METER

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

Awards:

Grand Prix Cannes Lions
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Supporting Content
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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.

Tell the jury about the production design/art direction.

As absurd as the sets might be, the production designer wanted all of them to feel grounded and real. To that end, the designer took inspiration from their grandfather, who lived in a very small house with 9 children, but still created a personal and working space in his tiny backyard to pursue his love of building miniature steam trains. The journey through the rooms was meticulously planned with 3-D software, and all set movements and transitions were done in space, so actors could react realistically to the space. Finally, it was ensured that the set build, paint finishing, and decorating achieved a lived-in, and tactile quality with the use of a muted color palette.

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