Who the Hell Is Floris Kingma?
A master of visual trickery, off-beat humour and mesmerising music videos, Floris, a.k.a Blackmetaldeath is an asset to the UK market. When he’s is not shooting commercials, music videos and short films, Floris is catching waves in Portugal and generally, rocking on.
A word from MD, Matt Hichens: “Our paths crossed on a brilliantly crazy project via McCann Germany. It was an opportunity we couldn’t (and gladly didn't) turn down. It was one hell of a ride – but a wonderful one! One of the main reasons it was such a wonderful experience was Floris...his creative and agile thinking and positivity helped make the project a pleasure to work on and I think a brilliant film in the end too. Genuinely looking forward to working with him on more amazing projects. Promise you he makes them look easy.”
Armoury sat down with their new signing, to chat all things Floris Kingma.
Q> Amsterdam is your home base. Why live in Portugal? What inspires you about these two places?
Floris> After travelling the world for a year with my wife and two kids, we decided that it was time to change the horizon; From the wonderful vibrant city life to the tranquillo surf sunset. We like both but as you only live once -feel free to disagree- we want to live it all.
Q> Did you always know you wanted to do something creative in your life? What led you to study economics at university?
Floris> Ha! No. I had no clue at that time. About anything actually.
I did my skateboarding. I did my drumming. Did my deep dive into house music.
Studying economics was the way to postpone a real decision while at the same time giving my parents the impression that I was working on my future, hahaha.
Then faith found me: after graduating I got a job as a producer at the Amsterdam Television Network. As they didn’t have a director for the small ads I proposed to take care of that.
Apparently I did something right as I’m currently shooting ads all over our wonderful blue floating dot.
Q> How did you meet Armoury? And what excites you about Armoury’s work and roster?
Floris> Long story short: we met due to an oddball German project. The fact that we both went in headfirst said something about our mentality: We both sail a pirate ship on a sea of opportunities. This spirited and positive attitude led to a project we had fun while doing business. As such it tastes like more!
Q> How would you describe your filmmaking style?
Floris> I’m a bit like Harvey Two-Face for that matter.
Originally, I started off as a comedy director with an acquired taste for the deadpan and odd.
Accidentally, I stumbled into a project in which my eye, and ears, for the poetic and musical momentum surfaced. In combination with a fair amount of in-camera trickery and art-directional outspokenness, this shows my more whimsical filmmaking style.
Q> Who or what would you say are your key influences?
Floris> I wouldn’t want to narrow down the people who inspire me because it actually changes over time. What inspired me 10 years ago can be a phase from the past. For example, in the beginning of my career Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums era) was interesting but now I’ve seen enough and I’m even bored when I see an agency moodboard with images from his films (All due respect). So I would rather say that I’m influenced by each and every content that touches me. This can be an ad, movie, painting, music video or sketch that happens in real life.
Q> How do you bring your passion for music and subculture into your filmmaking practice?
Floris> “Music is my first love, and it will be my last. Music of the future, and music of the past.
So you can imagine how important music is to every film I make. I always dig deep. I search hard. I want to find that perfect song or score or even just texture that brings the visuals together.”
The above is literally the start of the music segment of EVERY treatment I write. This is not laziness, this is the best way of putting in words the importance of music to me.
On top, I like doing music videos. I don’t make any money out of it but the energy of the process and possibility to walk in the creative outskirts of my brains is very rewarding.
Q> Talk us through your usual approach to a creative idea / script / brief?
Floris> I’m a freethinker with a fair amount of experience. This results in that I always look at every brief from the core onwards; What makes the concept stand out best (while keeping in mind the history of the project ;), how to nurture the idea. When the base is rocksolid, the tunes of some nice techno brings me in the natural high of colouring in the details.
I like to think that this concept driven attitude leads to work with a clear Floris Kingma signature, hoping that people asking me to pitch wouldn’t settle for any less.
Q> Any personal projects alongside commercial filmmaking? (both past and present!)
Floris> Aside the music videos, a graphic novel (I do the writing) and an animation series, I’m doing a full renovation of our house in Portugal.
When I’m not surfing waves that is…
Q> What are you looking forward to about entering the UK market?
Floris> Some time ago I spoke to a fellow director about my work and the French market. He said that he found my work and attitude more fitting for the UK market. Looking at myself in the mirror and seeing Two-Faced Harvey I agreed: The UK market has both the wonderful deadpan comedy scripts as the music driven whimsical ads!
