Spike Jonze, ‘Desperado’ and ‘The Matrix’: The Work That Made Kristian Ussing

Kristian Ussing started in film by skiing in and making freestyle ski and snowboard films around the turn of the millennium. Back when they would come out on VHS.

He then went on to study film at the University of Copenhagen where he met some likeminded idiots and started his first production company in 2004. Since then he has gone from editing through directing and writing and onto producing a myriad of commercials, short films, music videos, TV shows and documentaries. Even winning a bunch of Danish and international awards along the way.

Since 2022, he’s been partner and EP at Copenhagen based production house Holy Ravioli, where he’s focused on breaking down the walls between categories and building the three headed film-production Hydra of his dreams: commercial, documentary and scripted films. All under one roof.

Kristian sat down with LBB to look back on the moment where his his inner filmmaking fire started, Spike Jonze and David Fincher double-bills, and his proudest work...

LBB> The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…

Kristian> It’s a very weird toss-up between Spike Jonze’s music video for Beastie Boys’ ‘Sabotage’, which I – to this day – find completely amazing. It was unlike anything I’d seen at the time and just felt so insanely fucking cool.

On the other spectrum I vividly remember a US commercial for tampons I saw on TV in 1991, to which I still remember the VO “I’ll borrow my mother’s scarf, her earrings. But my mother’s tampons? No way!” I don’t think Spike Jonze directed that one though.

LBB> The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…

Kristian> I was 15 and went with my brother to watch ‘Desperado’ in the cinema without knowing anything about it. I emerged back on the street a changed boy. And with a newborn dream to make movies.

To tell the truth, what I really wanted was to wear all black, sport a ponytail and just be Antonio Banderas with a guitar case full of guns, but that’s neither here nor there. It’s where my inner filmmaking fire started.

LBB> The creative work that I keep revisiting…

Kristian> It’s another toss-up. This time between ‘Fight Club’ and ‘The Matrix’. I just love everything about those two films. And they’re both endlessly rewatchable and hold up tremendously well. Beautiful, dark, moody, twist endings. What more do you want? That they both came out in 1999 when I was 19 and very impressionable might also have something to do with it.

LBB> My first professional project…

Kristian> My first paid gig was an event video for Footlocker in Copenhagen. We were three guys with cameras, we filmed this sneaker event for three days. We even made a very DIY ‘bullet-time’ rig with six DV cameras, because The Matrix. We then proceeded to edit for more than three weeks. All for the neat sum of €2,000. Also we were sure we’d hit the big leagues right there and super stardom was right around the corner.

LBB> The piece of work that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…

Kristian> A border supermarket here in Denmark recently made a fully AI ‘created’ music video and it is profoundly unnerving and infuriating.

They’re trying to pass off the weirdness of it as a joke, but it’s sickening to watch. It’s not that I am an AI hater. AI has tremendous potential if used right. It’s just fucking terrible.

LBB> The piece of work that still makes me jealous…

Kristian> So, so, so, so many! Iñarritu’s ‘Write the Future’ spot for Nike, the Perlorian Brothers’ ‘What’s for dinner’ spot for KFC, Traktor’s ‘Worst song in the world’ for Monoprix. Most of Spike Jonze’s work. Most of Mark Romanek’s music videos. All of David Fincher’s films. So many.

LBB> The creative project that changed my career…

Kristian> This is a tough one. Cause I can’t pinpoint one specific project. But whatever projects led to the two other companies wanting to merge with my company and create Holy Ravioli in 2022 is by quite a long stretch the biggest career change of my life.

What we are doing now with Holy Ravioli is pretty unique in many ways and I am beyond grateful that we all took a chance on each other and decided to aim for the bushes.

LBB> The work that I’m proudest of…

Kristian> I would have to go with the feature length doc ‘Tsumu – Where do you go with your dreams?’, directed by Kasper Kiertzner. It tells the story of three marginalised kids from the remote town of Tasiilaq in Eastern Greenland that have to deal with poverty, addiction, abuse and even suicide. They somehow manage to find a reason to smile and fight to change their lives and their narrative.

The production was crazy complex and took place during covid-19 making it even harder to film in one of the most remote locations possible. That the film was completed is all thanks to Kasper and DOP Jonas Møller. (And partly my lack of financial oversight between rounds of funding).

But watching the film at the Nuuk Film Festival in 2023 with a theatre packed full of young Greenlanders and seeing their reaction to the film was a profoundly moving experience that I will always carry with me.

LBB> I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…

Kristian> There’s so, so many to choose from unfortunately. But near the top is the music video for the song ‘I’m that chick’. Ouch.

I’ve made stuff that’s technically worse, but there’s something about that video, that’s just not right. I also produced a casino spot with the lead singer of the band Scooter that got voted third most annoying commercial in Germany. I believe that was an understatement.

LBB> The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…

Kristian> We’ve been developing a scripted horror show based on a book by Danish author Bjarne Reuter for some years now. It was such a long shot from the get go, but director Kristian Boysen and producer Luna Jansen have just been pushing and pushing, getting funding and pushing some more.

We now have a very well developed package and the scripts are fucking great. I really hope we can go into production next year. And if it doesn’t fly, I’ll pay for it my goddamn self. With all the leftover cash from the Footlocker gig.