Torben Kjelstrup Directs World Tilting Film for Tuborg Brewing

Director Torben Kjelstrup’s thrilling film for Danish brewing company Tuborg, 'Tilt Your World,' explores the wonders in everyday life that emerge when we take a slightly different view of the world around us. The film was produced by Thirsty Films in Denmark. 

“The tilted label made me explore my own city from a different view,” says Torben. “I started looking at the streets in my neighbourhood from a new perspective and felt like I was seeing everything for the first time again. That’s the feeling I hope people will get when watching the film and when they see the bottle in the supermarket. A different perspective.” 

While the original premise of the tilting world was established at the outset, the story was told in a vignette format. To make the film more engaging and personal, Torben suggested anchoring the concept around four distinct characters to really explore the logic of a tilted world in the depth through them. Alongside these characters, the viewer slides, leaps and bounds through an ever-shifting urban landscape. 

When approaching a film, Torben is meticulous in his planning. This attention to detail enables him to imagine the scenes and have a clear idea of how the end result of each shot will look. With 'Tilt Your World,' however, the director had to evolve his process as there weren’t many references for the stunts in the film. Drawing upon his background in architecture, Torben and the production team devised ground breaking solutions that were unique to the angles, situations, and settings required in each shot. As a result, the scenes emerged in real-time on set as the dancers worked together and nailed the stunts. 

Novel approaches to shots also require new solutions to the challenges they present. One of the biggest challenges of the shoot was to devise solutions that 'turned gravity' in a credible way. “For some shots, we built sets at the correct angle,” says Torben, “but for most exterior shots we just turned the camera around and had to pull and drag the actors along wires in ways which felt credible to the laws of physics. This was a tricky balance to strike, as we wanted gravity to feel present and still allow room for the dancers to express their personalities.” 

Reflecting on the production, Torben says, “Everything came together better than I had hoped, thanks to the amazing team in Cape Town as well as a very trusting collaboration with Tuborg and Thirsty. We had an incredible stunt team and had so much fun rehearsing all these stunts and moves in advance of the shoot.” 

Torben Kjelstrup is a Danish director living in Copenhagen. He is represented by Independent Films in Denmark, Furlined in the United States, Arts & Sciences in the UK, OPC in Canada, BIG Productions in France, Tony Petersen Film in Germany, and Hobby Film in Sweden.