Film Courage: So your first three feature
films have grossed 800 million?
David F. Sandberg, Filmmaker: I haven’t
checked.
That sounds about right…sure?
Why not?
Film Courage: Okay.
Is this something that 10 years ago you (you
at Lotta Losten David’s wife and creative
partner) would have ever imagined?
David: I mean…not to sound like a jerk but
in a way yes.
Because it was always my dream to make movies
and it was always my dream to be a Hollywood
director but that was kind of like a secret
because I’m from Sweden from like the other
side of the world.
I don’t have any family members who are
in show biz or anything like that.
So it’s not like you can say to friend and
family “Yeah, I’m going to be a Hollywood
director.”
People will be like “Yeah, sure.
I’m going to be a the king of Spain…whatever.”
But that was always the goal and then a lot
of times that goal has felt really far away
and I’ve felt very depressed and felt like
this is never going to happen.
But that was always the goal, that was what
I wanted to do with my life so in a way you
can’t say that it’s been expected but
it’s always been the goal so it’s always
been like “Yes, that’s always what I really
want.”
So it’s more of like…the feeling is not
the surprise…well it is a surprise like
“Wow?
It actually happened.
My dream actually came true.”
But the dream has always been there if that
makes sense.
Film Courage: And when you were in Sweden
you were posting short films (animated short
films) to your Youtube channel [Ponysmasher],
were you working another job?
Were you in animation?
David: I actually haven’t had a lot of jobs.
So…I think video store was my first job
which was sort of under-the-table, not really
official but it was kind of cool because I
loved it because yes I access to movies.
I could rent all of these free movies.
And sometimes you get screeners so you get
movies before they came out on video but I’ve
never been much of a people person…so you
have to talk to people a lot so that was the
downside of it but all of the movies, that
was the great part.
I worked a little bit in grocery stores and
things like that and I hated that even more
because the downsides of working in a video
store but without all of the movies.
And then I was unemployed for quite a while,
I was really depressed, I was still living
with my mom in my twenties and eventually
I started making animation because I always
wanted to make movies.
I was making movies with friends but then
as we started getting older my friends are
getting jobs and lives and then suddenly there
is not as much time and willingness to make
little dumb shorts.
So that’s when I started doing animation
because it was something I could do by myself.
I didn’t have to rely on other people’s
schedules or money or whatever.
I always liked drawing so I could do that
on my computer all by myself I’ll just record
the voices.
I didn’t even need an expensive camera for
it.
I was luck in that this was in 2005, 2006
when YouTube was a new thing and I signed
up to that.
I didn’t really know what it was but I was
like “Okay, I can upload videos here.”
And I uploaded a little animated short that
I made.
It got a really good response.
People really seemed to like it.
I was like “This is great.”
So I made another one that was a little bit
more ambitious than the first one.
The first one was almost like a slideshow.
I mean I hesitate to call it that but it is
an actual slideshow.
But then the second one I got more ambitious
with.
I made this story that was sort of more personal
about the thoughts in your head that put you
down and tell you that you’re crap.
Basically an angel and a devil on your shoulder.
That one really took off on line.
It got all of these views and really went
viral.
But it was in Swedish so it didn’t really
go out of Scandinavia but like Norway, Denmark,
Finland.
And that got me a lot of attention.
I got to go on TV and like “What’s it
like to have a viral hit?”
And it also led to me getting some jobs like
companies were like we want to make a little
funny video about our product or whatever
and we loved our funny video, can you do something
for us?
And often I would…the short films I made
were very crude.
Like they had a lot of language and big phallic
symbols and when companies want to do something
they were like “Yes, we want that…but
NOT that.”
So you kind of have to do something that is
not as fun but now I was actually getting
some money, getting paid which was great so
I moved out and didn’t have to live with
my mom anymore and this also led to me meeting
my wife.
We actually dated when we were eleven.
She was into acting, I was already into making
movies.
Then when this short film went viral she saw
it.
We dated when we were eleven and then had
a 14 year break and she saw this movie and
recognized my voice and contacted me to reconnect,
we did and got back together.
Now when we were dating, she was an actress.
I had a video camera.
It was like “Oohh, now we can make things
together.”
We tried getting money from the Swedish Film
Institute because in Sweden you apply for
grants for your shorts or your features.
It’s basically how all movies are made there.
But we didn’t have any luck because they
weren’t as interested in sort of the genre
stuff (the stuff I always wanted to do).
I think I always had sort of a commercial
bent for movies.
Like that’s kind of my taste…American
fun popcorn movies.
In Sweden (especially when you have a grant-based
system) tax payer money and they have to be
real responsible with that money, it often
goes to films that are sort of important and
sort of issues with society and things like
that.
There is nothing wrong with that.
It has led to some great movies but it didn’t
really work out for us.
So we were turned down and then we felt like
whatever….you’re an actress, I have a
camera, let’s just do something.
We don’t need money, we can do little short
films ourselves.
So we did a little short film called CAMP
CLOSER (it was a horror short) about a phone
that sees the future.
I put that up on my Youtube channel that now
had a few thousand followers from my animated
worked and they were kind of surprised (my
followers) because they expected sort of humorous
animated things and then suddenly it’s this
terrifying horror short.
But people still seemed to like it even though
they were surprised and we really enjoyed
doing it.
And then there was an online contest by this
horror collective in the UK called Bloody
Cuts, make an under three-minute horror film
and you can win prizes and things.
And we were like “That’s what we’re
doing.
We just did CAMP CLOSER, let’s do something
for this.
And that’s when we did LIGHTS OUT.
Again just me and Lotta in our apartment trying
to figure out okay what can we do that is
scary and I think everyone has had that feeling.
In our house it was a coat rack that you walk
out in the middle of the night and Oooh!
It looks like someone is standing there and
you turn on the lights and…Oh it’s not
really anyone there.
And that is sort of how playing around with
the light it sort of gave us okay there something
that actually is there every time you turn
on the light.
We did that and uploaded it to the contest
and then we found out that we didn’t win
the contest but then a little while later
they also had secondary prizes so I won best
director and it was like “Oh?
That’s awesome.”
But we didn’t think anything else would
happen with that.
We were like “Oh fun.
Let’s make more movies.”
Then a few months after that (it was in March
of 2014) I saw on Reddit that someone had
linked to our short film.
It was like “Oh, that’s awesome.”
I showed Lotta and go into see the stats and
it was like 17,000 views.
And then minutes later it was like 70,000
views.
And then it was like over 140,000 views.
And it just kept going and going.
It’s like what is happening?
But it was just like a two and a half minute
short film and there is no dialogue in it
and I think that really helped it to spread.
Partly because people don’t have an attention
span anymore so if they see “Oh it’s only
two and a half minutes.
I can watch that.”
And because there is no dialogue, it can spread
anywhere.
So we really sort of lucked into something
that is really universal.
It was just a few days after that I actually
said to Lotta that “You know I’ve heard
of people getting representation from shorts,
for managers and agents.”
The day after I said that I woke up to an
email from management firm here in Hollywood
and I showed Lotta “I told you!
It’s starting.”
And then it just like opened the floodgates
and we got emails from agents and producers
and studios and sometimes actors and people
as well, make-up artists and all of these
things.
What is this?
And these managers and agents that want to
represent.
I had to get an IMDB Pro account just to know
who these people are.
Eventually I picked a manager who could help
us navigate this whole thing in getting an
agent, then who can we trust with producers
and things like that.
This producer Lawrence seemed really good
and was into it because a lot of them just
wanted to know who we were and what are plans
were and it didn’t explicitly say “We
want to make this movie.”
Or “We want to represent you.”
And I kind of need that, I don’t know if
because I am Swedish and kind of introverted.
I’m no good with sort of interpreting subtle
signs.
So I went with the producer who was “Yes!
I want to make this movie.
We should make this movie.
Boom!”
It’s like “Alright, let’s go.”
We went with Lawrence Gray and it was kind
of a weird situation because once this happened
it was about a year before the movie happened.
Which was actually pretty quick but it feels
strange in that situation to sort of wait
for all of these things.
And not knowing if it’s real or if it’s
actually going to happen or no because during
this year it was signing with a management
firm and an agency and all of that and then
finding a writer and working with a writer
to develop the script and making a deal for
all of this and getting a lawyer and getting
a lawyer and all of that.
So during this year Lotta and I didn’t know
if this was actually real or if it was all
baloney.
So we were like “Well we can’t stop.”
We kept making short films around our house
or wherever we were could come up with new
ideas.
We made one up in the attic and one in the
basement, trying to come up with new stuff.
For each of these shorts I would make these
little behind-the-scenes videos that turned
out to be very appreciated by people who saw
it as other up-and-coming-filmmakers and it
was something I did because I love it and
that’s what I wanted to see.
I’ve always loved seeing behind-the-scenes
and making of’s just to learn as much as
possible just to learn as much as possible
and see what it is like on a film set.
And how you create all of these things and
how do you create all of these things and
all of that.
So we just kept doing that.
And we even had this idea that we would make
a feature just her and I if this didn’t
pan out.
In March (something like that) of 2015 they
basically say “Yes, it’s happening.
We need you hear like next week (or whatever.”
So Lotta basically had to quit her job because
she worked in a group home.
I was a freelance animator so I basically
didn’t have anything steady going.
So I locked our apartment, got on a plane
and this was paid for by the studio because
we were broke.
When we first got a manager they were like
“Hey can you get out here because we want
you to meet all of these people and go on
this tour of Hollywood and hey this is this
guy and whatever.”
But we didn’t have any more so it’s like
we couldn’t do that.
But then they paid for us to fly out here.
It was very strange.
We had to find a place to live here and everything
is super expensive in LA but we found on AirBnB
this half of a garage in Burbank.
It was sort of parted into two.
So this father and daughter were neighbors
in our garage.
For us it was like $2,500 or so a month and
for us it was insane.
It was a pretty nice garage, it wasn’t bad
or anything but it was quite a shock to find
out how expensive everything was and we still
didn’t have any money.
And when we got over here the studio paid
for the flight over and they were going to
pay for living expenses but not until the
movie was green lit and it wasn’t actually
green lit until quite late.
So we had to…well first of all we borrowed
from everyone we knew back home in Sweden
and then when that money ran out it was like
“Oooh, what do we do now.”
So we had to borrow from like a producer and
a manager.
It was kind of dicey because it was like if
this doesn’t happen we are in deep trouble
because we were all bored out when it comes
to money but then thankfully it did happen
(the movie) but yes it was all pretty crazy
because I had never been on a movie set before
so the first time I actually set foot on a
real movie set it was as the director.
Film Courage: Wow!
David: It was pretty crazy.
Especially since everyone there had more experience
than me and every assistant and PA, they’ve
all worked on real movies.
And part of me thinks they all thought I was
more experience than I was and I wasn’t
going to correct them I was just like “Yeah,
sure.
If you want me to make your movie, I will.”
But they would ask me “Do you have a DP
or editor or a storyboard artist that you
work with?”
No, I’ve done all of these things myself
because I had to.
Film Courage: Had you and Lotta previously
been to Los Angeles?
David: Yes, the year before it went viral
we were in LA because I made a little animated
documentary and it got into a film festival
in San Jose and so we got a little money from
the Swedish Film Institute to actually go
to that festival and then it’s like “Let’s
go to LA as well.”
And the producer we worked with to make that
little animated documentary he was like “Let’s
go pitch the studios in Hollywood.”
And it was like “What are you insane?
What do you mean pitch the studios in Hollywood?
How are we going to get in?
What are we going to do?”
He was like “My brother actually works at
Fox in Sweden.
So he can probably get us into Fox into LA.”
And I was like “Okay?”
And I was like “Let’s like pitch a horror
movie or something,” because I actually
wrote a little horror movie which was my first
script in English and everything.
And we actually got to go there and pitch
this thing and we had to sign all of these
disclaimers because we weren’t represented
or anything.
It was an interesting experience but it was
clearly just like “Oh he’s a friend of
him, just listen to him.”
Nothing came of it or anything but it was
still an interesting experience.
I got to walk on the Fox lot and actually
sit there and talk movies.
So yes we had been there before and even got
into a studio but that was it.
Film Courage: When you said viral previously,
what year are we talking about and what was
that number?
You know how viral has changed?
You know how some people no longer think that
one million is a lot of video views?
David: Yes, it was in 2014 (March).
At the time it was like 4 million I remember
that.
It landed on like 10 million or 11 million
or something?
It kept going because other people have uploaded
it as well.
And we didn’t want to be like “Oh we have
to take that down.
That’s our movie.”
I mean as long as they didn’t changed anything
we were like “Yeah, upload it.”
So I saw it uploaded on Facebook…I don’t
trust those numbers.
It 
was like 70-80 million.
I’m not sure what they do…but yeah…sure.
But a lot of people have seen it.
Film Courage: And the link that was put on
Reddit, what that Vimeo or YouTube?
David: That was Vimeo actually.
So it went viral on Vimeo first which seems
kind of unique in a way because it seems like
it’s mostly YouTube but then since it was
on YouTube to, that explored too.
But it started on Vimeo.
