X-analysis of ICEHOTEL and Boyhood

I have chosen to analyze and compare the ICEHOTEL and the film “Boyhood” by Richard Linklater. The reason I chose these two projects is that they are two completely different projects, both aiming to create an experience and tell a story that exceeds any expectations of the audience.

Creating a new unique hotel and art exhibition every year is an enormous undertaking. Art sculptures and architecture are nothing the other alike and it’s all made out of natural snow, ice and “snis”. “Snis are snow + ice; ice particles from the Torne River mixed with air. “Snis” resembles snow as it is insulating and white, but structurally stronger than clean snow and therefore a good building material”. Both are one-of-a-kind projects where ICEHOTEL is an annual project whilst Boyhood is a movie that casts the life of a six-year-old boy over the next 12 years.

The production of Boyhood began in 2002 with the overall objective to make a film about growing up. The project begun without a completed script. Initially, there was just basic plot points and the ending written. Linklater chose to develop the script throughout the whole production, writing the next year’s part of the movie after watching and analyzing the previous year’s footage. I find it very interesting that Linklater also involved all major actors in the writing process by incorporating their live experiences into their character’s stories to make the overall story more credible. This artistic methodology by Linklater characterize a incrementally and iteratively process which means they are working staggered on a schedule and that the work and plans continuously are evaluated and revised. This means that they were constantly going back and forth among the phases of a project stated by Ramroth.

Even though the construction of the ICEHOTEL doesn’t starts until October, planning and preparations are an ongoing process all year around. Not only maintaining of the national river Torne, the area where the ice is being harvested, but also to store 4 000 tons of ice that was harvested the previous winter in big warehouses onsite. Compared to Boyhood, there’s no doubt that the project of ICEHOTEL is on a more time limit schedule due to it’s season specific, it opens to the public in December and it usually stays open until the melt starts in April. For me, the phases in this project are more critical to its outcome as they rely on each other in a completely different way and there is limited opportunities to go back for rescheduling and rethinking.

There is no doubt that these two projects require enormously planning. Both projects are different in terms of life-cycle and budget but there are also similarities in limitations in terms of resources like manpower and time. Either of these projects wouldn’t be possible to execute without a clear vision combined with great management.

For those of you that are more interested, below are links to a short film with some great footages of the source of everything at the Icehotel, the Torne River, and to the trailer of Boyhood.

Link to the film about ICEHOTEL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4rQWw6qmC0

Link to the trailer of Boyhood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys-mbHXyWX4

?? Questions

A very interesting and clever film that captures a peaceful and seemingly untouched environment in some aspects. I also like how the different relationships are captured. Below are some questions:

  • How did you come up with the idea of making this movie?
  • Did you have any personal relationship to the “karstic landscape” before you started to shoot the film?
  • What was the most difficult part, planning, filming or editing?

Initially, there was some explosive scenes with blasting stones…

  • Did you reach the end safely?