June 22nd, 1981
Sysyphus is founded under the official name "Sysyphus Film Productions Unlimited" by Rene Smaal, Peter Kras and Jasper Antes at Starwood Studios in Breda, The Netherlands. The three were members of the Echo team that collapsed the day before as a result of internal conflicts. With Sysyphus they plan to make independent, unconventional and free-form films.
July 1981
Peter Kras leaves the team until January. The remaining members, Rene Smaal and Jasper Antes, join their forces and film "Pocoloco" in a week time. They also write the script for "244".
August 25th, 1981
Bob ter Hark joins the team. Sysyphus shoots "Six minutes of fame" in Zandvoort. Peter Kras rejoins the team for just one day.
October 4th, 1981
New material: Fuji camera and powerful lighting stuff. And Frank Hoeks joins the team.
October 10th, 1981
They shoot "244".
November 14th, 1981
Sysyphus makes "Rendez-vous", based on a Jasper Antes script from June that year.
December 10th, 1981
"The Threat" was made.
January 8th, 1982
Peter Kras rejoins Sysyphus.
January 12th, 1982
Jasper Antes leaves.
March 27th, 1982
Frank hoeks leaves the team. Sysyphus shoots "Phenomena" with Regina Jacometti as walking lady.
May 13th, 1982
Jasper Antes joins Sysyphus again.
May 14th, 1982
Rene, Peter and Jasper write "The Cat" and film it the very same day.
May 15th, 1982
Sysyphus plans to give "The Beast" another try (see Filmography: Echo). In a bar they pick up Erica de Jongh and Gerti Husson for two of the three female roles. The third is filled in by Sonja de Groot. She is brought in by Jasper.
May 17th, 1982
Enter Erica de Jongh, Gerti Husson and Sonja de Groot as Sysyphus team members.
June 2nd, 1982
On an empty football tribune Rene and Jasper write "The Hole".
June 4-6, 1982
Rene and Jasper shoot "The Hole".
May/July 1982
With a script that was rewritten twice, and with a brand new cast, Sysyphus fails to make "The Beast" into the film they had in mind. The project is blown off for the second time.
July 17th, 1982
Jasper Antes leaves the team, disappointed this time.
July 26th, 1982
With the cast of "The Beast", except for Jasper Antes, Sysyphus shoots "Mystery" in one day in the woods near Breda.
July 30th, 1982
Though "The Beast" as a project had already been cancelled, Sysyphus decides to shoot the "Police scene" anyway, not only because the city police arranged a car and two policemen, but mainly because it was fun to do. Bob was arrested, handcuffed and taken away.
August 24th, 1982
Rene, Peter and Bob shoot "Sue Side". They intended to film at sea, but the car broke down so they had to choose the "Drunense Duinen", a sandy plain near Tilburg, as an alternative location.
August 28th, 1982
"The Window" is made.
September 28th, 1982
A new film projector, as well as a solid tripod.
December 20th, 1982
After a script that Jasper Antes wrote in the summer of 1981, Sysyphus shoots "The Source".
January 2nd, 1983
Sysyphus meet at Bob ter Harks home in Millshot Forest. They shoot "One left out" and order a Chinese dinner.
January 15th, 1983
"Keep laughin'" is shot, based on a Bob ter Hark script.
January 27th, 1983
Rene writes the script for "April 1st".
January 30th, 1983
Sysyphus shoots "April 1st". Gerti Husson as the joker, Bob ter Hark as her victim. A 60-second film with a 60-second Art of Noise score.
May 8th, 1983
Erica de Jongh, Sonja de Groot and Gerti Husson leave Sysyphus.
July 2nd, 1983
Enter Myhra Groenendijk as Sysyphus team member.
July 23rd, 1983
Rene Smaal, Peter Kras, Ilse Smaal and Myhra Groenendijk shoot "Mistakes" in Zandvoort. They return after midnight.
March 25th, 1984
Official name change: "Sysyphus Filmproductions Unlimited" becomes "Sysyphus Film".
May 13th, 1984
With a huge hangover as a result of Bobs birthday party Sysyphus makes "Ceci n'est pas un film". They didn't finish it, though.
June 2nd, 1984
Peter wrote the script for "The Gnawk" in July 1983, while making the "Mistakes" film. "The Gnawk" is filmed in two days. Myhra Groenendijk played the female role.
July 20th, 1985
On a clear night, in the forest near Bobs house, "The Light" is shot. Peter and Rene wrote the script earlier that year, in Zandvoort.
October 1st, 1985
Myhra Groenendijk leaves Sysyphus.
October 19th, 1985
Based on a script Rene wrote on October 17th "The Sign" was shot in one take.
February 1st, 1986
Hilarious moments while shooting "Über Sieben Brücken" in Amsterdam.
April 4th, 1986
Rene, Peter and Bob shoot "The Phylm" during their stay in Zandvoort. A lot of time is invested in preparations such as the handmade masks that are used in the film. Music by The Art of Noise (Close to the edit).
June 22nd, 1986
During a heavy thunderstorm, Sysyphus shoots "Filth". At first presentation of the rough cut, a few weeks later, a member of the (small) audience fainted.
September 27th, 1986
Peter wrote the script for "Clockwork" on September 23rd. "Clockwork" was filmed on the 27th, but Sysyphus was not satisfied with the result. They hide the film and decide to act as if they never made it.
November 18th, 1987
"Looking for the ball" was shot somewhere in Belgium.
March 30th, 1988
Bob wrote the script, Sysyphus shot it -again- in the "Drunense Duinen": "One year after".
April 4th, 1988
Sysyphus shoots "Lost Film". Two of the three films sent to the procession station were lost there. In stead of their own material, Sysyphus receives two developed films of total strangers. They decide to use the material and integrate it in "Lost Film". The result was more surprising than expected.
May 20th, 1989
Peter and Rene write the script for a technically rather ambitious project, called "Finished". For one of the scenes, the so called "retro scene", they need "a series of Sysyphus film stills as seen from an artist point of view" for which they decide to ask their mutual friend and painter Arthur Sythoff.
June - July, 1989
Digart artist Arthur Sythoff makes 21 paintings, especially for the "retro scene" of "Finished". Sysyphus buys them all and makes several attempts to put them on film.
August 12th, 1989
Sysyphus finishes editing "Finished". Due to technical limitations the project almost had to be abandoned. The Sythoff paintings were first exposed at an Amsterdam art gallery and then sold to Vanderaerde, a Belgian art broker. Most of the paintings were stolen from him in the early nineties.
January 2nd, 1998
For the first time in 16 years, Peter, Jasper and Rene get together at Rene's house and drink lots, that is lots, of whiskey. Not a word is spoken about Sysyphus.
August 1998
Rene buys a digital video camera. He has plans to "do something with it".
October 1998
Rene and Jasper talk about Sysyphus and the good old times. Unofficially, Jasper joins Sysyphus again (after 16 years).
March 1999
It is rumoured that the Team, after a silence of nearly ten years, has plans to do another project around the turn of the Millennium.
November 1999
Sysyphus decides to go work on a Video-CD / DVD with a re-release of five films: Phenomena, Mystery, April 1st, The Phylm, and....: Finished!
All five of them will be digitally remastered in the Sydeline Studios by the Sysyphus team. "Finished", an unfinished 1989 film, will be finished this time (finally), using the latest of the state of the art digital video editing techniques the modern world has to offer.
December 15th, 1999
Peter and Rene get together in the Sydeline Studios in Breda and start working on a digital remaster of "Clandistina", the 1989 soundtrack of the unfinished "Finished" project. They finish the new digital soundtrack just before Christmas.
February 2000
In addition to the "Finished" soundtrack Peter produces two other superb digital remasters, one for "Phenomena" and the other one for "Mystery".
In the Sydeline Studios Rene and Peter are preparing five films for a digitally remastered re-release on Video-CD/DVD: "Phenomena", "Mystery", "April 1st", "The Phylm", and, last but not least....: "Finished"!
August 2nd, 2000
A self designed time lapse controller is built, based on a 2 Herz pulse LED and a rechargeable led battery. It's called "Model 114" and can be attached to the remote control jack for single frame shooting ("114" stands for shooting 114 frames/minute).
August 7th, 2000
The "Model 114" is tested on a recently purchased Canon 514-XL. The results are "very satisfying".
August 8th, 2000
In Moscow Rene buys a Krasnogorsk 16mm movie camera (built 1987, but still new in the box!). In Germany he buys three 16mm sound projectors: a Bell & Howell 1680, and two Meopta Automatics. He has plans to do something on 16mm in black & white, but is not sure what, when, with whom, or even why.
August 12th, 2000
In Vilnius (Lithuania) Sysyphus receives the Golden Frame for "Finished" as best foreign film. Peter is there to receive the price.
September 2000
The Sysyphus "Fiver" (vol. 1) is released on VHS!
June 22nd, 2001
It was 20 years ago today!
On this sunny Friday, Rene, Peter and Jasper get together and shoot new material (8mm color, 8mm b&w and DV) for a new project, especially for the twentieth birthday of Sysyphus. The new project bears the name "Dotijn". Rene and Peter shoot their material in Breda (NL) and Jasper in Alanya (Turkey).
July 19th, 2001
New website for Sysyphus: www.sysyphus.nl is now in the air.
July 20th, 2001
Online movies on www.sysyphus.nl (a selection of three eighties "shorties" and an excerpt from "Finished") .
October 16th, 2001
Project "Dotijn" had to be stopped because the Turkish footage just... disappeared, somehow.
December 2002
The Sysyphus "Sixer" (vol. 1) is released on S-VCD! Same tracks as on "Fiver", but with Pocoloco now added as an extra track.
October 1st, 2007
Bob ter Hark leaves Sysyphus.
October 4th, 2007
Tim van der Avoird joins Sysyphus.
December 18th, 2007
Sysyphus makes short film "Hel Ligt (Voorbij de Hemel)".
February 2nd, 2008
Sysyphus shoots "Een Hollandse Grens Graven" (a.k.a. "Drawing a Dutch Line") in Purmer and Edam.
With Tim as Ad and Peter as Ed.
June 2008
Sysyphus finishes post production "Een Hollandse Grens Graven" (Drawing a Dutch Line).
August 2008
Sysyphus shoots and edits "De Duiker en de Surfer".
January 21st, 2009
Founding member Jasper Antes leaves Sysyphus.
November 2009
Working on "Wieziewiek".
January 2010
Move to HD tapeless workflow.
January 17th, 2010
Shooting "Wieziewiek" at location Drunense Duinen.
January / October 2010
Shooting rest of "Wieziewiek" footage & post processing
October 2010
Expanding to DSLR filmmaking
October 17th, 2010
"Wieziewiek" released.
And founding member Rene Smaal leaves Sysyphus.
