The video that made me come back to Norway

On a regular winter’s day over two years ago back in 2023, I was looking at a list of countries for my exchange semester. I wanted to study at a different place than Istanbul, which was constantly crowded and, except for winters, very hot for most of the year. I chose Norway and Denmark as my two options and was accepted to Volda University. 

After many paperworks and months spent trying to learn Norwegian, I was there. 

And the second I stepped out of the plane, it was a different world, and from that point forward, 4 months have gone by super fast. I did everything an exchange student would do, buddy week, hikes, swimming at the lake, northern lights, rokken parties, buying grandiosa pizza and so on… But one thing that was different for me from most international students was that I knew I hadn’t just come here for an exchange semester, to study. I was here to take another step in my career as a filmmaker. 

So I started filming my time here with a camera every now and then, I would just bring my camera to places and start filming when I thought a cinematic moment was unfolding. A sunset at the lake, a hike to a tall mountain, watching the northern lights… 

It kept going like this for months, sometimes only a few scenes in a month, sometimes more, but then once December arrived and exchange students went to their homes, the town was empty, and there was nothing I could do but edit. I spent many nights at the media building, editing, color grading, sound designing, recording. 

And then this video titled “my exchange semester in volda” was finished and published on YouTube. 

At first, it barely got a few hundred views and only circled around in our exchange friend group but then a month later after I left Volda and was back in Turkey, I received an email from Volda University saying that they wanted to use the video on the university’s website. 

I of course said yes and was satisfied with my humble achievement. But then, one year later, a few months ago, the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills’ official account to promote Norway as a study option: “Study Norway” contacted me, saying they wanted to use my video and to obtain the rights.

It was the first time a video of mine was noticed by a governmental organization and I was told that the video was going to be used in embassy events, fairs, and organizations promoting Norwegian Higher Education abroad. 

The video was finding its target audience over one year after its release. And the interesting thing about this whole thing is that, I hadn’t even intended for it to be directed to a target audience. It was made because I wanted to make a cinematic video as a memory of my time here, to be published on my channel. I made it as a memory artifact. I made it out of passion. And video took its own path and walked with it. 

And now when I came back to Volda as a master’s student this semester, a new exchange student walked over to me and told me that the reason they came to Volda was because of my video. 

It was a big realization that; whatever art you make, if you give it your sincerest passion and love, it may become something special, something more than what you intend it to be. And people might not notice it immediately, I think Van Gogh’s paintings in Musée d'Orsay in France would agree.