_____THE CONCEPT____________________
As always it is a pleasure being asked to do the Lichter Filmfest Trailer. Every year the festival and the films they show have a specific theme. The theme for 2018 edition was the CHAOS. We started out with some wild ideas and concepts, which were chaotic but didn’t embrace the cinematic and storytelling side of the festival. Additionally, we had the opportunity to cooperate with the Motion Capture Studio Metricminds, which gave us a lot of new directions to think.
The idea was to interweave two worlds, both relevant in modern filmmaking - the digital and the real. Whereas we mostly see the perfect, finished and polished results, the process to get there is often overlooked. And what resembles chaos more than a film set?
_____COMBINING TWO WORLDS____________________
We knew early on that we had to come up with an easy and simple way to incorporate the Motion Capture Data and 3D/CGI shots, due to the tight production schedule. Since the whole setting is kind of absurd and weird, we knew we could neglect realism a little bit and get away with some flaws. That also meant, we could keep the 3D dance parts visually as simple as possible.
_____PRE - PRODUCTION____________________
Once the concept was done the work on the story started. The challenge here was to find a number of little incidents that accumulate into a finale that picks up where we left off - the glitch between two worlds - but elevates the setting into something much bigger and bizarre, to baffle the audiences. The more happens the better, but timing was of the essence. That is why we started to pre-vis almost immediately.
_____PRE - VISUALIZATION____________________
We did an extensive Pre-Viz to see if we could fit in everything the story commanded, within the 30 - 35 seconds we had. On top of that, working with mostly non-actors we wanted to be very specific as to what to shoot. Especially having scenes with up to 10 people, all of them doing something on screen, within a certain amount of time, gave us quite a headache in the beginning. We knew pretty early on, that we would have to work with a lot of Sound Effects on and off screen, to get this feeling of pandemonium and disorder across.
_____MOTION CAPTURE____________________
The Motion Capture was done by the nice folks at Metricminds. We were lucky to have the Dancer and Performance Artist David Voigt, thanks to the people at the animation studio Raum 230, who also did the Art Direction & Supervision for the dance part.
Filmed and edited by Sebastian Simon
_____BEHIND THE SCENES____________________
Photos by Judith Hartnack and Sebastian Simon
_____THE TWO VERSIONS____________________
During post-production mis-communication led to a problem regarding the visual style of the 3D part. Since all people and departments worked on this for free, it seemed unfair to kick someone off production because of mis-communication which they were not responsible for. In the end we decided to release the official trailer with all parties having their guaranteed part, and I would have my Directors Cut - the version I envisioned from the start. Problem solved ;-)
_____CAST & CREW____________________
ACTORS: Isabel Berghout, Jochen Döring, Charles Schrader
EXTRAS: Ana Corine Franco Cuenca, Phlipp Mehler, Simon Schmidt, Elif Esen, Que Hanh, Morris Kappes, Rosalinda Messina, Carina Mesquita Augusto, David Fabra, Sebastian Simon, Robert Hertel, Max Rübsamen
DANCER & CHOREOGRAPH: David Voigt
PRODUCTION: PixelPEC
CONCEPT & DIRECTOR: Daniel Jude
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Caren Wuhrer
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Sebastian Simon
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: Ana Corine Franco Cuenca
1st ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Robert Hertel
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Knut Adass
CAMERA ASSISTANT: Julian Roth
DATA WRANGLER: Max Rübsamen
GAFFER: Luis Rodriguez
LIGHTING TECHNICIAN: Gustavo Nagel
ELECTRICIAN: Morris Kappes
EDITOR & 2nd ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: David Fabra
3D-ANIMATION: Raum 230
3D-ANIMATION Directors's Cut: Daniel Jude
MOTION CAPTURE: metric minds (metricminds.com)
MO-CAP DANCE ART DIRECTION & SUPERVISION: Martin Schmidt, Dennis Stein-Schomburg (Raum 230)
COMPOSITING: Daniel Jude
GRADING: Gunnar Ohlenschläger, MSP media, sound & pictures GmbH (msp-of.de)
SOUND MIXER: Eick Hoemann
BOOM OPERATOR: Lukas Keil
SOUND DESIGNER & RERECORDING MIXER: Bernhard Leimbrock, herold studios
MAKE UP: Rosalinda Messina
COSTUME DESIGNER: Carina Mesquita Augusto
DCP: Gunnar Ohlenschläger, MSP media, sound & pictures GmbH
CATERING: Frank Roland
STORY-CONSULTING: Gregor Maria Schubert & Johanna Süß
A BIG THANK YOU to the nice folks at METRICMINDS: Philip Weiss, Niklas Welter and René Dose for their endless support!
VERY SPECIAL THANKS: MBF Filmtechnik GmbH, Max Wanko / Herold Studios
_____THINGS I HAVE LEARNED____________________
There are always some important things to take away from a production. Here's what I learned:
_Have a clear and honest communication throughout all departments. Define who does what!
_A good 1st AD is priceless.
_Prepare as good as you can, and then prepare more.
_Don’t shy away from handing over responsibilities.
_Always trust your gut feeling.
