May 2013 - director in Paris…

Paris in Springtime - where could be any better!? Of course my first day of shooting for  "Paris - I hate to love you" was very exciting. As always, when people who do not know each other  meet in a common purpose there is a strange atmosphere, like on the first day of school. You think that everyone else knows each other and knows more than you. You quickly find out that this is not true. But nevertheless it is important to find your part in the team. To find the right tone and all the while not communicationg in your mother language - not so easy. But everyone and thing present is a little bit lost in translation at first.

A multi-national team has found itself together in this project. Producer Melissa & cameraman Andy are from New Zealand - Our actress, Eirin, comes from Norway, Christine comes from England and I - the director ... from good old Germany. All the others are French and everyone is trying to understand eachother. Two things quickly become vital :- film language and understanding all facial expressions. Warm, smiling faces all around spread a good mood. Melissa offers me a coffee - but I decline politely - caffeine would make me even more nervous. Everything is going well - I find empathy with the lead actor, even if I do not understand French. And I'm starting to feel the confidence grow. On the second day, the atmosphere is much more relaxed - all muck-in. The location is a chic Parisian apartment overlooking the Eiffel Tower - Victoires office. The leading ladies begin and all the crew is filming with a grin on their faces. This is fun! I am pleased that the two actresses have internalized the characters so well and so it is a pleasure to implement my ideas with them. I forget the time and enjoy the composition of the pictures and the beautiful work with the Team. I feel I have arrived. The shooting days are passing quickly. Everything works as expected. The scenes with the kids in the park - as expected - prove very stressful. By all means necessarry we try to manipulate, persuade and keep it fun so to get the right pictures. Little Sascha is very talented, but we only reach the the crying scene by accident. Sasha falls down - not badly - but enough to cry naturally. "Stop!," I say to the mother that she should not go to comfort him. Pointing with my hand, I gesture to Andy to keep filming. Andy does as he's told - but with a bleeding heart. After a few seconds his mum must take him in her arms (Sascha not Andy) and we all feel guilty. But a short time later Sascha again shines and acts like a little professional! We are on schedule and on the last day capture all we missed in the preceding days. A great feeling. After two weeks I leave Paris with a heavy heart. I have a feeling that this was just the beginning and when "Paris - I hate to love you" deservedly finds a producer, we will all quickly see that the series is a hit..

april 2013 - In the editing of "pink elephants"

Would you believe it?! It’s been over a year since Anna and me started to cut the movie.
We saw, sorted and shortened over 300 hours of film footage. We created 33 different sequences, our computers are at the limits of their capacity and now sluggish to wake out of their infrequent slumber. It is time to put the pieces of the puzzle together, but there are more possible patterns to the puzzle than just one. This shows that the balance of the complete work is very fragile – when there is one piece in the imperfect position or when the position is right for the piece but the piece is not perfect; too long, too short or just slightly the wrong shade of green… However the pieces must all match and their borders will then evaporate to form one seamless picture! And this is what is happening, the question is how? We had to say goodbye to many personalities, subplots and glorious scenes. It is a slaughter! A terrible, beautiful battle within ourselves and against each other.. But only the movie is important – only the story. There are never ending discussions… What footage has to be in the movie? What do we need to say, what should we represent? What is important for the audience? What will be experienced and felt whilst watching the movie? What is it even all about!?
In the end the movie will be the winner – not personal opinion, nor the vanity, the greed, the fear or the art – only the movie and the magic held within it is paramount. Trust us, we will find it…