Qui aurait cru...

Qui aurait cru..., ursprünglich hochgeladen von Ole M. Werner

Who would it thought... 10 days after you can see some results of the Versailles Shooting on Flickr...

Brandenboro Country - Finally you can order big Poster-Format on Whitewall !

Brandenboro Country, ursprünglich hochgeladen von Ole M. Werner

Aftr 5 years it´s now possible to order a big 50x70 cm Poster Print of nearly all Brandenboro Country Images. Just get on:

http://www.whitewall.com/Brandenboro

Spieltrieb´s: Marlborough Hair Musicvideo is launched

Here it is ... The second musicvideo of the singer songwriter duo "Spieltrieb", have fun and stay tuned for a live perfomance of Spieltrieb on your location that could be announced here!

St.Nikolaus shooting in Paris!

To stay connected in french, my following activity leads me to paris, france. Shooting a high technology conference at the exploration parc near charles-de-gaule-airport but first we good an award ceremony on schedule that lead us in the heart of paris... In missing St. Nikolaus with my son I dress as the inoffical nikolaus... ;)

Quand je suis là, je suis sans souci!

Today´s challenge was the shooting at Sanssouci with four Cosplayer as the baroque metal band "Versailles". After a long journey thru snowy country we met each other on freezed location with bright sunshine and blue sky... luckly we had this nice weather and got some nice shots despite the tourists along the way...

Are you experienced?

Yesterday was the End-of-Shooting Party of the Flammenrausch-Production and for this I got a t-shirt with my well-used sentences as 1st A.D. during the shooting... So, this blog-entry is something about shooting experiences and what I´ve learned all over the years as 1st A.D./Unit Production Manager,  Cameraman and Director:

1. Drehen ist Krieg (shooting is war)

2. Leben ist Luxus (life is luxury)

3. Film ist Betrug (film is fake)

4. Willkommen beim Film (welcome in the film business)

1. Shooting is War:

It´s all about fighting, fighting against yourself, fighting against the time, fighting against the financial loss, fighting again the weather... the gaffer fights against tired eyes, the actors fight against ignoration, the camera fights against the technical conditions, the writer fights the director, the producer fights  against creative decisions and the director fights them all...

2. Life is Luxury

If you´re on project, you have no life. Pre-Production is filled your time with details, questions, self-doubt, canceled locations, canceled men-power, wrong weather expectations... In Production you´re 16 hours of the day minimum before-, on -and after- the shooting... 20 hours are often more realistic. At this time you spend your time with details, questions, self-doubt, sick actors, injured team-members and wrong weather expectations... In Post-Production you´re at least two months busy with getting the film finished and your life starting to reclaim your time with everyday matters like family, parters, friends, self-doubt, canceled relationships, canceled company contracts and wrong weather expectations.

3. Film is Fake

At the beginning of your project you have to comunicate your idea to the team.  It´s vital that everybody knows your ideas of the scenes, they should become trustful in you. They should get the feeling that you are responsible and that you know what you are doing even if you not. If you appearendly get lost on the set, you get to the point that everybody starts to feel responsible  for the project and take over the directors role... never let this happen unless you want a bad film!

So, if everybody trust you, everybody got involved and everybody knows the scenes, it starts to get to the point that things go easily to shot. SFX looks good ´cause they know their position and their timing, actors have their marks and trust you in directing them because you are in charge. Cameraman knows that you are responsible of the amount of the shots that you need in the edit afterwards... So, nobody starts to get nervous about lambs that could be in frame, about continuity matters and jump over camera-axis... because everybody trust you and everybody can concentrate on that job for that she /he is hired for... This leads to the creation of the perfect illusion.

4. Welcome to the Film-Business

If you get really used to failures and victories after a lot of years you get the right attitude to face this kind of things like zen. Mostly problems appear without warning an that´s the point where you can show how tough you got over the time.  In the first moment you have to calm yourself down, let the shock pass you by like a cloud on the blue sky... and then start to get practical... solve the problem with improvisation, short things down, replace things without consideration... think big... As director you are responsible for the story, not for the shots,  not for the actors ego, not for the producers budget... just for the story. This is the big responsibility that you take... And if you screw it up...  Never, ever will anybody work with you again. Always keep that in mind and do your best. If you get this far, to leave all the problems, desires and selfserving behind you, then you are welcome to the film-business!

Starting a project that I´ve put off for a long time

Yip... starting the big parts now... This is something to build the mould of the frontside , without actually casting it... After a several months of shooting and working for clients as editor, I´ve took off these days and spend it with my son and the "Nippon-Project". Let us see how and if it´s working!

Two nights with rain.. again!

Oh hey Ole ... what are you doing in autumn-nights like these? .. Ehm... Standing in the rain for hours and watching strange people handling with fire in the woods... Well... that´s kindly it... But this time my son was taking part as 3rd assistant director and tell us where the "circle" has to be... (insider)

By the way... one more night or afternoon to shot and the Flammenrausch-film is finished... Today, we shot the final scene with a lot of fire!

fire surrenders water - abort the flammenrausch shooting

Actually it was almost the hope that the rain just passed us by, but it came harder and harder and in the end we called that a day and packed our things...But at least we got 13 shots done...

Spieltrieb - "Ich war mal Cowboy" released now on YouTube

After a delightfull premiere in Potsdam the Musicvideo of Singer-Songwriter Duo Spieltrieb - "Ich war mal Cowboy" is released on YouTube. The Second Video follows on 10th December 2010... Check out the YouTube Channel for HD Version!

We premiere the Spieltrieb musicvideos in Potsdam!

The two musicvideos to "Ich war mal Cowboy" and "Marlborough Hair" that we shot in august this year premiere on the 3rd November in the "Pub-a-la-Pub" Bar in Potsdam.

Beginning: 8:00 pm, Screening: approx. 8:30 pm

at

Pub-a-la-Pub Bar
Breite Str.1
14473 Potsdam

Public Screening so bring friends and fans!

On every Friday we sitting near the fire...

Yip...  it becomes a regular thing to shot in the woods by my home... This time the lights worked with good cables and the concept of two powerlines... I think we´ve done the half way.

shooting at fresh air!

Shooting for KOBN with a Canon D5MII on a crane and dolly is fun!... Besides the awesome location of the O2 Arena Berlin rocks, too... The technical specs are the Canon 5DMII with Zeiss Lenses ( 21,50,85mm) and the mentioned crane and dollystuff... yeah!

Nightshot – Nearly with available light...

During the Flammenrauschproduction several obstacales appeared on the set... One of them was the absence of light... So, almost just the full moon gave us the only light that we could use for staging "the beast"... A fire-set-action-armor that performed by Nils who done an awesome job, we looking forward to see the premiere...

FAQ - My Business Jobs... What kind of videos do you shoot anyway?

Here is a good example of a documentary video for an agency that I´m working for. Mostly it´s difficult to explain what this is all about, because the topics are very specific in a Business-to-Business (B2B) affair about Mobile -Contactless - Payment Technology.
For this one I went with the agency to nice, france. We were shooting there with handcamera style various impressions and interviews. Afterwards it went straight into edit, that´s mostly done by the person who shoots it in order of the agency politics, and after the confirmation of the agency´s client or the agency itself, it goes online...

Busy day, busy Night...

After opening by Angel-Exhibition in Potsdam in the Afternoon, it went straigt into a nightshooting for Alexanders Fire-Artist-Story. The bright side: it was only 5 minutes from home by feet... especially I liked my lightconcept with my favorit green-blue ( in fact I own nothing else) with the combination of the "Nonnemacher-Lights" (boomoperated balloons), which was never approved but now it´s going to work very well...

Exhibition opens on Sunday, 3rd October 2010

"Fallen - The Apocalypse of Angels"

12 Photographies of fallen, desperate and lost angels, debrived of their meaning, of their duties, they wander about their spheres with their internal life in a enormeous curse send from above...

After three years it´s done and the presentation located in Potsdam, for all outsiders: Click here for location information.

Start: Sunday 3rd October at 3:00 pm

The early bird.... got no idea about nightshoots...

Just drop back home from the Videoshooting for the Fire-Artists Group "Flammenrausch", directed and photographed by A. Altmann... First of several shootingdays that will follow in the upcoming weeks in that I´m participating as 1st AD or, as you look to the image above, the steadycam-operator for the dancing scenes...

Let´s get to the shot...

or even shooting... movies... in 6 and a half hours I´m going to support Alexander´s Fire-Artists Video as 1st Assistant Director...  Let´s see If I get some sleep tonight... The photography above is a result from the Jakuza-shooting with Micha... The other variations follow on Flickr as soon as possible...

Remiel - Keeper of the Souls

Thats it... Remiel - the despaired angel of the souls, got herself lost in the world and now the last angel of my series. Now its going to an exhibition.

Camael - Leader of the Powers

Here it is... The result of the Camael shooting. Camael –  known as the Angel who´s leading the powers of heaven against the army of darkness and protect the borders of the devine heavens.

Once upon a time...

It´s still in the edit, the Musicvideo for Spieltrieb, I would say 70 percent done... But meanwhile I scanning the transparencies for the exhibition, the Still-Photo of the shot reveals from the film... These particular good looking gentlemen reminding me not forget to pursuit my goal of a good musicvideo...

Spontaneous Bloodshot

"This sunday Micha exchanged 8 pounds opium, belonged by the japanese mafia, into four bags of eight months decomposed catfood on the Osaka marketplace for Pets... he said to the Jakuza-Boss he never dare to do this... And the Boss believed him, but as a profession of faith Micha had to chop off one finger of his left hand."

On special request I shoot Micha with a shotgun and cut off finger on my roof.

Remiel - The Last of my Angel-Shooting is finished

After three years of Angel-Shooting, the last motive of the Apocalyptical-Angels are done. Therefore I have to say a big "Thank-You" to Madeleine and Alexander for supporting me for this vision... Now, the twelve Angels are completed and after scanning the transparencies next week, it goes straight to an exhibition in october... but thats ´s another blog that will coming up in time.

Sommer is returning...

... just for me, sorry folks. Very beautiful weather in Spain, it´s recovering my throat and all is very relaxing here.. even the work... Laid back shooting in Sitges!

Shooting for Camael is finished

With a wonderful bright sky this afternoon I returned from the shooting from the old military tank training area near Luckenwalde. This shooting was quite easy, cause there was no model, just need some props and the right sky in a desert...

upcoming projects...

So,... What you do after a weekend on the sea?... You get ill... nasty thing. Until now I´m not recovered completly, but several projects announcing my attention. One of them is a new video created by my last cameraman of the Spieltrieb-Videos and involved fire-artistic-features of a fire-art-group from berlin. The other is an imagefilm for a B2B-agency that leads me for shooting in Sigeos, Spain. Then there is still my Photo-Angel-Project in which I wait for the right weather, blue sky is welcome for the Camiel-Motive. And... last but not least the second photographical motive for the Personal-Politcal-Pinup-Series "Nippon" for that is some preparation required as you can imagine in the pic aside.

Artwork for the new album of Spieltrieb

For the last two months I´ve been working on the artwork for a Live-Record of germany´s best singer-songwriter duo Spieltrieb. Now it´s released and everywhere available (regular Musicstore or Amazon also), most obtainable at Spietrieb Homepage, where you actually find every information about it.

You get a lot to like - Brandenboro Country

As a little intermission: My last Brandenboro Country Motive is available on Whitewall!

Four days of Beach, Guns & Music - Shooting of Spieltrieb´s Musicvideos in Meck-Pom

Saturday, the 21th, We start shooting the Musicvideos for the german songwriterduo "Spieltrieb" on the beach at Darß/westbeach. Suspiciously observed by holiday-maker we shoot the start sequences for the song "Marlborough Hair". We had a lot of fun and it´s quite a big deal to shoot with digital SLR, which give us the opportunity to get an enormous hollywood look!





On Sunday, we moved upcountry to a farm of two wonderful people which invited us spontaneously. Great thanks to Sophie & René and not forgot to mention, Xena, for that big deal to shoot the Song "Ich war mal Cowboy" (One upon a time I was a cowboy) on your very beautiful place!







With a schedule on a nightshoot we spent less time than expected and the normal "Murphy-problems" keeps within a limit!




At last we finished on a cloudy monday with a good feeling of getting some great shots onto the hardrive, I guess thats the right term in this digital business, and I hopefully get it edit and composed until november to premiere the musicvideos in Potsdam! Thank you all it was a pleasure to meet and work with you! Yeeehaaa!

The Shooting for Spieltrieb Music Video begins

In twelve hours from now we are heading for Darß/Ostsee to shoot the musicvideos for Spieltrieb, a german singer songwriter duo! Packed full of equipment, props and outdoor survival things, my cameraman , my prod-assistant and me hope to shoot a very smooth video this weekend! Stay tuned and enjoy meanwhile the Spieltrieb Homepage here !

Prints on WhiteWall

Now, I am going commercial on WhiteWall and try with my first high-technical production work to refinancial my project. So, if you like to order something, go for it!

Ole on WhiteWall

America

Faster than I thought I finished my main motive of the tuesday shooting. It is a beginn of the new series which is going to be a littlebit more political.

Flags, Guns, Money & ... Cops

Done... The Shooting is over and the whole crew done an awesome job... As the preproduction went slightly smooth, the shooting by itself was a littlebit disturbed by technical problems, curious parcour-kids that step out on the roof of our location and call the police into action... So... As they see us shooting they wanted to know who we are, what we do, where is our permission and if the gun in my models hand was doing any harm.
After a while they let us continue with shooting, we were artists, no commercial agency, I had a permission and the gun was a harmless prop... In the end we get some nice shots and I wish to thank all my members for they great enthusiasm to fullfill my vision for the startup-motiv of my new series...

Last day before shooting... And.... it´s all prepared! Nothing left to do... Strange feeling, feels like you have forgotten something. But I have to Model, Make-Up-Artist, Location, all props, costumes, lightning + SFXs, Kamera-Lenses, Assistants even a littlebit of catering... So... let´s see how it all come together tomorrow evening!

Where is the Money, Lebowski!

Here it is... a further incredience for the tuesday-shooting...

Preparing the next shooting...

In twelve days from tomorrow on, I´ll start the new series for which I have no name for it yet... Shurly it contains women, blood and red elements... The first one got the working title "America"... So here it starts to set up the different props...

Sariel - Angel of Death

Here it is. The Result of the Thursday-Shooting.. Thanks to all involved people for the spontaniously helping hands!

Neuenkirchener Open Air

Since a little while now if been involved in a little festival in northern germany as a photographer and layout-designer for their corperate identity... As every year I also shot several pictures of the Rock-Bands performing on stage nearly one month ago. Now the photographies are released and I´m able to show you this years rock-circus on germany loudest sportfield in Neuenkirchen.

Shooting for Sariel finished

Just before the rain appears the shooting for the new angel Sariel is finished. Here´s a little documentary...

Current Project

On thursday I´ll shot "Sariel - The Angel of Death" of my current project "Fallen - The Apocalypse of Angels"... This will take place on our roof... For that I have to build a Stack of Bones - Prop... well, let´s see if it works...

The last shot was done with a good friend of mine nearly three weeks ago: "Uriel - And the Gates to Paradise" See here:

Now here we are...

On my way to virtual immortality you can see here the process of my current projects in action. I declared myself for an non-artist, but most people call me an artist, so whatever... basically I do Photo-Work in paintingstyle. The reason for that is .. I can´t draw very well, so I paint my visions with the photography. On the way to the finished project I have to build the settings and the costumes on my own, I that way I get in touch with the other plastic arts as well...