The Library Fashion Shooting - Part II

©2011 by Michael Schulze

Yesterday, or let´s say this morning, we finished the second library fashion shooting in Potsdam. A few months ago we test this location and now we got a it for a serious thing for designer Nora Fritz and her dresses and skirts. First st was on the crane at the ground, after a little bit of rain we decided to go to the upper levels and shoot some pics with a bubble machine. In we end we got a lot of fun and I have to thank my assistents for their condition and willing to go thru this shooting until 2:30 a.m. and helping us with heavy light equipment. Also our Models, which participate very spontaneously and bear with us thru all this dust and dirt of the construction site... Thank you all!!!

Little Red Riding Hood and the old library

Yesterday we shot in the construction site of the old libary in potsdam. On the site there was this only lit staircase in the dark enviroment, so Fashion-Designer Nora Fritz asked to take some pictures in this amazing location....
The Photo was taken by Alexander Altmann who helped us and take this documentary photographs along the shooting, Thanks!

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...

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!

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...

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.

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...

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 - 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.

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!