hey there,
sorry that I didnt manage to write for quite a long time.
I always thought that updating a blog is easier then updating a homepage .. guess I was wrong ;).
Anyway, here is the first teaser for our little movie project:
Beside that I redesigned the whole homepage.
Have some fun with all the new stuff and let me know what you think :)
Dienstag, 10. November 2009
Montag, 27. Juli 2009
OT - Journey To Omega 4
Just finished a new music clip. The video is not directly related to SBT, but I am quite proud of it so I post it anyway.
I always was a fan of slow motion shots and the combination with a macro lens really fires me into another reality. Hope you have some fun with the video.
Some technical information:
It was shot with the CASIO EXILIM EX-F1. For every shot I used the 300fps mode and most of the close ups were done with the RAYNOX M-150 Macro lens.
The music was done by my good friend Martin Hanff, who also will be the composer for most of the music of SBT.
I always was a fan of slow motion shots and the combination with a macro lens really fires me into another reality. Hope you have some fun with the video.
Some technical information:
It was shot with the CASIO EXILIM EX-F1. For every shot I used the 300fps mode and most of the close ups were done with the RAYNOX M-150 Macro lens.
The music was done by my good friend Martin Hanff, who also will be the composer for most of the music of SBT.
Montag, 6. Juli 2009
INFO - Go Johnny Go
We started filming in Nov 2008. For me one of the keyelements of a good PA movie is a very cold atmosphere .. empty streets, abandoned buidling, snow or rain.
In december and january Mikey didn't had time so I added a character, which is played by myself and I shot quite a lot scenes by myself, only equipped with my tripod.
The winter in Berlin ends most of the time in late february, with that all scenes with Mikey had to be done within this time periode otherwise we had to wait for about 11 months.
In january 2008 Quentin Tarantino shot his new movie INGLORIOUS BASTERDS in Berlin and Mikey and I were booked for some big stuntscene together with 120 other stuntmen.
And here started what changed the whole production of my movie. Mikey had to double some old guy who had a complete bald head:
With that we had a big problem, because Mikey didn't want to keep a baldhead for the next few months and it would need at least two months till his hair had the lenght it original has. After two months the winter would be over.
I made various concept, which most of the time had Mikey wearing different hats to cover his baldhead, which all didn't really work out.
One day a friend joked that I should use a wig. He was joking and I took it serious, he meant some wig which somehow shows Mikey as everybody knows him, I decided that he should look like some rocker from the 80ties.
I bought some wig and made a first test which was very convincing:
Mikey and I went to some 2nd hand store and bought some jeans veste for about 5 bucks. Etienne (Spengler) helped to finalize the outfit and gave us some cool "obituary" t-shirt.
With that Johnny, the rocker was created and we were able to shot some stuff in the wintertime.
The wig would have not worked without the bandana, because it is not some expenive movieprop, but a wig for 50 bucks and the part were the hairs are attached to the head looks quite cheap.
In the end it helped the movie a lot that we were forced to come up with this idea.
In december and january Mikey didn't had time so I added a character, which is played by myself and I shot quite a lot scenes by myself, only equipped with my tripod.
The winter in Berlin ends most of the time in late february, with that all scenes with Mikey had to be done within this time periode otherwise we had to wait for about 11 months.
In january 2008 Quentin Tarantino shot his new movie INGLORIOUS BASTERDS in Berlin and Mikey and I were booked for some big stuntscene together with 120 other stuntmen.
And here started what changed the whole production of my movie. Mikey had to double some old guy who had a complete bald head:
With that we had a big problem, because Mikey didn't want to keep a baldhead for the next few months and it would need at least two months till his hair had the lenght it original has. After two months the winter would be over.
I made various concept, which most of the time had Mikey wearing different hats to cover his baldhead, which all didn't really work out.
One day a friend joked that I should use a wig. He was joking and I took it serious, he meant some wig which somehow shows Mikey as everybody knows him, I decided that he should look like some rocker from the 80ties.
I bought some wig and made a first test which was very convincing:
Mikey and I went to some 2nd hand store and bought some jeans veste for about 5 bucks. Etienne (Spengler) helped to finalize the outfit and gave us some cool "obituary" t-shirt.
With that Johnny, the rocker was created and we were able to shot some stuff in the wintertime.
The wig would have not worked without the bandana, because it is not some expenive movieprop, but a wig for 50 bucks and the part were the hairs are attached to the head looks quite cheap.
In the end it helped the movie a lot that we were forced to come up with this idea.
TUTORIAL - Photo Compositing
For a certain scene in the movie I needed some photos of Johnny (Mike Möller) and Joe Hunter (Mathis Landwehr) together. The problem is that Mikey is living in the south of Germany and Mathis is living in Berlin and I needed the photos within a couple of days.
The solution was a compositing in Photoshop. So I asked Mikey to do some photos, but I made the big mistake to tell him, that he should do the photos together with a stand-in for Mathis. I did this, because I thought it would be easier for the photographer (Mikeys girlfriend - Anja) and for Mikey to create some good photos.
The problem was that I forgot to tell Mikey to do a clean plate, which is a photo with only the background and without people in it. That way it would have been piece of cake to replace Daniel with Mathis, but as I didn't had a clean plate it was everything but easy.
After I got Mikeys photos and I called Mathis and started doing some photos with him.
Now back home I tried to replace Daniel with Mathis, which didn't work at all. After some hours I made the decision that it would be best to simply take the photo of Mathis and compose it together with the photo of Mikeys, with that I mean that I do not only replace Daniel, but replace the whole background on the left side with the photo I took with Mathis.
The result was quite ok, but it had some perspective mistakes in it and it just had the feeling that something is not right. I started to copy the bricks from Mathis background into Mikeys photo and viseversa. Then I added a lot of dirt to Mathis background and all of a sudden the photo looked like it was shot at some real place.
As a little bonues I decided to give Mathis some nice long hairs (the hairs were taken from some different photo of Mikey and I painted in some blond hairs to match it to Mathis original hair).
This version was good enough as base for the final photo. It still had a lot mistakes in it and wouldn't work like it is, but as I still wanted to add a lot of grain, scratches etc. it was more then good enough for its purpose.
The solution was a compositing in Photoshop. So I asked Mikey to do some photos, but I made the big mistake to tell him, that he should do the photos together with a stand-in for Mathis. I did this, because I thought it would be easier for the photographer (Mikeys girlfriend - Anja) and for Mikey to create some good photos.
The problem was that I forgot to tell Mikey to do a clean plate, which is a photo with only the background and without people in it. That way it would have been piece of cake to replace Daniel with Mathis, but as I didn't had a clean plate it was everything but easy.
After I got Mikeys photos and I called Mathis and started doing some photos with him.
Now back home I tried to replace Daniel with Mathis, which didn't work at all. After some hours I made the decision that it would be best to simply take the photo of Mathis and compose it together with the photo of Mikeys, with that I mean that I do not only replace Daniel, but replace the whole background on the left side with the photo I took with Mathis.
The result was quite ok, but it had some perspective mistakes in it and it just had the feeling that something is not right. I started to copy the bricks from Mathis background into Mikeys photo and viseversa. Then I added a lot of dirt to Mathis background and all of a sudden the photo looked like it was shot at some real place.
As a little bonues I decided to give Mathis some nice long hairs (the hairs were taken from some different photo of Mikey and I painted in some blond hairs to match it to Mathis original hair).
This version was good enough as base for the final photo. It still had a lot mistakes in it and wouldn't work like it is, but as I still wanted to add a lot of grain, scratches etc. it was more then good enough for its purpose.
INFO - What happened so far:
Somewhen in 2007 while stitting at the harbor of Valletta (Malta) I had the idea to make my first 90min flick. Back then it was a typical summer comedy movie about two families who own two restaurants and fight versus some bad guys.
Within a few weeks I changed that idea to a post apocalyptic movie, which I would describe as a mix of JUDGE DREDD and MAD MAX .. the title would have been "Sector 7".
I was very happy about my "great" idea, but noone else was so the project got canceled, before it even started.
That time was kinda tough, because I already had an almost finished movie in my mind, which I was unable to do, because Mikey with whom I worked with for about 4 years didn't believe in it.
After a few weeks of self pity I decided to do another fightscene, this time with my long time friend Mathis (Landwehr), with whom I trained all the time, but never ever worked with on one of my shortfilms. The result was a shortclip called "STRAIGHT BLAST":
That clip was quite successful, with that I don't mean that a lot of people watched it, but I got positive responses from some very successful fight choreographers like JJ Perry and Kenji Tanigaki and I got a job on the upcoming german martial arts tv show called "LASKO".
After a few months I got back to my original idea of doing a funny summer movie and decided that it would be best to only shot the first 10minutes of it and convince producers that it is a good idea to invest into the next 80min.
I told Mikey about it and he was happy to be part of it.
In May 2008 Mikey and I made it to get a lot of stuntguys around us and we shot parts of quite a big actionscene, which was meant to be part of those "producers reel". Here is a little teaser of what we made back then:
The result amazed me, because it was a big, violent brawl, which somehow looked like taken out of some 80ties Hong Kong flick.
At the very same time I finally started working on "Lasko". I was naive enough to think that I would be able to shot my own project beside that. Which didn't work at all, because I was working around the clock for about 10months.
During the last few weeks of my time on "LASKO" I decided that doing only 10 minutes of a 90 minutes flick is not what I want and I also didn't want to do a funny summer movie. My first flick should be something dark, violent and post apocalyptic (PA), but of cause I knew that Mikey was against the PA flick I originally had in mind, that is why I changed everything he didn't like in the hope that I can convince him to be part of the project.
He liked the idea and we made the first testshots in November 2008. I wrote the screenplay in a way that we were still able to use the figthscene we shot in May 2008.
With that the production on my first feature film started. The main actors are Mike Möller and Mathis Landwehr.
If I had to describe it I would say its a mix of RUNNING MAN, BLADE RUNNER and BLOODSPORT with a bit of CYBORG and MAD MAX in it.
The movie is called "STRAIGHT BLAST".
Within a few weeks I changed that idea to a post apocalyptic movie, which I would describe as a mix of JUDGE DREDD and MAD MAX .. the title would have been "Sector 7".
I was very happy about my "great" idea, but noone else was so the project got canceled, before it even started.
That time was kinda tough, because I already had an almost finished movie in my mind, which I was unable to do, because Mikey with whom I worked with for about 4 years didn't believe in it.
After a few weeks of self pity I decided to do another fightscene, this time with my long time friend Mathis (Landwehr), with whom I trained all the time, but never ever worked with on one of my shortfilms. The result was a shortclip called "STRAIGHT BLAST":
That clip was quite successful, with that I don't mean that a lot of people watched it, but I got positive responses from some very successful fight choreographers like JJ Perry and Kenji Tanigaki and I got a job on the upcoming german martial arts tv show called "LASKO".
After a few months I got back to my original idea of doing a funny summer movie and decided that it would be best to only shot the first 10minutes of it and convince producers that it is a good idea to invest into the next 80min.
I told Mikey about it and he was happy to be part of it.
In May 2008 Mikey and I made it to get a lot of stuntguys around us and we shot parts of quite a big actionscene, which was meant to be part of those "producers reel". Here is a little teaser of what we made back then:
The result amazed me, because it was a big, violent brawl, which somehow looked like taken out of some 80ties Hong Kong flick.
At the very same time I finally started working on "Lasko". I was naive enough to think that I would be able to shot my own project beside that. Which didn't work at all, because I was working around the clock for about 10months.
During the last few weeks of my time on "LASKO" I decided that doing only 10 minutes of a 90 minutes flick is not what I want and I also didn't want to do a funny summer movie. My first flick should be something dark, violent and post apocalyptic (PA), but of cause I knew that Mikey was against the PA flick I originally had in mind, that is why I changed everything he didn't like in the hope that I can convince him to be part of the project.
He liked the idea and we made the first testshots in November 2008. I wrote the screenplay in a way that we were still able to use the figthscene we shot in May 2008.
With that the production on my first feature film started. The main actors are Mike Möller and Mathis Landwehr.
If I had to describe it I would say its a mix of RUNNING MAN, BLADE RUNNER and BLOODSPORT with a bit of CYBORG and MAD MAX in it.
The movie is called "STRAIGHT BLAST".
Sonntag, 5. Juli 2009
a week of filming
About two weeks ago I went to Mikeys place to finish some unfinished scenes. We started right away and continued without any break worth mentioning. We had nightshots, rain, hot sun, almost got arrested from the police, got thrown out of some places and as we finished both of us were totally exhausted and became sick.
Funny as life is we both had a job in Berlin for some actionscene for some turkish movie. I felt somehow like Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now, but that's another story ..
Me standing at one location. This location is a very BIG warehouse, but I found a spot which looks like a small, rotten bathroom. The white wall behind me is some part of some empty locker we found in the warehouse, which helped to create the illusion of a small room (without it you could see the whole warehouse).
Johnny (Mikey) escaping from some soldier. This scene was shot in some nature reservoir. It's the first time we actually ask for a permission to film.
That's all for now. :)
Funny as life is we both had a job in Berlin for some actionscene for some turkish movie. I felt somehow like Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now, but that's another story ..
Me standing at one location. This location is a very BIG warehouse, but I found a spot which looks like a small, rotten bathroom. The white wall behind me is some part of some empty locker we found in the warehouse, which helped to create the illusion of a small room (without it you could see the whole warehouse).
Johnny (Mikey) escaping from some soldier. This scene was shot in some nature reservoir. It's the first time we actually ask for a permission to film.
That's all for now. :)
Thunder
The last two weeks have been quite strange .. at least if you were looking at the weather. It was quite hot, humid and every now and then a thunderstorm came out of nowhere.
Whenever I heard a thunder I rushed to my balcony and tried to catch some flashes with my HDV camera as stockfootage for visual effects shots.
After two weeks I had maybe 4-5 hours of boring looking clouds and the sound of thunder without seeing any flashes, because the camera was always pointed in the wrong direction. That changed yesterday:
Beside that Mikey and I filmed some more fightscene, but more about this somewhen soon.
Whenever I heard a thunder I rushed to my balcony and tried to catch some flashes with my HDV camera as stockfootage for visual effects shots.
After two weeks I had maybe 4-5 hours of boring looking clouds and the sound of thunder without seeing any flashes, because the camera was always pointed in the wrong direction. That changed yesterday:
Beside that Mikey and I filmed some more fightscene, but more about this somewhen soon.
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