... to the 20th anniversary of kadó.
Many thanks to all big and small liquorice monsters for their loyalty, for the desire for black drops including time for the nice chats. Thanks to the art house cinemas that sell kadó liquorice at their counters. How about supporting these mostly smaller cinemas with an advertising clip? Said and done, with the help from Giulia, our well connected former colleague, we were able to get the right people together right on time. First up was Tobi, the artist, maybe you know his performance ''Leo'' in the Chamäleon Theatre? It's wonderful! Hm, I wonder if it would be possible to win him over to play the main role? Hypocritical I asked him what he thought about liquorice … And later, if he could imagine to take part in a movie spot about liquorice for the cinemas? He sure could, BINGO.
Millian was to be our music man, this was clear already from the beginning of the project. The only difficulty was, the man has a fully booked calendar and is constantly on tour. Luckily we were able to find a gap. With Millian, Paul and Nick came along for direction and animation, Martin took care of camera, Jakob ran the light and Benjamin was assisting camera. Pepa, a soon to be film director and licorice expert at kadó, offered her support, Frank threw the catering and I ended up as runner and ''maid of all work'' taking care of everything between coffemaking and putting the props in the right spot. Team was complete.
One late night sitting at the bon fire in the country side with my friend Karin, I shared my ideas about doing a movie spot. She instantly took the bait and filled with enthusiasm she started to elaborate thoughts and possibilities in the most colorful ways. It was such a fun evening! The very next morning I put our ''script'' on paper and received the first reaction: ''Well, ahum… do you really find that funny?'' … try to explain a joke to somebody, exactly, it's impossible. Second reaction: ''… haha, super, I'd be up for that! But: too long=too expensive, we have to shorten it down.'' Well, said and done, we shortened it, a storyboard was drawn, props collected, technical equipment rented and we considered what kind of costume Tobi should wear. Meanwhile I decorated the display window, to have it prober for this "television".
Saturday after closing hours technical rentals was delivered. Suddenly the shop felt quite small. ''Would it be possible to remove the deco, we need space for the light set up.'' Ahum … but … yes of course, no problem. The window was completely covered with black velvet, shady light inside and full on summer outside. ''Coffee anybody?'' 19 settings was to be filmed and it took us 17 hours all in all. Tobi did great and added to that it was his first time as main actor in front of a camera. Paul knew exactly what kind of pictures he wanted. Time ran extremely fast, Martin was non stop on camera, Pepa was all over the place wherever a hand was needed. The assistant and I were crawling and squeezing through the shop between lamps and devices. Scene by scene we were moving ahead. Around midnight Frank awaited us with cold drinks, and with that, new instructions from the director: ''We're about to film the last scene. Outside view, please decorate the display window again.'' Ouff … ouch, ouch … 1.00 o'clock at night, quickly done, right?
Later on it was time for the expression ''it's a wrap'' and we could finally relax, all exhausted but also very happy. I was so impressed by the professionalism of this film crew. I never could have imagined how complicated it is to create just 30 seconds of film. What an accurate and tight work flow, no kidding, all managed in not more than 17 hours – wow!
For assistants and Tobi work was done by now. Paul, Martin, Nick and Millian on the other hand, were up for work part number two. Raw material had to be examined, cut, animated, music and audio to be added to the pictures. Like this, or maybe better like this?
Somewhere in a backyard in Berlin I'm back in the dark sitting in front of a computer, observing the guys by the cutting process. With time pressure and decisions having to be made … it's suddenly – done! On 19th September 2017 the spot was shown in the fsk cinema for the very first time, 30 seconds world premiere so to say.
And ... got curious?
The kadó cinema spot runs on and off in these Berlin cinemas: Delphi, fsk, filmkunst 66, Hackesche Hoefekino, Sputnik and in all Yorck-Kinos. The cinemas and kadó cordially invite you to enjoy crackling-free Liquorice to the film.
Tobias Wegener: Artist
Paul Weiss: Storyboard and Director
Martin Gasch: Head of Camera
Jakob: Light technician
Benjamin Glischka: Assisting camera
Nick Jezierski: Storyboard and Animation
Milian Vogel: Composer and Music (Richard Koch: Trumpet)
Pepa Kistner: Assisting director
Ilse Böge: Idea (together with Karin Laubenstein) and execution
Frank Büttner: Catering
