con men is an independent film production located in berlin, germany, providing services for television, radio, advertising and the web in the form of documentaries, music videos, epks and other promotional material, as well as offering services for camera work, editing, translation, research and voiceovers.
| © Pawel Kartaev |
One look at the past: At the very end of his successful tour, Marsimoto gave his fans a special treat on April 14, playing to a hundred of them at Fritz' studios. Everybody was supposed to wear green, which colorblind me failed at, of course.
Fresh off their support for up-and-coming Brooklyn act Friends comes the first music video for Berlin's Sissters.
Three very relaxed shoots resulted in a two week tour de force of editing. Often working frame-by-frame and constantly checking the results made Stefan Fähler and me glad we're not epileptic. I think it's safe to assume the result wont pass the Harding Test.
Make sure to check out Sissters debut album "There's a party in my mouth but you're not invited" out on Coraille or better yet, try to catch them on their coming European tour with Des Ark. They will be all over the place and you'll see how fantastic both bands are live.
Thanks to Sissters for allowing us to indulge them in our sometimes suspicious looking set ups and thanks to Lisa, Karl and Michael at SchwuZ for letting us turn one of their dancefloors into our makeshift studio for one afternoon.
I remember getting sent the first album and video by Mediengruppe Telekommander in 2004. Back then I just started working for the music program "Tracks" on arte tv and I immediately fell for their mixture of nasty beats and counter-polemic slogans.
Ironic, how almost a decade later Stefan Fähler and I directed, what is likely to be their last video ever.
To make a long story short, the band happened to see "Mis-Fortune Cookie", the result of a 24 hour movie challenge we took part in a few weeks ago. Since they had always wanted a Zombie-themed clip, they asked if we could do it. We reckoned we could, so we said yes.
For the shoot, we tried to call on as many teamsters from "Mis-Fortune Cookie", as well as recruiting fresh talent. This time, Aläcks Pin Heiro is not hidden behind monster make up, instead he's opening the clip and getting eaten. Bine Fez Buk kind of reprises her role as Marcia, sporting the golden flip-flops, her famous bath gown, yet with an admittedly slightly altered attitude.
Again, benefitting from our experiences with the 24 hour movie challenge, we were on a rather tight schedule. The first picture was shot on a Saturday right after midnight, the whole clip was finished a mere 2 and a half days later on Monday evening.
We really have to thank all the Zombies, bodies and helping hands behind the camera for making this a smooth ride. And we have to thank Mediengruppe Telekommander for the request to do a video like this.
I've been shooting some shorts for Radio Fritz in August.
On August 1, The Subways dropped by for interviews and this one ended up being a sideshow attraction at the 2011 New Music Award.
Although they are the nicest people, I'm always tongue tied around them, which is awful, because they're really nice and I always come across like an idiot and I wish I wouldn't, because they are totally sweet... Oh well, you get the point...
Two days later on August 3, I visited the preperations for the 2011 artbase, held at an abandoned tuberculosis clinic in the woods outside of Berlin. It was a great afternoon, taking a stroll through the ruins covered by the work of artists like 44 Flavors, Just and Alias, to name but a few....
You should definitely check it out if you get the chance, the exhibit is beautiful and permanent. There is the plan to turn the whole area into a kids academy. Go here to find out, what exactly that could mean...
Finally on August 29, I shot this little piece with German hip hop artist Marteria on the roof of the Admiralspalast in Berlin. After the 5 minute shoot, we nearly killed Marten's buddy Christoph who crashed with a makeshift staircase we made him walk down. Sorry...
The clip previewed Radio Fritz' own music festival "Die Neuen Deutschpoeten" showcasing only current German language music by the likes of Clueso, Bosse and many more... Marteria performed there in front of 13.000 people a few days later. After that, he was all over the tabloids, albeit for other reasons....
Together with Ivi Roberg, Stefan Fähler, Bine Fez Buk, Aläcks Pin Heiro, Yuky Ryang, Eric Ségol, Michael Kerscher, Michael Bauer and Stefano Graziano I took part in the 24 hour horror movie challenge "Scream or Die" by the guys from the "Another Country" book store in Berlin. We were assigned a location (a car boot / trunk) and a title (guess which). The film had to be written, shot, edited and uploaded within 24 hours.
Without further ado here's our alternative fan version for Radio Fritz. Story two posts below.
Enjoy!
In October 2010, one weekend after the shoot for the ESSENZ promo, I assisted Paulistas Dácio Pinheiro, Ivi Roberg and Alex Pinheiro at the shooting of the video for "Lucy" by brazilian hit makers Stop Play Moon.
On May 7 actress Miriam Mayet ("Bedways") and I presented the award show at the 40th anniversary of the Sehsüchte Film Festival. We went through a total of 16 awards at the grand cinema room of the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen (HFF) Potsdam including honorable mentions, comments from the jury, film clips and, of course, thank you speeches by all the winners - all the while switching back and forth between German and English.
Naturally, we were afraid the show would go on forever. But thanks to the brilliant timing of the organizers, especially Anna Luise Kiss, we were done in a little over an hour, which we suppose was a delight to everyone awaiting the legendary closing party.
So, here it is. Shot by Dácio Pinheiro and Michael Kerscher in October. Edited in January and met with content by the participants in February.
The video had it's public premiere as part of the 10th anniversary of the Orden für okkulte Kunst (OFOK) as a short film before the main feature of the evening at Z-Bar in Berlin, Mitte on September 23, 2011.
I have been pretty busy in the past weeks at Radio Fritz hosting the morning and sometimes afternoon shifts as well. And, of course, I have been busy working on the Essenz video "Vivat Entitas Okkulta". It's almost finished, we'll get to that very soon!
In the meantime, my friend Kaya asked me to do a shooting of her performing "Original" at Poser Music studios, where she recorded some new material. It's quite an emotional song, we spent some hours behind closed doors, only the two of us. Although we tried out various different angles and I edited a version with three cuts, she decided on this one shot and who can blame her?
The song is Kaya's very unique way of saying good-bye to a loved one, combining the tragic with the comic and doing so with charme and heart.
Try to film a metal video in a hospital-like surrounding close to Berlin. You say Beelitz, I say what?!
Sure, we wanted to shoot the video for "Vivat Entitas Okkulta" the opening track from Essenz' fabulous new album "KVIITIIVZ – Beschwörung des Unaussprechlichen" in Beelitz Heilstätten at first - but the owners wanted an outrageous amount of money and they didn't even have any power supply in the buildings... Ugh. So we settled for the StadtGut Blankenfelde instead and we haven't regretted it one bit.
On May 27, Madeleine Bloom was invited to the Watertower in Bernau, on the outkirts of Berlin. Only one concert is held there every year and the center stage of the tiny venue has been graced with legends like Tangerine Dream in the past.
Who would have thought?! The coolest widely distibuted German music and popculture magazine has published a short review of the film - and they like it! Hooray!!
Make sure to clear your calender for September 3, 2010!
Haywain Recordings is celebrating the release of the 12" split vinyl "The day will come tonight / Music for Simulator flights" by Berlin indie rock bands Château Laut and Jeanie Bueller, as well as the new album "Elegiac Stanzas" by Haywain recording artist Johnny3000.
I know, there hasn't been a post in a while. But then again... I strained my wrist, I broke a toe, it was hot.
Now. The last thing I mentioned was the premiere of "Letztes Jahr im Sommer", which took place on June 3rd at Kino Babylon in Berlin-Mitte. This is what it looked like outside that morning: