Interview with Director of the film "Deadline, the Musikill"
Clemens
Keiffenheim for the
German film magazine "Der Kameramann" ("The Camera
Man")
by Wilm Bruckner
DEADLINE, das Musikill!!!
One of Germany's most twisted films "Deadline, das Musikill" was recently completed in Munich. Our reporter Wilm Bruckner recently had the oppurtunity to discuss this unique project with the man who conceived, produced, wrote, financed and directed the film Clemens Keifenheim. Since Wilm Brucker was also involved in the project, "Kameramann" was able to get first hand information about the film and its making.
Kameramann: Clemens, in reading through the synopsis of your film its hard to decide if its science fiction, a whacky comedy or a musical. What is it really?
Clemens Keiffenheim: Its really a mixture of all those genres. A film full of black humor where death and destruction are accompanied by joyous music. A risky venture as nothing has ever been done like this in Germany.
Kameramann: Where did you get your idea for the film?
CK: I've always thought that to make it through death you have to be able to see its absurd side. I met an actor from the Residenz Theater in Munich, Fredy Kleinheinz, who used to wash the corpses in a morgue. At that time I was teaching a course for screen acting for a group of flipped-out stage actors. Fredy was in group, and that's when I got the idea.
Kameramann: But the academy that offered the course went broke. Didn't the whole project die after that?
CK: Why, that would have been too easy. I wanted to do it, some of the other people involved wanted to do it, so we did it.
Kameramann: The screen play seems to be heavily influenced by Gordon Mitchell. Where do you know him from, and how did you convice him, since he's not the youngest guy anymore, to get involved in such an ambitious project?
CK: Gordon, (who is officially retired) in his private life, isn't ready to hang up acting yet. He'll be 80 in July, but he still wants to keep working. He worked out great for us. Of course, there aren't many big roles out there for a high energy guy like him, so we created one for him. Gordon is one of the only old muscle man stars who can laugh at himself. He was so humbled and grateful for the oppurtunity that it didn't take lone to convince him to take the part. It also didn't hurt that I've known him for 20 years. If you handle him a little easier than the commercial film industry would he's a lot more fun to work with. He's a real pro at what he does, and you can see how he influenced and inspired his younger cohort Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Kameramann: Without going into detail about the finances, the favorite theme of filmmaking now days, I have to ask you how you could afford to pay stars like Gordon?
CK: If you want to make film you've got to retain a bit of being a child within you. Gordon feels the same way as do most other actors, and kids are easier to impress. I've never had such an emotional farewell party as we had. It was unbelievable how everybody shed blood, sweat and tears for this project. The group really bonded together which was the greatest reward for me. Everybody had their wages held back till after the project was finished. Nobody had ever seen their money when they worked on this basis in the past, but they put their faith in the project and carried through to the end.
Kameramann: But surely you could have secured public funding, TV rights or studio leasing guarantees to fund such a promising production?
CK: Really? Until then our only motivation was to shoot the film at the location, an old distillery on the outskirts of Munich, before it got torn down. It's almost impossible to find an old location like that in the over-developed and over-renovated City of Munich. I doubt any investors would have taken our intentions for making the film seriously. Some of the lyrics of the songs in the film are like a kind of operatic hardcore, and would be hard to swallow without the music. We would have liked to submit some excerpts of some of the pre-produced sequences to the German Film Foundation to get the ball rolling for potential funding, and to give them an idea of what we are getting at with this kind of a comedy, but their by-laws prohibit it. We hope with the finished production to set a new precedent for future films of this genre, and to get them to reconsider their regulations regarding their funding practices.
Kameramann: Is it because of this lack of funding that you chose to shoot the film in DV-Video format?
CK: I don't know if I had had the extra pocket change if I would have shot the film in 35 mm. It doesn't matter to us anymore. I chose this career because I wanted to enjoy certain freedoms that it offers, and the new technologies, if used creatively do indeed offer us new freedoms. In our young camera man Georg Wittermann I've found a person who works and experiments without inhibitions with the new mediums. He was recommended to me, by the way, by an established ARRI Studio colleague.
Kameramann: Clemens, aren't you afraid that the quality of the acting won't come across on the big screen with this new technology?
CK: The optical effect of this new technology I think will soon be considered to be very aesthetic. I don't think there is any overall loss of quality. The actors also profit when they help the little brother of the 35mm format to be taken seriously. The small cameras help beginning filmmakers to shed the often indoctrinated myth that only big cameras are worth anything. The camera doesn't care how big it is. The quality of the acting becomes, as a result, twice as important.
We looked around a long time before we found the right cast, and discovered some great new talent. For example, Gerd Meyer as Gerdano a kind of German answer to French slap-stick comedian Louis dé Funes. He's just the opposite of me the hectic, wrathful director of a bunch of nuts. There's Martina Schroder as an intruiging, lush stewardess type, or Gerd Balters as a whimsical, shrewd manager who always recommends himself for big tasks, and the list goes on. All the actors manage to hit their roles on the head.
Kameramann: With a title like "Musikill" it sounds like there's a lot of music in the film.
CK: Apart from the extravagance of the story "Das Musikill" has, of course, a lot of music in it. We mix it all up, melodic rock ballads and hard rock songs are thrown together with excerpts from classical music. If ordinary people were to sing the line, "Its time to understand each other's feelings, and see the world through different eyes" it would sound corny. When the robots in the film sing it then it sounds kind of creepy.
Making a comeback in our film are father and son Ricky and Elvin Dandell who sang and composed their own music. Nepo Fitz, son of famous German cabaretist Lisa, had a supporting role, and sang two songs in the film demonstrating that he has inherited some of his mother's talent. A larger part of the music was composed and recorded by Robert Rosanz in Munich's 507 Studio with a 5.1 program. (5.1 Version von "Pro Tools" was ist das?). I must also mention Harry Kulzer who wrote a wonderfully dirty tango number for us as well as Munich-based pop singer Lavinia Jones who makes another comeback as Gordon's singing nurse. We'd also like to thank the Moon Musik and Gaga Studios in Hamburg for their support.
There's also a lot of dance in the film. The choreographers Doris Greza and Romi Schmidt develope a dance style which bites throughout the film in juxtaposition to the music. We're also working on an adaptation of the film for the stage. We're very ambitious.
Kameramann: How was it for you as the director to work on the one hand with big names like Gordon Mitchell, Roswitha Schreiner (from German TV's police series "Die Kommissarin"), Lavinia Jones and Michael Schwarzmeier and on the other hand with hard-working unknown actors trying to work their way up, your "bunch of nuts"?
CK: Everybody learned something from each other. Some learned what it means to be professional, and the others were inspired to once again feel the energy they had when they started out. Everyone showed a lot of heart.
Kameramann: It sounds like you're a jack-of-all-trades as a filmmaker, but don't the added burdens of being the author, director and producer detract from the overall quality of the production?
CK: Its pretty tough sometimes on a low budget to make it with less personnel, but that seemed to motivate everyone even more which in turn gave me an extra kick. Having taken on the three jobs at once has its advatages too. Producers usually don't know when the going gets tough what's going on in the minds of their directors. Has he still got everything under control? Is he going to make it? I don't have to calm down any producers. That costs a lot of energy too. I have to find my own way out of hopeless situations. Nobody tells me what to save or what to leave out.
Kameramann: Tell our readers something about post-production. I feel a little bit guilty when I ask you because I am the one who always says that if you want to have a good sound track you have to record the sound on a separate recording medium (ie. DAT). Now everybody has to put their sound on a "clapper". (was ist das?)
CK: Its annoying, but you have to do it. I'm glad you made me do it. I can't sell my films with bad sound and still call it art. That's a mistake. I'm counting on the support of the studios when we re-do our playbacks and compose our lead-ins (?). You've got to let your own ears tell you if the quality is up to standard.
For the cut I used Final Cut Pro. It offers more possibilities for the music mix than DV Express from Avid. With over 60 cassettes of material its better, after sorting out what you don't need, to cut on-line to avoid batching (was ist das?). It took a long time because we had to learn from trial and error, and try a lot of different things out, but it saved us a lot of money in the end, and we can use our new knowledge for future projects.
Kameramann: After hearing how the press and several TV networks have raved about the quality of the trailer video, I'm anxious to see how how the whole film comes across on the big screen. Where and when will the film premiere be?
CK: We didn't manage to get a decent cut ready in time for the Munich Film Festival. Now we're shooting for a mid-September or October release.
Kameramann: Then we wish you and everybody involved in the film a succesful release. I hope it will live up to my expectations after reading the screenplay and experiencing first hand the shooting. Thanks for your insightful words.
CK: Thank you for your interest in our film, and if you ever need a taxidermist give me call.
