Olympic Diary: Rio de Janeiro 2016

After months of working for TV program UM4 (rbb) and hosting various shows, I landed a gig during the Summer Olympics in Rio.





The local afternoon magazine TV program zibb (rbb) asked me to do a diary of the city in 10 chapters during the games, since I live in Brasil half of the year anyway and happened to be there.





It was quite a tough job, sometimes the working days were 16 hours long. Not necessarily because of the duration of the shooting or editing, but because of the traffic in Rio.





Nevertheless, it was a great experience that involved meeting with activists, athletes and random people on the street.





I took a peak into the mechanics of the Brazilian sport system, visited a military base and went to demonstrations.





As great as it was, I'm glad I can relax now for a bit. Let's see what comes up next. And yeah, the bits are all in German. If I can find the energy I put subtitles to them soon...

Don't call it a comeback...

Well. Anyone working long term on a documentary needs a hustle to pay the bills. I had some luck with that in recent months.

First of all, Berlin indie mainstay and "Best Radio Station in the World", Flux FM has welcomed me into their family. I will pop up now and then at "Stadt.Land.Flux", weekdays between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Also every once in a while I'll be filling in for someone as a VJ for afternoon TV show "RBB UM4" - an ambitious set-up in which news bits are mostly filmed, edited and broadcast within hours. Challenging.

Also I continue to do voice work. Recently I've done an Albert Einstein impression for a series of educational videos produced in Australia. That will get an independent post. Here some of the things I lent my voice to recently:

Diamonds, pianos and a language course!

Since I'm quite busy working on a documentary feature (research stage, nothing to see yet, move along!), I have to confess that I have been neglecting this space here.

Let's see... I have been lingering about in São Paulo for a while. And while it was shot in autumn of last year, we finished the (presumably) last ever clip for Berlin's CRIME months later. So maybe it is only fair to post it here now, again some months later. What a poor excuse...



This video is all about Bronie Lozneanu caught in a fading fame fantasy, shot by Dácio Pinheiro and Denis Giacobelis, while I stayed in the back making more or less useful comments.

We shot it at NN Antiques, thanks to Tadeu Nasser and Raphael Nasralla with styling by David Pollak and make-up/hair by Bruno Miranda.

Apart from that I've been working on some things that are not that showy, like sort of a beer ad and an instructional video starring an emergency watch.

Also I've been doing some voice work for various clients. Like this:



...or this...



...as well as touristic audio guides in Mexico City and Pula (Croatia) and the narration for the acclaimed Meteorite Museum in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Also: you can learn German with me here!

Ah! One more thing! Dácio and I have also been shooting a small bit for the PIANOSOFIA project, which brings live classical music to your home. And if you don't have a piano, they even bring that with them.

Kaya "All This Time"

Wow. It only took 13 years.

Kaya and I have finally made a track together. Not just a video, a song. A simple drama, borderline generic - just as I love it - and graced by my friend's beautiful voice. We had Kaya's frequent collaborator Jens Wojnar record the vocals and co-produce the track and though it is still but a demo, I felt this has to be shared now. Time moves too fast.



In classic fashion, the clip is compiled out of footage found in the Prelinger Archives. If you wonder, what makes this classic, look down. One other track.



Will there ever be more? Possibly. Don't hold your breath, though. It might be another 13 years.

Tetine in São Paulo 2014

Without much of a story behind it, I just wanted to post this video of the wonderful TETINE, shot by Dácio Pinheiro, Ringo Giacobelis and me on July 17, 2014 at SESC Vila Mariana and edited by Tetine.

The Nest "Kairos"

Oh, how I love to be given the chance to edit archive material. This time the request came from Gerald Mandl, whom Stefan Fähler and I had previously worked together with on the final clip for his band Mediengruppe Telekommander, "Billig".

His project The Nest is quite the underground super group, featuring Christoph Clöser (Bohren & der Club of Gore), Tycho Schottelius (Desmond Denker) and Thomas Mahmoud. They just released their second album "Sayweenjoy" (Album Label).



So if you are into an experimental love song accompanied by vintage arabian footage and retro futurism, this should be right up your alley! Get the album, it's brilliant and becomes better and better with each spin.

We have a winner!

That one came quite out of the blue! My clip for Jim Hickey's "Everything" won the Noisekölln Music Video Award 2014 for Best Video! Hooray! I never won anything really...



The NMVA is given out as part of the Boddinale, the alternative film festival running parallel to the Berlin International Film Festival. People could vote online for their favourite clip. Then a jury consisting of Moritz Gayard of Electronic Beats magazine, Easton West of international artist collective Mindpirates and Jan Gryczan of Berlin club Loophole chose the winners.

The latest batch of videos...

Just a quick look at some of the most recent things I have done...

As mentioned before, I have done a considerable amount of stage visuals for the Crime tour last year. During the course of that tour we didn't want to put out too much of it on the internet, but since now they are touring with a different program I have to admit: I'm too proud of them to let them go unmentioned.

And why not start with what I consider to be my favourite work yet.



The visual to the song "The Call" was inspired by a 2012 commercial for a french department store featuring Catherine Deneuve. It used different shades of grey as colours are usually used to create a psychedelic effect. I took this idea and played around with it a bit, creating a fantasy language and epileptic flickering along with graphic rhythms common to 1990s music videos.



Quite unexpected by me, the visual for "Frame by Frame" proved to be one of the most popular ones out of the 35 minute program. Snake skeletons and found footage of open heart surgery seem to make for an attractive combination.

Aside from the visuals, which allowed a quite experimental approach to clip making I also worked in more conventional ways as I directed two more music videos during the last months.



Jim Hickey's debut video "Everything" was shot over three days in a room full of strings and edited over many weeks. Anne Haight's debut clip "Seaside" also took three days to shoot and was edited (and I know how posh this might sound) in Tuscany as I didn't want to edit it in grey Berlin. Flights and accomodation were cheap and the view beat the one out of my busy room.

Summer quickies with Alex Clare, MC Fitti, Katzenjammer etc.

Long term projects have a lot going for them, but I have to admit I also have quite a sweet spot for those quick and effective jobs where it's just you, a camera, a laptop and a badass deadline.

For example, in May I shot at the Karneval der Kulturen in Berlin. It's a multicultural celebration where a lot of ethnic minorities have the opportunity to introduce themselves to the general population. The highlight of it is a parade through the city. I did a portrait about the Circassian group for german local TV station RBB. It was shot around noon, edited until 6 p.m. and broadcast at 11 p.m. 



In the end of July I spent a weekend at Greenville Festival on the outskirts of Berlin. Together with my colleagues Suse Bruha and Patrick Westphal I was hired to shoot interviews backstage with some of the artists. Since we always shot with more than one camera, never wanted to use the same location twice and usually had to be really fast, we mostly worked together on the little bits.



Gentleman was super relaxed, but Katzenjammer almost got led into a horsefly death trap by us.



Gemma Ray contemplated festival life, Razz surprised us with quite some teen maturity and Alex Clare came across super funny. It felt like had the time allowed it, we all would have continued our talk over a drink at the bar.



All of these clips were to be edited and uploaded asap to the homepage of arte television - so between shooting the first frame to seeing the finished piece online were sometimes merely a couple of hours.



Extremely stressy, also because of an outside temperature of close to 40°C, but also quite rewarding in seeing so much work done in a short amount of time.



Considering the urgency of the arte job, shooting the Radio Fritz tram concert of Berlin fun rapper MC Fitti proved to be a walk in the park. Set up in an association with the Berlin transport authority BVG, Fitti performed for an hour in a crowded tram going through Berlin to 70 fans who were giddy with the excitement of being part of this exclusive event. Who can blame them...



This one was not done in much of a rush, since my colleague Justus Hütter and I shot about 3 hours of footage and the piece itself is only 5 minutes. Sound engineer Kevin Castens took his time polishing the sound and I edited this over the course of a weekend.

But really: try shooting a gig when it happens in a tram at 30°C outside, 120 pounds of confetti flying around you and a gang of very devoted fans following every instruction Fitti and his crew would think of. Speaking of which... If you haven't heard: head spins are so yesterday, we do the ROFLcopter. Duh...

Half-Year Round Up 2013

I've been too busy to notice how time flew by...

In November I shot a clip for a new song of my friend Kaya. It actually depicts the way from my Berlin home to the area around Rheinsberg, where I grew up in the countryside outside of Berlin, so it features a lot of places I have known since I can remember.



In February I edited two research-heavy image film loops for Radio Fritz (rbb). One to be used around the 20th anniversary of the station and one to be used as sideshow entertainment at Fritz presentations.



Researching the material involved a couple of night sessions alone in the TV archive of rbb in Potsdam and going through the VJ archives at Fritz itself. The quality of resolution of the footage varied quite a lot, but I think the Fritz spirit comes across.



In April Stefan Fähler directed a promo clip at Con Men for Berlin event series Gegen as part of their "Gegen Innocence" party. I only provided location, set up and VHS transfer but his work turned out so nice, also thanks to the flowers provided by Mark Colle and the performance of Claudia Kent from the Crime Video "This Party Blows", that I feel it cannot get enough exposure.



Speaking of Crime. The show featuring the visuals mentioned below has travelled on a tour around Europe and have even made it to NYC. Here's a little one shot take of them performing "Other Kids Lives" at Berlin's Südblock that I shot some months ago, that you might like if you like them. Which you should, because they are great.



Last, but certainly not least I have been doing something for the first time. Doing presentations at a conference, the radiofestival "Vmeste - Radio" in Moscow talking about my work as a morning host and reporter at Radio Fritz.

© Pawel Kartaev

I really have to thank Natalia Vlasova and Ekaterina Solomina from the foundation for independent radio broadcasting (FNR) for the invitation to this event at the end of May. Those were really some great days in the russian capital with a lot of new friends and many interesting points of view on the profession we share. 

Crime "This Party Blows"

Crime is heading your way!

Sissters' Mika Risiko and Scream Club's Sarah Adorable have teamed up for a new project that involves keyboards and floor toms and from here on you should discover for yourself what it is they are making.

Crime is gearing up for a European trek with Dischord recording act E.D. Sedgwick in November/December and this is a taste of what you are about to see onstage:



No, the girls will not be attending the show bored and undressed, but each song is set to feature an individual video to be projected on Mika and Sarah accompanying the music. Aside from me, clips were directed by Stefan Fähler and Mika; they feature actress Pau Pappel, film maker Ester Martin Bergsmark, dancer Prince William Morris and many more.

"This Party Blows" received its premiere in the shorts section of the Berlin Porn Film Festival in October and will kick off the release of some more music videos based on the visuals of the show.

If you have time, we strongly advise you to go see the concert. And if you do, please write back and say, how you liked it. Tour kicks off on November 23 at Berlin's Marie Antoinette, check out Stefan Fähler's poster!

11-23 Berlin (GER)- Marie Antoinette
11-24 Hamburg (GER)- Centro Sociale
11-25 Marburg (GER) - Trauma
11-26 Potsdam (GER) - Black Fleck
11-27 Aachen (GER) - AZ
11-28 Trier (GER) - Exhaus
11-29 Würzburg (GER) - Cairo
11-30 Nürnberg (GER)- K4
12-01 Leipzig (GER)
12-02 Prague (CZ) - Klub 007
12-05 Wroclaw (PL) - Lykend Club
12-06 Olomouc (CZ) - Mitril
12-07 Brno (CZ) - Yacht
12-08 Jihlava (CZ) - Club Jezek
12-09 München (GER) - Kafe Kult
12-10 Heilbronn (GER) - Mobilat Club
12-11 Giessen (GER) - AK 44

Mumford & Sons! Ellie Goulding! Nude girls! National TV! Q Magazine! Wow, September....

It all started with the first official music video for the new electronic outfit of Sissters' Mika Risiko called Crime. Together with Mika and Stefan Fähler, we filmed with 5 beautiful undressed girls, being bored and gorgeous. The clip had it's premiere in the shorts section of the 2012 Porn Film Festival Berlin starting October 24, 2012.



Only a few days later I, together with Stefan Fähler and Michael Bauer, had the honor of producing the generic TV interview for the sophomore album "Babel" of Mumford & Sons at the Michelberger Hotel in Berlin. Marcus and Winston were absolutely darling, laughing, telling stories and behaving as if we all (including the team) had been buddies for years. It's always so nice, when musicians are this accessible and we want to congratulate them on what looks likely to be one of those 1 Mio. + worldwide sales debuts, that have become so rare in this day and age.

Right after the shoot with Mumford & Sons we went over to Volkspark Friedrichshain to shoot a clip for up-and-coming band Pickers. They take part in the nationwide battle of the bands "Bundesvision Song Contest" created by TV host and Eurovision alumni Stefan Raab. This clip serves as their introduction on the show, has been broadcast nationwide on the popular show "TV Total" and is being used for promotion leading up to and during the event on September 28, 2012. The guys played their new single acoustic and gave us an insight into their motivation to make music.

Last, but most certainly not least, on September 24 I shot a very intimate gig of UK songbird Ellie Goulding shortly before the release of her new album "Halcyon" at Radio Fritz in Potsdam. It's interesting how she translates the electronic album versions into very soulful live renditions that do not make you miss the sometimes heavily processed and cut-up vocals. Rather they make you realize, what an amazing voice she has underneath all that production.



Update: the above clip of Ellie Goulding unplugged has been re-blogged in USA, UK, Sweden, Poland and Lithuania and made the Daily Hot List at Q Magazine!

August recap, belated I know 2012

What is it about August? It happened again. Weird.

This time I've been shooting a short piece on Berlin music duo Anne Haight. This bit was produced as an introductory film to their performance at the New Music Award 2012, given out anually to the most promising newcomer with nominations coming from all of the young public radio stations of Germany, including Fritz, whom they were nominated by.



They showed up with a range of weird instruments including a kalimba and a sansula as is the custom when they play a stage. They played a 15 minute set. They didn't win but should have. Whatever, I'm quite sure they'll find a growing devoted audience in no time, since they're not only talented, but also very charming and fun to be around.

The clip has been used for promotion leading up to the event, was shown at the intial award ceremony at Admiralspalast Berlin on September 9 and was subsequently broadcast on nationwide digital TV channel EinsFestival (ARD) and regional TV station MDR as part of their coverage of the show.

In 30 years we're gonna look back at this and...

...not see our ridiculous haircuts, the by then painfully outdated clothes, gestures that don't relate to comtemporary life anymore, won't have to explain why we briefly dated that person and above all: we won't wonder what blur of a band that is on stage.

We'll have this:

We can get this out of the shelf and wholeheartedly say: I might 
not be in the picture, but this is where I was, that is what I
loved and "here, have a look! this is what it felt like!" All the 
bands and places and situations that we saw with our own eyes or 
for some stupid reason missed out on. We'll reach in the inside of 
the cover and put on the music compilation that came with it.




And then we can skip to the credits of the book and prove we 
knew back then that we would want to have this in 30 years. 

This is an emotional pension plan, so skip a payment and pump 
some money in this beauty to make it happen! First step: klick on
the picture below!*



*text applies only to you if you have enjoyed alternative rock 
music nightlife in Berlin between 2006 and 2011 thanks to 
Deerhunter, Sonic Youth, Lower Dens, Tortoise, Future Islands,
Stephen Malkmus, Les Savy Fav, R.E.M., Mudhoney, Times 
New Viking, Sea And Cake, Kurt Vile, Dinosaur Jr., Bear in 
Heaven, Lambchop, Dirty Projectors, Calexico, Fleet Foxes, 
Caribou, Mogwai, Deerhoof, Chris Corsano and more or if you 
wish to give that impression, even if only in 30 years. 

48 Stunden Neukölln

I'm sitting here trying to think of something to explain what you're about to see, should you choose to follow.

Well... there are 3 clips shot in Berlin. ...by brazilian filmmaker Ivi Roberg and me. There's poems. And pictures. And music by Mika Risiko, v.b.d. and Terminal Guitar Trio. Come to think of it, they all are solo projects or side arms of other bands: Sissters, Essenz and Château Laut. Enough name dropping. They have been on exhibition at annual Berlin art festival "48 Stunden Neukölln" at Café Engels or as you could say: in a dark corner of a former bowling alley.

Enjoy or something.

This Year in Spring

What have people done in this case, back when I was a kid? Would they have released their movie on self-copied VHS alongside a fanzine xeroxed into obscurity? Hm. That does sound kinda good, I must admit.

Oh, yeah... It's been almost two years since "Letztes Jahr im Sommer" ("Last Year in Summer"), the documentary about the Orchestre Miniature in the Park premiered at Kino Babylon in Berlin. Since then I have tried with various partners to put it out on DVD. Alas, we live in the land of the GEMA. So we would have likely ended up spending billions on music rights before anything happened.

Why, you ask? Oh, you should see the movie, I say.



It's packed with tons of cover songs about the sun and the summer: Velvet Underground, Weezer, Tocotronic, Phoebe Kreutz, Jonathan Richman, Claude François: all played through the 20 toy instruments of the band. And that 20-piece toy instrument band tours Paris for a week. Paris, France. In the summer. Playing, sweating, laughing. Scaring chickens, climbing rooftops and floating on rivers. Getting drunk and going home butt-naked. Putting memories for a lifetime into their heads and into those of the people they meet.



It's a lot, I know. That's why I split this up into the 5 days of the tour.

So here it is (drum roll): the premiere of "Last Year in Summer", the former documentary shown in a cinema as an English-subtitled web series. Free to watch!!! For everyone!!! Do I hear bottles popping? Damn right!



If the scope of your computer screen just isn't enough, you know what to do: write me an email and request a screening of the film in your area. I'm serious. The band might definitely come along and play a gig, you know?



I hope you have as great a time watching it as we had making it. Grab some friends and something to nibble and off we pop!

One look at the past, one look to the future

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.

For those not in the know, Marsimoto is the alter ego of German rap star Marteria. And whereas last August Marteria pondered on the eternal question, if the beat or the rhyme was there first, Marsi comes clean on all things green. 

I could describe how great that intimate gig was, but the little piece I shot should be able to get that across by itself. 

One look to the future: In a month that seems to be filled with people I shot before, I worked with the guys from Essenz on the teaser to their new album "Mundus Numen". It's quite a simple little bit and more about a sonic preview than flashy images, but because of that well worth checking out.

Sissters "Cool Cat Alliance"

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.

Ed Sheeran live at Fritz

Oops. It's about time I post this...

On December 7, 2011 this nice young fella walked into the Fritz studios. He looked like he just came out of bed, he didn't mind being interviewed in the bathroom and he was calm and nice with his fans. Ed's a complete pro, having played hundreds of concerts in the last 3 years. And that's it.

If you're into this music, he already has a huge back catalogue of currently 11 EPs and a sweet debut album titled "+".

Mediengruppe Telekommander "Billig"

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.

Make sure to check out their final album "Die Elite der Nächstenliebe" and to catch them on their farewell tour.