| FEATURE FILM |
 |
Das Elixier
 |
 |
 A scene from the diploma film. |
In Southern Germany during the winter of 2000, Director, Stefan Hornung and Director of Photography, Bernhard Jasper shot the first 29 scenes of a film - Das Elixier, Hornung's diploma feature film - an intriguing mystery drama set in Italy and linking historical events with modern times.
"Das Elixier is an absorbing story," explained scriptwriter, and first time Director, Stefan Hornung. "It links a suspicious 20th century death and the young widow of a brilliant scientist, with a 16th century syphilis epidemic and a young Benedictine friar who struggles to find a cure for the dreaded disease. It has international appeal; but we couldn't finance the whole film in one go. Fortunately, floff pictures of Stuttgart rescued us with additional funds, so now we have some great footage to help us raise the extra finance."
DP Bernhard Jasper was excited by the challenge of filming two distinct -but related - stories, separated by centuries, while retaining a unified style. "We used contrasting visual languages, one for each period," he said, "mainly by making subtle changes to the lighting. I tried to light a modern 'film noir' style. But I also used other tools. For the 16th century scenes, I captured the mood of the time by concentrating on the sets instead of the characters. I adopted an epic style of storytelling by using long panning shots, almost exclusively shot with wide-angle lenses. The actors and their emotions merely became part of the scene - part of the 16th century atmosphere.
"By contrast, when shooting the modern story, I concentrated the audience's attention onto the actors, lifting them away from the sets by adopting a modern advertising style, shooting mainly with middle and long focal lengths and using jump cuts. When shooting the young widow, Maria, I always used a soft Beauty Light, whatever the weather, sunshine or rain. This allowed us to shoot many day scenes at night, helping us to get more scenes in the can than is usual during the short winter days.
"I wanted to shoot in CinemaScope because of the better resolution. But our only affordable option was to shoot in 1:2.35 (Super 35) with the ARRI BL Evolution camera, fitted with ARRI Zeiss High Speed lenses to give us brilliantly crisp pictures.
"For the historic scenes of the story I wanted to use natural light. So I filmed the interiors on Kodak Vision 500T lit by gaslight and candles. I used Kodak Vision 250D on exteriors because its grain pattern closely matches the 500T. For the contemporary scenes I created a look I often use in commercials. I filmed them on EXR 50D and Vision 320T, getting richer blacks by missing out the bleach bath.
"Although our locations were in and around Munich, most of the story is set in Rome. So our SFX supervisors did a great job with blue screens behind arches and windows. The screens will be replaced later with pictures of Rome, a relatively simple and inexpensive solution, compared with some of the extravagant 3D SFX alternatives!"
Bernhard concluded, "We are delighted with the result. We've spent very little money but produced some fantastic pictures. None of this would have been possible without the dedicated production team, actors, and the many companies who have supported us. Everyone was inspired by Stefan Hornung's vision and enthusiasm, and I sincerely hope that all those efforts will pay off for everybody involved, and we will be able to complete the picture."
Data File
Das Elixier
Production Company - Filmakademie Baden Württemburg
Producer - Stefan Hornung
Co-Producers - Bernhard Jasper, floff pictures, Unexpected GmbH
Executive Producer - Marko Zawadzki, floff pictures
Director - Stefan Hornung
Director of Photography - Bernhard Jasper
Camera Operator - Patrick Kaethner
Camera Assistant / Focus-Puller - Moritz Kaethner
Steadicam Operator - Marcus Pohlus
Head Grip - Torsten Querner
Gaffer - Oliver Lembke
Gaffer (16th Century) - Jrg Büttner
SFX Supervisors - Steffen Knocke, Andreas Burgdorff
Set Designer - Otto Kinzer
Editor - Christoph von Schönburg
|
