Back home

Yesterday we took our flight back home.

Everything went well with the equipment, our baggage und the A.T.A. Carnet.

We collected all necessary stamps from the duty offices in Bangkok and Frankfurt and were allowed to reimport all equipment.

Now back in snowy Germany we will start to look through all of our 10,5 hours of film material (nearly 500GB) and start the postproduction after the holidays.

We wish you a merry Christmas and hope that you keep following us to accompany the comming steps from the raw material up to the finished film.

News

Our stay in Thailand is nearly over. Tomorrow we will fly back to Germany. We will start the postproducation after the holidays in January.

The time in Thailand passed really fast and it's difficult to imagine being in the winterly Germany tomorrow evening. It's also hard to remember that it's Christmas time. The Christmas songs in the malls and the kitschy decoration try to impart the winter feeling but it really doesn't match with the climat in Thailand.

9th shooting day

Schedule:




Production:

Today was our last shooting day.
In the morning we started with professor Piboon's interview. He, as the director of the IIS, talked about the RU and the advantages for international students to study at the IIS.

Then our 5 actors joined us (Laura was already with us) and we shot the get-together scene, the last sequence of our film, next to the monument.
We also did some walking scenes for this purpose with the students.

Afterwards we captured some impressions of the office, the corridor and class.

At the same time Prof. Schiffler and Laura went to the audio studio to record all off-texts with our actors.

Impessions, experiences and stories:

It was exciting to meet the director of the IIS, Prof. Piboon. We had a thight schedule today. We did the interview and the get-together scene in only 2 hours.

When we wanted to shoot some close-ups of the students saying their motivating sentences right into the camera a tannoy announcement on the campus started and we had to take a break of about 10 minutes.

News

We are finally back from Ko Samed and had two shooting days on that island.

At the moment there's just one part of the film missing which we will shoot tomorrow.

We planned for the final scene a get together with all students on the campus.
Additional we will do an interview with professor Piboon, the director of the Institute of International Studies.
Afterwards we will record all off-texts of the students.

7th and 8th shooting day

Schedule - 7th shooting day:




Production:

After arriving at Banphe harbour we first shot a bus scene with Laura, our backpacker actress.

Then we got ready for the boat trip and arrived at the island Ko Samed. First we did a location viewing and found cliffs, narrow streets and jungle as well as a nice beach and a high weed field nearby our resort.


Our first shot was a bungalow, so called Tubtim. We started there because the light was perfect and we were afraid that this might change pretty soon.



When we were done there we headed out for the jungle and started to shoot in the brake. Simultaniously we looked out for some smaller animals to add them to our setting.


Afterwards we went to the alley because it was on our way.

The next scene was supposed to be our tongue twisting introducing sentence. Therefore Laura was sitting on a hammock at the beach.


Now we chose to shoot in the high weed. We shot there in different variations.


Then we went to the cliffs, where we needed to hurry because the sun already started to set. However we did several different settings like climbing, sitting on the cliffs and jumping from rock to rock.

Impressions, experiences and stories:

When we did our bus scene we wanted Laura to get into the bus which was unfortunatly locked. So we tried to find the bus driver. After shooting alternatives we found someone else to open the bus because the driver was sleeping and nobody wanted to wake him up.

Our schedule was highly influenced by the light settings. We always tried to get the best light for every location, for example the Tubtim and the Jungle scene needed a steep sunlight to get a nice shot.

The shoot in the jungle was really adventureous. We stood in the middle of the exotic flora and learned that it would have been better to wear long trousers and sturdy shoes like Steffen Böttrich did. Laura scratched here legs while walking around in front of thr camera and Stefanie got nearly 80 mosquito bites.

While shooting in the high weed we tried a different way of camera placement. Laura took the small camera in front of her and walked trough the field while filming herself, as you might know from "Blair Witch Project".


The ebb was a real advantage for us while shooting on the cliffs. Because of the ebbing water we were able to reach several rocks that have been out of range some hours before.

When we shot the climbing scene on the cliffs Laura jumped from one rock to another. To capture this Steffen Böttrich layed down between the cliffs. But to get a good perspective he also had to digg a hole for the camera.


We also had to keep an eye on the water and the sand to protect the equipment. After the shooting we had to rinse the selt border and the sand from the tripod and removed sand from the camera with a bellows.



Schedule - 8th shooting day:




Production:

Today we got up early to film the sunrise. We started to shoot on the beach with a landing stage. We made Laura walking there and sitting to watch the sun.


Following we wanted to shoot some footprints in the sand, but a huge gecko interfered our plans by visiting one of our rooms. So we tried to capture him with the camera.


Afterwards we went on with our original schedule and shot the scene with the footprints in the sand.

After finishing this scene we got our equipment and carrying cases all together and headed back to Bangkok.


Impressions, experiences and stories:

We were suprised how fast the sun was rising because we were nearby the equator. This meant for our shoot that we had to hurry because we needed the soft light and the coloured sky for our shot.


The spontanious shooting of the gecko was very exciting. Prof. Aymar tried to shoo him in the right direction while we had to run from the inside to the outside to the inside and back again to capture him.



While doing the footstep scene we had to deal with several troubles. The sand was really tight so we had to go really close to the water so you could see Laura's footsteps and Steffen Böttrich had to lie down there with the camera to get a good perspective.

News

We got some feedback to our blog today and decided to change the structure. We hope everybody likes it and we appreciate to get many comments and feedback :) Please keep on following our blog.

For your information: We are on Ko Samet (an island in the south of Thailand) the next two days to shoot the last of the six student sequences. We won't have internet in the "outback". So you'll get the news and pictures the day after tomorrow.

6th shooting day

Schedule:




Production:

Today was our reserve shooting day. On Friday we had a very firm time schedule. Because of the terrible traffic we were afraid to get problems to come to the business area in time if we shot every scene with Jasmin. So we decided to do the Tuk Tuk scene today.





Therefore we went to the temple in the street of our hotel. After hiring a Tuk Tuk we let Jasmin drive with it in front of the temple and trought some streets. We first shot from outside, then Steffen Böttrich boarded and filmed the drive from the “inside”.

Because of the optimal light we planned the Tuk Tuk scene at 10 o’clock. To lose no time we decided to send Prof. Schiffler, Steffen Böttrich and Laura to the campus in the early morning to make some driving shots out of the car.


Impressions, Experiences and Stories:

When we planned this scene we didn’t know that there are no Tuk Tuks in the area around our hotel and the university. But luckily Prof. Aymar convinced a driver to drive the long way to our shooting location. Of course the Tuk Tuk driver didn't know any English, so Prof. Schiffler and Steffen Böttrich had to move the Tuk Tuk to the right place. Prof. Aymar pretended to be the Tuk Tuk (with sounds) to demonstrate the way.

5th shooting day

Schedule:




Production:

Today we have been very brave and "climbed" to the roof of the Thai Chai Building on the campus. We made some nice shots there:






Then we met Shawn, our Canadian actor, to shoot the course of studies Mass Communication with Laura (from our film team but also our actress). Here we built a film set-up and shooted them while pretending to produce a film themselves.

We also met Jasmin and shooted together with Ben, our Chinese actor, the course of Studies Business Administration. Therefore we went to the book store of the IIS where we shot some scenes.





We also shooted a scene where they were preparing a presentation and


walking down the corridor.

Impressions, experiences and stories:

We had to build an improvisational dollie to make a dollie shot for filming the book shelfs. Therefore we used a mobile book trolley: Steffen Böttrich was sitting on top with the camera, Laura hat to crawl inside with the monitor and Tim used his physical power to move the trolley really smooth.

Another challenge was the elevator scene because it was hard to find a permanent working elevator and also a floor where no food booths or chairs were placed.


Unfortunately we didn't get the permission for the RU's film studio, so we stage-managed a student film prodution on the campus. Therefore we used our bigger camera and the whole audio equipment and shot the scene with the small camera. Miss Niam, our shoot accompanist, played the narrator.

4th shooting day

Schedule:




Production:

Today we started with some general shots at the campus without any actors.


At 10 o'clock we met with our French actress Desi to do the end of her scene.

Then our Swedish actor Hendrik joined us and we did the scences about the course of studies English Language with both ators. Therefore we shot scences about learning, one in the canteen and one in class.


In the evening we shot a scene on the market next to the university. Our actor was again Hendrik. He walked around and ate something like calamari. After buying his food he sat down on the grass where a lot of people meet to eat together.




Impressions, experiences and stories:

It was a little bit tricky to shoot at the market because it is very narrow. So we had to deal with people who tried to pass us or looked in the camera.

Also we noticed that lots of Thais (mainly the girls) put her hand in front of here face while passing the camera.