Category Archives: Behind the Scenes

Rübezahl: faking a manuscript

Some Handwriting.

A documentary about the authors who wrote about Rübezahl, the folklore mountain spirit of the Bohemian and Silesian Giant Mountains. We’re preparing a detail shot, showing Johannes Praetorius, one of the historical authors, writing a manuscript. I take over as the hand double writing in historically correct old German Kurrent, the handwriting of those times.

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Fancy an extract?

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Don’t worry. The text is not only written in a historical handwriting, but also drawn up in 17th century German. So the following transcript also won’t help the German-speaking readers too much ;-)

“Darauf antwortet der [Bursch, es wird zwar wenig]
sein, doch langet er zugleich erst nach dem
Schiebesack und zeucht vom Rest etwan noch
zehen oder eilff Schoten heraus eröffnet eine
und siehet daß es nicht mehr grüne Erbsen
sondern klares gelbes Gold gewesen
welches er auch in den übrigen ertappet
alles miteinander verwahret ungeachtet
daß der Wirth um ein paar bahtet.
Zum anderen visitirete er auch mit Ver-
wunderung seine Flaschen und fand des- […]”

[Praetorius, Johannes: Rübezahl machet Erbsen zu Gold.; in: Des Rübezahls Dritter und gantz Nagel-neuer Historischer Theil. Leipzig, Arnstadt 1673]

Sauhund: Ludwig’s office

Shooting day for BR’s new puppet show.

I dressed a corner in our premises as the show’s central control room. This is from where line-producer Ludwig Wolpertinger (puppet builder: Robert Rebele) desperately tries to manage the on-stage mayhem.

Just moments before shooting. Behind the camera: director David Gromer and DOP Stefan Spoo.

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Under the table, quite uncomfy: Norman Cöster (head and voice) and me (both hands) working Ludwig.

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Sauhund: sock puppets

Another project for BR.

Sauhund, a puppet show. My DingStars will also appear in this show. A new regular feature will be the Socken-Fans, characters clearly to identify as sock puppets . A bunch of fans waylaying the guest star at the back door of the sound stage. I’m doing my best to make the most of those normally rather primitive sock puppets and make them fully-fledged characters.

An example from sketch to final puppet:
Rudi, a Bavarian Prototype.

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And here the whole cast so far.

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DingStars: The Lamp

From sketch to the finished puppet.

One of my DingStar-puppets. This one is exceptionally not manipulated from below but from above. (That’s why the upper rim of the lampshade will never be seen on screen.) A rod, fixed to an elastic is used to push down the lower lip of the puppet. Reducing the pressure on the rod and with that on the elastic will cause the mouth to close in a quite natural way.

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CNS: summiteering

The summit episode on the show.

The riddle is camouflaged as a metal memorial plate. I’m fastening my dummy to the front side of the original one so that no one notices anything at a first glance.

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By the way, great shooting! A real outdoor experience in the Bavarian Alps. No art-department trucks, no cars. Only packing cases and brim-full back packs, that need to be dragged through the woods and up the mountains. Tough, but big fun.