Calls From The Führerbunker

Mike ,

We have a wintery mix here in Ithaca. It's cold, snowy, raining, sleeting, and windy like you wouldn't believe. I'd much prefer it snow here.

But back at my other home, near Utica NY, we are expecting 8 inches by tomorrow morning. At least it is a semi change back to how things used to be 7 to 10 years ago.

PS. Really looking forward to the behind the scenes writeup. Your film has been on my watch list since the moment you announced it. Can't wait to take a look.
 
Hey Michael,

You definitely have the coolest location in the fest. I'm really excited to see your entry. I cannot wait for viewing to begin. The waiting is killing me.
 
The making of: Calls From The Führerbunker

...continued

You can check out the previous segment here.... LOCATION

Now on to the next segment.

WRITING

 I'll have to be careful here as to not give too much away.

When the theme of "Twilight" was announced I had a few ideas pop into my head right away. One was that of a woman trapped in a wooden crate. Some of the movie would have been shot from her Point Of View within the crate. Obviously there would be enough small holes in it to allow for air and a bit of light to get through. We would also get to see shapes moving around outside the crate from this POV as well.

The crate would occasionally get opened and we would be introduced to the victim for the first time. Brutality would ensue and then back into the crate she would go. I would never allow a clear look at her captor. Eventually she would work on a large piece of wood that was splintering off from within the crate. She would break off a shiv from this piece of wood and wait for the box to be opened.

This was her escape. She would plunge the broken piece of wood into the neck of her abuser and run for the door as he struggles on the floor, slowly bleeding to death. She would open a set of double doors leading away from this cold dark room and before her would be a warehouse full of crates, hundreds of them, just like hers.

All numbered. Just like hers.

The End.

So.... I figured that I have done enough dark material in these Festivals and people might start to wonder about me. :)
My wife thought so too. :huh:

I moved on and came up with CFTFB after visiting the Bunker here in Canada. I loved the old Twilight Zone episodes and decided that I wanted to write a script as if I were trying to pitch it as an episode for the series. The bunker was great but there was no way that I could turn it into the Führerbunker without spending quite a bit of money. That's when the idea for the script hit me. What if this bunker is receiving calls from the Führerbunker?

After the first draft was written I passed it on to a few Members here. Some thought I should move on to something else, others thought it was perfect for the theme. I made a few adjustments and decided to go for it. After contacting a few German Members here I realized that I could easily make this a reality with their help. Jason and Susanne Horncastle became invaluable to me at this point.

EDIT: I just wanted to add... Alex Whitmer helped me out tremendously with properly formatting the script and tweaking it here and there. So much so that I gave him a credit.

I really can't say much more without giving it all away. When the Fest is over I'll revisit this portion and add a bit more.

Thanks,

Mike


 
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Hi michael, I like your other idea too! I'd be totally up for seeing that. I loved the watchman and I think the whole POV thing in your coffin would create a really claustraphobic vibe. the story reminds me of 'la cabina' which i saw as a kid and loved. But yours would be more brutal, which is never a bad thing.

I'm looking forward to CFTF the synopsis sounds great. I hope you haven't given away too much with the synopsis and left something in the bag.
 
The making of: Calls From The Führerbunker

...continued

You can check out the previous segments here.... LOCATION and WRITING
Now on to the next segment.

CASTING

Casting CFTFB was more difficult than it may seem. Yes, Ian Quick, who I've used before, was definitely interested in appearing in it but I also needed another key role or three to fill. :)

I needed someone who was going to carry their weight on screen in the few scenes that they were given. Someone who was older than Ian, since this person would be playing Chris' superior (Chris, played by Ian). He would be showing him the ropes before heading out. Back then senior staff always had age and experience on their side. I wanted an older character and I had a certain look in mind.

I held auditions for this role. Nothing.
Called around any contacts that I had. Nothing.

Finally I just started searching local talent agencies until I found Johni Keyworth. After some Googling I managed to find out that he is also on the Board of Directors at Ottawa Little Theatre and I obtained his email address.

Keep in mind, Johni has performed in over 48 television productions in Canada and Britain since 1964. Not counting his extensive work in Theatre. I was about to call this guy and ask him to be in my little movie. I was nervous.

So I picked up the phone and left him a brief message at his office. He called me back the same day and I laid everything out on the table for him. He of course said that he wouldn't think of doing it until he read the script. I took down his email and sent it to him, along with some of my past work and waited patiently. Kind of. :huh:

I believe he called me back the next day and asked a few more questions. "What is this for?" Etc...
After I filled in the blanks over the phone he agreed to do it and told me how much he enjoyed reading the script. I was shocked really, but flattered.

Now. I wanted him and Ian to meet before we started shooting so I invited them over for a meet and greet. Not only did it go over extremely well but they managed to get a little more work for one another due to their contacts in the industry.

We discussed the characters and worked out their relationship on screen. As well as some ideas that Ian brought to the table concerning his character. We always like to give his character a quirk of some kind. Ian had some great ideas, as usual.

During this time I was scrambling for German cast members. I contacted Susanne and Jason Horncastle. Well known and respected in these Fest's.
They hooked me up. :)

The rest is soon to be history.

I'm going to contact Susanne and Jason to see if they want to add their experience to this post. Stay tuned.

EDIT: Here is their experience on casting.

[FONT=Tahoma,Helvetica,Sans-Serif]Casting of the German roles[/FONT]

 [FONT=Tahoma,Helvetica,Sans-Serif]Once we saw that Mike was making a film with the title "Calls from the Führerbunker“, we realized that the story must be about Hitler’s Führerbunker in Berlin. We live very near to the ex-Führerbunker and there is still a documentary center there. We offered him our help and he asked us for two German voices. Mike wanted an older sounding voice for the role of the General and a younger voice for an additional role.

Straight away we thought that Ulrich Meinecke (the main character in our TimeFest entry "Red Shoes“) could be the right voice for the General. Ulrich had a younger sounding voice in Red Shoes but we were sure that he would be able to do a more mature voice, because he not only works as an actor, but also does voice overs. Ulrich was very glad to do this, so we started to look for the voice of the younger character.

[/FONT] [FONT=Tahoma,Helvetica,Sans-Serif]One evening every month there is a group of actors (including Ulrich) who do readings of well known literature in a bar in our part of Berlin. Ulrich invited us to one of these evenings where we saw the actor who we thought would be suitable for the voice we needed. We offered him this part and he agreed![/FONT]

 [FONT=Tahoma,Helvetica,Sans-Serif]Susanne & Jason[/FONT]


Thanks for reading.

Mike
 
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Darkline said:
Hi michael, I like your other idea too! I'd be totally up for seeing that. I loved the watchman and I think the whole POV thing in your coffin would create a really claustraphobic vibe. the story reminds me of 'la cabina' which i saw as a kid and loved. But yours would be more brutal, which is never a bad thing.

I'm looking forward to CFTF the synopsis sounds great. I hope you haven't given away too much with the synopsis and left something in the bag.
Click to expand...
Thanks! I just wanted to get away from the dark side a bit.
Don't worry, Alex's synopsis left quite a bit out. :)

Marlon Ladd said:
The crate story sounds really good too, but I think you've got a real winner story with this one! Cool grabs BTW too.
Click to expand...
Thanks, man.

I edited the WRITING segment.
EDIT: I just wanted to add... Alex Whitmer helped me out tremendously with properly formatting the script and tweaking it here and there. So much so that I gave him a credit.
Click to expand...
Can't believe that I left Alex out. Hopefully he didn't notice. :huh:


Cheers,

Mike
 
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