"WE ARE THE NUMBER ONE" A pre-prodction blog yet

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GuitarRy

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WE ARE THE NUMBER ONE
a pre-production blog
by Garry Sonneborn

Current status:
pre-production
​


!This post is being updated permanently!​


Cheers everyone,

this post is long and directed to those of you that have experienced film shootings in foreign countries.

I am now planing a massive project i have always dreamed of. Very soon the script and synopse will be avaliable for download. Am i am doing that because i think i would not be able to do this project without the opinions and train of thoughts people like you could give.

I will not publish any deep content at this time. Just a few line-ups. (keep in mind that i am german :) )

I have been researching and studying a lot about the iraq war, conflicts between iraq and iran, the usa, the us government, us law and the great american way of life. During my 3 months of intensive studies i have read about 25 books, over a 100 articles and done a bunch of interviews. Instantly i have constituted a time-line summary based on information i collected. Using this synopsys i began writing a script and an exposé.
I found out for myself that it is almost impossible to realize an Iraq-Movie in Germany. So i will change the whole area where the story takes place.


Let's give it up for some story: (the content i give may not be understandable as a whole story, i'll fix that as i already mentioned)

Actual version:
 The story takes place in 2065. All fossil fuels are gone. The Cold War came out different. The story is told by David. He talkes about his past back in 1981(about)...



Former-version:
The story takes place in 2065. All fossil fuels are gone. David who fought in irak lost his brother Mitch in war. David talkes to a girl while she askes him questions about the past and why people began killing eachother. Because of the fact that a huge world war began the world population decreased extremely. The movie discusses a subject that concerns everyone. It describes my imagination about how the world might be in future if we don't change essential matters in life.

The movie will be having some "irak-war"-"blak-hawk-down"-"run-away-soldiers-and-buildings-exploding"-like scenes,
"A conversation between the girl and David" scene,
some propagande-like scenes and the story of mitch and david.

Let me tell you something about me.
My name is Garry and i live in germany. I am half german and half lebanese.
Right now i am finishing my apprenticeship (production for movies) at third "semester". Afterwards,- in summer 09 i will be studying movieproduction at a germany university.

Thoughts:
- Chernobyl catastrophy
- Oilfields in Ukraine ( The Germans wanted to get it in WW2 )
- Radioactivity?!??!



Let's do it! Quests for excellence!


crew

the list will be updated

- Production -

Producer: Garry Sonneborn ( Me :Drogar-SunGlass(DBG )
Director: Garry Sonneborn
First Assistant Director: Jill Muenstermann
Second Assistant Director:
Stunt Coordinator: Bugra Diricanli, Tarik Gogic

- Arts -

Production Designer: Garry Sonneborn
Set Designer:
Illustrator: Lena
Props Builder:
Make-up: Lena
Costume Designer:

- Camera -

DoP: Garry Sonneborn
Camera Operators: Garry Sonneborn, Philipp Koss

- Sound -

Monitor and Operator:
Sound Designer:
Sound Mixer:
Foley: Jill Muenstermann

- More -

Special Effects Supervisor:
General Assist: Bugra Diricanli, Tarik Gogic


There is a lot of people i will get for each position but not for sure yet. I will update this part permanently.



Ok, so now um... yeah. Let's do it.

Garry
 
Last edited:
Cheers again,

some more candynfos...

So while i am planing this whole project on my own it seemed to be to extremely overwhelming. It is like standing in front of a huge wall. A wall that was built with bricks. Each brick is a task that i have to do in order to be able to take the wall apart to reach the goal that is on the otherside.

The point is to find an answer to the question: How the scheiße am i going to pay for the flight tickets? How am i going to find out where exactly to built up a set and shoot the thing? Luckily my family has a huge house over there in lebanon. It is large enough to let 20 people live there.
The answer to this might be: "dude, find sponsores!" Well finding sponsores is another brick in the wall i have to do. But this brick is in third row from the top. So i can't take it out yet. There is more tasks to do before a sponsore may be found.

So where should i start; yeah start with the script. Well ok, it is almost done. So i finished this one. Now i this call from a friend who is planing a similar project for 2009. I fell in love with his project right away! So we suggested that we are going to do it tooooooo. Imagine!!! That is fudgin insane! (btw: that project will be posted too)

So what i think would be the best thing to start with is finishing all the writing stuff. Afterwards i am looking forward to hearing alot of opinions from you guys.

In the meantime i will be launching my portfolio website and the websites and blogs for the upcoming projects.

I hope to hear some opinions and suggestions from you soon.

Garry
 
Cheers my friends,

so today i didn't sleep enough and i missed to have a shower. Damn my alarm didn't ring or i didn't want it to ring. Anyway...

I had a long conversation yesterday with my girlfriend and with my mothers friend. I told them what i am about to do. And i asked my mother ( she is lebanese ) if she could translate my script into arabic. So she was willing :) I love my mom :)

So the conversation with my girlfriend laura took quite a while cause i was extremely tired and i wasn't in the mood of talking. She is a newsreporter for a german newsmagazine and yeah she does that great. So she and i are going to do this blog in german, too. I will let her writing it- i am not willing to slaughter germans with my language, too. Sorry... :beer:

Okay, i finished another book this morning. It is called "Dude, where's my country" by Michael Moore. I'm not sure yet which to read next. Do you have any idea?

Upnext i will post all the literature i refer to.- The basement on which my story is being built.

Any ideas? i recognized a lot of readers but no writers. Either way, i keep writing... :) i am going to have a smoke now.

Garry
 
Cheers chestbursters,

IIt has been now three days since the beginning of my pre-production on „WE ARE THE NUMBER ONE“.
I love this project...

So Yesterday i made a few phonecalls to some german movie producers who might come into question.
I didn‘t get into deep yet cause i just wanted to know if it could ever be possible to get produced.
Mercifully yet 5 of 6 producers liked the story and want to read the final script. (crap, didn‘t do it yet)
I have not always been able to talk to people like that. When you talk to person that you really want something from you gotta act. Yep, be mr. sparrow or obi van! Make the other person think that you don‘t actually need him. Act as if you weren‘t dependent of what he might be able to give you. But don‘t be arrogant. Be nice and polite.

Most of the time people fail from the beginning. They call the agency or office and tell the secretary everything about the script and the idea. WRONG! Ask something like: „Could you tell me who would be in response for production and decisions?“ or „How are you today (yeah, i‘m such a nice guy), could you hand me over to somebody who is in response for my project?“ Don‘t tell em that you are a noob who never spent more than 100$ for movie-props. And don‘t tell them about the script yet, or how much money you need, or how amazed you are about this project!
Well: don‘t say anything until you get the right person on the phone.

In case that person gets interested he might ask you to send him the script and synopse 11-times.
WRONG: „Yeah great, i am so happy about this, yeah i will send it to you immediately!“
RIGHT: „Um, i will check what i can do. I think i might have another copy here. Til when would you need it, sir?“ ( listen carefully...) „Ah ok, i bet it will be there for you.“

Some of you might think: „My story is so extremely special and great. It would make millions of dollars- the people would love it!“ Well in my opinion i don‘t acutally think that only the story matters. I think that is 40% good relations and 60% market chance. I bet, no i am sure that there is a lot out there that are great writers and have the best thrilling and emotional stories to offer but real life seems to be different.
Don‘t believe me? Let me give you an example:

There is this guy i know called Steffen. He lives in Cologne and wrote a story that couldn‘t be more unspectacular: „The next morning. Oliver wakes up next to a random girl he had sex with like every weekend. But this time it is different. That girl likes him and keeps calling him to get attention. At the end oliver and that girl fall in love.“

He got produced and 75.000 euros ( 140.000 $ )- Isn‘t that unfair? No, this is called life.

Never the less, what i am trying to tell you is you have got to be able to sell yourself (as we say in german).

Um and... sorry for my english spelling and grammar; it is not always korrekt. Hope you could get my point.

By the way: i didn‘t make it yet to provide you with a list of literature. I will get back to this soon.


I was up till 2 am to finish the synopsys. I think i will start translating it into english today so that you guys may have a look on it.

Now i need to get a smoke again.

greetings,
Garry
 
Cheers,

it is tuesday today and i have got some new things to post.

On Friday i watched the new batman - the dark knight thing. Liked it but wasn‘t really something special. Liked the joker :)

After spending saturday with my girl i had a conversation with her father who owns a gardening and landscaping company. I told him about the set i needed and he was willing to help. Luckily i got a phonecall from a good friend of mine who owns a huge farm. I asked him if i could get some space at the farm to build up a set ( iraq-desert ). He replied: „ take as much as space as you need“. Woohoo. So i have to calculate the costs for the materials needed. He is also building the half-bowl piece for my 150mm sachtler tripod. Maybe i can convince him to build the rodsupport, too ahwww that would be sooo great.

On Sunday i shot a showdown-fight scene of my actual project. We used to work with very good stunt and fight choreographers but the owner became such an idiot. We quitt working with them. Last week i found a new group of talented fighters who were willing to help us. So they did on Sunday. I found out that two of the three actors we had were so extremely talented at acting that i asked them directly if they want to be in my next feature. The agreed :) ( i will post some pictures these days at the staff-table )

On Monday i went to several banks and to a couple of restaurants asking for some support. I asked the major three banks and two of them were quite interested. I gave them my number so that they may call me back.
Unfortunately none of the restaurants could imagine how to support me. ( damn, i need a restaurant for a scene )
But then i remembered tony, a good friend of my mothers. He ownes a really neat italian restaurant 2 blocks from where i live. So i called him and he was also willing to help.

Also on Monday i talked to a good friend of mine who is a really talented writer. He published his first novel a couple of months ago. I asked him if could be my lecturer for the script. And he was willing, too.

It is very interesting how people always react when you offer them to get integrated to a movie production. They always respond in a happy and interested way.

Next will be (HOPEFULLY) EXPOSÉ and some updates.
 
Hey Garry, this looks quite interesting so far. Keep it going.

Looking at your paralines website I have one advice for you. Look for really good actors, those who really fit the roles and are actually old enough to be believable. If they look too young, people won't take it seriously. That would be a big improvement from your last film.

Where are you from btw? Duisburg?

Best wishes! And again, keep it going!

Simon
 
Cheers,

Yeah thanks simon, i got your point and you are right. The actual project is more meant to be funny and criticising social aspects in germany.

I have been doing more movies. I did a lot movies for festivals and fashionshows. Some short films and assisted some bigger productions.
But i have never done a whole feature (that is meant to be serious) on my own, so this one is my first.

I live near krefeld. It takes 20 minutes to get to duisburg and about an hour to get to cologne.

Thanks for the post simon!

Garry
 
Bonjour!

well, where should i start?! I just game it...

I got a complete refurbishment to announce...

Since i talked to a friend who kept telling me that i would be almost impossible to do an Iraq-Movie in Germany i am convinced. Him and i had the idea of using the same story but changing places and time.
I will transfer the whole story to ukraine. It will have something to do with chernobyl and the cold war. In my imagination i will let the cold war end different. I ordered a couple of books about chernobyl, the cold war and the story of the soviet union.

So i have to apologize to those of you who expected to get the exposé soon. I will now jump a step backwards to my investigations and afterwards i will write the exposé and so on...

Oh man, there is so much to do now again. But still i am full of excitement about the project and i will continue on it.

Garry
 
Cheers everyone!

i have got some serious updates to announce.

The new story for WATNO is now at it's final stage and will be posted tonight.

Things are getting together and i am working as hard as i can.

Greetings,
Garry Sonneborn
 
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