QUICK UPDATE!

Hi Everybody Out There,

Here`s a short update which will soon be followed by more photos and written impressions from our tour. After Ukraine we were in England and Scotland which was overwhelming. Besides all the exceptional people we`ve met and great stories we`ve heard from them, we joined the British Mini Days in Stafford, had a look at the Mini Factory in Oxford and did a lot of impressive interviews and portraits on people you will hopefully meet here soon. As I said, as soon as I will have some more time and a proper internet connection, which I sometimes lacked in the last days, I will post more concrete details and infos. 

Right now we`re in Bangkok, Thailand which is somekind of a temperature shock after Europe and we`re about to get our first shooting day going with the people from the "New Mini Society". Last night we met them for the first time and they`re all absolutely lovely individuals. Like everybody we met so far. Guess we`re lucky.  Gonna post some pics asap.

Bangkok.

London. Heathrow. 

LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW!

First impressions from Kiev / Ukraine.

Our crew in the east!


Mrs. Crazy Checkmate Ira and her Mini Cooper which is a, right, customized checkmate like herself.



Mitya & Vitya in their Austin Mini Special 1100, 1975 and Eliseys Mini One in lot`s of snow.

Sound and waiting for a drive by.

Camera, Lights, Action for Elisey.

Kasis finally got the timecode right. Yeah, numbers seem to make some people happy. The roof of Mityas&Vityas Mini.

By the way, you can always make the photos bigger by clicking on them!!!!!!!

More on Ukraine to follow soon! Cheers, Manuel

WE SHOT BERLIN! GERMANY!

Berlin was beautiful, at the same time horribly freezing cold and a good test run for our crew and further shoot.

We did nice long rides through great locations all over the city at day and night. We visited the favourite Mini Garage of our Berlin protagonist Kasi. Super Mini Geek Kasi owned more than 20 Minis in his life and also rides the most wicked Austin Seven in Berlin. The East Berlin Garage, he loves so much, is an incredible place full of patina and packed with spare and car body parts. A place like from another time. There we also met his friend Billy who is a real cool oldschool mechanic. Kasi played for us on his Rhodes Piano at his home which is definitely a small Mini Temple and right there we listened again to a lot  of incredibly funny anecdotes about him and his Minis. I guess you all will love his stories as much as we did. In short, we had a great laugh and got loads of supercool material. 

Here`s a photo of our happy Berlin crew.

Lining up a shot in Kreuzberg.

Nighttime at Potsdamer Platz.

Shooting at the West Harbour Berlin.The Classic Mini Garage in East Berlin.

Kasi and his Clubman 1275 GT.

WE ARE THE ROADCREW!

Maybe you would like to get to know those people who do the job. That`s us.

Tina Maria Werner. Executive Producer.

Tina is the proud owner of her own production house and we`ve been shooting together almost since I made my first steps into directing a long time ago. Those days it was music videos. Great times. Lot`s of fun. She`s the backbone of our production, which means, she takes the financial risk. Yeah, she really got the fun part! Probably that`s why she loves to hide out in the bavarian mountains in her spare time. Anyways, thanks for that Tina!
By the way... No, we`re not married or share family bonds. The similarity of our last names is just a coincident. Believe it or not!

Aleks Avramovic. The Producer.

Multilevel weapon, Bosnian workhorse and an unrivaled icon in geography. Ask him any question about it, he will give you an answer. Probably because he studied it? Well, makes sense. He always keeps his budgets save in this small, cute red box.
Aleks and me have been working a lot together since he still used to be a First Assistant Director, quite a while ago he made the step towards producing. Since then we did a big bunch of mostly car projects together.
He`s also DJing on resident Club nights in Munich. Known as Dj Cheewie he spins an eclectic mixture of Electro, House and all kind of Cosmic, Space Disco sounds. He will for sure provide us with the right Soundtrack for our trip. Hey Aleks, got the message!?

Daniel Gottschalk. The DoP.

The guy with the fine eye. Daniel has a lot of great German feature film credits as Lighting Cameraman on his list, such as „Krabat“, „Summerstorm“ and one really good American produced feature called „Trade“, for which he got a nomination for the German Film Award – Best Camera. Plus numerous commercial and music video credits of which we shot a lot together. Daniel is a complete car maniac and used to own one of the most beautiful Alfas you might have ever seen. Was driving Alfa cup races himself so he definitely knows what he`s talking about. He and his wife Gabri are the proud parents of a newborn son named Tandoori Joe. No, of course that`s not his real name but I named him like that because he smells like, well, delicious Indian Cuisine. Strange? Yummy!

Bobby Rogoll. The DoP.

The next guy with the fine eye. Like Daniel he studied Camera on the prestigious Filmakademie in Baden Württemberg/Germany. Since then they are long time friends. Has shot a huge amount of commercial work and has one of the most impressive music video credit lists in Germany, besides some documentary and feature work. Collects vinyl and is obsessed about it, even more important, Bobby can repair any kind of oldschool tube amplifier with his eyes closed and if you need any spare part for your retro highend hifi machines, get in touch with him. He might for sure know where to get it.

Niv Abootalebi. The 1st AC.

Superexperienced Camera Assistant and Camera Operator. Nickname: Radio Teheran. Figure out why :-) Did some work on the feature „Krabat“ together with Daniel and has an impressive list of great German feature films on his CV.
Likes to take little naps on set when noone watches.
His brother Nastuh is a really great Inferno Artist and Motion Graphics Designer.

Kasi. The Best Boy & PA & Weapon of choice & verified Mini Expert

TV Host, Actor, Ex-First AD, Ex - Grip & one of the biggest MINI Freaks in Germany.
Oh, and Vespa tuner & verified expert. And storyteller. And And And And.
Will join us on a few stations during our trip to work on lights & grip. Owns a beautiful MINI Clubman, an Austin Seven and is working on a phenomenal MINI Jem. But you will see all that in our film anyways.

Andre Hoffmann. Best Boy & Grip.

Andre works as a Grip, Production Manager for Photo Productions and part time Screenwriter. He used to own a Bar and a Guerilla Shop in Berlin and shares a beautiful dog named Edie with his girlfriend Stephie. Stephie is a great After Effects Artist and actually introduced us to each other. He gonna take care of lights and car rigs on parts of our journey.

Christian Lonk. The Editor.
Master of all weird things, prophet of the multicolored computer keyboards, Bavarian patriot, part time singer, glamour, avantgarde and multilevel cultural expert, from trash to cash, both in music and lifestyle.
Christian and me have been working together for a very long time, since then he editied a lot of highly awarded international feature films and won the German Film Price for best editing too.

Manuel Werner. The Director.

That`s me. Right. I put myself to the end, just to be polite here, but guys, be sure that`s it gonna look different in the titles and credits and get familiar with the thought! :-) Just to set the record straight right away, so the people in my crew don`t get too high spirited. If you`re wondering about this you have no idea about film people.
I have been shooting commercials, music videos and image films with the greatest pleasure since about ten years now, won a bunch of advertising and music video awards and right now I am more than happy and excited about this project. See you all on the road!

By the way, don`t ask me why most guys on the photos are wearing beards and hats. Some mix of strange German bohemian fashion meets winter probably.

GEAR FREAKS & TECH HEADS.

Here`s some info for all you people who are interested in film stuff, mainly serious gear. After weeks of determining what kind of film equipment to take on such a long trip, which at the same time doesn`t kill the budget totally by overweight and at the same time our nerves by carrying too bulky, heavy stuff all the time, plus offering spontaneous handling and freedom in shooting we finally made our decisions. Tataaahhh! As we are all „film“ people the hardest part was to decide on the additional digital video equipment we`re gonna take with us. Digital video simply because of interview sequences and shoot and run footage which we, for some strange reason which is named money, cannot afford to shoot on traditional film. Too bad but too true. For several days I cried my heart out until even I got familiar with the thought that it is necessary to face reality and the small advantages of modern digital cinema equipment.
Then also space and weight plays a role as we`re about to minimize all the way through the production. A big challenge but a fun one and it fits the sentiments of the project too.
As we did not want to carry around big digital cameras like the RED, Arri D21, Genesis or similar, we had to decide on a format which provides small lightweight cameras for mainly handheld use which can be handled by a tiny supersmall documentary crew. At the same time providing us with a good enough quality&resolution to be able to color grade the footage in a „close to film“ look, match it with the S16mm material and screen it in full HD on large screens later. So after watching a lot of tests we decided to shoot on Panasonics ProHD P2 system which provides small lightweight cameras, full HD res, 100 Mbits and most importantly a subjective good visual result. It`s not film for sure but I`m optimistic we`ll be able to create a great look and feel even in those sequences shot digital, because in all those moments our ambition is to light, treat sets and framings like shot for the silver screen. I also shot a music video on this system some time ago and was quite pleased with the results. Another reason which seemed important to us was that if you load the cameras with P2 cards there`s not such a big risk blowing sensitive cables and external harddrives if the shooting gets a little tougher and rugged. You can just simply keep those cameras small to a minimum and then rock`n roll fast forward. I almost forgot, we`re gonna shoot quite a lot of S16mm footage, which makes me happy and keeps my general mood right. Sound is gonna be recorded by local sound crews in a proper and classic way.

So here`s what we gonna take with us. One Aaton Super16mm camera with all additional gear needed. One Panasonic Avx200, one Panasonic Avx 201 for some occasions, some exernal harddrives and a firestores for backup. Yes we thought of using a P+S adaptor or a movietube. Again the cameras just got too big and harder to handle, plus some additional cases would have been on the move with us. Idea erased. Some lightweight light and grip equipment is of course also on the road with us.

That`s how our little equipment package looks all set up.


And that`s how it looks all packed up and ready for travel.

LAUNCH THE ROCKET AND OFF WE GO!!!

After a very long research, prep and planning time we´re finally gonna take off and start shooting. WelI, that`s why I set up this blog. I thought it might be interesting for some of you people out there to see how our film finds its`form, from shooting all through the post production process. At the same time it will function like a little diary of our project.
So, right here I´m gonna try to keep everybody updated as good as I can. About people we met, events we attended, all other things that happend during our journey, both in terms of Mini and also the filmmaking side. As often as I can I will attach photos and little snippet videos so you all know what`s going on and how the shooting proceeds.
I don`t wanna sound corny, but here`s something I just have to say: MINI has a really great community! Truly. At first I would like to say a big Thank You to everyone around the world who contributed to our project. The response of all you Mini lovers out there was absolutely overwhelming and beautiful. And it is yet another proof that the internet can do some magic tricks as soon as a message starts to spread. So I`m looking forward to meet all of you somewhere soon and get an insight of you and your relation towards those lovely little legendary cars.
Comments and thoughts always welcome!
Cheers, Manu.

P.S. I hope everybody can understand that we are not able to visit all of who got in contact with us. Even if we would love to, we unfortunately need to life with some limitations due to time and i hate to mention that: money.