An Interview with Boris Schaarschmidt - By Herbert M. Brindl

Interviews: An Interview with Boris Schaarschmidt - By Herbert M. Brindl
Posted on Saturday, January 03, 2009 @ 21:58:34 Mountain Standard Time by Duane

According to the the Hollywood Reporter, in 1997 they estimated that about “300 German actors, writers, directors, producers, editors, musicians and composers- are currently living and working in Los Angeles the largest group since the mass exodus during the 30s and 40s.

My question was now in 2009 where are they twelve years later?

We all know, Werner Herzog, Roland Emmerich, and Fritz Lang (oops Lang was Austrian) Herzog and Emmerich are already established and are greats in their own Genres, but what is with the new Generation of talented Germans?

So let’s bring it forward, there is Marc Foster director of films like “Monstersball”, “Finding Neverland” and more recently “Quantum of Solace”, born in Germany but considers himself Swiss. Then there is Tom Tykwer he made “Run, Lola, Run”, Uwe Boll (loved and hated) and Oliver Hirschbiegel who did the award winning movie “The Downfall” but all of them work most of the time in Europe.

As you see it can get really hard to find German Directors in Hollywood when you need them, or could it be possible that young Germans turned their back on Hollywood?

Then one day Fortuna smiled at me, I got an email from Boris Schaarschmidt Writer, Director and best of all, a German who works in Hollywood! He invited me to a screening of his short films at the German Goethe Institute in Los Angeles. I accepted immediately and joined the people who were fighting to grab a seat in the institute’s theatre. Thank god or more correctly Mr. Schaarschmidts wife, the charming Michaela Ullmann who had already a seat reserved for me.

Boris started with his first film that he did in Germany “Wet Shave”, it was screened in over 60 national and international film festivals. The film has won ten awards as well as a Special Jury Award for Directing at the International World Fest Houston in Texas. “Wet Shave” is a dark comedy, after you have seen this one you know what a good twist is in a story.

From here we moved on to the Universal/13th Street shocking shorts award nominee “Projections” which starred famous German actress Sabine Postel. The film reminded me of the Cannes winning movie “Cache” from one of my favorite directors Michael Haneke, because of the style it was shot in. If you think now this was copied you are very wrong, Boris Schaarschmidt shot his film “Projections” a year before Haneke did his “Cache”!

After this Boris throw us back to “1916”, not to the Irish Easter Rising but into the equally or more bloody trenches of WWI, with this exceptional 1st year project he won the Pat Hitchcock O’Connell Scholarship Award. I liked that all the dialogue was in French, you didn’t need to understand what was being said in the Trench because the Filmmaker knew how to tell the story visually, the French language just added the right mood to it, incredible, the end of this movie!

Then we “Spent” some time with Cheryl Johnson, (an excellent performance by Tracey Costello) Cheryl has fallen pray to the American Girl “Shop till you drop” syndrome. “Spent” gave me goose bumps as I had to watch the downfall of this woman. No wonder the film was a finalist at the 2008 American Film festival.

From here on Mr. Schaarschmidt gave us hope with “Return to Sender”, which he shot for the finale competition of the Doorpost film festival in Nashville 2008. The story is about Simon Gracie, who is so occupied with his own life that he seems to forget the people around him; will life give him another chance? For me this is a wonderful and well acted film about hope and a little bit more… (Compliments to actors Mr.Grissom and Ms. Coogan not to forget sweet little Savannah McReynolds who played there daughter)

And last but not least came his master piece “Green” which was the last movie he showed us and he knew why! The film focuses on Walter (played by a very good John D. Gowans ), a simple unimposing football field groundskeeper who presides over yards and yards of perfectly sculpted blades of grass surrounded by a majestic stadium. After football practice and the big game, the freshly manicured green grass is decimated. Walter’s attempts to protect his lush green grass are futile until one day he takes action. (The stealing grass theme by composer Patrick Kirst is 10 out of 10)

“Green” is shot on 35mm in all it’s glory (by excellent D.P. Ali Moghadas). What pictures and what statements about the human race and her relationship with Mother Nature, or was it just about us humans and the relationship to other human beings???

After the screening I hated and loved this director at the same time, and I mean this in a good way. He put things out there, in his movies and then he leaves you alone, don’t except that Boris will answer everything for you. After you’ve watched one of his short films the story stay’s with you for weeks maybe forever, you think about it and as long as you think about it the more you get out of it for yourself! After the screening followed by standing ovations, I asked him if he would have time for a interview with Rogue Cinema. In his outgoing and winning art, he agreed and we spent some time with some good German beer. I have to smile now when I think back because “Heavy Boris” reminds me of a big Teddy Bear, I had as child, this kind you want to cuddle all the time, and a question comes to my mind that I forgot to ask him: “Is this the reason why your production Company is called Heavy B Productions?”

Anyway it is good to see a young German making successfully his way into Hollywood.

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HMB:
Tell us a little bit about your Background, where did you grow up in Germany, and when did you decide to go into film making?

BS:
I was born in Duesseldorf and lived in that area for my fist 30 years. I can’t really recall when I started to want to become a filmmaker. I would say I always wanted to make movies. I am a child of the 80ties and I loved American movies of that time. Especially the fantastic ones like Star Wars, Star Trek, ET, Goonies and so on. I was drawn to their adventures and as a child you always wanted to experience them.

At one point I must have realized that the only way to do so is to make movies. My first movies where super8 stop motion short films. I used my father’s camera and I animated my star wars action figures or whatever I could find in my mother’s kitchen. In 6th grade I made my first dramatic short film with class mates. It was a surreal film about a boy who wanted to blow up the skyscraper in front of his house because it blocked the nice view from his window. We built a big model of the skyscraper on our front lawn to set in on fire and fake the explosion. The problem was that the fire grew so big that we almost burned down our front lawn. The movie never had a premiere but it is a lot of fun to watch it today.

After high school I interned with two photographers in Duesseldorf and after that I worked at a film production company for a year. After these hands-on experiences I applied at the University of Applied Sciences in Dortmund to study cinematography. There I realized a bunch of short films including ‘Nassrasur’ (Wet Shave) and ‘Projektionen’ (Projections) which was my thesis film. In Dortmund I not only studied cinematography but I was also given the freedom and the trust of the professors to direct my projects. Parallel to my studies I always worked on film sets of German productions. Working on sets, mainly 16-hour days or longer in different positions makes you realize very quickly that filmmaking is hard work and extremely complex – knowing this even encouraged me to become a filmmaker.

HMB:
Was it always a dream of you to work in the USA especially doing films in Hollywood?

BS:
Hollywood is more an idea than a reality. All the filmmakers here in Los Angeles are here because of a myth. We all hope to realize our dream of Hollywood here in Los Angeles. Every year thousands of actors, directors and filmmakers come to this town and think they are the next Steven Spielberg or whoever. I must admit I am no exception. As I said, I grew up with American films from the 80ties as most of the filmmakers from my generation here in Los Angeles. I came to LA to create these kinds of films for the generations to come.

But the vibe has changed and the positive feeling has eased up a bit. We are in 2009 now and movies are more and more dictated by accountants and business men. Not that it was much different in the 80ties but there was a boom and a more positive thinking during that time. People may have taken more risks, while today everything is calculated until the very end, little chance for surprises, for individuality, for fantasy.

I hope that we can bring back the old spirit and make films that the audience not only consumes but truly enjoys.

HMB:
What director's do you admire?

BS:
I love the work of Spielberg, Fincher and Ridley Scott. The latter probably made the movie that influenced me the most: Blade runner. But I would call it respect for their work more than admiration.

HMB:
How does making Movies in Germany differ from making movies in the USA?

BS:
I can only talk about LA, not about the US in general. Hollywood is perfectly organized. There is a film company on every corner. You have basically all the resources you need right at your doorstep. But this perfection also makes it harder some times. Unions, regulations, fees and restrictions make it sometimes hard for independent productions to produce here. Every person knows how much to ask for to shoot in his or her house, store, etc. The fees to obtain a filming permit are insane. Movies are a business here in the first place.

But what draws everyone to LA is certainly the fact that if you get your chance in Hollywood, you can make movies on a scale that isn’t possible anywhere else.

HMB:
Are you still working on projects in Germany?

BS:
My goal is to work in the US and Germany as well. Germany is a great country with a lot of opportunities and very talented people. Right now I am developing projects for both, the US and Germany. I would love to realize a film in Germany and bring in what I learned about filmmaking in the US. On the other hand I love working in the US and I found some great and really talented people I would love to work on a feature with.

HMB:
Tell us about Nassrasur (Wet Shave), this great little movie with an unexpected twist at the end.

BS:
I did the project during my time at the University of Applied science in Dortmund. ‘Nassrasur’ was my first short film where I ‘just’ focused on writing/directing. We shot it in five days with a crew of five and a budget of 3000 USD. The shoot was absurd, every team member had various positions and the lead actor Bob Franco had rehearsals for a theater play at the same time which gave us a real tight schedule and it must have been even tougher for him. But he was great and without him the film would not be the same.

I wanted to make a small crime/detective film in the style of a film noir. I never expected it to screen on a festival. But suddenly we had our first screening, many more followed and eventually it aired on television. It was fantastic!

Because of Nassrasur’s success it was easier for me to get my thesis film ‘Projektionen’ on its way. Members of the German filmboards were surprised that I had not applied for filmfunding for Nassrasur and told me to do it for the next project. So I did and Projektionen became the biggest production for me at that time. Thanks to the support of the Filmboard Northrhine-Westphalia we had a complete crew and an actual budget. The lead character was played by Sabine Postel, a popular German actress, and Juerg Loew was her husband. It was a great experience.

HMB:
Next for you was Green and Spent, as I found out you did very well by critics and at film festivals with this two. Can you tell us a little bit more about them.

BS:
‘Spent’ and ‘Green’ are my two thesis films at the American Film Institute where I studied directing. They are both different in many ways.
Green is a fantastic story about the gardener of a football field who is obsessed with his grass and tries to stop the team from playing on it. It is a very visual and magical story with a broad score. I also wrote this story and it shows my love for characters that don’t quiet seem to fit in our today’s society and for fantastic stories.

‘Spent’ was a project that was already written and had an almost complete team, but was lacking a director and I was asked to come in. It is a drama about a shopping addicted real-estate agent who secretly lives in the house she is trying to sell. I was allowed to bring in some of my ideas for the story and to change the end to a not so happy end. ‘Spent’ turned out to be a very intimate, sad but more than ever realistic film.

Both films were shot in seven days plus one day of reshoot due to the regulations of AFI thesis films. The budget range was between 40 and 50 grant.

The films are extremely different from each other and each shoot was a unique experience with a unique team and I could tell hours about.

HMB:
Your latest project was "Return To Sender" which made it under the top finals at the Doorpost film Project competition in Nashville. What was that all about?

BS:
The Doorpost Film Project is a competition where filmmakers have to submit a 5 minute-short film related to topics such as Hope, Love, Redemption, etc. The top15 filmmakers that get selected by the online audience and a jury get the chance to make another short film, financed with 18.000 USD by the doorpost film project. For the first round we shot ‘ELENORA’, a bitter-sweet drama about a lonely man and his gold fish. John Gowans who also played Walter in Green did a great job and we made it into the final 15. The topic for the next round was Hope and we had about six weeks to put it together. After sleepless nights we came up with Return to Sender, a sad story about Simon (Chet Grissom) who is so occupied with his own life that he neglects his wife (Tracy Coogan) and his daughter (Savannah McReynolds). After the death of his daughter Simon realizes this and with the help of a new job he eventually finds peace.

‘Return to Sender’ was also a great experience and the first time I worked with children. It was a great experience, very rewarding and different. I was always a bit scared to work with children but now I hope to have the chance again soon. Savannah did a great job and certainly has a career before her. ‘Return to Sender’ was also my first short I realized after film school and helped me to overcome to big “What now”?.It was very challenging and certainly very exhausting as we had to put it together within only a few weeks and deliver it shortly after shooting. The team was fantastic and there were so many people involved that worked day and night to make it happen. Experiences like that show that not everything in the movie industry is about money but that there are talented and dedicated people out there who hopefully get paid one day for their hard work.

HMB:
With your Heavy B production you have produced short films with very high production value. What do you like about short films?

BS:
Short films are different than feature films. On one hand they are a calling card but on the other hand they follow their own rules. With a short film a filmmaker has the opportunity to show in a limited time what he can do, his range of skills. Sometimes it is harder to tell a story in 15 minutes than in 150. If you can proof you can get to the audience in a short time, you are more likely to reach them with a feature - which does not mean that everyone who can direct a short can direct a feature. Also, some stories are great for a 15 minute film but wouldn’t be enough for a full-length film.

HMB:
What’s important for you when you attach yourself to a project?

BS:
Passion for it! I have to be convinced of the story and the characters. You commit to it for a long time so you better love what you do.

HMB:
Some advice for newcomers?

BS:
Don’t do it unless you are rich or your daddy is a big shot Hollywood filmmaker. Otherwise you become depressed and suicidal.

No, honestly. Becoming a filmmaker is a long and rocky journey and many will never make it. It can take decades until you make a feature or even earn money with it constantly. There will be times when you question what you do and when you ask yourself if you can go back and learn something else. But if someone is really passionate about filmmaking, I could say whatever I want it wouldn’t help. Then go for it, get as much experience as possible, learn and try your luck.

HMB:
What’s next for Boris Schaarschmidt, when can we expect your first feature?

BS:
As soon as possible! Right now I am developing several projects. Two projects are feature film dramas, one in German, the other one in English were I teamed up with a writer and good friend from AFI. And again another short film called ‘The Devil in the Kitchen’ a dark comedy which will lead eventually into a feature film. If all goes well I will be very busy in the next five years. As usual I am just looking for a financier.

HMB:
Choose five people out of the Film business (alive or dead) you want to have at your dinner Table:

BS:
I would prefer a dinner party and invite a couple more. To narrow it down I’ll say: Steven Spielberg, John Williams, Ridley Scott, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffmann, and Stanley Kubrick but just if they are paying their check.

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RELATED LINKS

BORIS SCHAARSCHMIDT OFFICIAL WEBSITE
http://www.borisschaarschmidt.de

BORIS SCHAARSCHMIDT ON IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1451225

“GREEN”
http://www.borisschaarschmidt.de/films/Green_BorisSchaarschmidt.html

“RETURN TO SENDER”
http://www.thedoorpost.com/hope/film/?film=89b7bdc509e5b5bca5a393e5219a2754

“SPENT” WEBSITE
http://www.spentthefilm.com