loyal

loyal

2019
|
Thriller
|
13
min
|
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg

Three graffiti sprayers set out to pay tribute to their deceased friend. In this stressful and break-neck situation Filzer – the film’s protagonist – realizes that their long lasting friendship seems to be coming to an end.

Festivals

Interfilm Berlin, Germany
Landshuter Kurzfilmfestival, Germany

Process

A startled audience is satisfying. But as it turns out, real suspense takes more than a few jump-scare tricks. Here, we chose a naturalistic setting. Since graffiti is an integral part of our urban surroundings, we let  the action take place in broad daylight. Full disclosure: this happened partly to challenge chlichés and had a lot to do with the fact that we had limited days of shooting and – well – summer nights are just absurdly short.

My fascination with the sprayer milieu was first spiked by Youtube videos done by the artists themselves. We are talking high buildings, fast trains, cops and wild chases – all the good stuff. While the online footage was easy to access, the people were not. Research was slow until I joined them one night. The following talks led to topics that are now central to the film’s narrative. The next challenge was to convey the underground scene to the actors, which was not nearly as hard as teaching them how to handle a spray can.

To achieve a thrilling atmosphere in broad daylight, the sound and the music became  driving forces of the project. I had a bleak version of the Dancer in the Dark train scene in mind, where the surrounding train sounds are being orchestrated to the music. Let’s be real – these grand ideas rarely work. Still, we held on to the idea all the way through a lengthy post-production process. And I’m glad we did.

Team

Written and Directed by – Diego Hauenstein

Producer – Esther Busch, Isabella Braun

Cast – Felician Hohnloser, Hendrik Heutmann, Roger Bonjour

Cinematography – Christoph Schumann

Production Design – Anika Klatt, Philipp Becker

Editing – Andrea Grumbt

Costumes – Pia Pospischil, Lynn Scheidweiler

Hair/Makeup – Marina Aebi

Location Sound Mix – Paul Powaljaew

Casting – Diego Hauenstein

Music – Johannes Schelle

Sounddesign – Johannes Schelle

Recording Sound Mix – Johannes Schelle

Stunt Choreography – Anette Bauer

First Assistant Director – Luisa Ricar

Credits: Charlotte Lieb