Month: July 2020

By Posted on Posted in Depeche Mode, Film Tagged with , , , , ,
Making a documentary requires creativity, even if it means leaving the door open, two crew members on the hall, one of them lying on the ground.

So now I’m already one day behind my original plan of following the events of July 2018. But who cares? Sunday, the 22nd had a lot more action in front of the cameras. Another groundhog day starting with more scenes at home at 10am. Then we were off for the scenes in the bar, at the karaoke, the surprise visit to the fans camped outside the venue and we managed to do it all before it was dark. Oh, and the very quick scene of me riding the subway that we shot in the middle of it all.

Like I said when I started these memoirs, film schedules never end up being followed, but somehow it all manages to get solved by magic. For this day, we had some strict curfew. Max deserves double bonus points here for: a) finding a regular bar that was ok with us filming inside (Berliners are super restrictive of being filmed or photographed without consent, specially if they’re inside a bar or a club) and; b) also getting the famous Monster Ronson’s Ichiban Karaoke to let us film there, as long as we were done before their opening hours. If you’re not familiar with the name, but watched Netflix’s “Sense8” (by the Wachowskis), it’s the same place Wolfgang (Max Riemelt) sings 4-Non Blonde’s “What’s Up” in telepathic connection with all the other characters from the show in one of the best episode finales of the show. It’s a Berlin classic.

On both bars I was joined by nearly the same group of friends. I thought I wasn’t even going to get a minimum of friends to make the scenes worth filming, but, magically, I did. Because we were running even ahead of schedule, I missed on having even more friends along. Of course it’s worth noting Jenna was there all the time. She was also with me the previous day either making sure my dog wouldn’t make any noise while the crew was recording ambient silence of my apartment or giving me moral support while I was running without listening to instructions.

We were also given free access to the drinks on both places because they wanted us as uninhibited as possible. To be honest, I don’t remember the exact moment they filmed me singing. We were assigned a booth. At one moment, they said we could start warming up and I picked “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss)” in the style of Cher because I had seen an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race that week that was all about Cher’s different eras and I was already drunk enough to think I could do her voice. When we were done filming there, they just told us to pick any song and wrap it and it ended up being Oasis’ “Don’t Look Back in Anger”. Everything else in between was Depeche Mode. Oh, and they had some fun too in between takes.

I had suggested to the crew on Friday about filming the fans that were camped outside the venue since early that week. I had two friends who were my moles in there. Originally we tried to do it the previous day, but since we finished after midnight, it ended up not happening. But on that Sunday we were done way ahead of schedule, so they bought my idea and we made a surprise visit to the fans that were so organized in their camp for the show that would take place the following day. I was quite proud that an idea I pitched during the filming made it to the final cut. This was the first day I got home before dark, if memory serves me right. But then again, I had a few too many vodkas to be 100% sure.

Co-director Pasqual Gutierrez falls victim to some pup-attack.

On Monday, the 23rd, we began like always with a few more scenes at home. Then some outdoor scenes with my dog. None of this made it to the final cut, but that’s life. It wasn’t 100% relevant to the narrative either. This was also the day of the first of the last two shows of the tour. The crew was sensitive enough to ask me what was my curfew to leave for the show, so they could know how late they could still make as many shots as necessary. In the end, we had out hard wrap even a bit earlier than I had told them. We had a little celebration right there at the park where we did the last shots. I’ve never been part of a feature film before, so it was nice to live this film crew experience. But then I rushed home to get ready and to the S-Bahn to the Waldbühne where I was to meet with Jenna and watch the show together. Oh, and also get to sing “Happy Birthday” to Martin Gore!

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So I’m running a little late with my 2nd anniversary retrospective. Guess what? Most of that Saturday, July 21st, was about me running up and down all over town. All of the outdoor running scenes were filmed that day. But first things first. Our schedule began at 10am with the crew coming to my place for the interview part. As I was soon to learn, filming schedules end up never being followed as originally planned, but somehow everything seems to work out right in the end. So filming at my place wasn’t over that day. In fact, in everyday we started at 10 am by doing some extra shots at home.

It was the hottest week of the year. The crew was so huge I had to keep the apartment door open. My dog enjoyed making surprise visits to the neighbors, even when they weren’t so thrilled about it. The crew picked the shirt was wearing. If you have a keen eye for Depeche Mode merch, it’s an original (and quite worn out) “The Singles Tour” T-shirt. Something I bought on ebay some 20 years ago, my very first DM shirt and it’s not something I’d wear when going out, but it made it to the final cut of the film.

Once we were done with the interview part, we went out for what I called “the Nike ad filming”. They really had the sunlight timed out perfectly the previous day. We spent hours doing some 6 or 7 takes of me running under the Gleimtunnel (which is only 130m long). Between each take, they’d check the playback, adjust something on the camera, do a take from the front, another from behind, another running along. It felt like we spent some three hours doing that. Then we moved on to Kreuzberg where most of the running scenes were made. All I had to do was run after “action” and stop whenever they decided they had enough material. That actually got me sweating since I only knew when to start running, but no idea when to stop. The part under the U-Bahn was particularly challenging because they were filming from across the street and I couldn’t listen to their commands without turning my head as well. But the light was sensational. I think we must have filmed roughly between 20h and 22h.

We still had one more scene they wanted, which didn’t make it to the final cut, sadly. They wanted some indoors running scene as well and since they couldn’t find a gym that would agree on letting us do it on such a short notice, they figured they would use their guest privilege of the sister hotel that they were staying. The work-out room of the sister hotel just so happened to be on the 1st floor, on the corner of the building that had full glass windows. I got in with the producer and the rest of the crew was parked outside discretly pointing their camera at me running on a treadmill from across the street. The producer was in charge of relaying the instructions. The whole thing didn’t last much and I never got to take a peek of how it came out, so maybe it was totally rubbish from a visual perspective. It’s the sort of crazy thing I wish they had used, but maybe it could have caused them legal fun later on. Oh well, another day going to bet around 1am with a 10am schedule to get going the next morning.

By Posted on Posted in Depeche Mode, Depeche Mode Facebook Takeover, Film Tagged with , , , ,

So let’s fast forward a little. On April 13th, 2018, I got another late night email with the subject “Depeche Mode Film Opportunity”. It was an invitation to take part in a project that would focus on the fans. Despite the vague description of the whole thing, I accepted immediately. I felt honored to have been selected, but I didn’t know much about what were they aiming for. I thought it would be a 30-min (maximum) bonus on their Global Spirit Tour DVD. It wasn’t until a few days before I started filming that the other selected fans found me online and added me to our own little chat. We started putting the pieces of the puzzle together. And that’s when we realized this was going to be something much bigger.

After I replied with my (obvious) acceptance, it took them more than a month to reply. They were busy putting their entire schedule together. I also had a Skype talk with the crew where we got to know each other and cover most of the subjects you see in the film. This was a very carefully crafted job that involved some serious research. They knew how to weight in the whole point of the movie and also be captivating even for non-fans. I think we can all agree the final cut is something you can show your friends and say: “this is why I am a Depeche Mode fan” and they’d get it.

Precisely two years ago, on Friday, July 20th, 2018, we set up to meet in person so we could go location scouting. They arrived late, which in Germany is a peccatum mortale, specially if by “late”, it means “a few hours late”. They had forgotten something in their hotel and had to go back. Fortunately, during this time of the year there’s enough daylight to explore places until it’s almost midnight. I showed them around several places in Prenzlauer Berg and they had their own list of a few places in Kreuzberg to visit as well. We wrapped up that day by having something to eat at Doyum, my to-go place in the Kottbusser Tor area when the overhyped Südblock is packed and has a long waiting line. This was the first day I’d go to bed around 1am with our filming schedule set for 10am the following morning. This routine would repeat itself during some 6 days that blurred together in my head.

It was also on this day that I met co-directors John Merizalde and Pasqual Gutierrez (whose’s sister is a Devotee, so he knew where he was stepping into by assuring me “it won’t be another 101”), both so young and talented. I also met producer Jefferis Gray (whose’s first name I misspelled on a million emails without noticing), and Max, the local Fixer, who happened to be the only real Berliner in our local crew, but also a magician in terms of solving location issues. I’m probably leaving 2/3 of the people I was introduced that afternoon out. I’m terrible with being introduced to a pack of people at once. I can’t remember if Jeremy Snell, director of photography, was already there on this day, but most likely yes. Producer Dustin Highbridge, however, I would only meet the following day and under an awkward situation, which I’ll leave for the next post.

By Posted on Posted in Depeche Mode, Depeche Mode Facebook Takeover, Film Tagged with , , , ,

As we approach the 2nd anniversary of the epic closure of the Global Spirit Tour, recently released on CD, DVD and Blu-Ray. I decided to take a quick look back at what was the entire experience like for me. I’ll try to post for a few days on a row until we finish this July 25th. The D-day, or maybe I should call it the DM-day.

But let’s begin from the beguine. Actually more than a year before. When people ask me how was I chosen to be on “Spirits in the Forest”, the story starts in early 2017. The band had announced the “Fan Facebook Takeover”, where they’d choose one fan per day during one year to curate the posts on their FB page. At first, I didn’t bother to apply. I thought: “there will be a million contestants to choose from, why should I even try?” When a very dear friend said: “give it a try.” And so I did, not knowing very well how to sell my application.

“Spirit” was released on March 17, 2017. The Takeover was supposed to have started a few weeks before, in February, if I’m not mistaken. I hadn’t even paid attention that it was late if it wasn’t one email I got the evening before the album was released. I had been invited to kick off the Takeover AND watch the special VIP-only album premiere show (aka “Telekom Street Gigs” at the Funkhaus Nalepastraße), which just so happened to be in Berlin that Friday evening. Needless to say it took me a few hours to sleep with such excitement arriving just before my bed time.

But the posts were supposed to be sent to the agency running the massive campaign by Friday evening. Everything was in Pacific Time as the agency was based in Los Angels (hence the emails coming always late in the evening). That meant a very early Saturday morning deadline for me. I had a doctor’s appointment that Friday morning, I had to go to any Saturn or MediaMarkt to buy the album both in vinyl and the exclusive box set that included the deluxe 2CD edition and a pin. Oh, and I also had to be at the concert venue by 17h. Also, amidst all this excitement, I misread the part about character limit per post and wrote 600-word long posts, instead of 600 characters in that short Friday afternoon. I also wanted to make my own little music video to opening track “Going Backwards” which was a spot-on opening track on the album (and also on the concert, as I was soon to find out).

So I obviously exceeded my time rewriting my posts and rendering a video completely made of copyright-free stock footage and the takeover kicked off with my (until then) unknown neighbor, Jenna Robbins being “Day 1” and I was shifted to “Day 2”. We both guess we were chosen, partially because we were both living in Berlin and could attend the show and we could be were each other’s back up. As I learned later on from later takeoverees (a term coined by Jenna), they were given a bit more time to prepare their posts (something between 4 to 7 days), unlike us who had to rush with ours on a particularly busy day and we really didn’t have other takeover posts to guide us on what to write about. Jenna is so organized she really deserves to be remembered as “Day 1”, as she became a driving force by putting us all takeoverees in contact with each other.

From here on, all the fans who were chosen for the Takeover seem to have entered into a sort of a shortlist of fans for all purposes: random goodies on the mail, new products for unboxing videos, everything. We were always being teased that our adventure wasn’t over just yet and there was already “more to come”. I guess you know by now why I started the story from here. And in case you’d like to remember, my takeover posts are here, here, here, here, and here.

Now hold on, there’s more to come…