Author: Daniel Cassus

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!

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

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…

By Posted on Posted in Depeche Mode, Film, Music Tagged with , , , , ,

“SPiRiTS in the Forest”/”Live Spirits” 2BD/2CD, 2DVD/2CD, and “Live Spirits Soundtrack” 2CD out on June 26th, 2020!

Order yours from the official UK or US Depeche Mode Store. Or check your favorite retailer here. As always, keep up with official information about “SPiRiTS in the Forest” from the film official website.

By Posted on Posted in Depeche Mode, Depeche Mode Facebook Takeover, Life in General, Music, The World We Live in Tagged with , , , , ,

I was lazy enough to let Glen Hammarstrom’s first edition of the Breathing in Fumes Podcast Live Brunch pass and not post about it here. This time I won’t. Head over to Twitch at 10am PST, 18h UK, 19h CET, next Sunday, May 17th, for a daily dose of DM in that awesome mix magic that only Glen knows how to do.

Since we’re at it, Glen’s regular episodes of the Breathing in Fumes Podcast are a must, in case you don’t already follow them. You can go check them out on his site. And you can follow updates on all platforms known to mankind as of the writing of this post such as iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, iHeartRadio, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Soundcloud., and Youtube.

And by the way, the 12th episode below features special guests: David McElroy and yours truly having some fun about lots of things, including surnames. Be sure to check this and all others!

By Posted on Posted in Life in General, Music Tagged with , , , , , ,

I know I’ve been absent from here and for the most contradictory of reasons: the partial lockdown which I turned into my own self quarantine. I’ve just reduced my trips outside to the essential. But like every sane and insane person in the world, this is obviously affecting us on a psychological level. Even being at home longer made me less productive. But moving on…

Umberto Tozzi (along with Laura Branigan, of course) must be my own personal frequency illusion bias (aka Baader-Meinhof phenomenon). One line from a Brazilian cover version of his 1982 hit song “Eva” got stuck on repeat on my head these days. The cover is not a word by word translation, but the lyrics follow the same apocalyptical idea. It translate into “it’s the end of the human adventure on Earth”. That’s when I reached to my Spotify to find out it was the name I had given to the very first playlist I put together on that platform a few years ago and never finished it (a playlist is never finished, is it?).

So I crawled out of my inertia and continued with the end of the world theme. I dropped the title in Portuguese (and couldn’t find an equally dramatic in the Italian original). I just went a bit more poppy and came up “It’s Pandemonum!” taken from the 2009 Pet Shop Boys song (here in a live version interpolated with “Can You Forgive Her?”). I tried to not overkill it with too many obvious choices (including Depeche Mode). I went for some covers or alternate versions instead of originals. I also had to make some concessions given what was available on my end. After so  many versions, I settled with this, which is more uplifting than when it started. I hope all 30 songs are available everywhere. Well, give it a try. “Don’t worry. I won’t hurt you. I just want you to have some fun.”  ;^)

Also, feel free to drop a suggestion in the comments below.

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

The title of this post is a nod the etchings on the run out groove of Depeche Mode’s early 7″ singles (and a ton of records by other artists as well). It actually mentioned George “Porky” Peckham who used to be involved in mastering and pressing those vinyls at the time and used to leave his signature message on this part of the vinyl piece that most people don’t pay much attention to.

So now that I lost got your attention, this post is to spread the news to boys and girls that “Spirits in the Forest” is now available for streaming on Prime Video. It is also being aired in several channels across the world on an ever growing list you can check on the film official site.

You may find two results for the film if you’re new to Prime Video. One is for the paid download, the other is the streaming for Amazon Prime members. It should be pretty to tell them apart.

The Prime Video app is available across a plethora of systems and devices or on your computer if you’re old school like me waiting for the release of the full show on Beta and need a quick fix until then. 😉

By Posted on Posted in Depeche Mode, Film, Life in General, Televison Tagged with ,

Do you know when you binge watch the first season of a show and then eagerly awaits for the following season and then gets very disappointed? I just finished the 2nd season of “You” on Netflix and, boy… what a disaster.

Spoiler-free long story short: “You” follows the anti-hero Joe Goldberg, a very romantic type of guy, who is also a very careful virtual and non-virtual voyeur, stalker and eventual serial killer. A good proposal in these days of internet over exposition and #metoo campaigns. It’s a little like “American Psycho” and “Dexter”, updated to the late 2010’s. The show premiered on Lifetime in the US and didn’t make much of an impact, so much that it had been cancelled, picked up by Netflix and granted a 2nd season even before the first one had aired on Lifetime. It was indeed more successful on Netflix in late 2018, with the 2nd season arriving roughly one year later in December 2019, now as a Netflix exclusive.

But the feeling you get is like no one really was counting on the show getting a second season (despite season 1 ending on a mid-sized cliffhanger). Season 2 shows a very irrational Joe, leaving so many traces behind that it’s hard to believe it’s the same character. In real life, his constant usage of his victims phones passing himself for them would have granted him a court order for the police to locate when and where they were used, eventually adding 2+2 and he’d have been caught halfway through the season. There are other inconsistencies with the character’s rational behavior from season 1 that ruined it for me. When I finally got over with it, I was happy to see it ended in a much more light cliffhanger, tipping it could simply end there without a 3rd season. However, much to my dismay, Variety has confirmed today that it has indeed been granted another season.

It may be the case I simply abandon the show. It wouldn’t be the first time. I confess I don’t know when I gave up on “Fringe” (and that was a lot like “The X-Files” good days meet “Lost” good days – two shows that didn’t know when to stop and I did watch all seasons, only to be disappointed at the end). Or the comedy “That 70’s Show”, which I never saw all the way (and we’re taking about old days of linear television, not today’s streaming and binge watching habits). With “Heroes”, I do remember. It was sometime between seasons 3 and 4 when my patience with it was over after this sci-fi show became a parody of itself.

Which brings me to an opposite situation: when a show I like doesn’t get renewed and the final season had already been filmed and it ends full of loose ends. It happened to the Wachowskis’ “Sense 8”. I could “sense” the show would get cancelled because it looked like one absurd burden to shoot each season in multiple cities across the world with the entire cast coming along and in a completely non-linear way, since all characters could “jump” from one place to another and back during all episodes. So logistics and direction-wise, for a TV-show (ok, “Netflix” show), this must have cost a fortune, needed a beast of planning ahead and didn’t have the desired return to justify such costs. It was, however, granted a final 2-hour special episode to give it some closure. Much like “Farscape”, which was even scripted for 5 seasons, but still got killed after season 4. It took two years for the creators to secure the rights, shoot and air a one-off series finale made-for-TV movie.

The latest incident where this has happened with a show I liked was “Berlin Station”. Loosely based on real life event as the kick off for each season, it follows CIA agent Daniel Miller (the name also got my attention immediately) who’s been recently assigned to the Berlin office of the agency located inside the American embassy in Berlin. Season 1 deals with a whistleblower and was shot on location in Berlin and in Babelsberg studios here on neighboring Potsdam. Season 2 benefitted from actress Ashley Judge joining the cast, and had an extreme-right wing party running for the general elections in Germany, but a lot of the action moved to Spain and I dubbed it “Valencia Station”. Season 3, or “Tallinn Station”, had a lot of exterior “Berlin” scenes moved to Vienna and Budapest (I can tell) while dealing with the issue of Russian influence on the Baltic countries while messing with NATO dysfunctionalities. Here’s where the show got cancelled and we never got to really grasp a proper ending for the storylines.

So much like these last two examples, I don’t have a proper ending for this post, except a reminder that “Spirits in the Forest” will air on ARTE on Jan, 24th both in Germany and  France (although slightly later in France, so technically on Jan, 25th), so make sure to watch it either when it airs or later on their website where it should be available for streaming for a couple of months. See you!