Interesting first work out of Mother Berlin finds BWGTBLD director Jovan Todorović building an extraordinary world from mundane moments and volumetrically scanned humans for German techno icon Paul Kalkbrenner.

Jovan Todorović: “The video is arranged like a series of paintings, fluctuating between the ordinary and the absurd. It prompts viewers to question the reality of what they see, distinguishing between the genuinely human and the deliberately human-like. ‘SCHWER’ is less of a story-based film and more of a commentary on society.

“‘SCHWER’ builds as an ongoing loop of scenes from our daily lives. Each appears completely normal at first, but every time we revisit a scene the content slightly alters, building an arc to complete absurdity. All empty backgrounds in the video are shot throughout Berlin. ‘
 

“The video is arranged like a series of paintings, fluctuating between the ordinary and the absurd. It prompts viewers to question the reality of what they see.”

 
“The film uses anima software usually deployed for architectural visualizations to render 4D-volumetric people. This technique used 42 cameras to capture and lock the motion of each person, making it possible for them to be used as a 3D element within the final film.”

Taking inspiration from the German word “Fremdkörper” or “foreign body”, the project appears to be a distant cousin or possibly a subtle homage to Tango, the ground-breaking 1980 Oscar-winning short film by Polish director Zbigniew Rybczyński.
 
 

 
Artist: Paul Kalkbrenner
Artist Management: The Principals
Manager: Marcus Ruschmeyer
Digital PM: Gina Donohoe

Agency: Mother Berlin

Production: BWGTBLD
Berlin Unit
Director: Jovan Todorović
DoP: Lazar Bogdanovic
EP/Managing Partner: Jakob Preischl
Producer: Greta Müller, Nicolas Mirbach
Production Assistant: Chiara Walde
VFX/CGI: Slavko Gavric
Editor: Mimma Petrovic
Color: Mikey Rossiter

Artwork at U-Bahnhof Magdalenenstrasse: Wolfgang Frankenstein & Hartmut Hornung © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Serbia Unit
Producer: Marija Markovic
PM: Mirjana Starcevic
PA: Maja Shaw
Camera Operator: Dzejlan Ibrahimovic
Key Grip: Marko Deljanin
Camera Assistant: Stefan Matic
DIT: Marija Sarac
Security: Kan Film

Volumetric 4D Shoot: Volucap GmbH
Team: Sven Bliedung von der Heide, Torsten Schimmer, Sascha Schwarz, Mitch Bozzo, Elizabete Vindule-Mince, Philipp Hundertpfund
4D People Archive: AXYZ Design