Why are people having a long distance relationship?
Because you couldn’t reject that job offer?
Because you don’t want to loose your independence?
Or simply because you just don’t have the courage to admit your love?

Max and Lucy have met in the waiting room of possibilities, both looking for the big love, but speak about it only in subjunctives. They have been together for two years, this weekend they meet like so many times before.Of course, the short timespan together should be perfect, but are two days enough, that the closeness feels stronger than the distance again?

Artist & Audience

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I started a new blog on Crowdfunding called artistandaudience.net.
Crowdfunding is not only a new form of collective cooperation by people who pool their money together to support cultural projects - in my opinion it’s also a crucial shift in the relationship of artist & their audiences in general.

As I am planning to finance my next short film via crowdfunding I am sharing my questions, thoughts & experiences on the subject, visit the blog to get to know more!
Oktober 2011
Category: All » Appearances/Festivals » Curating » Film/Video » Installation » Web » hidden
Short Film ‘Nahende Ferne’

I shot my newest short film ‘Nahende Ferne’ and finished post production in September. It’s an intimate story about a long-distance relationship, starring the wonderful Lore Richter and Andreas Tobias.

The short is co-produced by MDX FILM, watch out for it’s festival release this winter!

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September 2011
Category: All » Film/Video » Work In Progress
Curating the Web

The internet is the dominant cultural memory of our time. Video hosting web sites like YouTube are cumulate enormous archives of moving images (in YouTube’s case 20 hours of footage are uploa-ded every minute), nourishing the old story of the information overlaod. But indeed, structuring the-se archives is an important question, and besides technical developments in search algorhythms and semantics, the personal recommendation has become one of the most important organisation prin-ciples of web. Blogs, Playlists, Channels, Links and Likes have become important entry points, and as the archives of visual culture have become inexhaustible, access is no longer the paradigm but selection.

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At this point the curator steps in and is confrontated with the new medium challeging his profession. Not only she herself has to find ways to discover the gems in this ocean of videos, but there are so-me demanding questions she has to deal with. First of all there are no proper terms for what forms of online video exist. On the internet the borders blur between commercial and private content, ama-teur and professional and there are no rules how to define their aesthetic qualities. So while the big-gest question for the curator is how and what to choose for exhibiting it, the medium also bears new questions of where to exhibit (physical or virtual spaces) and questions of authorship and copyright. Moreover curators are experimenting with how to exhibit works online and are crossing the edge to artistic expression when they arrange footage in video sculptures (e.g. the exhibition „3 Hours in 1 Second“ at http://grid.curatingyoutube.net/show/index.html).

The project Curating the Web contributes to the discourse of how web video can be categorized and conceptualized from curational points of view.

I’ll start off the project with a lecture&screening at Cluj, Romania, and as a seminar/exhibition at University of Siegen.
Januar 2011
Category: All » Appearances/Festivals » Curating » Lectures/Publications » Web
FILMFOREST - Online Video Authors Collective

Together with my fellow filmmakers Frerk Lintz, Mirko Kubein and Hendrik Löbbert I’ve launched the film collective FILMFOREST.

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We felt that there is the necessity for a new aaproach to online video journalism. Online video has been around for about five years now but most of the productions lack originality, concept and visuality. We think, now it’s time to leave the quick&dirty paradigm behind and try out new ways. Online video needs to free itself from the close-minded production structures of tv networks and publishing houses, on the net there is a global and awake audience, bored by the ever-the-same tv formats which chop information into easy-to-swallow bits and pieces.

We think online video is the medium to create new formats. We want to do films, which last as long as the story needs to be told, which speak with a strong visual language to the voice of a subjective, combative author.

Because it is the right time.

FILMFOREST will start as a blog, we’ll have some talks and screenings soon, and hopefully will be doing out own productions soon.
Mai 2010
Category: All » Lectures/Publications » Web
Digitally Unreel

I’m invited to speak at the cinema Lumière in Maastricht on May 15th. The event is called Digitally Unreel and presents filmmakers, who incorporate digital effects in their work. I will show my short film Palindrome and some other works in progress. I will speak about how technology influences my work, but will also present some more general ideas on the the interplay of technology and art.

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About:
“Film lovers define key moments in their lives by the movies that have accompanied them, but what is often lost in the ether is the technology that punctuates their emotional effectiveness and makes them memorable. It is for that reason that we decided to highlight the technological side of film making in discussing the digitization of film, but steer clear from getting bogged down in technologically determined rhetoric, we simply wish to showcase great film making techniques and leave the repercussions, knowing now how the digital was involved in the process, up to you, the audience, to determine.”
Mai 2010
Category: All » Appearances/Festivals » Lectures/Publications
Curating YouTube

I took part in an exhibition called 3 hours in 1 second, along with Constant Dullaart, Jodi ans lots of other great artists, curated by Sakrowski from Curating YouTube. Sakrowski programmed a front-end which gave the artists the oppurtunity to combine up to 16 YouTube-Videos into on big multi-channel installation.

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I made two installations called Attention and Evolution of dance. I really enjoyed the opening venue at Basso Berlin on february 5th, 2010. There you could interact with the installations, play and pause videos, level the audio, it was almost like playing an audiovisual set. The exhibition was installed only for one day but you can still watch the artworks online here.

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Februar 2010
Category: All » Curating » Web
Seminars “Musicvideo Production” and “Web Video”

In the winter turn 09/10 at University Siegen I’m holding two seminars:

Musicvideoproduction
Supported by GrandHotel Pictures and in cooperation with SONY Music Enterainment we’ll realise a complete Music video production in this course.

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Starting with some introductory sessions on the aesthetics and narratives of music videos, the students will later be teached how to develop ideas and write treatments. Thereby prepared for the business we’ll have a pitch for one of SONY’s bands - followed by the realization of one of the students’ ideas as a professional music video production.

Web Video - editorial and documentary formats
Video content is becoming more and more popular on the net lately. Publishing houses, networks and other media players use the more emotional and involving moving images to enhance their text based services.

Since the quick&dirty paradigm of the first years didn’t work there is more than ever the question which specific qualities web video can deliver.

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The students will create their own online videos in this course, focusing on format development and strong narratives.
Oktober 2009
Category: All » Lectures/Publications » Web
Reisegruppe Fischer “Dann wachst Du auf”

Musicvideo for the second single of Reisegruppe Fischer, shot on the Canon 5d Mk 2. Six locations in one day, we had some problems handling the focus but all in all it was a very fast and convenient workflow.

Label: Roadrunner Records
Production Company: GrandHotel Pictures

Director: Simon Ruschmeyer
Dop: Robert Staffl
Producer: Norbert Kneißl
Executive Producer: Birte Henning
Editor: Ulrike Mayer
MakeUp: Mel Willmann
MakeUp Assistant: Suna Kecis
Costumes: Steffi Millat
Gaffer: Martin König
Camera Assistant: Sören Lang
Assistant Producer: Dimitri Servatkovski
AD: Flo Haeger
Runner: Nathalia Haehle
Boombox: Helena Friebel
September 2009
Category: All » Film/Video
Reisegruppe Fischer “Hollywood”

I directed a music video for the german band Reisegruppe Fischer. As their song “Hollywood” is questioning beauty stereotypes I appropriated the famous YouTube category of Photoshop Makeovers and shot a colorful pop video!

The project was my first cooperation with the production company Grand Hotel Pictures, I hope I get the oppurtunity to work with them more often in the future!

Type: Music Video
Length: 02:55 min
Format: SONY EX3

Artist: Reisegruppe Fischer
Track: Hollywood
Production Company: Grand Hotel Pictures
Label: Roadrunner Records

Director: Simon Ruschmeyer
Producer: Norbert Kneißl
DoP: Robert Staffl
Gaffer: Martin König
Editor: Simon Ruschmeyer
Color Correction: Jakub Stejskal
Studio: Konsum Studio
Mai 2009
Category: All » Film/Video
Membran Underwater Shooting

Together with Dop Robert Staffl and Uwe Steckhan from Filmyard Underwaterproductions, I shot an Test for a concept called “MEMBRAN”. We explored the idea of diaphanous worlds, where people from underwater interact in a seamless room with those from above the surface.
We shot the same set both underwater and in the studio and VFX-Wizard Ingo Mesche did an amazing job compositing the footage. Also big thanks to our Model Miriam from SportModels, to our Props team Daniel Ben Sorgen und Anne Grumbrecht, and to Sibylle Eichhorn, who did the costumes.

Later