Login 2 Life

ZDF Special Award for LOGIN 2 LIFE

It was cold and snowy when we arrived in Berlin on Friday last week. I was very lucky to leave work behind and go for a short vacation. That is why Berlin seemed warm and lovely to me, but for sure I was excited about the upcoming ‘ceremony’. Like the other 24 finalists of the ZDF online proposal I was invited to Berlin last Saturday. It was a pleasant atmosphere in the ‘Haus der Kulturen der Welt’ (HKW) between the Brandenburger Tor and the famous Tiergarten (I mean that there was no biting and scratching between the filmakers .-). All the attendants eagerly wanted  to know if their projects were selected by the “Das kleine Fernsehspiel’ commission and who will be among the last rewarded FIVE .

After winning the vote (which you guys made possible) I had a confident feeling for our project but we couldn’t be sure because our film was a special case concerning the bylaws of the whole online proposal. After a long get-together in which it was possible to catch a glimpse of the other very interesting projects while drinking coffee and eating delicious sweeties (by the way my favourites became ‘Egal was ich tue sie lieben es’ from Romy Steyer @Romy: I am sure you will produce an awesome movie – you have great ingredients. Thumbs up! And also ‘Pixelschatten’ from Anil Kunnel. This film will be extraordinary !). Although everyone had the opportunity to talk to the other filmmakers I had the slight impression that almost no one took the chance (if this isn’t true, then at least I didn’t take the chance.-) . It seemed that everybody was slightly nervous before the great ‘ceremony’. After a group foto and a little more waiting, we got seated in the big presentation hall of the HKW. And then a horrible thing happened: While the director of the HKW was welcoming the audience (I estimate the audience to 300), I realized that my phone was gone. My beloved iphone helping me challenging the contest was gone. I ran out of the hall and started hectically looking for my phone. After 5 minutes a HKW reception employee gave me my phone and told me that it was found at the restroom for women. I thought this was a joke. I was sure not attending the toilette of the opposite sex. And my wife accompanying me didn’t use my phone at all. So this maintains a small mystery. I returned after this mind shocking intermission to my seat and lucky as I was I didn’t miss anyone of the award winners. The hosting was excellent, the DJ even programmed for each winning project an individual ’stage entering’ sound. You could feel the energy in the hall. Das kleine Fernsehspiel presented a kind of ‘and the winner is…”  academy award for kids athomosphere which was very cool, loose and pleasant. One circmstance was very entertaining: They were introducing the third winner and like I mentioned they artificially raised the excitement of the audience in not telling the winning names for a long period of time. But the playback operator of the several winning trailers lost control over his player and the audience was confronted with the next winning entry. So Patrick Doberenz and Philipp Enders of ‘Alice 5.0′ were pretty much relieved I guess .-)

To continue : Although I got a sort of confident, I’ve became nervous not hearing the name of ‘Login 2 Life ‘upon the winning entries. After all five winners were set, we felt like the mood in the hall tilted to – let’s say – a ‘little’ disappointment. But then the moderator announced another price, a so called special price for the user’s favourite one. Claudia Tronnier (chief commissioning editor ‘Das kleine Fernsehspiel’) said the name of our project. I just thought ‘Wow, we get an audience award, before the film is even produced’. I am very glad that this happened. It’s a milestone for the project and I am super happy that from now on the prospects for the production of our film are very good. ‘Das kleine Fernsehspiel’ pushes us towards the realisation like nothing before. Not that we just got one very important funding for our project, no we also got Lucas Schmid. This guy is a very nice comission member who has been working for ‘Das kleine Fernsehspiel’ for more than 11 years. After meeting him for some hours I have the impression he is a great benefit for the further progress of our film.

So this was the climax of the evening. After that we were invited to a tasty dinner.  We prolonged the party in a smoky bar. I can’t remeber what the name was, but I’ll edit it when someone whispers it to me (Romy whispered .-) it was the ‘monarch’ bar). Here I got the oppertunity to chat with some of the other contesters. Maybe alcohol and music loosened our tongues. At 3am I couldn’t fight against my tiredness. Stephanie and me logged off.

We stayed two more wonderful days in Berlin. Thereby I had the chance to meet Juliane (Jaynine Scarborough, who is one of the protagonists of L2L)  for a great ‘Kartoffel Puffer’ lunch at her neighbour’s place (Please tell her that her ‘Puffers’ were superb) and we also met my editor George Cragg who is looking forward to work on ‘Login 2 Life’.  I hope  we can do so in the near future.-)

Finally I come to the end of the blog entry. We wish you guys a happy new year. Be safe and happy in the next days which are supposed to be calm ones but as we know they often turn out differently.

Daniel

Here the link to the ZDF announcement.

Additional two new pics (I got them from Lucas on the new years eve.-) It shows the winners of the online proposal. The first one shows the winners and the commission editors  (Lucas is standing right next to me on the viewers right. I’m the tall guy with the yellow pullover.-) and so called mentors of the projects. The second one shows just the winners. From left to right: Patrick Doberenz and Philipp Enders, Kaspar von Treeck and Steffen Alberding, Romy Steyer, ‘the lucky yellow me’ Daniel Moshel, Silvia Casalino and last but not least Anil Jacob Kunnel!

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