The bad volcanic cloud was almost responsible for the cancellation of the camera test in Cologne. Not only me but also Thomas Bengtsson an Mark Laursen from Ensidia couldn’t catch their flight. But I was the lucky one to get the last seat in a train to Cologne, so after a hot 8 hours 35° train ride I was able to join Liq and Protec from Ensidia at the RPC 2010. I was very happy to drink a cold beer with Hans after the odyssey. My Intention was to shoot Ensidia while  showraiding at the Buffed booth and test my new 5D Mark II camera setup. After few attempts Ensidia managed to kill the Lich King. Thus satisfying hundreds of spectators arround the buffed booth. It was a pity that Nessay and Kungen couldn’t join me but nevertheless it was a very nice experience to see the colorful community of roleplay @ the RPC (digital and analogue representatives) . Especially the LARP fans are very photogenic like you can see in the posted media.

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After two days of shooting elves, orcs, jaggers, stromtroopers, raiders and interviews with Liq, Protec, Bernd Holtmann, Tyrania and many more I left the spot again in a crowded train to Vienna. The next trip was scheduled to Copenhagen and Gothenburg where I should shoot the private side of Thomas Bengtsson the most famous WoW player of all time. BTW: If you want to check out the German ZDF Blog entry in which I already write about the experience with our Swedish celebrity then go here. In few days you’ll find a short impressions clip and more pics of the RPC here. Be sure to revisit.

Post edit: Here our cameratest.

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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 .-)

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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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After doing doc research in US, I returned home and produced over a long weekend this answering clip for the online proposal of the German broadcaster ZDF.  It was shot in the nice coffee house (a train cabin named ‘Empire’ Coffee) in Chico, CA. Thx to the great staff there allowing me to disturb (in public hours) their guests.  We are among the 25 finalists of this Bodybits online proposal. On December, 12th this year we will know if the ‘das kleine Fernsehspiel’ decision makers like our project. For me it is an exciting time. Your previously given votes should convince them (because we finished as #1 in the voting) . Thank you. Meanwhile I hope you can enjoy our new developed phone interface.-) Please send us good vibes and thoughts.

Thanks to your votes, Login 2 Life has made it into the final round of the Bodybits contest by ZDF. Daniel and the entire Team would like to express our thanx – you rocked our boat. What the communities just achieved is proof of concept of just that – that there is a huge community out there, ready, willing and able to share for a common cause. Sounds over the top? Nope. Virtuality just created reality and not the other way round…

Thanx again to everyone who voted for us – we’ll keep you up to date on the project’s progress and release.

Best, your Login 2 Life Team.

FINAL SPURT: We have to mobilize all efforts to win the ZDF voting. Though we are rank one or two, it won’t last without your HELP (because the others try to bring us down).  Not much time left till the voting ends.

Of course I don’t beg you guys without offering you at least something. Here you find our small motivation clip. (@Ensidia: It was great to hang out with you guys on Gamescom 2009. I hope we’ll get another oppertunity.)

It shows some impression of the Gamescom 2009. Ensidia (including Grand Master”Kungen”) was invited to perform some show raids there. If you want to get more insights of Thomas “Kungen” Bengtsson and all other chars featured in the documentary ‘Login 2 Life’ then go and support us in getting all the finances we need to produce this documentary.

Cast your VOTE for ‘Login 2 Life’ till 15th October 09 @ZDF (German Broadcaster. You can look up an English manual on how to vote on Ensidias blog or on our blog here.

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UPDATE

It seems that we are still number one. The final hours of the voting are passing by. The message is still: When you haven’t voted yet then move your a’s and vote! Here I want to link to the communities pushing us at the moment. Thank you so much!

The links are:

• Ensidia News
• Buffed News
• Allvatar News

Of course there are lot more people to thank but this will fill a whole blogentry. For now go and vote till tomorrow(Thursday) midday (CET). THX!

Convention exclusive figure ‘Questgiver Fleet Master Seahorn’

Blizzcon exclusive gift ‘Murloc Space Marine’ will be sold on ebay

An extraordinary autograph on my mousepad

I know already, what I am doing with all this stuff. Fleet Master Seahorn will be a gift for a special buddy who also is going to appear in our documentary but couldn’t attend as far as I know the Blizzcon (20000 guests got one of these there). The ‘Space Marine Murloc’ will be sold on ebay instead of accompanying my Deathknight Obagra on his adventures(/cry). Blizzards’ CEO Mike Morhaine told the audiences that this little nice digital pet is worth more than a small car. I need the money to cover the expenses in Cologne .-) So thanks to Blizzard for making this possible.

The last and the third thing already decorates my bedroom walls. The mouse pad shows some autographs of the best WoW guild on our lovely Earth named ‘Ensidia’. And yes, there you can read a personal message from the most famous WoW player. But see yourself! By the way,  I don’t take any offers from other Daniels trying to obtain this piece of glamour ß-)

The reason for my visit in Cologne was to film Ensidias appearance on the Gamescom. The Focus was on Scarab Lord ‘Kungen’ aka Thomas. Here I also made the acquaintance with Hans (liQ), Bernadette (Tjani), Phil (Mek, here a link to his Gamescom blogentry), Markus (Mackzter) and Max (Fenira). Hey, It was great fun working with you guys and also spending the Saturday evening in an amusement arcade (just imagine after being brain washed on the huge Gamescom). Big shout outs also to liQ. Thank you helping me arraning all the appointments and interviews. And thx to all you guys carrying arround my heavy camera stuff, so I could focus on filming you.

My next Blogentry will show some pics of the Gamescom. Fist of all I have to ingest (the new trendy word for the good old word “capture”) the footage. So don’t hesitate to revisit L2L soon.

Please, feel free to download our updated One Pager v2.0! Along the way check out our featured characters and the short summary of our story concept. Feedback very welcome.-)

Soon we intend to publish a short survey. Come back here and take part in the survey. Thus you can win a premiere ticket for Login2Life for 2010 ß-)

‘I want to go with the one I love’

I want to go with the one I love.
I do not want to calculate the cost.
I do not want to think about whether it’s good.
I do not want to know whether he loves me.
I want to go with whom I love.

by Bertolt Brecht

No matter what obstacles we faced in the past two years of developing the documentary ‘Login 2 Life’, we managed to overcome every single ditch. I learned that if you want something really hard you’ll get it. But I had to accept that it takes time. More than one might think. I am grateful that I am not alone. I know it sounds over the top but I want to thank my team for showing all that strength and endurance. We can be proud of what we developed. Thank you!

Just the way we like it!

No kidding, producing a movie ain’t no piece of cake, bro. Now this is it, the call for support – rally to the flag of Login 2 Life, ’cause we need all the help we can get. Spread the word, tell the story, add us to your list (only if it’s a favourable one of course), and do drop by again to get the news.

We’re gonna be at Berlin Film Festival aka Berlinale within the next 2 weeks to promote the movie, find b2b partnership and get it out there (eventually there will be a detailed report of the behind the scenes action and all the partying with Mr. Weinstein as soon as I got some time available to share it with you).

Btw, in case any reader of this (team-members excluded of course) should be up there and would like a meet-and-greet, just drop us a line, we’ll be there…

Keep your fingers crossed and your thumbs up! See ya…

1) Blade II poser very commercial style

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2) LED trendy “not again” style

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3) The modest ‘a bit more than Jim Jarmusch’ way

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