Baden-Württemberg
Award-winning German film producer and distributor who deals with multiple local language independent films.
PRODUCTION CO.
THOMAS LECHER
​
EDITOR
CHAMIKA WIJAMUNIGE
​
MUSIC
BONGANI MASHABA
DIRECTOR
THANKY HAMUTENYA
​
CINEMATOGRAPHER
KONSTANTIN PAPE
​
PRODUCERS
MATRID NYAGAH
JANA KLINGEISEN
FELIX SCHREIBER
​
LAUF
SHORT FILM
​
Dealing with the trauma of his past, a man on his deathbed has to come to terms with his guilt in order to move on or be stuck in a visceral memory loop of hunt or be hunted.
GERMAN PSYCOLOGICAL THRILLER
RUNTIME : 17 MIN
BRIEF
The idea underneath the concept of “LAUF” is accountability and Guilt, especially the lack of it in domestic abuse cases.
The brief was simple : match the psychological thriller genre in a way that resonates with the German audience. This was interesting as the Director is from Africa and wanted to tell a story of an issue that is rife in Southern African culture but presented in a way that the German audience could emotionally and conceptually resonate with.
​
This film was shot during covid using an international crew. All of the work was done online and we had no control over the on-set recording.
RESEARCH
In order to prepare for this film there was heavy involvement during pre-production due to the nature of myself working on a German film from South Africa.
There was extensive research done into German Film making on my behalf, specifically around how German films sound.
OUR EXECUTION
We compartmentalised smaller sections of the film as to show how each act was represented sonically to show progression and how certain movements of sound connected the story and glued the reality with the subconscious of the main character.
To display the cyclical nature of trauma in which the character goes through repeated emotions, we re-used certain sound elements playing in sequence from the beginning of the film while the audience still thinks the situation is happening in real life. And as the mental state of the character slowly reveals the idea of him being stuck in memory I started to introduce the same sound in a reverse order starting the loop over again.
​
The ethereal versus realistic sounds played over each other throughout the whole film, each one becoming stronger than the other during sections of memory versus reality.
Usually, in films, silent scenes are full of quiet sounds to unnerve the audience. However, for greater emotional effect during the climax, we created a literal silence. This also spoke to our research in German cinema where such a technique is more commonly used.
The only sounds that penetrated were the occasional highlights of certain items that were major parts of the film's storytelling as well as the room itself becoming a character that was concurrent throughout the film.
The silence is finally cut through by a swelling score that ends the film. Often throughout the film, the sound design swelled where the music dipped and vice versa to give an impression of this conflict of real versus fake.
GOING FORWARD
We learned how to effectively communicate sound in a foreign language that still conveyed the story in a way that would be understood by the international audience. And we developed ways of working with international clients which is increasingly valuable post-covid.
We now have greater knowledge of how to tell a culturally specific story in a way that is relatable to an international audience. We also have a great rapport with the client and will be working with them again going forward.
