Archive notice: This article was originally published on July 3, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
An independent project by three students from Georg Simon Ohm University of Applied Sciences in Nuremberg took second place in the Shoot And Cut online film competition organized by Sony Professional and slashCAM. The short film “All the Time in the World” was made by Michelangelo Buttitta, Stefan Groh and Philipp Wuthe.
The three served simultaneously as producers, directors, cinematographers and editors, because “that was the only way we could manage the immense workload without delays,” Philipp Wuthe explained. “We really only wanted to expand our filmmaking experience. We never expected it actually to result in second place in a competition,” Michelangelo Buttitta enthused.
Award-winning initiative
Preparations began at the start of the lecture-free period in the 2007 summer semester and lasted two months. They found the idea for their film—which concerns time, or rather the lack of it—through an online short-story forum. “We first adapted Sylvia Eskofier’s short story into a screenplay, then drew a storyboard,” Stefan Groh explained. The team submitted the script alongside almost 60 other competitors to the Shoot and Cut Award online and received a complete, brand-new Sony camera package on loan for the shoot.
Two days of filming took place in Nuremberg at the end of September with actors Marco Steeger of the Nuremberg State Theatre and Josef Feiertag of Theater Milord in Erlangen, as well as almost 30 volunteer extras and assistants. The team later completed postproduction alongside their studies. The result is a fairy-tale-like, mysterious short film that impresses not only with its “elegant storytelling” (jury member Bernd Löhr), but also with animation elements harmoniously integrated into the story.
Interdisciplinary project
The students are in the final semesters of the outgoing interdisciplinary Media Technology programme at the efi faculty of Georg Simon Ohm University of Applied Sciences in Nuremberg. In producing their film, they could also draw on the expertise of fellow design students and access resources at the Faculty of Design, including its professionally equipped sound studio.
The winning team commented: “Alongside our brilliant actors, excellent extras and hard-working assistants, we would like to thank our university, especially Gerhard Walliczek, Norbert Weigand and Professor Jürgen Schopper, whose Film & Animation lecture inspired our enthusiasm for film—not least by allowing us to present films made during the course to a large audience at ohmrolle. We especially appreciated that he also supported this entirely private project with professional advice on the screenplay, look and editing.” Professor Heinz Brünig of the efi faculty and Professor Jürgen Schopper of the Faculty of Design agreed: “We are delighted above all for the students, but also see this as the result of successful cooperation across faculty boundaries. Congratulations to the students on showing so much initiative and receiving such a wonderful distinction.”
Production diary online
The filmmakers were pleased to travel to Berlin for the awards ceremony and answered questions from the interested audience in a short session after the film. A detailed production diary maintained by the team—which was one of the competition requirements—and a trailer can be found online at http://www.dreieindrittel.de/zeitblog.
“All the Time in the World” will be shown in July 2008 as a supporting short at two cinemas in Erlangen, the Manhattan and the Lamm-Lichtspiele.
