Archive notice: This article was originally published on December 3, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Students in Film & Animation at the Faculty of Design of Georg Simon Ohm University in Nuremberg received another distinction. At the International Festival of Film Schools in Munich, Marius Herzog, Thomas Beyerlein and Bogdan Rakolcza won the coveted “König Ludwig Trophy” for best beer commercial with “JOYFUL AGES.” Worth €10,000, it was the festival’s most highly endowed prize. The trophy was presented to the filmmakers personally by its sponsor, His Royal Highness Prince Luitpold of Bavaria.
The jury explained: “This year’s winning commercial greatly impressed the jury both through its extraordinary central idea and through its dramatic and cinematic execution. The setting and story very convincingly emphasize the value of the royal product and dramatize its desirability—apparently even for eminent figures from past eras. The film keeps the product at the center of the action throughout. The story is easy to understand and highly entertaining. The high standard of cinematic execution completes the award-worthy overall impression of JOYFUL AGES. Congratulations on this excellent work!”
A commercial built on tradition
The three students of Prof. Schopper explained their original concept as follows: “Enjoyment and tradition are the defining attributes that carry the product through the commercial. The beer’s value is placed in the context of an unconditional desire felt even by our ancestors.”
Nick Dietrich was cast as the ancestor and Michael Wagenknecht as the night watchman. The ten-day shoot took place at the magnificent Ellingen Residence near Weißenburg and in the film studio of Ohm University in Nuremberg. As an ornate building, Ellingen Residence presented the team with several lighting challenges, which were ultimately mastered to everyone’s satisfaction. The three filmmakers also used a sophisticated lighting concept for the studio shoot: numerous diffusers illuminated the ancestor in the staged painting so that a “painted” look could be achieved during filming.
The elaborate post-production took three months. Using 3D computer animation, the filmed locations were partially reconstructed digitally to simulate subtle dolly movements around the painting. Because the palace and painting were filmed separately, the interior image had to be placed inside a computer-generated frame and brought to life with animation. Digital image treatments including retiming, color correction and rotoscoping were completed in After Effects.
During audio post-production, Melanie Kurhan, Thomas Beyerlein and Linus Ullrich even recorded an original song for the commercial.
An important emerging-talent festival
The International Festival of Film Schools was first held in 1981 and had since become one of the world’s most important festivals for emerging talent. Around 3,300 films had been screened over the festival’s history, and more than 3,000 international students and professors had met there to discuss and exchange experiences. Surveys of members of the worldwide film-school association showed that the festival was particularly popular among participants. That year, 35 film schools from 23 countries took part.