Two marvels of German engineering: The Mercedes Monoposto and the ARRIFLEX 16SR 3

Thomas Stokowski measuring the light level for the Mercedes Monoposto. Copyright Mercedes-Benz & Gutsy

Manuel Schwermer (left), Thomas Stokowski (third from left) and Paul O'Brien (right) discussing the lighting for the next car. Copyright Mercedes-Benz & Gutsy

On the set

Emanuel Schwermer sets the iris of the 16SR 3

In the Fall of 2005, Gutsy, a young London production company, assembled 27 unique classic Mercedes cars in a studio near Stuttgart in Germany, and recorded automobile history on Super 16 film for DaimlerChrysler UK. We visited the set and, while marveling at the cars, had a long talk with Len Dickter, Head of Script Development for Gutsy, director Paul O'Brien and cinematographer Thomas Stokowski, BVK.

Marc Shipman-Mueller: Len, how did Gutsy first get hooked up with Mercedes?

Len Dickter: DaimlerChrysler is currently building nine large brand centers worldwide, containing car dealers, museums, retail stores and event spaces. They will open one in the UK in the summer of 2006 and they were looking for someone to do a documentary on the location. The UK center, to be known as ‘Mercedes-Benz World at Brook-lands’, is on the old Brooklands race track in Weybridge, Surrey, which is the very first closed circuit race track ever built. They wanted to show the history of Brooklands and of Mercedes. We pitched this concept of doing it in terms of the many Mercedes innovations, instead of basing it on a straight timeline, and we got the job.

So we did a lot of research. We visited the Mercedes Classic Center in Stuttgart that is responsible for keeping many of the classic cars, we talked to management, engineers, safety experts, and we were allowed into the Mercedes archives, which are just amazing. We were looking for connections where the Brooklands track and Mercedes Benz inspired each other, and we found many, including developments in aerodynamics, engine design, speed records, car styling, racing and safety. The result was a 60-minute documentary that will be avail­able on DVD when Mercedes-Benz World at Brooklands opens.
Mercedes liked it so much that in August of 2005 they asked us to continue to work with them on a 5-minute piece that will be shown to the visitors of the Mercedes-Benz World at Brooklands.

MSM: And what is the concept of this piece?

Len Dickter: It is a short ‘Wow’ piece to welcome visitors to the Mercedes-Benz World at Brooklands, and to introduce them to the Mercedes-Benz brand in a highly emotive fashion. It is more brand-oriented than the documentary. The message is that Mercedes makes the perfect car based on 120 years of innovation, and these innovations are always there, even if you do not see them explicitly in your car. To document 120 years of innovation we decided to shoot 30 signature Mercedes cars that either embody a specific innovation or are icons of their era. In the final piece we will combine each car with footage from that era, drivers dressed in era clothing, and celebrities of that time. In addition, different Mercedes legends will enter and leave the frame to connect their personality to the car they created.

Examples of this are Daimler and Maybach installing the first petrol engine, safety pioneer Bela Berenyi designing the 230SL Pagoda roof, and L.G. Hornsted driving the Blitzen to its second speed record, and so on. Of course, having all our research, stills and footage from the documentary came in very handy.

The Mercedes Classic Center in Stuttgart is responsible for the classic cars, and they were in the process of transferring a lot of those cars into a new Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart. After that, the cars were not supposed to leave the museum anymore. So we had to get them before they were locked up, which left precious little time to pitch, plan and coordinate this shoot.

MSM: How did you meet your cinemato­grapher, Thomas Stokowski?

Paul O'Brien: I looked at various show reels, and was very impressed with Thomas' reel. Thomas is somewhat of a specialist in shooting cars, he has worked with most of the major car manufacturers and has done work with Formula 1, so he knew how to light cars and how to shoot them and give us the look we wanted.

MSM: And what format were you going to use for this shoot?

Thomas Stokowski: At first we had thought to use Digi-Beta or HD for budgetary reasons. It was going to be one big video shoot with about 30 cars. But then, in late September, the Mercedes Classic Center was forced to advance the date on which the Blitzen Benz would go into the new Stuttgart museum. Because of this, we had two weeks to put together a shoot just for the Blitzen. The entire team – lighting, camera operators, wardrobe, props, producers, effects, etc. – worked non-stop with King Kong studios to ensure we were able to film the Blitzen before it disappeared into the museum. I suggested to shoot Super 16 film, Paul agreed, and so we did.

MSM: What did Mercedes think about the result?

Paul O'Brien: Oh, they loved it. Thomas used various film techniques like variable speed, speed ramps and a small shutter angle on some shots, and that, in combination with the rich film look, convinced them to shoot all cars in Super 16. The footage had a great texture and depth that you only get with film, it was beautiful and worth every cent. When we showed Mercedes what we got during the Blitzen shoot, money was not so important anymore, the value of shooting on film was so apparent.

Plus they like the fact that they can repurpose this footage; the negative will go into the Mercedes archive and they can transfer it to whatever video or digital imaging standard will be needed in the future. This is historical material and we are already in discussions with Mercedes on other uses for this footage.

I personally am very happy about having shot film since the final product will not be like other image films with annoying narration; it will consist of only music and beautiful images of beautiful cars. So image quality is very important.

MSM: So then the big shoot was done on Super 16?

Thomas Stokowski: Yes. In November we got an ARRIFLEX 16SR 3, a bunch of super speed and Ultra Prime lenses, a Canon Zoom and the ARRI Wireless Remote System from FGV Schmidle in Munich. We rented the huge King Kong Studios outside of Stuttgart and set out to shoot 27 more cars in 7 days. I was happy that we were shooting film because it made it easier to capture those cars – the greater contrast range of film helps when shooting cars that always have specular highlights.

MSM: Which cars where at the shoot?

Len Dickter: After in-depth research, we had identified 30 signature Mercedes cars that represent the highest level of technical and design achievement, each embodying a unique ‘first’ in the history of automobiles. Each is considered a classic.

We started with Daimler and Benz’s first motorized carriages from 1886, and worked our way through an amazing array of classic cars. For instance, there is the Blitzen Benz that set the standing mile speed record of 124.10 mph (200 km/h) in 1914 at Brooklands. Or the first silver arrow (W25 chassis), the first mass produced car (1894 Benz Velo), the first McLaren Mercedes F1 car (1997 McLaren F1) or the 2005 Mercedes McLaren SLR.

It was something special to be in a studio with all these historical cars, and I am very much looking forward to seeing this in the movie theatre at the Brooklands Center!

Marc Shipman-Mueller

Count Louie Zborowski behind the wheel of the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in 1921. Copyright Brooklands Museum

The Real Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Tied up in the history of Mercedes Benz and Brooklands is the story of a famous car that inspired Ian Fleming to create the American classic movie musical CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG, which is currently being revived as a stage show in the UK and New York. The real Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was a race car built in 1921 by Count Louis Zborowski, an eccentric gentleman wealthy enough to own and race many cars both in Europe and America. He took racing very seriously but was known for his outlandish approach and colorful clothing, bringing to mind Fleming's movie character of Caractacus Potts. Count Zborowski built four aero-engined cars and called three of them Chitty Bang Bang. Chitty 1 was the first amateur aero-engined machine to achieve great fame at Brooklands race track. The 23 liter six cylinder Maybach Gotha Bomber engine was obtained from the WWI Disposals Board and shoe-horned into a pre-1914 chain drive Mercedes chassis, which had to be lengthened to accommodate it. First appearing at the Brooklands Easter meeting in 1921, it was described as ‘a brutal car put together by a madman’, none the less winning various races.

Despite her original dodgy exhaust, Chitty was not named for the noise she made. The name of the car was actually derived from the words of a bawdy World War I soldier's song. Officers would obtain a weekend pass or ‘chit’ so they could go to Paris for a couple of days and enjoy the favors of the ladies of the town at their leisure: ‘Chitty – Bang Bang.’ A far cry from the wholesome lyrics of the Sherman brothers Oscar nominated song, which later guaranteed the car a fame that Count Zborowski could only have dreamed about.

The Brooklands race track during a 24 hour test run in 1907. Copyright Brooklands Museum

An aerial view of the Brooklands track around 1938. Supplied courtesy of Brooklands Museum

Brooklands – A bit of Racing History

In 1907 the 3.25 miles long Brooklands race track at Weybridge was completed. It was the world’s first purpose-built racing circuit; in fact, most other race-tracks in the world are based on the Brooklands design, including Indianapolis and Daytona. Brooklands hosted legendary motor racing events between 1907 and 1939, including the first British Grand Prix in 1926. On the inaugural race day in 1907, the first champion drove a Mercedes. Two years later, the 200 horsepower ‘Big Benz’ arrived, setting a new flying kilometer record of 125.95 mph. In 1912, Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz were even competitors in Brooklands, with Benz winning the first race and Daimler winning the second, making them equals 12 years before they were partners. Brooklands was used for car racing and testing, but it was also the birthplace of British aviation, with the first powered flight by a Briton, and the first passenger flight in Britain taking place at the track. Brooklands was closed in 1939.

Now Brooklands is being restored to its former glory by DaimlerChrysler. ‘Mercedes-Benz World at Brooklands’ contains the largest Mercedes-Benz showroom in the UK, featuring 100 cars on 3 floors. In addition there is a state of the art cinema with 120 seats, a Mercedes Benz Gallery that displays 120 years of automotive history, a Mercedes Benz Boutique, Kids’ Zone, a cafe and a five-star restaurant with an outdoor terrace overlooking the race track, a four-star hotel, state-of-the-art conference suites and the opportunity to test drive Mercedes cars on test tracks with professional instructors. Once it opens in the summer of 2006, Mercedes-Benz World at Brooklands plans to host various motor and aviation festivals.

Below find two video clips, showing historic Brooklands footage
and a fly through of the Mercedes-Benz World at Brooklands:

	Brooklands Histroy A 3 minute video about the history of the Brooklands racing track in England. Watch movie clip - Window Media, File Size: 30 mb Watch movie clip - QuickTime, File Size: 9 mb
	Mercedes World A 5 minute video explaining what the new Mercedes-Benz World at Brooklands will entail. Watch movie clip - Window Media, File Size: 40 mb Watch movie clip - QuickTime, File Size: 14 mb

For more information on Brooklands, look at http://www.brooklands.org.uk and
http://www.mercedes-benzworld.co.uk.