“Trautmann” was not your first cooperation with ARRI.
That’s right. I already worked together with ARRI Media on the visual effects in “Wer frueher stirbt, ist laenger tot” (“Who dies sooner, is longer dead”). Also in 2002, my graduation film for the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF)—“Hotel Deeper”—was mixed at ARRI by the chief sound engineer Tschangis Chahrokh. What I like so much about the cooperation with ARRI is the good quality and the friendly atmosphere. Simply put, I feel like I’m in good hands there.
Your new film takes place between 1944 and 1957. How was this quite long period of time visually realized with the grading?
We also wanted to use color on our travels back in time, but without the typical historical sepia look. In the end, we were inspired by the photographs of Saul Leiter, whose pictures have this characteristic, but with an emphasis on red. When the story moved into the 1950s, we became a bit more colorful to mark the changes of time. The colors continued to intensify as the film went on and became clearly noticeable in fashion and music. Our look was based on the Technicolor aesthetics of the films of that time.
Was your visualization clear from the beginning?
For me, this is rather a kind of discovery—it developed over the course of the work. Naturally, I already had the first pictures in mind when I was researching the script. Then the idea with the photographs of Saul Leiter came up and finally I tried out a few things with my director of photography Daniel Gottschalk. That's how we got closer to the final look. Actually quite simple. You shouldn’t forget that the camera type and set design also influence the look, and the set design is also connected to costume and makeup. The slightly reddish hair color of Margaret (Trautmann’s girlfriend, played by Freya Mavor) is no coincidence.