Uwe Boll talks about 'Auschwitz'

One of the world's most infamous directors makes a movie about one of the most sensible subjects in history? We just had to meet with Uwe and ask him some questions.

Watch the full interview here!

DARE TO BE BRAVE – FIFTH DIMENSION

Dare to be Brave is an ambient ad for the fashion label Fifth Dimension and marks Lopta's first collaboration with the great talents from Moist Creation. What started as an amazing teamwork experience has meanwhile become a strong and highly productive partnership between Lopta as producers and Moist as creatives. It was the most fun we ever had on a production and we'll always regard Dare to be Brave as a new beginning for our company.

It took us a while to finally feature this production on our website but we're non the less proud of its results. Many thanks to the whole crew, Cine-Service, Movie Stuff Berlin, Cine-7 and Sonnenstudio Music!

Watch Dare to be Brave here!

And also check out the Making of Dare to be Brave.

COOL DOWN PRO – FILM ACTION WORKSHOP

When the stunt specialists from Haeger Stunt & Wireworks Ltd. and the fight choreography pros from the Movie-Do team called out for a film action playground session at Haeger's facilities, some of Germany's finest movie people & equipment companies joined forces to test, train and capture their skills and products in action and on screen. Lopta could not miss that, so we supported and took part in an undertaking that turned out to be not only a highly professional film action & equipment workshop, but a weekend boiling with collaborative filmmaking energy. Lopta Film is proud to present “Cool Down Pro”, the amazing video document of these 2 ½ days, directed and produced by Ralf Haeger. Many thanks to the Haeger team, Movie-Do and the various contributors and participants! We had a fantastic time, learned a lot and are looking forward to the next meeting at Haeger Stund & Wireworks Ltd.!

Watch Cool Down Pro here!


The expertise shown in “Cool Down Pro” is provided by:

Haeger Stunt & Wireworks Ltd.

Movie-Do – Action Film Team

Berliner Spezialeffekte

Block & Graphics Filmservice

Cinegate

Cine-Service

Libra Unlimited

Moving Cine Company

Monsta Movies Productions

Claudia erzählt die Geschichte ihres Lebens

Im Auftrag des Blumenbar Verlags produzierten wir im Juni 2010 ein Buchgespräch zwischen Klaas Heufer-Umlauf und Claudia Kotter, die mit der Erzählung "Gute Nacht, bis morgen" ihre beeindruckende Lebensgeschichte veröffentlicht hat. Ein ausgewählter Auszug aus dem Interview läuft schon seit Juli auf unserem YouTube Kanal und nun findet neben der Kurzversion auch das komplette Video seinen Platz auf unserer Webseite.

In ihrem Buch "Gute Nacht, bis morgen" erzählt Claudia Kotter ihre eigene Geschichte. Sie handelt von den Grenzen des Körpers, von Freundschaft und vom Mut, alte Regeln zu brechen, um neue zu definieren. Claudia hat die äußerst seltene Krankheit Sklerodermie (Bindegewebsverhärtung), die auch die inneren Organe befallen kann und deren Ursachen bislang weitgehend unbekannt sind. Es ist ein extremes Leben. Manchmal weiß sie nicht, ob sie ans Meer fahren kann -- oder unverhofft in die Charité muss, weil ihr Körper rebelliert. Ihre Lunge ist nicht ihre eigene. Aber sie hat sie angenommen. In sehr persönlichen Interviews mit Freunden und Ärzten, in Briefen der Familie und Tagebuchauszügen Claudias verdichtet sich ein Bild von Freundschaft und Liebe und gleichzeitig illustriert sich das Porträt eines intensiven, unmittelbaren Lebens.
2003 gründete Claudia Kotter den Verein "Junge Helden", der Aufklärungsarbeit zum Thema Organspende mit kulturellen Aktivitäten und der Veranstaltung von Partys verbindet. Unterstützt wird der Verein von vielen prominenten Helfern, wie u.a. von Benno Führmann, Max Herre, Mareile Höppner, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Tschirner, Jürgen Vogel und den Beatsteaks. "Ein junger Held ist", so eine Losung des Vereins, "wer sich mit dem Thema auseinandersetzt und bewusst eine persönliche Entscheidung trifft -- dabei soll keine Meinung vorgegeben werden." (Quelle: www.blumenbar.de)

Seit dem 28.08.2010 findet man "Gute Nacht, bis morgen" in allen größeren Buchläden und kann es unter anderem auch bei Amazon bestellen. Ein großartiges Buch - unsere herzliche Empfehlung!

Claudia ist eine gute Freundin von Lopta und es war uns daher eine besondere Ehre und Freunde dieses Buchgespräch zu realisieren. Vielen Dank an Claudia, Klaas und das ganze Team!

Hier geht's zum Interview in der Kurzfassung und in der vollständigen Länge!

Praktikum bei Lopta

Wir sind eine junge Filmproduktionsfirma aus Berlin, die neben ihrem eigentlichen Zweck auch in verschiedenen anderen Filmgeschäftsbereichen tätig ist; dazu gehören die Lopta Casting Studios in Berlin-Mitte und Prenzlauerg Berg, unser Equipment-Verleih Lopta Rental und unsere neuste Abteilung Lopta Photography (siehe Services).

Für die vielfältigen Aufgaben suchen wir Dich als Unterstützung für unser Team. In einem mindestens dreimonatigem Praktikum erhältst Du interessante Einblicke in die Film- und Castingwelt. Jedoch wirst Du hauptsächlich den administrativen Teil unterstützen: Hierbei liegt der Schwerpunkt auf Buchführung, Warenwirtschaft und Kundenkommunikation. Je nach Bedarf wirst Du aber in allen Teilbereichen eingesetzt. Dies erfordert hohe Motivation, Lernbereitschaft und Flexibilität.
Wir legen großen Wert darauf, dass Du Dich bei uns wohlfühlst und das Praktikum als persönlichen Gewinn siehst. Daher möchten wir zuersteinmal eine ein- bis zweiwöchige Probephase mit Dir verbringen, damit wir uns gegenseitig kennenlernen und wir danach beidseitig entscheiden können, ob eine längere Zusammenarbeit gewünscht ist.

Wir glauben, dass künftige Bürokaufleute, besonders welche mit hoher Affinität zu Film und Medien, oder angehende Selbständige, den größten Gewinn aus diesem Praktikum ziehen können.

Falls Du Interesse an einem Praktikum bei uns hast, schicke eine kurze Bewerbung mit Foto, Lebenslauf und einer kurzen Begründung, warum Du bei uns ein Praktikum machen möchtest, an:

bewerbung@loptafilm.com

Weitere Informationen:
Betriebsprakitkum Lopta Film GmbH – Administration

Notwendige Fähigkeiten:

• Flüssiges Englisch in Wort und Schrift
• Grundkenntnisse am Mac
• Sicherer Umgang mit Microsoft Office und/oder Open Office
• Erfahrung mit der Recherche im Internet
• Motiviert mit hoher Lernbereitschaft
• Aufgeschlossen/ kontaktfreudig
• Zeitlich flexibel
• Mind. 3 Monate Zeit

Folgende Fähigkeiten/Qualifikationen sind von Vorteil (aber nicht Bedingung):

Tippen (Zehn-Finger-Schreiben)

Erfahrung mit Buchführung

Weitere Fremdsprachen

Erfahrung im Film- und/oder Videoschnittbereich

Erfahrung im Videofilmbereich/Fotografie

Erfahrung in Webdesign/Grafikdesign

Erfahrung/Ausbildung in Marketing

Dauer

• min. 3 Monate
• Stundenzahl 25-30 Stunden/Woche
• Möglichkeit der Übernahme und/oder Vermittlung innerhalb der Film-/TV-Branche

Wir freuen uns auf Deine Bewerbung!

New Service: Lopta Photography

After playing around with the idea for quite a while, the Lopta team has now expanded their services and introduces its new division: Lopta Photography by Oliver Rath. For this service Oliver and his stylist Henning Schulz specialize on portraits for actors and actresses, delivering pictures with a certain edge that distinguishes itself from the common acting photography. Within a two to three hour session, Oliver snaps the actors in color and black and white, inside one of our studios and outside all over Berlin in a mellow shoot-on-sight manner. Shooting the regular, bringing out the crazy and capturing everything that lies in between, Oliver and Henning create a photo series with a broad variety for different uses matching the needs of the client, from applications over agency updates to online PR.
“Oli is as crazy as he is uncomplicated, as talented as he is hard working. Being in front of his lens is such a fun experience and I am excited about this new collaboration.”, says Adrian Topol.
His photos speak for themselves, so you should check out his blog at
www.oliver-rath.com.

Download the Lopta Photography flyer as pdf file.

Service & booking via phone or mail:

phone

+49 (0) 30.55 12 45 19

email

office@loptafilm.com

Marc Terenzi supports No Hell

“We discussed everything in detail, from script to marketing strategies. There is no doubt in my mind that ‘No Hell’ will benefit a great deal from this new partnership.”, says Adrian Topol, who is excited about the latest development concerning Lopta’s horror project. After several meetings the Lopta team and Marc Terenzi are now underway to tackle production of No Hell Lies Beyond as partners. Negotiations for the formation of a No Hell GmbH are following in the next few months.
The Terenzi Horror Nights, Marc’s successful haunted Halloween attraction at Europa-Park, might play a big role in the marketing for No Hell. “We always base the horror mazes around certain themes. To develop an area which let’s the audience experience our movie for real is definitely something we will work on when the time comes.”, states the new co-producer. “I am glad to be a part of this movie. The script is great. Very tough and fast. I couldn’t put it down.”, Terenzi says. He in fact liked the screenplay so much that he hired writer Arend M. Remmers to also write for the Terenzi Horror Nights 2009 and 2010.
With this new collaboration the next step is the organisation of the first investor meeting for No Hell, which will take place at Europa-Park in the course of the Terenzi Horror Nights. Not for the faint of heart.

For more information about No Hell Lies Beyond click here

New Final Cut Editing Suite

Lopta now offers a brand new Final Cut Studio editing suite in Berlin. Our professional work station provides you with the latest Apple soft- and hardware at a cost/performance ratio that makes your editing process not only pleasant but also affordable. Our work station includes:

The new Final Cut Studio - The leading post-production suite!

A family of cutting-edge post-production programs and tools features powerful new ways to collaborate and tight integration between applications. The perfect editing experience.

Final Cut Pro 7 - A stunning new release!

With all the advancements in Final Cut Pro 7, there are now even more reasons why it’s the first choice of professional editors. New features and time-saving improvements help you work faster than ever. Whether you’re working solo or collaborating with a team, Final Cut Pro 7 gives you more creative options and technical control and it is ideal for digital intermediate workflows for projects shot on film, as well as cutting-edge workflows for video from high-resolution cameras such as the RED ONE.

The Mac Pro - Beauty outside. Beast inside.

Enter the Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processor. Its single-die, 64-bit architecture makes 8MB of fully shared L3 cache readily available to each of the four processor cores. The result is fast access to cache data and greater application performance. Combine that with the other technological advances and you get a Mac Pro that’s up to 1.9x faster than the previous generation.

Two HP High-Res Displays - Impressive performance & perfect connectivity

The HP LP2475w 24-inch Widescreen LCD Monitor offers the broadest selection of input connectivity options available from HP combined with state-of-the-art LCD panel technologies for workstation users and editors. Enjoy crisp, clear, high-resolution onscreen presentation from the 1000:1 contrast ratio, sharp resolutions to 1920 x 1200, an extra-bright screen, and 102% color gamut on a 24-inch diagonal wide-aspect screen.

Specifications:

Final Cut Studio

- Final Cut Pro 7
- Motion 4
- Soundtrack Pro 3
- Color 1.5
- Compressor 3.5
- DVD Studio Pro 4

Mac Pro 8-Core

- 2x 2,26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" Processors
- 6 GB RAM memory
- 3,6 TB harddrive capacity
- 18x double-layer SuperDrive
- NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 graphic board with 512MB

2x HP 24-inch High-Res Displays

- 1920 x 1200 resolution @ 60hz (widescreen)
- 1000:1 contrast ratio
- 400 cd/m² brightness
- 5ms Response rate
- Ports: DVI-I, DisplayPort, HDMI, component, S-video, composite, 6x USB 2.0



Service & booking via phone or email:

phone

+49 (0) 30.55 12 45 19

email

rental@loptafilm.com

Lopta Rental – Rent the RED

»The Red camera is extraordinary. The Redvolution marks the tipping point of the democratization of filmmaking«
Dean Devlin, producer of Independence Day, Godzilla, The Patriot and Flyboys

As German pioneers in using the cutting edge technology of Red Digital Cinema we early gained experience in shooting with the Red One. Not only may you rent our camera for your project but we will equip you with numerous prime accessories such as the Red Ram or Origo Start and Stop Button and if necessary provide our digital image technician (DIT) to make your shooting experience as easy and efficient as it gets.

For further information & booking in English or German contact our service:

phone

+49 (0) 30.55 12 45 19

email

rental@loptafilm.com

Lopta Casting Studios

Building your cast can be a stressfull and time consuming venture. Let us help you to cast professionally and efficently: Our casting branch offers you two well-equipped studios in Berlin with trained and experienced staff handling all operational aspects of your audition:

• recording
• taking pictures of the auditonees
• image editing
• conversion of data into several formats
• dispatching the data (dvd's / tapes / audition sheets, etc.) via messengers, FedEx or internet-upload
• printing & copying
• catering for crew and auditionees
• re-scheduling the auditionees if neccessary
• managing your travel and accomodation

The two studios:

The northern studio is located in the up-and-coming artists' district Prenzlauer Berg in the north-east of Berlin. The often appreciated cozy atmosphere will make you feel at home while casting your film or commercial. Very easy to reach by car, subway, streetcar and city train.

The Central studio ist located right in the heart of Berlin (Berlin-Mitte). The historical architecture, the impressive surroundings and the exquisite interior of our studio will make any auditon a pleasant experience. To add ease and comfort to your audition our well-trained staff will support you in any way to get things done the way you want it.
Come and visit our studio where yet so many directors, producers and casting directors from all over the world have found the cast for their films and commercials.

All our staff is fluent in English and German. Upon request other languges are available.

If you have any individual request don't hesitate to contact us – we're always at your service!

Service & booking via phone or email:

phone

+49 (0) 30.55 12 45 19

email

studios@loptafilm.com

For further information please visit our website www.loptastudios.de

Lopta Meets Terenzi

Lopta Film met with Marc Terenzi, the American musician and director of the Terenzi Horror Nights, to discuss a possible co-production for the upcoming Lopta project No Hell Lies Beyond.

Marc Terenzi has just run Gemany's biggest haunted attraction, the wildly successful Terenzi Horror Nights, for the third year in a row. Since 2007 he produces and directs the live action horror show at Europa-Park in Rust, Germany. For this famous and extraordinary event he also produced, wrote and directed a number of short horror films to advertise the show and introduce the different fright themes for every year. A die hard horror fan and anxious for the next steps, it has been Marc's dream to work on a full length horror feature and he was searching for a suitable script for quite a while. "I have read piles of screenplays and... what can I say... it is tough to find a good and fresh script, especially in the horror genre.", says Marc Terenzi. Actor Adam Sikora, who played various parts in Marc's short films, is also befriended with Adrian Topol, directing manager of Lopta Film, and so it was only a matter of time until the Lopta horror sceenplay No Hell Lies Beyond found its way into Terenzi's hands. After reading the script Marc immdiatley invited Lopta Film to Europa-Park to show us around the sets of the Terenzi Horror Nights and of course to talk No Hell.
The Lopta team spent a great, fun but most of all enlightening weekend at Europa-Park. The Terenzi Horror Nights sets were impressive to say the least. The scale of the show itself and Marc's experience with the horror genre as well as the possibilities that come along with him as a potential co-producer exeed our expectations. Marc loves the script and the movie we envision in our minds and a co-production between Lopta Film and Terenzi Films is definitely posssible.
"Marc is an incredibly hearty and passionate artist but most of all he is a pretty smart business man. He brings something new to the table and creates opportunities we didn't even think of before." - Adrian Topol

Lopta goes ringside with Uwe Boll

In the Summer of 2009 the controversial director Uwe Boll shot a biopic about the German boxing legend Max Schmeling in Zagreb, Croatia. Schmeling was the world heavy weight champion between 1930 and 1932. He died in 2005. Until today he is considered one of the greatest German athletes of all times. Henry Maske, a german boxing champion himself, walks in Max Schmelings shoes as the lead after eight months of intensive acting class. What makes Maske's cast extraordinary is the fact that before Schmeling died he said that if someone ever was to portray himself in a movie then it should be Henry Maske.
Also starring are the german actors Heino Ferch and Christian Kahrmann. To make the fights as real as possible Boll casted solely boxing professionals as Schmeling's challengers such as Yoan Pablo Hernández (as Joe Louis) and Arthur Abraham (as Richard Vogt). Max Schmeling is coming to theatres across Germany in 2010.

Lopta Film always takes great interest in Uwe Boll's work, since he is one of the few German filmmakers (meaning his company is actually located Germany) who produces international feature films independently. We visited and interviewed Uwe Boll at the Arena Zagreb where he was shooting the fight scenes between Max Schmeling and Joe Louis. See the full interview here.

For futher information visit the official website
max-schmeling-film.starplanet.de