Development

Tourists or filmmakers? Impressions of the 1st locationtour in Cambodia

They look like funny tourists, but they’re bad-ass filmmakers on the quest for locations.

I was lucky. Because of a long term knee injury of screenwriter Ruth Thoma I was allowed to participate on Bucks second journey. Actually this would have been the trip of Jan Brandt, the production manager, since it should be already about concrete preparations for the production and location scouting. He arranged various appointments with filmmakers. The first meeting was with Sovichea from the Bophana Center, he was going to be our line producer.

For our first location tour we headed to country. We agreed on motobikes. Jan Müller our man for everything brought his own – including his girlfriend Siyan. At the evening before we rented two more bikes, which took us several hours and drinks, among others because Jan Brandt, as production manager committed to money, wanted to negotiate a good price and didn’t want to be confused by touristic generosity. A strength he could maintain until the end of the shooting. Sithon, the Cambodian location manager picked us up the next morning, jumped on the bike behind Jan and off we went.

The highlight for me was the village on the mountain. As I sat on the bench and was looking over the country I could feel for a moment why some want to stay.

Wenka

Following also some impressions for you:

Casting of the main actors David Kross & Apinya Sakuljaroensuk

From the beginning David Kross seems to be the right cast for the role of Ben but the process of finding the right main actress was very difficult! The casting took place everywhere in the world and several caster looked for the right person. The whole process and each step of the Casting you can read now in the blog. Enjoy and stay tuned!

Conspicuous about the story of Benjamin and Sreykeo is that it is a story about two young people who fell in love with each other right at the beginning of their life. They were not yet stuck in one of these crises in life where everybody yearns for change, determining settings of direction and fixing.
This especially affects the European Ben, who can and wants to afford the luxury to try out what he can make of his life. In contrary are the coercions of Sreykeo.
Back to David- Detlev Buck did something what he normally never does: He asked David, if he could imagine to play the role Ben, off-handedly, without any casting. And David for his part gets into this adventure, without any casting, off-handedly, just because he seems to be the right one.

Next to the director Detlev Buck, David and the real Sreykeo (in the middle) you can see some of the girls who should be Sreykeo, coming from different parts of Germany and France:

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Part II of DETLEV BUCKs diary and his first journey to Cambodia

Today you can read the second part of Detlev Bucks private diary written on his first trip to Cambodia. Impressions of visiting miniature slums, watching movies in a cinema and backpacker live...
Enjoy and stay tuned!

Monday
We drive into La Building where Ben and Sreykeo used to live and I need to say that every European gets totally out of the line here. The women- you could assume it’s Sreykeos mother- earns money by concatenating documents, each for 90 Riel. Per day she earns one dollar, therefore she needs to sublease. They offer me a plastic chair, while they sit on the floor.
While sitting there I’m thinking, oh Ben you really got yourself into a different life. When I told Nick I want to go into La Building he immediately said: but not alone. I don’t think you get a blow on the head, but due to black despair of the people the one or other can get lost sometimes.
After a while of translated conversation, I ask if I am allowed to come back to make some photos. The mother of seven children nods and I try to give her a bill, she refuses, but when I tell her that it’s for her children, she accepts smiling. It wasn’t really necessary, but I think about staying for a night there, once. The shooting permission seems to be difficult. Government wants to pull the building down next year in July. It is a black spot- a miniature slum. With everything: shops, haircutters etc.
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Finding a script writer

Here’s another part of our history-rediscovery:

We want to talk with Ruth Toma about the story and the screenplay. Buck absolutely wants a woman to be part of the development, so he as a man will not dominate the story. Ruth is a very experienced author and has always insanely much to do, because she’s fast and good, thus all we need. Before we lose too much time by thinking about it, I send her the book to find out if she’s even interested in the story. I don’t know her, since the cooperation between Buck and her date a couple of years back. On the phone she seems bright and organised and funny because I don’t have to say much, she knows Buck…