J.H. – Joern Heitmann (Director).
T.L. – Till Lindermann (Vocalism).
R.Z.K. – Richard Z. Kruspe (Solo-guitar).
P.H.L. – Paul Heiko Landers (Rhythm-guitar).
C.S. – Christoph Schneider (Drums).
C.F.L. – Christian Flake Lorenz (Keyboard).
O.R. – Oliver Riedel (Bass-guitar).
S.S. – Survey Squad.
R.Z.K.: We're underway with shooting here in the Marquardt Castle near Potsdam.
C.S.: Well, it's fall, and since this morning, it's also been raining buckets.
O.R.: At 8 it starts up for us. The crew, of course, has been here since much earlier, and most likely we'll be shooting here till 2am tonight.
J.H.: Before I had the chance to work more intensively with Rammstein, I was in no way a fan!
I thought it was all dumb! And when I had the chance to read the texts for the first time, I thought: that is poetry!
(Cut from different Rammstein’s videos on screen).
J.H.: Actually I've become a Rammstein fan over the years now. And so, to shoot a Rammstein video is something totally special for me!
P.H.L.: For “Haifisch”, we had lots of ideas, and then we thought: well, of course!
O.R.: It is just a beautiful song, and that's why we chose it.
(Photos with Rammstein on screen).
C.F.L.: I get a bit of this workers' song-feeling, a bit of that Brecht-feeling, so to speak (laugh). It is just such a simple workers' song, where one still says what one's thinking in simple words.
R.Z.K.: The text is relatively positive in that sense: we're all six roaming through the world,
and we're together and one. We wanted somehow in principle to do the opposite of that.
C.S.: The song is really about how we can't make it work without one another; that the band only exists with the six of us, and it's strong because of that; that we support and look out for each other and are only as strong as the weakest link.
C.F.L.: The funny thing is how we play the opposite of that in the film...
P.H.L.: That we're not happy with one another and that we think each other's stupid, and don't stick together...
C.F.L.: ...which in reality is once again the negation of that. I find that totally cool.
(Video “Haifisch” on screen).
(Shooting).
S.S: (On shooting stage) Clean your mouth off, Flake!
(Shooting).
R.Z.K.: Rammstein's strength lies, I think, more in the area of telling stories. To make videos, where we have the possibility of bringing the song to another level.
C.S.: For me it's important, when we're shooting a video, that we're not shooting a film apart, somehow running beside the music; rather, that it's approaching some unity with the music, and effectively forwarding the song.
J.H.: Frequently the band has already had a strong influence on me through their music, which offers an unbelievably rich breeding ground for images. Actually for any piece, for any Rammstein song I could make a wonderful video. Alas, that's not the case! But for “Haifisch” it was actually clear pretty soon what I wanted to do.
(Video “Haifisch” on screen).
C.S.: As far as I know, the story starts so that we're at a funeral carrying Till to the grave; at a pretty classical Mafia burial in black, with good types in the background and a good car and so forth.
R.Z.K.: Basically the story is that our singer has died and we're all suspicious of one another... sort of Agatha Christie: anyone could have done it. Everyone has a reason. And then Jorn takes a peep into the old videos and so he basically runs through the history of Rammstein videos, looking for where one could perhaps see a small clue that one of us had killed Till.
C.F.L.: To that extent the videos acquire a truth, a new one. And as well a new meaning and the songs too get a new meaning. And at the end it's clear that the video itself isn't authentic, that the old video that we had shot was the true one. And that's brilliant! I find that totally great!
(Video “Haifisch” on screen).
S.S: (On shooting stage) And say good-bye to him!
(Video “Haifisch” on screen).
S.S: (On shooting stage) And cut, finished, thank you! Very nice. Super cool!
R.Z.K.: One has to have a bit of imagination, I think, to understand this video...
O.R.: ...but how it all works outs, I myself will be surprised about that!
(Shooting).
(Video “Haifisch” on screen).
P.H.L.: How was it to stand in the rain... it was awesome (laugh)! Was the question dumb?
Or did it just seem that way to me? I'm just feeling a little giggly. Yes, how is it to stand for hours in the rain? It is a dream! So, personally, I don't find rain bad.
J.H.: The guys are totally motivated, they're into it!
J.H.: (On shooting stage) Now we're going into the close-ups. But the set-up remains the same. Can you still do it?
C.F.L.: (On shooting stage) No, but ...
J.H.: (On shooting stage) Then let's take a short break first, but before that we can also ...
C.F.L.: (On shooting stage) No, no, let's quickly do it!
C.F.L.: No, I totally like rain! Because I was born in November and so I'm some sort of amphibian.
O.R.: But I didn't think that the coffin would be so heavy.
C.F.L.: It was so heavy (laugh), that I was astonished at how weak I've become and then it rained there so and the mood there was so, like it had to be! If such a burial, then please such weather as well!
R.Z.K.: The problem is somehow always that one gets cold mostly at the feet, and there's a sort of foot-warmer, and when the feet are warm, then everything else is warm. And then besides there's a woman here, she's got such jugs, you're simply gobsmacked. I mean, then everything's warm. You just have to take a look: I mean, she's just so self-assured. I think she knows just what she's got. And, I mean, that is, what, a jaw-dropper (laugh)!
O.R.: At the end it always comes down again to the same thing, that this feeling of youth is there, and it was hard to keep a straight face, because you've actually got this perpetual grin on your face, because you've actually grown up with this playful roughhousing.
C.F.L.: Acting is an exaggeration, I'm a sort of extra. Basically, we do some idiot-acting: Hunh, where is he? There? So it's got as much to do with acting as soccer.
(Shooting scene with fight).
S.S: (On shooting stage) Straight up! Hit it!
Pull Flake in!
Punch! Yes, super! Go at him! Everybody's lying on the ground!
J.H.: (On shooting stage) I come closer with the camera, you pound each other up here in the foreground.
P.H.L.: (On shooting stage) Then we stand up again or do we stay down?
J.H.: (On shooting stage) Yes, try to give me something so that you also flip around. Try to play that for the camera a bit.
P.H.L.: (On shooting stage) Ok, let's try it!
J.H.: (On shooting stage) Fall on him! Richard, fling yourself on him!
Very nice! Roll a bit. That's good!
Christopher, shake more!
Very good!
Show the background. Nice! Cut! Wonderful! Finished! Very good, thank you!
(Everybody is laughs).
Doctor, also well done!
C.F.L.: (On shooting stage) Yes, that is quite exhausting. Am out of breath!
R.Z.K.: Always, whenever we play these bad boys, somehow it suits us, and it's something you can really play up.
C.S.: It's not that we're getting some load off our chests, or things that one couldn't quite verbalize, or weren't clear between the band members. Instead, it's simply that you feel like a little kid again, and you run round in the grass and roll over, and it's a beautiful feeling.
R.Z.K.: Especially between guitarists there's always a quite personal phenomenon, and a particular emotion, and there have certainly been moments where we wanted to unleash this physical violence, but we have somehow always managed to keep it together through communication.
S.S.: (On shooting stage) Straight out! Cut! The same again.
J.H.: (On shooting stage) You moved too quickly.
P.H.L.: (On shooting stage) Yea, I saw it coming.
J.H.: (On shooting stage) Just like that, thanks! Super cool! Looks super. Next!
R.Z.K.: But I mean, it is obviously not really true, even if you just do it as though, the same emotion doesn't really come out. So, you just play it.
P.H.L.: I would have gladly torn apart Richard's shirt, so that the buttons were flying off, something like that I would have gladly done.
R.Z.K.: Well, the brawling was quite cool and a lot of fun!
(Shooting scene with fight).
(Video “Haifisch” on screen).
J.H.: (On shooting stage) You look good!
P.H.L.: (On shooting stage) Yes!
J.H.: I know the guys pretty well in the meantime, so I know who they really are, and I can also move them with that, which I then use in shooting.
O.R.: We like filming with Jorn, because we have esteem for him as a person and director, and it's not just a known quantity for us, but he's also become good friend over time, where you both speak the same language, and so there's a sense of trust.
C.F.L.: Jorn can explain and play out things very well. So he brings you right into the mood. He says: so, heads up, you are totally sad now, well, that's a stupid example: Till is dead, and you're
looking like this and say: Shit, it's all lost, how do we go on from here. And he explains it well to me, so that I can do it as well.
(Shooting).
J.H.: (On shooting stage) (Talks C.F.L.) Try to show us! Pull the lid a bit to the side!
It's empty and now look up towards the camera! And look down again! And look up! Look straight up towards us! Excellent! Thanks!
S.S.: (On shooting stage) Cut!
(Almost everybody is applause).
J.H.: (On shooting stage) Super, just awesome! Really awesome!
R.Z.K.: He has an eye for detail. He is really in love with details.
J.H.: Yes, I generally like it in films, equally here in video, when you discover things in the corners, things you only discover the third time. So I try to let something happen in the background a bit, too.
(Video “Haifisch” on screen).
J.H.: (On shooting stage) Horror in the background! Laughter in front!
(Shooting. Fighting two women).
W. 1: (On shooting stage) Stupid cow! Frigid bitch!
W. 2 (On shooting stage) Frigid bitch!
Well, now it's on!
J.H.: (On shooting stage) Thanks! Cut!
(Almost everybody is applause).
J.H.: You've got to try to hit all tastes a bit. And I especially want to hit Rammstein fans. I want to offer the Rammstein fans something, we just want to take the Rammstein audience to a different level than with a live performance, I want to give them something to take with them. I think the band wants the same.
(Shooting final scene).
(Video “Haifisch” on screen).
