what did you think about it?

hello everyone!!

as all of you i'm a movie-maniac too and spend many time at the imdb and i was always wondering why there's no spot especially for the directors to write a view lines about their work. so finnaly my first movie is finished and seems like i have the chance now to start with it!

first of all i have to say that we all had a lot of fun working on that movie and it was one of my best times shooting "happy end." in 2003 at my home town "cham" in bavaria. Thanks to the big help of the people there and my fantastic team we could shoot the picture in less than 5 weeks for about 7000 euro.
as you can imagine i've seen this movie way too often now to have an objective opinion about it, but during the editing i discovered a lot of mistakes and problems concerning the directing, the dramaturgy, the script, the pace and lots more and doubtless i learned so much more from it than any film-school could ever teach me!

so here are some points i really don't like in "happy end.":

1. the whole movie is too static, the camera-angles are too ordinary, the pace is too slow - in one word: it's too little cinematic (at best you could call it television standard)

2. the dramaturgy during the whole first half is too weak, so it shows a tendency of being boring and only in the end it becomes a bit more the way i planned it!

3. despite the brilliant performances of the main actor and the supporting roles, i directed the actors too static! there could have been such more life, motion, activity and movement during the scenes! i really have to practice on that point much more!!!

4. the cut is too slow - there are moments where i could (and should) have taken out more than 10 frames without losing necessary information for the audience! nowadays people are simply able to assimilate much more information than i thought!

5. i really like the music and the composer did a perfect job, but in the end i should have been more economically using creepy music when its getting creepy. sometimes less is much more!!

6. last point is the oddity of the whole story - i've seen much better horror movies with mostly similar scenes, characters, plots and even shots than "happy end."
when i wrote the script (it took me 2 months) i didn't intend to create a masterpiece but i could have been a bit more inventive and imaginative (to all the "ring"- fans: please forgive me! i wrote the script when the remake of "ringu" was released in germany and yes this movie inspired me a lot, but no, the scene with the videotape was not stolen from there! it was already in my script, believe it or not!)


that was it so far!

i would be really happy if anyone of you would write me his (or her) opinion about it! i'm still studying in kassel and i'm really happy for every kind of critics (mostly the bad ones!) :)


thanks for watching "happy end."

and keep on believing in german filmmaking :)


daniel (director)