LMGI COMPASS
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Fall 2018
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cliff. We could only have a part of the scene there because we
couldn't make it safe for more than a handful of crew. So for the
majority of this scene, we had to use a set-built cliff in our main
quarry that we could have our actors and crew on safely."
A lake was also involved. "As soon as you jump over the cliff,
you're in a national preservation area," Darrelmann says. "It was
quite tricky to deal with and get the permits to access the nature
preservation area with a full-on film team. We needed to have the
sniper on the other side of the lake, which was in the middle of
the nature preserve. There were some mosses that existed only
in this quarry. We got the permit just three days before we shot,
but we were confident of getting everything lined up in time be-
cause of the massive support of the local politics. Another bonus
of this location was that it's situated about 650m above sea level,
so we had a very good chance of getting the required snow on
the ground by the time we were filming there—which worked
out like a charm."
Although Darrelmann has been a presence in Berlin's film world
since 1996, his familiar face apparently doesn't always mean
much at the permit office. "People in the offices change," he
says. "There's nothing you can really rely on for a very long time
because Berlin is still changing so much over a couple of years.
On a long project, you get less contact with the permit offices
than if it's a TV show or a series of commercials. In general, I
want to be sure to be causing less trouble to the people living
or working in our filming area, but I bring loads of trucks and
hundreds of people that I have to take care of. It can be a traffic
nightmare if you're not doing it right, and I try not to mess things
up too much because I ALWAYS want to be able to come back to
the locations I shot on. So far, that has worked out for me."
He and his team aim to keep the citizens of Berlin happy—not an
easy task. "It is getting tougher to shoot here," he says. "The mar-
ket is changing, what with lots of Netflix and Amazon require-
ments, as well as TV on an international basis happening here."
Silver Cloud, a Charlie's Angels film, is due to shoot in Berlin this
fall. "Two international TV shows are filming in Berlin, and there
are also German TV movies being made," Darrelmann says. "The
number of locations to pick from is decreasing, and it's harder to
get them. It's quite crowded. It's getting more complicated to get
your foot in the door. It happens to every other filming metropo-
lis over the world. Berliners no longer think filming in their city is
Photos
by
Klaus
Darrelmann/LMGI
Lisbeth's hideout in Teufelsberg Radar Station, Berlin.
