Image source: Schimmelreiter team Photographer: Alexander Kettler
Students at Furtwangen University are producing their own film, “Schimmelreiter: Part one”
A foggy, gray October morning. As he looked out the window, Kurt Richard Pätzold — a student of Media Design (MKB) at Furtwangen University (HFU) — found inspiration for a special project, “I wanted to use this atmosphere for a dark film.” Together with his classmate Amelie Boehm, Pätzold then pored over books of legends, searching for the right story. “A ‘headless rider’ appeared in many legends from Furtwangen and Vöhrenbach. We found that fascinating. Specifically, our film is based on the story of the Schimmelreiter from Hammereisenbach,” recalls Pätzold. “Of course, we were aware of Theodor Storm’s famous work of the same name. We then figured we could benefit from its popularity.” Their two fellow students, Sami Bouguila and Amin Lakhal from MKB, were also enthusiastic about the project.
Together, the four of them came up with the story and wrote the screenplay. “I revised the dialogue together with my grandmother. She studied German literature and was able to help make our conversations sound authentic,” reports Boehm. Next, they cast suitable actors and actresses and searched for locations at the same time. “We raised the film budget through sponsors and a GoFundMe campaign. Unfortunately, we had to cut our original screenplay in half because our budget wouldn’t have been enough otherwise. “That’s why it’s just “The Rider on the White Horse: Part one”,” says Pätzold.
The HFU provided some of the film equipment and storage space; the group rented the rest of the equipment from rental companies in Stuttgart and Hildrizhausen. “Two weeks before filming was set to begin, the location for the farming village cancelled on us. That was pure stress! Luckily, we were able to find a replacement at Bachritterburg Castle in Kanzach,” reports Pätzold. On some shooting days, the crew consisted of up to 30 members in addition to the actors and actresses, including friends as well as many other students. Filming took place over a total of seven days at the castle and at the Günterfelsen in Furtwangen. It took about a year from that fateful October morning when the idea was conceived until filming began.
“The editing, the post-production of sound and video, the effects — all of that together took another six months or so. We celebrated the internal premiere at the university at the end of April,” says Pätzold happily. The group has also submitted the 13-minute film to various film festivals. “We’ve received our first confirmation from the Berlin Short Film Festival, which takes place on 16 and 17 July,” says Boehm. Pätzold adds, “With enough support, we’d love to produce the second part as well. That’s when things will get really exciting!”
All those interested can find the trailer for “Schimmelreiter – A Legend from the Black Forest” here: www.youtube.com/watch. The full film will be released after its premiere at the film festival. Learn more about the project and how to support it at: External link opens in a new window:https://kurzfilm-schimmelreiter.de/.