By Randi Altman
When most people think of Oktoberfest, they picture Germany’s weeks-long celebration of beer — women dressed in dirndls and men dressed in lederhosen while drinking copious amounts of beer from large steins in giant tents, eating Bavarian pretzels and singing and dancing.
Well, Netflix’s Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood paints a very different picture of the yearly event. Taking place in Munich in the year 1900, this series, loosely based on real events, offers viewers a glimpse into the dark and bloody origins of what we all think of as a giant party.
Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood tells the story of brewer Curt Prank, who will do anything to build a beer hall that will dominate the city’s Oktoberfest. The series, co-written by Ronny Schalk and directed by Hannu Salonen, was shot by cinematographer Felix Cramer. We recently reached out to the Germany-born Cramer to find out about his process on the series, which he describes as “luscious, colorful and full of life, never fusty or drab.”
How early did you get involved with Oktoberfest?
Director Hannu Salonen approached me eight months before shooting. When I read the script for the first time, I knew this would be a series far different from most period pieces I have seen.
I am a big fan of late romantic music and felt that Oktoberfest has much more to do with one of Richard Wagner’s operas. The series is settled in a time when huge changes have been visible in the society, economy, art and science. The pivotal question of our characters is whether to keep old traditions or to modernize their lives to move into the next century. Our protagonist, Curt Prank, stands for the latter and has a huge impact on transformation of Oktoberfest.
On the other side, traditionalists are reflected by the Hoflinger family, who own an old-fashioned brewery and wants to hold on to the olden days. When these two families bump together, great conflicts are inevitable. After I finished reading the script, I knew the series would be an amazing opportunity for visual filmmaking.
When do you prefer getting on a project and why?
I like to get on a project as early as possible. As a DP, you have a great opportunity to create a visual concept when you are involved from the beginning. Hannu and I worked intensely on storyboarding many key scenes and created our visual language for Oktoberfest.
Many of our ideas were written into the script, and the strong collaboration with our head writer, Ronny Schalk, during the preproduction definitely had a huge impact on the making of Oktoberfest. Hannu always said, “The camera has to be its own character of our series.”
You were the DP on the pilot, so you worked with the director and showrunners to set the look of the show?
That is correct. For weeks we did camera, lens and lighting tests and modified digital grading technology to set a unique look for Oktoberfest. Together with the production designer and the costume designer, we created images inspired by oil paintings of expressionist artists of that time. We used modern LED lighting technology that allowed us to specify the colors in perfection. Even though the lighting of the movie looks naturalistic, it is completely stylized according to the context of the scenes.
How would you describe the look of the show?
It is hard to say since the world of Oktoberfest has never been created in this way before. I always wanted to be as modern as possible, avoiding the stereotypical kind of historic look you see in many shows. My visual approach orients more on German art and music than existing period movies.
Our imagery is luscious, colorful and full of life, never fusty or drab. Oktoberfest contains different settings and characters and is a breathtaking trip through their souls. All of the characters are complex, not just good or bad, and they reflect different shades of human flaws. My aim was to show these facets and to strengthen the emotional impact by using expressive camera work, lighting and colors.
Late romantic paintings were an influence. Can you talk about that?
We have been inspired by European late romantic artists like Arnold Böcklin, Anselm Feuerbach and expressionist artists from the Neue Künstlervereinigung München, which were known as the “Blue Riders.” We analyzed the colors of their work and adapted the color palette to our costumes and production design. Even the lighting colors have been adjusted to perfect the look.
There seem to be a variety of looks and color palettes throughout, and some are modern-feeling, as you mentioned earlier. Can you discuss that?
Since Oktoberfest tells a story in the turn of the century, we wanted to characterize the two worlds that clashed at that time. The world of the late romantic time, the end of 19th century — represented by the Hoflingers — has a very traditional brewery. Especially the mother, Maria, has no interest in opening her mind to the modern world of the 20th century. That said, the colors of these scenes are more desaturated, less colorful and bluish-grayish, sometimes greenish. On the other side, we see the modern world, the next century, with electric light — represented by Curt Prank. The colors of these scenes are more saturated, more reddish and expressive. All this reflects the change from late romantic art to the expressionists of that time.
What kind of research went into preparing for the show?
The story of Curt Prank as founder of the first big beer tents is based on Georg Lang, who built the first “Bierburg.” Nowadays, it’s common to sit in these beer cathedrals and drink lots of beer, but at the beginning of Oktoberfest, smaller beer booths were common. Our production designer, Benedikt Herforth, did tremendous research and collected hundreds of images and illustrations of Oktoberfest around 1900. We couldn’t bring every detail into our show but tried to be as historically accurate as possible, especially regarding costumes and production design.
DP Felix Cramer and director Hannu Salonen on set.
How did it feel recreating a piece of history that not many people know the origin of?
It is definitely a challenge creating a history piece from scratch. There have been no documentaries or movies we could use as a guide for Oktoberfest. When I immersed myself in this time, I realized many differences to the present. Visitors wore Sunday coats, not these leather trousers or dirndl dresses that everybody combines with Oktoberfest nowadays. And there was a ring road, where the most important beer booths were placed. Munich had a major art community represented by famous artists like Vladimir Kandinski or Thomas Mann and was definitely one of the most liberal cities. We felt excited showing a Munich that few people know.
Where was it shot, and how long was the shoot?
We shot Oktoberfest in Prague (Czech Republic), Bavaria (Munich) and Cologne. The main location, the exterior of Oktoberfest, has been created on an old goods station in the middle of Prague. We had a total of 66 days of shooting, which was definitely tough when you see the scenes with hundreds of extras and big scenery we had on many shooting days.
How did you go about choosing the right camera and lenses for this project?
We conducted a very intense lens and camera test to get the best result for this project. We tried all kinds of old lenses but also modern glass to see what gives the best look and put them on the ARRI Alexa and the Sony Venice.
Felix Cramer behind the scenes
At the end of the test, I came on the very newly created Genesis G35 Vintage 66 lens (by Gecko-Cam) that combines modern and vintage elements on the same side. The lenses have a pretty modern and warm look, with high resolution, less defocus on the edges and less chromatic aberration. But they use uncoated lenses on the other side, which produce nice lens flares and reflections that overcast the image and give a more historic and organic feeling. I decided to combine these lenses with the ARRI Alexa Mini, a camera I worked with many times and which has a slightly better dynamic than the Sony Venice.
Can you describe the lighting?
Love, hate, ambition, vengeance, arrogance, grudge or anger drive the characters of Oktoberfest. My aim was to show these facets and to heighten the emotional impact by using expressive lighting.
On the one side we see the bright Oktoberfest with happiness and joy, but below the surface, there is blood and darkness. We used colors and contrasts that reflected more the story instead of just being naturalistic. You will find genre elements from Westerns or horror movies in the cinematography of Oktoberfest, and this is reflected in the lighting design as well. Instead of using old-fashioned film lamps, we decided to use the foremost LED technology on our show and changed the colors for each scene, sometimes during a shot.
Any challenging scenes that you are particularly proud of or found most challenging?
The most challenging scenes were the long takes we did. One of them is the flight into the Kocherlball (Episode 1), where you see many young people dancing in a ruin by night. It took us several days to execute that shoot using a drone, catching the drone and walking with the drone through the crowd of people. Our camera trainee wore security gloves and glasses and learned a special walking technique to realize shots like a Steadicam. The result was so convincing that we decided to use this technique for many other shots.
Now more general questions …
Felix Cramer
How did you become interested in cinematography?
When I was a kid, I was interested in music and wanted to become a clarinetist. My teacher played at the Opera House of Stuttgart, and I was extremely interested in the visual side of operas. Years later my father – who was an historian and interested in traditional handcraft — made a documentary about a charcoal burner. He rented a camera and never changed the camera position over seven days. I was 16 when I saw the footage and explained to my father that this footage wouldn’t be sufficient for a movie at all. At that moment I realized that I love to visualize movies in my head and started to make my first documentaries. I then got more and more passionate about making movies and studied cinematography at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg years later.
What inspires you artistically?
Besides all the movies I’ve watched over the years, I always took inspiration from hearing classical and modern music. For me making a movie is like composing a symphony. You have to be aware of all the different rhythms of each scene and their transitions. I always have that in mind while shooting. On the other side, I get inspiration from paintings and photos, especially when shooting period pieces.
What new technology has changed the way you work (looking back over the past few years)?
There are huge changes in the last 10 years, and all that allows us to make movies in a way we never could have 10 years ago. Starting from the camera — the modern cameras are extremely sensitive, and you can work with less light and higher contrast. Drones and new cranes and gimbal heads allow camera movements that had been difficult to achieve years ago. Last but not least, the LED lighting technology is a big step; it allows us to change brightness and colors easily. I never want to go back.
Felix Cramer
What are some of your best practices or rules you try to follow on each job?
I always want to be as prepared as possible. We have no time to think in detail about the scenes during a shooting. The more preparation time you invest, the better the result. Another thing is checking what you did and learning from your mistakes. I always check each shot, even after long shooting days, and see what I can improve the next day. From my perspective, learning by doing is the best way to become a good cinematographer and the only way to develop one’s own signature.
Explain your ideal collaboration with the director or showrunner when starting a new project.
The ideal collaboration is having a very intense conversation about production design, costume design, shooting design, make-up … every aspect that influences your visual work is important and has an influence on the result. Aside from that, I also like to speak about the script and the storyline. Sometimes the scripts are still in development when I get attached, and many directors ask me about my thoughts. I like to help to improve a script as much as I can.
Any go-to gear – things you can’t live without?
On the camera side, I am pretty open, but one thing is really important to me: the color grade. Five years ago, I started to grade my movies on my own, and since then, I never wanted to miss that. I developed my own grading technique, which I adapt for each movie, and I would say that it is my signature that you can see in each of my movies.
Randi Altman is the founder and editor-in-chief of postPerspective. She has been covering production and post production for more than 20 years.
