FRANK GRIEBE

#2: [Right] with dir Tom Tykwer

#3: "NVA" [2004]

FRANK GRIEBE

Born: 28 August 1964, Hamburg, [West-]Germany.

Education: Fachhochschule für Optik, Berlin.

Career: Entered film industry as laboratory technician.

Ph commercials dir by Paul Harather [for Dresdner Bank], Peter Kleine, Bernard Wedig, Stephen Manuel, Daniel Harder [for Burger King], Marc Schölermann [for Skoda], a.o. Ph music videos, e.g. 'Du Riecht So Gut' [1996; a: Rammstein; d: Emanuel Fialik; also seg of comp 'Rammstein: Lichtspielhaus'].

Was considered by dir Brian De Palma as a possible doph for 'The Black Dahlia' [2004].

Publications: 'Frank Griebe - Das Auge Tom Tykwers' [2004, Gunnar Bolsinger, a.o.].

Awards: Kodak Prize [1993] & DKP [1994] for 'Die tödliche Maria'; Deutscher Filmpreis 'Filmband in Gold' [1998] for 'Zugvögel'; Camerimage 'Golden Frog' nom [1998], Deutscher Filmpreis 'Filmband in Gold' [1999] & Brothers Manaki IFF 'Special Jury Award' [2000] for 'Lola rennt'; Camerimage 'Golden Frog' nom [2000], DKP nom [2001] & European Film Award nom [2001] for 'Der Krieger und die Kaiserin'; Marburger Kamerapreis [2002]; European Film Award nom [2002] & DKP nom [2002] for 'Heaven'; Camerimage 'Duo Award Cinematographer-Director' [2006; with Tom Tykwer]; Deutscher Filmpreis 'Lola' nom [2007] & European Film Award [2007] for 'Perfume: The Story of a Murderer/Das Parfüm - Die Geschichte eines Mörders'.

'Lola rennt/Run Lola Run' [1997]: 'The job of matching the look during the film's twice-repeated exterior stretches of location shooting fell to director of photography Frank Griebe. "It was summer in Berlin, but it was not such a good summer," says Griebe. "We had many, many rainy days. I tried to match, but we had only 30 shooting days, and not much money."

Since camera movement was key to the film's style, Griebe relied mostly on daylight for the running shots, with a complement of soft fill. To keep the light consistent, the DP tested combinations of camera filters, finally settling on a blend of sepia and coral. Beyond this, any variations in the weather or light quality are likely to be obscured by the movie's breathless, headlong rush of a style.

The 35mm camera was often positioned on Griebe's shoulder as he rode a special motorcycle rig. "Franka [Potente] runs very fast through small places," the cinematographer explains. "At first, we tried a bicycle, but she was too fast. So we took a four-wheeled motorcycle with a seat, I put the camera on my shoulder, and said, 'Franka, run.'" Potente's athletic exertions are viewed from multiple vantage points, with shots of her pumping arms and flopping, dyed red mane seen to particular advantage in front- and right-angle shots. Sometimes to save time, two cameras were set up in a pickup truck, replacing the single-camera motorcycle rig, which required more takes.

Handheld was only one of the film's shooting modes. Steadicam was used during a repeated segment when Lola stops by the bank where her father works, and during some running scenes. "We used everything," says Griebe. "We have crane shots and many handheld. We used all kinds of lenses, wide-angle and long lenses, and sometimes the Cooke zoom." The most noticeable visual break is between scenes that include Lola or the boyfriend she is rushing to rescue, which are shot on film, and all other sequences, which are done in video. When we are privy to the behind-closed-doors behavior of Lola's father and a co-worker, for example, the images have the crude quality of reality TV, but as soon as Lola bursts into the room, the frame shifts to comparatively vibrant 35mm. "I used a very old video camera, because I liked the look," says Griebe of the non-digital piece of equipment he dug up for these scenes. "The new ones, I think, are too good. With the old camera, the transfer is very bad - I like it." For the filmed sequences, the DP considered using Super 16, but 35mm provided a stronger contrast to the look of the video images. Still, Griebe didn't want too slick a film look; he chose Kodak 5293 stock, and then pushed it two stops. "I wanted it to be not so clear, a little bit grainy," he explains. "The film stock is much too good, I think." […] One luxury the DP had on 'Run Lola Run' was an extensive pre-production period. "Tom and I started about six weeks before shooting. We talked a lot about ideas, about the look and the colors." […] Though Tykwer's script was somewhat technically detailed, the nature of the project meant that storyboards were required. The director and DP collaborated on these, working out the composition, length of shots, and camera format. [...]

Griebe spent three years working in a lab before going to film school in Berlin. "I worked as a clapper loader and focus puller, and I met Tom when we were both working as projectionists at a cinema. He said, 'I want to be a director,' and I said, 'I want to work camera,' so we made the first short film." [From article by John Calhoun in 'Lighting Dimensions', June 1999.]

FILMS
1990	Because [Tom Tykwer] 16mm/c; short/34m; + co-prod
1991	Epilog [Tom Tykwer] c; short/8m
1994	Cantina Slava [Marco Lakobija] ?; exp film/?m
1994	Die brennende Schnecke/The Burning Snail [Thomas Stiller] 16mm-35bu/c
1995	Stille Nacht [- Ein Fest der Liebe] [Dani Levy] c; 2uc; ph: Carl-F. Koschnick
1996	Winterschläfer/Winter Sleepers [Tom Tykwer] s35/c; 2uc: Constantin Kesting & Gregor Schnitzler
1996	Zugvögel... Einmal nach Inari/Train Birds/Trains'n'Roses [Peter Lichtefeld] c
1997	Lola rennt/Run Lola Run [Tom Tykwer] v+35mm-to-35mm/b&w-c; 2uc: Marik Kubik & Susanna Salonen; hph: Jan Hoffmann; see above
1998	Absolute Giganten/Gigantics [Sebastian Schipper] c
1999	Der Krieger und die Kaiserin/The Princess and the Warrior [Tom Tykwer] s35/c; cph: Manja Peters; 2uc: Jan Hartmann; aph: Dwayne McClintock
2000	Die Aufschneider [Annette Ernst] c; short/14m; cph: Michael Busch
2000	Heaven [Tom Tykwer] c
2001	Good Bye Lenin!/Goodbye Lenin! [Wolfgang Becker] 35mm+8mm-to-35mm/b&w (archive) + c; addph; ph: Martin Kukula
2001	Nackt/Naked [Doris Dörrie] scope/c
2002	Delusion [Tim Großkurth] c; short/12m
2002	True [Tom Tykwer] c; short/12m; also seg 'Faubourg Saint-Denis' of comp film 'Paris, je t'aime' (2005)
*2002*	Playa del Futuro ...suche nach dem Glück [Peter Lichtefeld] scheduled as ph, but prod was ph by Stefan Wachner
2002	Herr Lehmann/Berlin Blues [Leander Haußmann] scope/c
2003	Cowgirl [Mark Schlichter] s35/c; cph: Peter Steuger; 2uc: Benedict Neuenfels
2003	Ein Tag in Wolfsburg [Julian Benedikt] 16mm/b&w; doc/25m
2004	Play Your Own Thing [- Auf den Spuren des Jazz in Europa] [- A Story of Jazz in Europe] [Julian Benedikt] c; doc/2x 60m (tv) & 90m (theater); cph: William Rexer, Klaus Betzl, Peter Indergand & Vladimir Subotic; addph: Lorenz Haarmann; filmed 2004-05
2004	NVA [Leander Haußmann] s35/c
2005	Der die Tollkirsche ausgräbt/Digging Up Atropia [Franka Potente] s8-35bu/b&w-c; silent short/40m

[Left] with Tom Tykwer and prod Bernd Eichinger

2005	Perfume: The Story of a Murderer/Das Parfüm - Die Geschichte eines Mörders [Tom Tykwer] s35/c; 2uc (+ 2ud): Martin Fuhrer; aph: James Swanson; miniatures ph: Richard Rericha
2005	Ich Dich auch - Ein Essayfilm über die Liebe [Christiane Voss & Katja Dringenberg] c; doc/85m; + co-prod
2006	Deutschland. Ein Sommermärchen [Sönke Wortmann] DVcam-to-35mm/c; doc/108m; cph: S. Wortmann
2006	Problema [Ralf Schmerberg] b&w-c; doc/98m; cph: Franz Lustig, Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein, Nicola Pecorini, a.o.; aph: Ralf Brauner; filmed 9 September; released in 2010
2007	Going Against Fate [Viviane Blumenschein] mdv/c; mus doc/80m; cph: Alberto Venzago; addph: Sascha Felix, Maher Maleh, a.o.
2007	The Opening [Julian Rosefeldt] s16/c; short/4m
2007	The International [Tom Tykwer] s35+65mm-to-35mm scope/c; 2uc: John Mahaffie; aph: David B. Nowell & (Italy) Adam Dale
2008	Deutschland 09 - 13 kurze Filme zur Lage der Nation [seg 'Ramses' dir by Romuald Karmakar & 'Feierlich reist' dir by Tom Tykwer] RED+s35+s8-to-35mm/c; 13 seg/151m; cph: Jürgen Jürges, Carl-Friedrich Koschnick, Rainer Klausmann, a.o.
2009	Ein Mann unseres Vertrauens: Ralf Ottopohl, Wasserspezialist [Romuald Karmakar] dv/c; doc/?m; prod for Alexander Kluge's DVD-project 'Früchte des Vertrauens. Finanzkrise, Adam Smith, Keynes, Marx und wir selbst: Auf wen kann man sich verlassen?/Fruits of Confidence' (4 DVD's + booklet/658m)
2009	Sehnsucht nach Schönheit/Longing for Beauty [Julian Benedikt] HD/c; doc/85m; addph (2 days): Patrick Bierling; filmed between March & November; released in 2010
2009	3/Drei/Three [Tom Tykwer] tvi (+ D-Cinema)/b&w-c; uwph: Jan Hoffmann
2011	Zettl/Berlin Mitte [- Die Nullnummer] [Helmut Dietl] s35/c; 2uc (+ Steadicam op): Marcus Pohlus
2011	Cloud Atlas [Tom Tykwer (1936, 1973 & 2012 seg); Andy Wachowski & Lana Wachowski (1849, 2144 & 2321 seg)] s35+HD (Phantom HD)-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c; 172m; ph seg dir by T. Tykwer; other ph: John Toll; uncred splinter unit ph: Florian Emmerich; high speed ph: Max Penzel; insert unit ph: David Lee; aph: Jeremy Braben & (Spain) Steven Desbrow
2014	A Hologram for the King/Ein Hologramm für den König [Tom Tykwer] c; 2uc (+ 2ud): Aladin Hasic
2014	#Vegas [Christian Ditter] HD (ARRI ALEXA + Sony F55 + Canon C300)/c; short/3m; ep O2/Telefónica Germany 'Social Biopic'-series
2015	Berlin, I Love You [seg dir by Ai Weiwei (dir via Skype from Beijing)] c; ? seg
2015	Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht [Romuald Karmakar] c; mus doc/?m
2015	Who's That Man: Conny Plank [Reto Caduff & Stephan Plank] c; doc/?m

TELEVISION & INTERNET
1993	Die tödliche Maria/Deadly Maria [Tom Tykwer] tvm/16mm-35bu
1994	Ein unvergeßliches Wochenende... in Südfrankreich [Rolf von Sydow] tvm; cph: Hartwig Strobel
1995	Im Namen des Gesetzes [ep #20 'Auf und davon' dir by Gregor Schnitzler] 193-part series, 1994-2008; 2nd season, 1996
1995	Der Mann auf der Bettkante [Christoph Eichhorn] tvm
1997	Nina - Vom Kinderzimmer ins Bordell [Torsten C. Fischer] tvm/s16
1998	Hauptsache Leben/Life Is the Main Thing [Connie Walter] tvm
2008	24h Berlin - Ein Tag im Leben [various] doc/1440m/v; cph: Jörg Jeshel, Lorenz Haarmann, Benedict Neuenfels, Thomas Plenert, a.o.; filmed 5-6 September
2009	Max Raabe & Palast Orchester - Heute Nacht oder nie [Michael Beyer & (artistic dir) Michael Ballhaus] music perf/112m (for TV & DVD)
2009	Lost in Religion [- Welcher Glaube für mein Kind?] [Marc Burth] doc/52m/HD; 2uc: Robert Ralston & Itay Marom
2011	Rosakinder [Tom Tykwer + 4 other dir] doc/95m/HD (Canon C300); cph: Dennis Pauls; 2uc: Oliver Sechting & Markus Tiarks
2012	Anderson [Annekatrin Hendel] doc/90m; cph: Jule Cramer; filmed 2012-2013
2014	Sense8 [12 ep dir by various] series/HD (Sony F55), 2015-present; 1st season, 2015 (12 ep); co-addph; ph: John Toll; for Netflix

MISCELLANEOUS
1991	Utz [George Sluizer] clapper-loader; ph: Gerard Vandenberg
1992	Den demokratiske terroristen/The Democratic Terrorist [Per Berglund] co-c.asst; ph: Erling Thurmann-Andersen
1993	Die Sonnengöttin/The Sun Goddess [Rudolf Thome] c.asst; ph: Reinhold Vorschneider

FILMS AS DIRECTOR
2001	La mer [co-dir: Natja Brunckhorst; + co-scrpl/co-prod; short/14m] ph: Franz Lustig
2009	Drang. Jeder Mensch hat etwas, das ihn antreibt [seg #8 (4m/c) 'Dann werde ich irgendwann sterben'] s8+s16-to-?/b&w-c; comm doc (9 seg + interviews)/39m; ph (#8): Nikolai von Graevenitz; prod for Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken