Porsche Awards 2014 Winners: Theo Von Asmuth
As proud partners of the student filmmaking competition, we talk to the winners of the event. Taken from shots 155.
Theo Von Asmuth
New Ways Award
Brand Find Your Fate
German, aged 27
Hochschule Darmstadt, 2015
Representation unsigned
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Theo von Asmuth’s commercial, Find Your Fate, was commissioned by a global sports giant but the truth is it was produced on a shoestring budget as part of the director’s filmmaking course.
With half of the ad shot in the Philippines in Manila’s Smokey Mountain slum and other parts filmed in Germany, the story follows a young boy’s dream of becoming a professional basketball player and how it becomes a reality.
According to von Asmuth, the youngster who played main character, Malit, was as professional as they come, but the fact he had never travelled in a car before proved to be a logistical challenge before the camera had even started rolling.
“We cast him in the area we were in, but the Smokey Mountain location was 40 minutes away from there, so we had to take a taxi,” explains the director. “When we were halfway there, he threw up. We wanted to go back home because he looked and felt so bad, but after much deliberation we decided to proceed, as he was so eager to shoot.”
The resulting 90-second commercial flits between beautiful scenic shots of the Manila mountain range and scenes of city life as the character grows up, all the while featuring basketball as the central component, maintaining the story’s focus. The director and DP Grégory Weisert took inspiration from around 20 different sports spots but applied their own style to Find Your Fate.
“The first half of the movie’s camera style is handheld, shaky and vivid,” states von Asmuth. “As the main character reaches Germany everything gets steadier. We took the spots we watched as an inspiration and discussed which moments could have similar styles.”
Shooting in Manila proved to be challenging, but was made easier with help from local residents, and the freedom they had was refreshing in terms of locations and schedule compared to the second half of the film, shot on the streets of Germany.
“In Germany, you have to do a schedule with everything in detail, like sending the script and location; you really have to be precise,” the director explains. “You have to be exact with everything such as time, location, the amount of people and what is needed for the shoot.”
Reflecting on the job, von Asmuth reveals that at times it was harder than he had expected it to be and he became resigned to the fact that he probably wouldn’t be able to achieve 100 per cent of his initial vision.
But the fact that von Asmuth’s film eventually won the Porsche New Ways Award proves that genuine talent, resourcefulness and problem-solving skills can go further than simply having a big budget.
