I’d like to believe that I’m something like an open and outgoing person. When something is important to me I have no problem to admit it.

I’ve got a few tattoos on (or under) my skin – and every single one means a lot to me. For me it was a logical step to immortalize Shift! on my skin. Tattoos are an expression, it’s an artform. I can’t understand how I couldn’t do it: Shift! is my diploma and therefore some kind of goodbye of my studies here at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. The core meaning behind Shift! that staying positive has a positive effect on ones life became a concept I adapted to myself. I have so much fun working on Shift! that I’d like everyone to share that fun. And I’d like to think that the fun and  drive which I’ve got for this project is inspiring  the rest of the team. Like the band H2O sings in their song “Heart on my sleeve”:

“The places that I’ve been, forever written on my skin.”

I always go to the same tattoo artist. As I’ve never made a bad experience with him, I’m happy with all of his work and everytime, the atmosphere is relaxed. Most of my friends have tattoos made by him. I won’t mention his name in this blog post but you can ask me for the contact.

So that’s it. I’ve been prepared, stayed sober the evenning before, and was in a good condition – although I got to say that the spine is a strange place (feelingwise). But I’m happy with it as I am with Shift!.

“The places that I’ve been, forever written on my skin.”

I’d like to believe that I’m something like an open and outgoing person. When something is important to me I have no problem to admit it.

It´s 9 o´clock. Everything is peaceful and quite in the office. Besides the messages of Trello, which are popping up every few minutes on my iPhone, I enjoy the silence before the storm. Iris probably woke up at 5 am and is making me feel like a slacker by editing her tasks in Trello. The window is open, heating is on (that´s the only possibility to get the perfect temperature!). I am arranging my notes and checking e-mails before my team is entering the AK-Office one by one around 10.

Marsl, always with a big smile on his face, suddenly flings the door wide open and throws his bag in the corner. `GOOD MORNING!` he calls out happily and disappears as quickly as he had appeared. He gets to the AK-kitchen to get a coffee. The coffee we have is the most horrible coffee you can imagine! But Marsl doesn´t care about it. He always says it´s the best coffee he has ever drunken. He sits down at his spinning-chair with an energetic swing. After a short `Are there any deadlines or meetings today?´ he nods pleasantly and buries himself behind his desks answering e-mails. At least it looks like he is writing e-mails. I am now annoying him for over 3 weeks with the question `You still need more time for your studies on the target group??` – ´Done to 99%. I am only waiting for feedback` After that he kindly points out that he continues answering e-mails. Well, I think … I am going to ask him again in 10 minutes. But 10 minutes later I already forgot to ask. Then we´re filled up with work anyway. Marsl calls the next two hours a “callcenter” because as a Producer I am spending a huge time on the phone, especially before lunch. That´s why he puts his headphones on. While listening to 80ies and 90ies music he makes detailed changes to his storybible, the script or other documents. I still hope that these documents are getting shorter until his diploma. But he is adding more and more with a lot of enthusiasm…

When I was asked to do the music and sound design for Shift I was super excited. I have always been interested in comics and graphic novels. I like the style of Don Rosa with his uncle scrooge drafts and stories and all the details he puts into his drawings. Graphic novels like Watchmen or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as well had a wide influence on my understanding of characters and storylines.

Currently I’m studying Musikdesign at the conservatory in Trossingen. From there I’m doing my internship at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg in the Interactive Media department.

One of the greatest moments for me as a musician was the time when the first Gorillaz album came out in 2001. The music, combined with the fictional story world and the drafts of Jamie Hewlett blew me away. To this day the combination of comic style drawing and music is one of my favorite things.

Apart from my interest in music and comics, I always enjoy working with the newest media available. It pushes my creativity. I really like beautifully crafted games for iPhone or iPad like the ones from the Coding Monkeys Carcassone or Lost Cities. As they’re bringing board games to the iOS world, one of the most interesting aspect for me in the project is the combination of the medium comic with another – the iPad.

Working with sound design I’m going to make use of the different interactive possibilities you have with the iPad, like shaking etc. For each interactions I’m planing to create a specific sound by doing some field recordings and foley recording. It’s going to be really cool!

At the moment I’m working on a variety of different layouts which are all musical themes for the individual characters. For these compositions I have to deal with the whole story world, every single character like Schakal and the relationships between them.

Here is a screenshot from my Logic Pro session on which I am currently working.

Check out the Schakal theme! Find out more about the character Schakal in Marsl´s article!

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