Frank Mirbach, Director, DOP
As producer, director and director of photography Frank Mirbach is the creative mastermind behind Real Buddy. During his whole career in the movie– and TV-industry the realisation of a unique cinematic vision has been the main artistic intention of Frank Mirbach’s work as a filmmaker.
After having graduated at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Mirbach has been a sought cinematographer and director for international broadcasters, independent film productions and commercials. Among other short-film gems, Steve Hudson’s FOR SALE or I ALWAYS WANTED... has been beautifully photographed by Frank Mirbach. The foundation of the Germany based film production company "Mineworks Film" in 1992 and the subsequent possibility of realizing film and TV productions worldwide can be seen as the logical step in Frank Mirbach’s professional and artistic career. With THE CURSE OF THE INDIAN GOLD one of 2005’s most successful German drama documentaries and MYSTICA, a four part documentary mini series, Frank Mirbach proofed his ambition to tell fact based stories in a cinematic way. Real Buddy will show another dimension of his talent putting a dramatic and comical story in a Science Fiction scenery.
"REAL BUDDY is a very unique project in many ways. It started as a short film, quite some time ago, just for fun. The goal was to make a project happen totally independent. The film became bigger and bigger by the time and we ended up having over 170 people working on a feature, which is - even for me - still almost unbelievable. Given the fact that this film is financed totally independent also, it seems to me this is truly remarkable.
To make this happen, we have to go "guerilla style". Meaning what we do is always very professional, but in many ways unusually achieved. For example, crew members are doing not only what they have been hired for, but many things more. People help out whenever they can, so often you can see a grip helping in the construction crew and a 1st AC operating the camera when needed. The unit production manager personally arranges for the crew´s catering of the night and so on. It´s done to save money, to make it happen. Everybody throws in as much as he can and I think this is very unique. I think you do a film this way only once. Why ? Because it´s extremely hard and takes even more time.
Some day in our phase II shooting, when time allowed for a short break, I started to speak all my thoughts, the things to remember during the making of this film into a small dictating machine, to later write it down, which started with the "Director´s Diary" category in this blog. I will post as much as I can during the next weeks. Maybe it´s interesting for someone out there, maybe not. It´s just my way of not forgetting how this baby was made."
