What made you decide to make a new film about the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra following "Rhythm is it!"?

I discovered the world of classical music through my friend and partner Uwe Dierks, who was Leonard Bernstein’s driver during his studies; he introduced me to Bernstein and his music. Later, we did a number of productions for Deutsche Grammophon, and in the process met artists like Placido Domingo, Hilary Hahn, Anne Sophie Mutter and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, at the time under Claudio Abbado. "Rhythm is it!" went further and deeper into this world. When the Berlin Philharmonic asked if we would accompany them on this unique Asian tour, I just couldn’t say no. During the making of "Rhythm is it!", a relationship of trust had been established that made this journey a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to look even deeper into this musical legend.

I have always been interested in artistic processes, the moment of creation and its human origin. For me, understanding the life and organism of this unique artist collective was a personal journey, an adventure and a very fulfilling experience. But it was clear from the outset that "Trip To Asia" should follow a very different dramaturgical path than "Rhythm is it!" did. I wanted to tell of an orchestra, a community, or even society. Three or four protagonists can’t stand for all that. I went for the challenge; I wanted to risk something new. 25 musicians are given a voice in the film – and nevertheless, I feel that the viewer can maintain empathy.

Were the musicians aware from the beginning just how deeply the film would penetrate into the orchestra’s inner workings?

I think that many were perhaps not quite aware of what to expect. We presented our concept to the orchestra and received their consent, but I still didn’t know exactly where the trip would take us at the time. First there was the trust, and then the unbelievable openness I experienced from these strong personalities during the interviews, which allowed me to go very far with my questions. The final cut was, as in all my films, in our hands as producers – we had established this trust with all musicians and Simon Rattle before shooting began; it was a prerequisite for production. Still, when we showed the film to the musicians in December 2007, it was my most important film screening to date. It was very important to me that they all still stand by what they expressed in the film. And they do.

How did you go about selecting the protagonists and themes?

We had six months’ time for research, script development and preparation. To begin with, I filled a wall with 126 photos in my office. Then my assistant Lukas Macher and I did initial interviews with the musicians, an hour each, up to five a day. When the trip began, we had completed 55 initial interviews altogether. Naturally there were criteria and aspects that I was especially interested in, and at the beginning of such a project, one categorizes everything accordingly. But it wasn’t very long until we let our feelings and sympathies guide us. One important leitmotif for me was the probationary year: The idea that a young person who comes to this orchestra will possibly accept an engagement for life. These people then spend 40 years together – and that with an intensity that can be found in virtually no other career. A musician in his probationary year and thereafter, in his first years, must grow into the community, learn to hear and empathize until he is accepted by the others in the group as an equal. There are generational conflicts, and of course the “elders” who played under Karajan and embody the tradition from within. The film tells of a life cycle analogous to “Heldenleben,” from the moment of entrance into the orchestra until “death,” the last concert before letting go, into retirement.

You traveled with four cameramen. How did you divide the tasks?

Four cameramen are the minimum number needed to adequately record a concert. And we knew from the start that we would be in each city only very briefly, and that we would be dealing with a large number of people and situations. Rehearsals and concerts were the main activities of every day that wasn’t spent travelling. Then, we were always together, though the cameramen switched positions during music recordings daily, so that each could continue discovering new perspectives on the orchestra. Additionally, there were specific tasks that required the stylistic specialties of each cameraman. Anthony Dod Mantle generally stayed with me, close to the musicians and in the documented moment. Alberto Venzago was often responsible for capturing the film themes in daily Asian life. His ability to make himself invisible allowed him to create very clear emotional pictures of people in their daily lives. René Dame, with whom I have been working together for over 10 years, filmed most of the interviews and found many unusual perspectives in the mega-metropolises that lend the film impressive imagery. HD consultant Stefan Ciupek operated the fourth camera during rehearsals and concerts, and ensured technical image quality. Evenings were often spent viewing and evaluating in the hotel room, which was not always easy. To some extent, the cameramen could distribute themselves into four teams, but we still got very little sleep. And sometimes it was difficult to compose a complete picture because each had only contributed one part. Our team had to work under conditions similar to those that we experienced in the orchestra.

What was your focus when filming daily tour life?

During documentary filming, the cameramen must constantly meet the challenge to dissolve situations into scenes, i.e. to think a documentative scene out of the editing – also as a story told visually, with a beginning, a progression and an end. Where is this person coming from? Where is she going? What does she see? How does it feel?… When two people are in a conversation, it might also need two perspectives to allow the conversation to be experienced on film. This demands a lot from a cameraman who can’t always get his directions from the director and must develop his own feeling for the scene, and simultaneously for how that scene can be realized during editing. Conversely, this also wears on the nerves of the director because he sees more than the cameraman does through his lens, but can’t intervene during critical moments of activity.

How did the musicians react to the presence of the camera?

We got the impression from many musicians that our team was a welcome diversion. Our task was not only to use cameras and microphones, but especially to make human contact, each in his own way, in order to create an intense connection in such a short period of time. I think it took about 24 hours for the musicians to forget the cameras, even during rehearsals. We were simply always around. At the hotel, in front of the hotel, in the concert halls, before and after rehearsals, at the concert, at the parties afterwards, at breakfast the next morning, in the bus to the airport, on the plane… there was no escape. It was initially difficult for Simon Rattle during the moments shortly before and after performances. Later we understood: Those are his moments of concentration, of “metamorphosis.” At the beginning we were very restrained, but by Taipei, I think, even Simon had lost any fear of contact with the big lens.

How did you experience the many Asian metropolises, and how did you want to portray them on film?

On the one hand, a three-week tour at that rapid pace, in six cities and four countries, makes the trip a very superficial event: Looking out of the window, walks through the neighbourhood, whatever one encounters on the way from the hotel to the concert hall or in the short hours of free time in the afternoons. But these impressions, these looks at strange worlds and cultures, are enough to provoke thought and ignite discussion. What is happening here? And who am I? On the other hand it’s exciting to sense a new country, other peculiarities, traditions and temperaments every three days. It was precisely through this change and speed that the character of each place became more existent to us. All of them, all mega-metropolises, have their own special rhythm and special mentalities.

The film edit follows the tour activities. Each city stands for a stage in the story. We personally were searching for a sense of orientation, so in the film Beijing is a city searching for a sense of orientation; Seoul stands between modernity and tradition, a very career-oriented and ambitious city; Shanghai represents China’s assertiveness. We found the only real green spot in Hong Kong – the most beautiful green mountains just 10 minutes from the city, so for us it stands for a break-out. Taipei is a fairly grey city, but we were impressed by its very interested and enthusiastic inhabitants. Tokyo ultimately stood somehow for coming home: The Berlin Philharmonic musicians have been playing concerts there regularly for over 50 years; many of them know the city as well as they do Berlin. The story comes full circle here.

What considerations did you have when you began editing? Did new motifs surface – e.g. aspects such as “loneliness” and “melancholy” that often shine through in the interviews?

Naturally, a film like "Trip to Asia" is created to a considerable degree with editing. But the whole composition required a certain perspective: We needed to know what we were looking for. The interview subjects were predetermined. Then editing is a long process of sorting and separating. Martin Hoffmann and I had to go through 300 hours of raw material, 35 interviews had to be transcribed, read, categorized and ordered according to aspects, themes and people. Like a mosaic or a painting, the final product becomes clearer with each step. It is a long process that demands a lot of patience and a good deal of self-confidence before the structure and its entire effect become visible. Then comes the process of separation from and release of material one has become fond of. I can’t really say if aspects like “loneliness” and “melancholy” were considerations from the very beginning. They are part of life, just like “the search for commonalities” or “yearning for love.” I think I search for these basic aspects that make up life, that are responsible for motivations and incentives or constraints, in all my films. 

A piece on the tour program, “Heldenleben” by Richard Strauss, is a leitmotif…

“Heldenleben” is an ambivalent work. Some don’t like it, even some of the orchestra musicians – maybe because Karajan played it so often with them. For me, “Heldenleben” describes a hero’s journey: Different cities on the path to insight, the last movement of escapism and fulfillment. In between are the adversaries, a battle to win and many obstacles, but at the end there is growth from life experience… With this perspective, and with the awareness of how tightly connected the piece is with the orchestra – Richard Strauss himself performed it with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra – I recognized a leitmotif that can be playful and slightly ironic when applied to the parable of a Philharmonic musician’s life. And the size of the piece requires the full instrumentation of the orchestra, which also makes it a bigscreen delicacy.

How did the collaboration with Simon Stockhausen come about?

I met Simon Stockhausen a few years ago while working with youths in a Berlin Philharmonic education project. His openness and his approach to all sounds as music impressed me. We worked together for two years on "Trip to Asia". Simon accompanied us on the tour as the score composer; wherever we were, his microphones were always there too. He concentrated on the sounds of Asia and recorded his own material. He began composing during the tour and immediately upon our return to Berlin, and continually refined his compositions during editing. We went into the rough cut with these first compositions of original sounds from the trip. During the final editing stage we brought the music and the images, the film and the score, closer together and developed it further.

After the final cut we began a further, very unusual collaboration in audio engineering: Sound design and film music should become one. Simon’s music is made up of everyday sounds, and the sound designer Tom Korr had to embed these into the original recordings, the musicians’ statements, the classical music and the documented scenes. In doing this, it was important to find the right measure of intensity between the sounds and images that compete for attention. Many of the usual rules and unwritten laws of audio mixing had to be thrown out the window, and it was worth it. It resulted in the creation of something very new, I think.

To what degree does one find the same contradiction between ego and community the film describes in filmmaking?

In the interviews with the musicians, I could always find things I could identify with. It’s about perfection, about the will to make something that’s really good. But it’s also about enduring the contradiction, like Aline Champion says in the film: about being able to enjoy life and still not lose standards of quality.

Filmmaking is teamwork. I love watching the credits; I am fascinated by the gathering of so many people that turns an idea into material. But a direction must be specified, that’s where the director comes in. If he’s lucky, he works with very creative personalities. In order to realize his vision, he must take those people with him, and persuade them. That’s not always easy.

That’s how it is for me as a filmmaker. But I’m sure that "Trip to Asia" is, in many respects, a parable for society, for life in a social community, and that it touches on questions that everyone has once asked themselves at work, in school, within a family… really anywhere that we are challenged to find a path between our desire for self-realization, our yearning for love and recognition, and the wishes of the people with whom we share our lives.

"Trip to Asia" is in part narrated almost like a feature film. How would you describe your concept of a documentary film?

Why shouldn’t a documentary also be well-staged, suspenseful and emotional? I want to make cinema films that move and carry viewers with them. I want to build bridges, to make a journey into a new world possible, to let others take part in it. There are so many worlds that move in close proximity to one another and yet never see each other. It is precisely the documentary that makes it possible to bring these worlds closer to each other. To show – and to make understandable and emotionally accessible – that which joins us, that which we humans have in common: That is my goal.