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 INTERVIEW WITH AXEL AND HENNING RICKE (THE RICKE BROS.)30
TH
OF MARCH, 2009.
[Betacinema] Tell me a little bit about your background as filmmakers…
[Axel] Well, I’ve been working for four years in a film-production company doing TV-movies and series [www.berengar-pfahl-film.de] and Henning has just graduated from theCologne Academy of Media Arts (KHM). We both love making movies since we werekids, when we were playing with models in our backyard. Now that Henning has graduated,we plan to start a company to produce professional products.
[B] Would you consider The Matrix XP as your first film?
[Axel] No, not really, because we have been doing it for long.[Henning] It could be said that The Matrix XP is the turning point, from making moviesfrom ourselves and friends to making movies to be seen by others…[Axel] …even if THE MATRIX XP was not intended to be made public in the first place!
[B] Are any of you more oriented to technology in the movie making process? Wouldyou consider yourselves as Special effects-oriented?
[Axel] We have always been interested in Special effects, since we were kids, even if wedidn’t use a computer. Although we have been recognized as Special effects specialistsbecause of our movies since The Matrix XP, it could very well be that we make movies inthe future without using Special effects.[Henning] (laughs) Well, we love Special effects because they offer you a way to tell adifferent kind of stories which would be impossible without them. I’m not so sure that weare going to do without them in the future![Axel] We are conscious we have had the chance to be known because of our interest andtechnical skills in Special effects and animation. It’s something no related to our education:we consider ourselves as filmmakers, not Special effects specialists.
[B] Tell me a little bit of the origins of The Matrix XP.
[Axel] With The Matrix XP it was the right thing at the right moment. Back in 2003 therewas a lot of talking about online video. But there was no
Youtube
or similar sites. And
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Interview with Axel and Henning Ricke
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when we did The Matrix XP The Matrix Reloaded was just about to be released surroundedby secrecy. Fans were crazy looking for anything related to the Matrix sequel. And whenthey
googled 
‘matrix’, then they found at the top The Matrix XP. Suddenly we had millionsof download requests. Even our ISP (the second largest one in Germany) had to disconnectour server because of heavy traffic. We received thousand of mails from fans, hundredseveryday!.
[B] Any call from Warner Bros?
[Henning] Yes, at the second week. Legal department. They told us that we could make anddistribute the movie, but we couldn’t make any money out of it. It was frustrating having asuccess story like that and not being able to sell it and make any profit from it. It wouldhave been nice! (laughs).With The Matrix XP we were even asked by computer magazines around the world in orderto include the movie along their DVD material. The only thing that pissed ourselves off wasthat the movie was used without our consent for the promotion of a software package. Andwe didn’t even use that software!
[B] What do you thing about the emergence of sophisticated fan movies, likeRevelations, during this decade?
[Axel] We think the fan movement is very interesting. We know that The Matrix XP isconsidered a fan movie, even if we are not really fans. We’ve never been to a fanconvention. In fact, we like the first Matrix movie, but we think the other two are crap. TheMatrix XP was conceived as an experiment in Special effects. What we don’t like is whenfan movies just try to reproduce the original movies. What it’s interesting is when they areable to offer a new look on the original universe, when they show something different.[Henning] In fan films people who are not professional filmmakers can do things that areclose to Hollywood movies (well, maybe not that close, but at least are quite decent).
[B] Let’s talk about D-I-M… According to your three projects, it seems that you likethe combination of comedy and science fiction…
[Henning] It is true that we like the combination of comedy and fantasy. Anyway, with D-I-M the comedy element was more in the background, not so evident. In fact, D-I-M is a verydifferent approach. Not a spoof, but an original idea, a fairly serious subject about a near-future society where the main human aspiration is to be perfectly efficient and useful to theState.[Axel] It was also a very different approach to production. We paid it 1/3 from our pockets,while the remaining 2/3 of the budget came from a public fund. D-I-M was very complex tomake and full of Special effects.
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Interview with Axel and Henning Ricke
(The Ricke Bros)
[Henning] We gathered a team, including professionals, whereas for The Matrix XP werecruited just friends. D-I-M’s budget was at about 40000 €; The Matrix XP was just about2000, most of it spent in expensive leather costumes (laughs).
[B] Why did you choose not to deliver the whole movie trough the Internet and whydid you choose to make a 30’ movie?
[Axel] D-I-M was a much more complex and expensive effort, and we wanted to get someof the money back this time. Anyway, D-I-M has been showed in Festivals around theworld, even in Barcelona, in theCrypshowFestival last year. We didn’t feel like giving itaway for free on the Internet…[Henning] With D-I-M we were almost in debt![Axel] As for the length, we never thought on which one was the appropriate length for D-I-M. We simply wrote the material we wanted and then made it. With the perspective of time, I’ve realized that it was not a good idea. 30 minutes is too long for a short but tooshort to be sold on DVD. But what we wanted is to use D-I-M as our ‘calling card’. Even if we haven’t make any money out of it, it has been showed in festivals around the world andhas helped to rise new opportunities. But D-I-M is now two years old, so we definitelywant to release it someway. We have been talking with different video on demand services,like Itunes, to release it. It might be also released on DVD through some of the Festivalswhere D-I-M has been present.
[B] You have looked after very much the use of the Internet in all your releases. Inwhich way you find the Internet useful for filmmakers?
[Axel] The internet is a very powerful tool, especially for promotion purposes. We usedlots of info related to the production of The Matrix XP because people were asking for it,and they wanted to know how we did it. In commercial DVDs there are almost alwayscontent about the making of the movie. And that’s because they know people are curiousabout that.[Henning] With D-I-M we designed a flash-based website, which was very immersive andconnected to the story, but it was very difficult to update. That’s why we have turned to amore traditional website approach for Rosfeld.
[B] Tell me a little bit about your new project, Rosfeld. What are the main differencesin relation to your previous work?
[Henning] The approach to Rosfeld has been very different. Whereas in D-I-M every shotwas pre-defined and storyboarded to the last detail. Rosfeld, on the contrary, was centeredon the story and the characters. For instance, we used a lot of 
steadycam
, so we couldfollow the actors and find a more natural approach to the shooting.
[B] What do you think of the trend of filmmaking based in the collaboration withcommunities? People like the team behind Star Wreck and Iron sky or projects like A
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