Berlin night tax
| Television broadcast | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Berlin night tax |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Year (s) | 2006-2009 |
| Production company |
Stefan Wieduwilt Film & TV Production GmbH |
| length | 30 minutes |
| Episodes | 42 in 4 seasons |
| genre | entertainment |
| idea |
Helmut Lehnert , Katrin Mandel , Stefan Wieduwilt |
| production | Stefan Wieduwilt |
| Moderation | Michael Kessler |
| First broadcast | October 30, 2006 on rbb |
Berliner Nacht-Taxe is a German series with Michael Kessler that was broadcast in four seasons on rbb from October 2006 to November 2009 . It showed authentic conversations and encounters with people who got into a taxi driven by Kessler in Berlin . From the fourth season, the program was streamed from the moving car to the Internet. Viewers could follow the shooting live and communicate with Michael Kessler via the social network Twitter . This form of interaction and mobile transmission was a world premiere on television.
Idea and concept
The concept was developed by rbb editor Katrin Mandel, former rbb entertainment director Helmut Lehnert and producer Stefan Wieduwilt, whose company was also commissioned with the production of the series. The intention of the format was to realistically show the federal capital Berlin with all of its citizens and tourists from different generations, cultures and social classes. During the night, Michael Kessler, as a taxi driver, picked up passengers waiting at the roadside and tried to get into conversation with them. In order to guarantee authenticity, scripts with staged situations, fixed dialogues, pre-selected actors as well as costumes and make-up were dispensed with. The people who got on spontaneously had to agree to be filmed during the journey, but were transported free of charge. The discussions that developed were thematically broad. If interesting opportunities arose and the guests agreed, Kessler accompanied them with the camera on their respective activities. Among other things, he went to bars and clubs, invited strangers to a corner pub or a currywurst stand and accepted invitations to private apartments.
Michael Kessler agreed to take part in the series on the condition that no prizes are advertised and no people are deceived or exposed to ridicule. As a justification, he cited his criticism of numerous fake television productions of the present, which made use of amateur actors and arranged events and merely pretended reality in the form of scripted reality .
production
The pilot season started with six episodes on October 30, 2006. In September 2007, the second season followed with twelve episodes, and a further twelve episodes followed in August 2008 in the third season. After Thorsten Klauschke initially acted as sole director, he took turns with Peter Scholl from October 2007. In order to take advantage of the early onset of darkness, the respective filming took place during autumn. In view of the Berlin nightlife, which is particularly pronounced on weekends, the operations were limited to Friday and Saturday nights from around 7:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. With the aim of attracting as many passengers as possible, the team found out in advance about the type, location and size of planned events such as concerts, trade fairs and celebrations. Kessler only picked up customers waving at the edge of the road. He didn't turn on the taxi radio or stopped at designated taxi stands . Because he drove for free, he did not need a passenger ticket . The taxi used, with the passenger seat removed, was visibly equipped with four cameras and five microphones. For this reason it was often confused with the taxi quiz . Michael Kessler carried a maximum of three passengers per tour, making a total of around 15 tours and journeys of up to 160 km per night. 90% of the customers got on and let themselves be filmed. All passengers were given a telephone number with which they could request the taxi again that night. Filming of 20 hours corresponded to a broadcast time of 30 minutes. Producer Stefan Wieduwilt, the respective director and a team of three with cameraman, sound engineer and production assistant drove ahead of the taxi in a second car. They were in contact with Michael Kessler by radio. In order to allow the actor a trouble-free journey, they navigated him to the individual destinations. With the start of the fourth season, which was broadcast from March 2009, viewers were able to follow the filming via live stream on the Internet and communicate with Michael Kessler via Twitter at the same time. In this way it was possible, for example, to find a viewer during a nightly shoot who agreed to prepare a pasta dish with Michael Kessler in his own kitchen.
Encounters
As part of the series, Michael Kessler met a wide variety of people, including employees of the US embassy , French journalists, Spanish musicians from the Marlango group , actor Adam Sandler , a couple of magicians known in the former GDR , hard of hearing young people, young men who had committed criminal offenses, and prostitutes her suitors and a porn actress. For the first time in 18 years he also met cameraman Tomas Erhart, with whom he had most recently worked in Manta, Manta (1991).
Several incidents occurred during the filming that were not televised. In the first night, an inattentive road user collided with his scooter on the back of the taxi. The motorcycle suffered a total loss, but the person who caused the accident was essentially uninjured. People who confused the Berliner Nacht-Taxe with the cash-priced program Quiz Taxi forced the actor sitting behind the wheel by overtaking, chasing and hindering him in risky driving maneuvers. Roaring passers-by suddenly threw open the car door, and drunks pestered him. Kessler summarized his nocturnal adventures and encounters in the book of the same name on the series, which was published in April 2008 by Berlin Verlag . To protect personal rights, some of the names of the passengers described have been changed and the interviews shortened. In 2009 the rbb stopped production of the Berliner Nacht-Taxe , but continued its collaboration with Michael Kessler in the series Kessler's Expedition .
literature
- Michael Kessler: The Berlin Night Taxe: The unadulterated stories of the night , Berlin Verlag , Berlin, 2008, ISBN 978-3833305382
Individual evidence
- ↑ The jury of the 47th Golden Camera - comedian and actor Michael Kessler ( Memento of the original from January 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. hoerzu.de , accessed on January 8, 2012
- ↑ Gloomy confessions - free travel with camera: Anyone who gets on the “Berliner Nacht-Taxe” ends up in the RBB ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Märkische Allgemeine , November 11, 2006, accessed on January 8, 2012
- ↑ Michael Kessler now also live on the Internet Berliner Zeitung , April 30, 2009, accessed on January 8, 2012
