Business as Usual

DIRECTOR
Monica Menez

PRODUCTION
Ironic View Production

DOP
Paul Robert Klinar

EDITOR
Raquel Caro Nunez

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Monica Menez

STYLING
Sanne Rosch

HAIR + MAKEUP
Suzana Santalab, Sabine Nania

CHOREOGRAPHER
Thomas Lempertz

COMPOSER
Bennet Meyer

SOUND DESIGN + MIX
Zhenya Diachek

CAST
Francesco Brunetti, Julian Daynov, Nina De Lianin, Luca Fröhlingsdorf, Thomas Lempertz; Sina Röhrich, Zhang Di, Regina Küper, Annika Klinar,
Angela Dörler

BUSINESS AS USUAL

Interview with Monica Menez

We did an interview with you on Lightboxx before, which could be found here.
Today let´s talk about BUSINESS AS USUAL, one of your recent projects. In BAU a not so hidden protagonist is a commodity, packed into into episodes of a very funny frame. How does this reflect your approach in general and what is this about?

I love humor and the element of surprise and like to incorporate these elements into my film and photo projects. In fashion photography, humor is rather rare, so it appeals to me to change this with my work.

Did you have to convince your client or have you been booked because of your approach?

In the case of BAU it was clear in advance that I had "carte blance" in terms of concept and implementation. The client "Willems Eyewear" is a long-standing customer of mine, with whom I also made my first film "Precious".
He trusts me blindly and appreciates my sense of humor, so it is always an absolute pleasure to work for him.

How does your client work with Business as Usual? It consists of various episodes stills and to a huge extend of movies, gifs?

BAU is used in many ways by "Willems Eyewear". On the one hand, the film in its total length of 8 min can be seen at many Fashion Film Festivals and will also be shown at various short film festivals this year.
On the other hand, the individual episodes are also used on social media. Not to forget the many snippets, gifs, and photos that are used again and again for the different media.

Judging from the m-of, a lot of people had been involved. How long does it take you to come-up with a concept and finally get everything done?

The concept development and preparation took about 3 months. While the idea for the film was relatively quick, the biggest challenge was finding a suitable location for the film. As for the casting, I worked with some actors (like Nina De Lianin and Thomas Lempertz ) who are famous from my other films.

Video had been always a significant part of your work. Is it becoming increasingly more important? Do you do the actual filming yourself or are you more a director?

I only see video as part of my job. I love photography and try to combine both. Basically, there is always some moving image in photo projects and a photo series in film projects.
I film smaller moving image sequences myself, for film projects I work with a cameraman and only direct.

What gear do you use when filming? Is it more on the professional side or do you use your still cam?

When filming, I always use a film camera like the Alexa or RED now. For photo production, I also like to shoot with my Sony, which I use for taking photos.

After this long period of lock-downs and restrictions, do you think something changed in the industry?

This is a difficult question. For me, the Corona period was special in that I did not have any jobs abroad and the preparations for shootings were complicated.
Certainly in the future, the meetings with customers will continue to take place digitally via e.g. Zoom, I really like this new development. I guess it will take a while to see if the industry has changed due to the Corona crisis.

Are you working on a new project??

Right now I am focusing more on photography. I shot two music videos earlier this year and I am a little exhausted from the strenuous filming. The next big projects are short videos called "Ten seconds stories", where I want to tell mini-stories.