SUCCEED - PRODUCTION

The idea

While Lukas Schwarzenbacher was in the postproduction of his movie "Das Traumtheater" he came up with the idea of a changing movie. A scene depicts a young girl who touches unconsciously a can while doing the chores. The can almost falls down a table. Seeing the scene again and again Lukas asked himself: "What if the can would eventually fall down the table?"

Schizophrenic disorder as basis for the story

After Lukas finished his movie "Das Traumtheater", he told his friend Andres about the idea of a changing movie. He was excited and they decided to just do it. The topic of the story had to match the idea of the changing movie which asks questions about perception and a changing reality. Thus they came up with schizophrenic disorder which was first introduced by Swiss Eugen Bleuler on 24 April 1908 in a lecture given at a psychatry in Berlin. Lukas and Andres based the story of Eugene Vicary on books and website. The story actually depicts an acute schizophrenic episode.

Background of Eugene's delusion

While working on the story of SUCCEED Lukas and Andres invested a lot of time in search of the right origin of Eugene's delusion, because it's a critical point of the movie. The phenomena of the subliminal advertisement of James Vicary is suited for the delusion because of its interesting story. James Vicary told that during a movie he showed repeatedly 1/3000 seconds ads saying: "Drink Coca-Cola" and "Hungry? Eat Popcorn". Altough the audience couldn't see the ads consciously the profit sale increased significantly. Based on this experiment country made laws forbidding the use of subliminal ads. A few years down the road, James Vicary admitted that he made up the whole experiment. All he wanted was some publicity for his newly founded advertisement company. The myth about the suliminal ads and its story of origin are the perfect reason for Eugene's actions.

Film locations

It was important that we could shoot some different misperceptions at the location at the beginning of the movie. This could easily be done in a hotel. The Radisson Blu close to the airport characterize the restless as well as the business-minded mentality of Eugene.

The second part was planned in the old town in Winterthur. After some preparations the directors recognized that the effort of shooting in Winterthur was not suitable because of road closures and lots of background actors. So we decided to shoot the second part in a mall but we weren't permitted because the mall didn't want to be connected with subliminal advertisement. After this major setback we discussed how to proceed and we came up with Corippo where Luki spent his holidays. Corippo is perfect because the narrow and winding alleys are well suited for different ways Eugene can choose of. Furthermore the narrow alleys represents the state of mind well. Last but not least only few people live in Corippo which simplified the shooting. The search for the perfect location was worth it and none of the earlier locations has the quality of Corippo.

The brand SUCCEED

Subliminal advertisment plays a central role in the movie and the choice of the advertised product is crucial. While Lukas and Andres were writing on the story of SUCCEED, Islandart GmbH gave their customers a personally designed energy drink as a christmas present. That's how we came up with an energy drink, which also characterize Eugene as a young person.

The name of the energy drink had to represent Eugene's ambition to be successful and independent. However, he is insecure and relies strongly on his brother. Thus the brand SUCCEED and their promise to be someone else reflects his longing for a better life. At the beginning we planned only one drink but in order to make SUCCEED great we decided to create three different tastes: "taste of freedom", "taste of glory" and "taste of life".

We didn't plan to shoot ads of SUCCEED but as we had the opprotunity we took it. Only after the first one was finished for quite some time we decided that such ads are perfect trailers for the short film because the audience was pleased with those. And if a viewer watches the short film after the trailers he will be tempted by the same product image as Eugene.

Indication of sources of subliminal advertisment (German)

Artikel zur Unterschwelligen Werbung auf Wikipedia

Geheimer Verführer im Kinofilm

Wie versteckte Werbung wirkt

Verführt durch versteckte Werbung

Unterschwellige Werbung

Indication of sources of schizophrenic disorder (German)

"Mein Leben in zwei Welten"

von Roman Preist

"Morgen bin ich ein Löwe"

von Arnhild Lauveng

"An perfekten Eltern verzweifelt"

von Rolf Baumann

"Ich hab dir nie einen Rosengarten versprochen"

von Hannah Green

"ICH ODER ICH"

von Mathias Illigen