Regensburg--Germany's Hollywood?

Well , maybe not Hollywood, but certainly a favorite shooting locale for German directors. A couple of weeks ago the film Kommissar Lukas finished shooting.

Now another film crew is making a nuisance of itself on the city streets shooting Die Familie Sonnenfeld, a family-oriented sitcom similar to the late-70's show American show Eight is Enough.

Yesterday as I turned on to the pedestrian-only Konigstrasse, I saw a camera dolly and paused at the intersection. But only for a moment before some assistant to the assistant director urgently motioned for me to keep walking: just be natural; pretend nothing is out of the ordinary!

It's hard to shoot a believable guy-walking-down-the-street scene when everybody keeps stopping in midstride to stare at the film-making process. But its hard not to stare at a man trying to be natural with an assistant to the assistant to the assistant walking in front of him with a 6x4 reflecting panel to assure sufficient light on a blindingly sunny day (the first we've had in sometime).

That afternoon, I encountered the crew in he Dom Platz where I had gone to do a little busking--playing guitar and singing for spare change (why hide my light under a basket, eh). One of the crew, a young kid, sat down and listened. After a while, he offered that he wrote songs and played (I'm an artist, he said). So I passed him my guitar.

He sang song of his own about suicide--reminicent of "Don't Fear the Reaper." I asked if he had heard of Blue Oyster Cult but it was before his time. I asked for more and he did three more cheery tunes about death, alienation, and isolation.

Eventually we ended up doing a pretty good duet of Eleanor Rigby with 2-part harmony on the
Ah, look at all the lonely people Ah, look at all the lonely people.

I told him about www.garageband.com -- a site set up by the Beatle's producer, George Martin--where he could get his music out for free without a record contract.
And a good time was had by all.