Rock ‘n’ roll for the eyes
Wuppertal band Johnny Tupolev shoots music video “Desperate” at and in the VISIODROM – including rocket launch.
It’s a cold evening in October – one of those evenings when you’d rather stay at home on the sofa, snuggle up and enjoy a series. But at VISIODROM in Wuppertal, around 20 people are still trudging through the cold, wet night. Three of them are wearing homemade spacesuits. Then the headlights of a military jeep break through the thick ground fog. The vehicle from the Second World War quickly approaches, brakes sharply right in front of the building, the three “tinkerers” jump out and climb the outside stairwell. Next to the gas boiler is a Saturn 5 rocket ready for launch, its engines already smoking. “You all have to imagine it now. We don’t mount the rocket in the picture until post-production,” explains Frank Petzold. Disbelieving faces – imagining the 110-metre-high moon rocket in Wuppertal is still a little difficult for everyone present that night.
Frank Petzold normally works in Hollywood as a special effects supervisor for feature films. He has made monsters walk and spaceships fly in many classic films. Today, however, it is not him but the Wuppertal rock band Johnny Tupolev that is the star guest of the evening. Frank is part of the crew filming the three artists’ new music video. In a visually driven world, videos play a decisive role in the dissemination of music. In addition to the idea and story, a good music video always needs spectacular locations that have an impact on musicians and viewers alike. “When I came to the Gaskessel, the rocket in my head was right next to it,” recalls Petzold. “The stairwell reminded me of the structures in Cape Canaveral, Florida.” So the location became the source of ideas.
A backdrop of superlatives
The former gas storage facility in the east of Wuppertal offers plenty of potential for unusual performances and exciting perspectives. “We shot a sequence in front of the building, in the stairwell with elevator, on the roof and, of course, in the incredible VISIODROM itself,” says singer and guitarist Tom Berger enthusiastically. This means that almost all of the video material for the song “Desperate” was shot in Wuppertal Heckinghausen in one night. At the spectacular climax of the filming, Johnny Tupolev rocked on the crane in the middle of the VISIODROM – Frank and the VISIODROM team made sure that images of the moon and space from the NASA archive were shown on the gigantic projection screen for this shot. In the finished video, these images symbolize the band’s arrival in space. With the modern technology of the VISIODROMS, such sensational images can be easily staged for music videos and other occasions. “You can’t recreate something like this digitally,” enthuses Frank Petzold. “Because you can’t even imagine that something like this exists until you’ve seen it here yourself.” So on this cold October night, everything you need for an internationally successful music video came together at the VISIODROM: talented artists, a dedicated crew and a unique backdrop that provides a worthy setting for a global success.
