We tried several outfits for "Die Schulfeindin". Marlene Marlow, who played a student during rehearsal first had a more casual outfit. We finally decided she should wear more kind of business outfit. We wanted Marlene to play her character very cool and even a little bit arrogant. So even when tied up and gagged she should like kind of superior.

I asked Marlene to look kind of cool and arrogant to outline that Angela thinks Miriam and Karin are inferior. The photos above show that no matter what outfit, Marlene could handle this perfect. Kerstin Orf´s and Claudia Splitt´s clothes were darker colors, Claudia´s look a little bit softer than Kerstin´s. Both should play their parts menacing. Kerstin´s character hates Angela and she should look very dangerous but also look having fun doing all those evil things to Angela.

Claudia Splitt´s character Karin is also evil but as she did not know Angela before there is no hate and she is only interested in stealing Angela´s money.

This photo shows pretty well what is going on. The two evil girls are totally in control. Their victim Angela help- less bound and gagged at their feet. The two bad girls look very menacing and determined. A situation Miriam always dreamed of since school when she already hated the beautiful An- gela and thinking of ways to capture and torture her.

Marlene and Claudia rehearsing the killing scene.

Marlene and Kerstin rehearsing the scene when Angela is about to stab Miriam.

Marlene and Kerstin rehearsing the scene when Miriam talks about An- gela´s birthday party. Miriam totally enjoys to have An- gela helpless tied up, making fun of her and having her revenge for being treated in school like the ugly-duckling by Angela and her friends. Angela is helpless bound and gagged and can only show and act with her eyes how much she hates Miriam for what she is doing to her.

Along with different clothes we also rehearsed how Marlene should be bound and gagged prior to start of shooting. Here are only a few photos from rehearsals showing Marlene in different ways tied up and with all kind of gags to silence her. The gag here is over her mouth and actually this way did hide almost half of Marlene´s face. And as that gag was just over her mouth it did actally not prevent her from screaming for help.

The problem with the gag was it had to keep Marlene quiet but it also should not hide her face. As she was gagged in many scenes the only way for her to act was with her eyes and face, so her face should not be covered to much by that gag. Another question was the color so we tried every kind of color before finally chosing a red one. This time, Marlene had the gag between her teeth very tight so she really was pretty helpless and could not scream for help. Anyway the green color was not perfect. We also used all kind of belts and scarves to tie Marlene to that chair. While rehearsing we were not sure yet if the two evil girls would bring some ropes to the apartment or to just grab in the apartment some belts and scarves to tie Marlene up. Actually we decided Marlene should be tied up with ropes. It looked more brutal and dangerous and it looked more like Miriam and Claudia had planned all this.

That´s how it looked finally when we were shooting. Marlene is tied up with ropes and she has the red gag between her teeth. As Marlene was gagged in many scenes it was very uncomfortable but it looked great and very convincing, actually she really could not scream. Still Marlene managed to look very, very cool.

Here is the scene when Marlene is taken prisoner the second time, tied up with some belts and her hands in front.

In the version finally shot, Marlene´s hands

are tied behind her back and she is tied up

with ropes instead of belts and scarves

what looked kind of more dramatic.

Here are some more photos showing

the different looks of first rehearsals

and final shooting versions.

There are many fighting scenes or otherwise

brutal scenes which were different to play

for the actresses without getting hurt.

 

I am always very afraid people could ge hurt

while we are shooting so we try to rehearse

as much as possible.

Here Kerstin and Marlene practise how

Marlene should be gagged.

The fighting scenes were extremly difficult

as it should look real. The actresses had

to find away to make it look convincing

without getting hurt.

Actually the fighting scenes with the actresses

went very well, the scenes I was most afraid of

were the scenes when Marlene is tied to a

chair and the two girls have their rat crawling

over Marlene. The actresses came up with

that idea and I was really afraid as Marlene

was tied to that chair and we had absolutely

no idea if the rat would attack her or nor.

In the end the rat Kerstin got us was a very

nice one who did not bite anyone of us.