01/07/2013 - Music video director Norbert Heitker brings the world's largest heavy metal festival to the big screen in a 3D documentary

Once a year, the little North German village of Wacken becomes the world capital of the heavy metal community. Around 75,000 fans will attend this spectacular open-air event from August 1-3, which will present famous bands such as Alice Cooper, Anthrax, Deep Purple, Motorhead and Rammstein this summer. The award-winning documentary Full Metal Village by Korean filmmaker Sung Hyung Cho already provided a glimpse into what the festival is like, and how the crazy crowd of ‘metal heads‘ is received by the local inhabitants.

With his 3D documentary Wacken 3D - louder than hell, German music video director Norbert Heitker, who has already filmed famous bands such as Die Ärzte, Die Toten Hosen and Rammstein takes a step further, right into the festival. Director of photography Tomas Erhart and his team will position 18 3D cameras in various locations and shoot the three-day event around the clock. Besides typical concert and backstage scenes, Wacken 3D will also show crowdsurfing actions, the ‘metal battles‘ and the fans‘ wild parties. The aim is to take the viewer on a trip into the Wacken universe, so that they can catch the mood, power and vibrations as if they were attending a live event.

Wacken 3D - louder than hell is produced by the DoP Tomas Erhart for Jumpseat 3D plus Germany in co-production with Stefan Schubert from Hamburg-based Wüste Film, whose credits include features films such as Head On, Underdogs and Forgotten. The main shooting days will run from July 22 to August 5 while the Wacken festival runs from August 1-3. The most expensive part of the film will be the music rights – the production received financial backing from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Federal Film Board (FFA) and the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF). The theatrical release in Germany is scheduled by NFP marketing & distribution for spring 2014.