J.H. – Joern Heitmann (Director).
S.D. – Subway Driver.
S.S. – Survey Squad.
T.L. – Till Lindermann (Vocalism).
R.Z.K. – Richard Z. Kruspe (Solo-guitar).
P.H.L. – Paul Heiko Landers (Rhythm-guitar).
C.S. – Christoph Schneider (Drums).
C.F.L. – Christian Flake Lorenz (Keyboard).
O.R. – Oliver Riedel (Bass-guitar).
S.R. – Somebody from Rammstein.
J.H.: During shooting, I enjoyed "Ohne Dich" the most, and it's the most emotional video.
P.H.L.: We were in the nature, on a mountain, in the sunshine. When we had to wait, we sat next to a stream, with our feet in it. We had goulash soup out of a can, it was all different to the previous videos but we all had a lot more fun doing it, than the other videos.
R.Z.K.: With this video, there were once again 5 or 6 different ideas to choose from.
P.H.L.: You meet each other daily and have to make certain decisions: "What kind of video are we doing?" – "One with the sea". Then someone says: "No, with mountains!"
R.Z.K.: Then the idea came, that I especially liked: "The Little Match-Seller" by Hans Christian Andersen. A wonderful fairy tale. That was the only fairy tale that caused me to cry, when I read it. A great tale and I wanted to try and stage-adapt that. But we dropped that as well.
P.H.L.: "Shall we do that with the sea?" – "No, with mountains". "Let's do that with the sea!"
R.Z.K.: And then came the idea, to go into the mountains.
P.H.L.: "OK, mountains. We'll do mountains!"
J.H.: Mount Everest!
P.H.L.: That we'll climb mountains, where stags roar, just really had to be. I'm surprised, that we didn't try to do that earlier, to walk through the pine trees, and indicate: we have to climb up. It was about time we did that.
S.D.: (Rammstein are going in subway) We now going 2840 metres above sea level. The trip takes eight minutes. We wish you a pleasant stay at the Otztaler Glacier!
We're now at the summit station.
S.R.: (In subway) This is like a dream!
The make-up department is already there.
R.Z.K.: We need beards. In the mountains, you never have time to shave, hence the beards.
J.H.: First, it's a walk near Lake Wolfgang, then the beard is growing. In the end, they are on the highest mountain on earth. Supposedly. In reality, we were on a parking lot with one of those climbing walls, and they just went as high as they wanted to.
R.Z.K.: We had experienced mountaineers with us, real pro's, they had climbed the highest mountains. They showed us how to do some things: To climb steep walls. But they were pretty laid back. "Just give it a try, just climb up!".
C.F.L.: (He is looking at the scheme of the mountain) 3400 metres is really high.
J.H.: It wasn't that hard. It was a warm day, really nice, it was about 20 degrees. We had artificial snow and went up with one of the gondolas, to where we made a snowstorm with wind machines. The rest is make-up. Once, I went up in a chopper and did some panorama shots. It was still elaborate.
C.F.L.: (In mountains) Who is that actually? (Watch on girl).
S.R.: (In mountains) Erika.
T.L.: (In mountains) He's alive! Schneider, come over here! Let's make it a trio (He pretends then fucked someone and laugh)! A nice furry cheek (laugh)!
You old hippie!
C.F.L.: (In mountains) Get rid of the crap, throw it away!
T.L.: (In mountains) Leave it there (laugh)!
J.H.: It was a real adventure for every one of us.
There was a little stunt too, where... where Till falls and Schneider can't hold him.
R.Z.K.: That's dangerous. You shouldn't look down. You don't fool around with mountains. Mountains have their own laws.
J.H.: The former manager wasn't with us, just his assistant, and then there was another small... a small discussion concerning, whether during the tour... You can't endanger anyone from the band. If you have a broken arm or something, you can't play a guitar, so you have to be careful. But someone like Till is in no mind to have anyone prevent him falling backwards down a mountain. He'll do that gladly (laugh)!
With Flake, who plays an alpine guide in the video, I wanted it to look particularly very high up, even though it was absolutely safe. We did all that we could to make it look high up. And that also worked out really well.
P.H.L.: What the director didn't know was that Flake is unable, physically, to carry Till up, although that was the initial plan and together with Schneider, he had to hoist Till to 3400 metres. He didn't look as good afterwards, as one can see in the video.
C.F.L.: (In mountains) He was lying there on top of me.
S.R.: (In mountains) That was his job: he's injured.
T.L.: (In mountains) Flake, did you expect me to run with you? How do you arrive at that? Then you should have swapped roles. "If you're too strong, you're too weak", or whatever.
C.F.L.: (In mountains) I thought we were just posing for a photo.
T.L.: (In mountains) I can also really feel dejected, by your stupid remarks. Now you're really gonna sweat!
C.F.L.: (In mountains) (Laugh).
P.H.L.: (In mountains) (Laugh).
J.H.: I wanted it to look like the real deal, by going up on high there.
S.R.: (Shooting in mountains) Where's the next starting position?
J.H.: (Shooting in mountains) We're going there, keeping things moving. Can you see the red stain on that stone?
S.R.: (Shooting in mountains) Nope.
J.H.: (Shooting in mountains) We go to the starting position.
T.L.: (Shooting in mountains) (Singing) Step by step, we go back to the starting position. Back. Cut!
R.Z.K: You always realise it on the set: it is hard to accomodate these six people. All fight for their scenes and are glad to be able to play a small role. In just minutes, it's so hard to accomodate all the guys. It's a whole bunch of fun!
J.H.: (Shooting in mountains) Bam! And then you just move on. We'll try that two or three times.
S.S.: (Shooting in mountains) Camera's rolling and: OK!
J.H.: There's a small film in film, so to speak, where no one says a word. Instead, the guys look each other up and know: He's not going to make it up nor down.
That's a really important detail for a mountaineer, who knows, these aluminum plates you have with you, that maybe also have a passport photo on them, they're placed there on a stone and that is your memorial stone, as long as it's there. Meaning, Olli is preparing his tombstone already, knowing, that they will not make it. And I think that it's so... (laugh) for most people, that may seem a bit corny, but I love stuff like that.
I did some research back then. What happens on Mt. Everest? There's a death zone: You have no chance of bringing down a dying or a dead person from up there, as it's hard enough to get down from there yourself. That was actually the determinating factor for me to stage this scene. If they carry him up together, they will definitely not come back down together. I like these kind of stories: When exaggerated somewhat.
And from an emotional viewpoint, that's the greatest for me, because the cohesion in the band is the key message, the essence of the video.
R.Z.K.: The most important: That you stay with the band. Anything else is nonsense!
