Credit: Photo Denis Pernath

Girl You Know It’s True

Info
From November 2021 to October 2022 I got the chance to be part of this wonderful Simon Verhoeven project, starring Tijan Njie, Elan Ben Ali and Matthias Schweighöfer.
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The movie tells the incredible story of “Milli Vanilli”, the world's most successful pop duo at the end of the 1980s, with three Number One Hits in the US. One day the truth is revealed … the pop duo didn't sing a single note themselves, which turns out to be a massive music scandal.
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My role
One of three main Graphic artists, primarily focused on graphic props.
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My tasks
Designing record sleeves, posters, fan shirts, newspapers and tabloid magazines, 1980s documents and faxes, logos for hotels, luxury brands and tv and radio stations, badges, business cards, billboards and many more graphic props.
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Design research and clearance communication

Credit: Photo Denis Pernath

Record sleeves, CD and MC covers
Created a bunch of album and maxi sleeves, as well as CD and MC covers for different scenes and use cases. For the “steam roller scene” hundreds of products had to be produced to be completely destroyed at the end.

Fantastic team work with assistant prop master Maresa Geißler. Couldn't have done those without her huge help.

Also sincere thanks to photographer Denis Pernath, who did an amazing job shooting the beautiful photos of “Rob” and “Fab” needed for all the Records and newspaper articles, press photos and merchandise items, like Posters, t-shirts etc - and all of that - in just one day. A big thank you also goes to everyone else involved in costume and hair & makeup department.

Credit: All Photos Denis Pernath

credit: © LEONINE Studios/Wiedemann & Berg, Photos Record Sleeve: Denis Pernath

Newspapers
To demonstrate the public reaction after the playback fail in Bristol, Connecticut, I created some fake local newspapers that covered the concert the day later.

credit: © LEONINE Studios/Wiedemann & Berg, Photo Rob and Fab: Denis pernath; Others: Istock

credit: Photo Rob and Fab: Denis pernath; Others: Istock

credit: Photo Rob and Fab on Stage: Gordon Timpen; Others: Denis pernath

credit: Photo Laurent Truemper

Logos for fake radio and television stations
A bunch of fake radio and tv station logos for different press conference scenes.

credit: All icons/graphic/special numbers elements istock

Faxes
Created a lot of fax letters and fake law firm logos. Using a real 1980s fax machine made every letter look super realistic. Probably one of my most favourite jobs on this movie.

Again fantastic team work with assistant prop master Maresa Geißler. Couldn't have done these without her huge help. Also got big aid with the copy texts of the lawyer’s faxes from producer Laura Mihajlovic.

credit: icons istock

credit: © LEONINE Studios/Wiedemann & Berg

Nurmax basement and recording studio
The huge Milli Vanilli hit “Girl You Know It's True” is a cover version of a song by Baltimore based Band Nurmax. Had to design several props for scenes in their basement and a logo for the band's recording studio “mixtape records”.

credit: Photo Getty/Michael Ochs ArchiveS

1970s Africa Aid
Created tons of brochures, flyers and stickers for a time leap into Rob's childhood home.

credit: Photos istock

Milli Vanilli posters and t-shirts
For the “steam roller scene”, where tons of Milli Vanilli products are destroyed after the scandal, I not only had to design a lot of music items, but also a big amount of fan posters and t-shirts.

Again sincere thanks to photographer Denis Pernath, who did an amazing job shooting the beautiful photos of “Rob” and “Fab” needed for all the merchandise items - in just one day. A big thank you also goes to everyone else involved in costume and hair & makeup department.

credit: © LEONINE Studios/Wiedemann & Berg; All Photos Rob and Fab Denis Pernath

Credit: All Photos Denis Pernath

credit: © LEONINE Studios/Wiedemann & Berg; Photo Rob and Fab Denis Pernath

Credit: All Photos Denis Pernath

credit: Photos Press conference Laurent Truemper, Photos Stage Gordon Timpen, Others istock

Tabloid magazines
This was probably my favorite job for this movie. It was so much fun designing these tabloid magazines. Besides the design, my tasks were to come up with fake tabloid names, designing the logos, and writing all headlines as well as the small copy texts, drawing inspiration from real tabloid magazines from that time. Also enjoyed creating adverts for the back pages.

credit: Photos Press conference Laurent Truemper, Others istock

credit: Photos Press conference Laurent Truemper, Photos Stage Gordon Timpen, Others istock

credit: Photos Rob drinking Laurent Truemper, Photos Stage Gordon Timpen, Others istock

credit: Photos istock

Club MTV
Had to design several props (poster, badges, schedules) for the clubMTV concert in the paladium, NYC, as well as for the following ClubMTV Live Concert Tour. They are all basedon the real ones, as far as they existed.

credit: © LEONINE Studios/Wiedemann & Berg

Sri Lanka Trip
Fake Sri Lanka flyers and and an airline ticket, I designed for Robs rehab trip.

credit: photos/icon istock

Recreation of original baggage tags
Tons of late 1980s baggage tags for a fully loaded trolly for the background in a hotel lobby scene.

Record Sleeves
After the big scandal, Rob and Fab recorded their own record without the help of Frank Farian, who also released a new record with the owners “real voices”, accompanied with new pretty faces. Both records needed new designs displaying our actors.

credit: Photo Denis Pernath

credit: Photo Gordon Timpen

Contract
Contract between Frank Farian and Rob and Fab, vaguely based on the original contract. Handwriting by Assistant Prop Master Maresa Geißler.

Fab’s drawings
In a scene, set in Rob and Fab Munich apartment, Fab sits on a couch doing quick sketches of their stage costumes. I did a drawing that could be finished by the actor and four identical copies for multiple takes. Unfortunately the scene didn´t make the final cut, but we still see the finished drawing held by Milli during Rob and Fab’s first photo shooting.

credit: © LEONINE Studios/Wiedemann & Berg

credit: © LEONINE Studios/Wiedemann & Berg

Eden Security logo
Created the Eden Security logo, that was used for badges and the security officers’ jeep’s vinyl designs.

credit: illustration istock

Magazines
Several magazine designs for different scenes and use cases.

credit: Photos Gordon Timpen

credit: Photos Rob and Fab: Denis Pernath, Photos Rob and Fab Stage: Gordon Timpen, Others istock

credit: © LEONINE Studios/Wiedemann & Berg

Fake luxury brand logos
For a shopping scene, I designed several fake luxury brand logos.

credit: icon/graphic element iStock

Sports fashion catalogue pages
Before Rob and Fab got famous, they used to work as models for a short period of time. I really enjoyed working one these sports fashion catalogue pages. Perfect photos to work with, taken by stills photographer Gordon Timpen.

credit: All Photos Gordon Timpen

Rental agreement
For the apartment viewing of Rob and Fab’s first own flat, I had to design a rental agreement.

World tour poster
The heat rises, when the idea of a Milli Vanilli world tour is suggested by their talent managers in Los Angeles. The moment was visually supported with the presentation of a tour poster that I designed.

credit: © LEONINE Studios/Wiedemann & Berg

Billboards
Two billboard designs I did for different scenes in Los Angeles.

credit: © LEONINE Studios/Wiedemann & Berg; Photo East 17 by David Tonge/Getty Images

credit: Photos istock

Magazine clippings
Rob's sister Carmen follows her brother's career and collects lots of magazine clippings, which she sticks into a dedicated album. The articles initially describe the steep international rise of the pop duo, later the progressive decline. For these story telling scenes I designed a large number of postitive and negative magazine clippings.

credit: © LEONINE Studios/Wiedemann & Berg, Photo Rob and Fab: Denis Pernath

credit: Photos Rob and Fab: Denis Pernath, Photos Rob and Fab Stage: Gordon Timpen

credit: Photos Rob and Fab: Denis Pernath, Photos Rob and Fab Stage: Gordon Timpen, Others istock

credit: Photos Rob and Fab: Denis Pernath, Photos Rob and Fab Stage_ Gordon Timpen

credit: © LEONINE Studios/Wiedemann & Berg, Photo Rob and Fab Gordon Timpen

Title Design
At the end, I also had the honor of designing the title for the film opening.

credit: © LEONINE Studios/Wiedemann & Berg

ADDITIONAL CREDITS
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Production: LEONINE Studios, Wiedemann & Berg Film GmbH
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Director, screen writer: Simon Verhoeven
Director of photography: Jo Heim
Producers: Quirin Berg, Max Wiedemann & Kirstin Winkler
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Costume design: Ingken Benesch
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Hair/makeup designer: Christina Baier & Alisza Pfeifer
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Production designer: Heike Lange
Assistant production designer: Gini Ganserich
Prop master: Johannes Wild
Assistant prop master: Maresa Geißler
Set decorator: Alexandra Pilhatsch
Assistant set decorators: Judith Rosskoth & Miriam Müller
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Graphic artist : Barbara Dezasse (Set dec/Germany)
Graphic artist : Lucy Doman (Set dec/South Africa)
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Photographer (Photo pre production): Denis Pernath
Photographer (Stills photography): Gordon Timpen
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Rights and Clearances: Ingo Fischer
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All Filmstills: © LEONINE Studios/Wiedemann & Berg