Short Film «Guggisbärg»

This is what it's all about.

We’re shooting!

No need to worry, though, we’re just shooting a film. More specifically a short film with the title «Guggisbärg».

Who are we?

We are the Moonbirds! We are a club (Verein) called «Moonbird Pictures», founded by Ilja Baumeier, Philippe Jost and Kathrin Wüscher with the goal of shooting ambitious high quality films in Switzerland. For now, they are short films - who has the budget for a feature film? - but we want to reach the best quality possible, with the objective of holding our own at international film festivals. We did indeed reach that goal with our first film «Roman» that has so far been selected by four international festivals and has even been nominated for certain categories.

We work regularly with the guys from Smart Video, who have a huge array of equipment as well as loads of experience, tons of creativity and great ideas. Plus, they are full of vim and vigor for film making, particularly with us. For this project Yannik Costa and Thomas Hochstrasser will be joining the crew.

What is «Guggisbärg» about?

Lisa and Tim are driving through the countryside in a beautiful classic car and are enjoying the seeming lightness of late summer. The loving connection between the two is palpable, yet there is something that remains unspoken.

We won’t reveal more yet, but if you want to be among the first to see the film, go check out the rewards we offer…

My project is special because ...

From Basel to the world…

As the title may suggest, it’s a Swiss film.

We are filming in Basel and Solothurn, the crew is from Aargau and Basel, the actress and actor are from St. Gallen and Basel, the catering crew is from Schaffhausen and Basel.

Because, as it turns out, films can not only be shot in Hollywood or Berlin, but also here in Switzerland. And seeing as the processes here are not quite as honed in as they are in those film metropolises, we often have to forge our own paths, which makes it even more exciting.

The fact that we’ll shoot a film here in tiny little Switzerland that will be screened at festivals around the world is not the only thing that is special about this endeavor. We have also gathered a very special group of people to work on this project.

A screenwriter and directress who is a lawyer by day, a director of photography and editor who used to be a social insurance specialist, a global warranty development specialist (yea, we don’t really know what that is either) as unit manager and a carpenter as gaffer and grip. Additionally there are our leads who have made a name for themselves in Switzerland and Germany but who - lucky for us - are passionate to work with our small but excellent crew.

The talented makeup artist Laura Schaub who is making sure that our actor and actress are only shining in their skills, not in their faces.

Some friends and family who are stepping in as catering crew, gofers and backup extras.

And lastly we have the pleasure of rounding out our crew with some experts who will be supporting us with specific tasks. We won’t reveal more about this at this point - after all it should remain a surprise.

In short: an exciting project created by excited people.

Here’s a little sneak peak from our rig testing day. There is a lot going on behind the scenes and we are working tirelessly…

This is what I need backing for.

Currently all crew members and actors are working without pay, because everyone of us is very dedicated to our goal of producing high quality films.

However, the project «Guggisbärg» generates some inevitable costs that need to be covered. Without revealing too much we can say, that we will need to rent a car, pay for permits, road safety services, a spectacular location, catering, lodging and of course festival submissions.

«Moonbird Pictures» has only been founded this year and our first film - that is turning heads at festivals - hasn’t made any money yet. Therefore we currently don’t have enough funds to cover those costs ourselves. That’s why we need some support from our crowd…