Straight Out of Berlin!

Straight Out of Berlin!

'TRIP CARAVAN L.A.' Wraps Up a Week of Art, Film and Music Events

TRIP's Creator Establishes The Frank Otto Scholarship Foundation for Music Students of George Washington Prep High School in South Central Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Trip Caravan L.A. (www.tripcaravan.com), a series of music, film and arts events celebrating the U.S. premiere of TRIP -- the innovative Berlin multimedia project -- concluded today with the announcement of the establishment of The Frank Otto Scholarship Foundation, which will award a $10,000 donation and an annual scholarship for a student enrolled in the Music Magnate program of the George Washington Preparatory School, a performing arts public high school in South Central Los Angeles.

Earlier in the week, Frank Otto, the German artist and media entrepreneur who created TRIP, visited the school to conduct a music workshop for students there upon the invitation of music director Fernando Pullun, nationally recognized for his arts programming for inner city youth. The event was accompanied by a performance by the school's student jazz band.

Following its U.S. premiere in Los Angeles, TRIP will travel to other U.S. cities, including New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Miami. TRIP is slated to have its international theatrical release in spring 2006.

For the past week, beginning Dec. 8th, Los Angelenos -- from Venice to Silver Lake and beyond -- were treated to a taste of the avant-garde arts scene from sister city Berlin as TRIP creator Frank Otto, his co-creator/composer Bernt Koehler-Adams and a team of musicians, artist and technicians produced a dizzying array of arts and entertainment event programming. Highlights included the U.S. premiere of TRIP on Friday, Dec. 9, at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, attended by Hollywood and international film celebrities, downtown artists, entertainment executives and the media. Among those attending were movie star Andy Garcia and German media personalities Ariane Sommer, Eric Braeden, Philippe Brenninkmeyer, Christian Oliver, Florian Gallenberger, Maria Graefin Waldburg and Birgit Stein.

The premiere event included the presentation of TRIP on five screens along with live musical accompaniment and performances by Otto and Koehler-Adams, as well as troupes of exotic hoop dancers, drummers and performance artists. The event was sponsored by Venice magazine and benefited The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation, whose mission is to support music education in public schools.

In addition to being an accomplished musician, composer and filmmaker, Frank Otto is also a critically acclaimed painter. On Saturday, Dec. 10, the Berman-Turner Gallery in Bergamot Station opened an exhibition of the artwork of Otto. The digitally-mastered prints on canvas were taken from images that comprised an enormous mural that the artist painted on the floor of an abandoned German factory -- larger than a football field. The mural was created, and then erased, in the process of creating "Artwork," one of the four films that comprise TRIP.

Trip Caravan L.A. continued on Sunday, Dec. 11 as The Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena hosted a family-friendly program, which presented a screening of TRIP, an audience participatory drum circle, and a holiday party. Santa Claus arrived just in time as the news media recorded a holiday first: Ole Saint Nick getting funky as he played tribal drums with kids of all ages.

Dr. Christian Stocks, the German Consul General in Los Angeles, hosted a reception for TRIP at his Hancock Park home on Monday, Dec. 12. Attending were a multitude of German and American V.I.P.'s including Apollo 11 Astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Los Angeles City Councilman Tom La Bonge, who awarded Frank Otto with a city proclamation. Also in attendance were Hollywood legendary star Elke Sommer and German actors Christian Oliver and Ariane Sommer and internationally acclaimed directors Menan Yapo ("Lautlos"), and Ivan Passer ("Stalin").

On Tuesday, Dec. 13 the Trip Caravan L.A. rolled into the heart of L.A.'s bohemian scene as TRIP was screened at the historic Vista Theater in Silver Lake. The screening was accompanied by a live musical performance by Otto, Koehler-Adams and their trip team of musicians and singers. Following the screening-performance, a film industry panel discussion was held on "Music Composition and the Filmmaking Process." The panel was led by noted entertainment journalist Jeffrey Wells and included Otto, Bernt-Koehler Adams and music composers Alex Wurman ("March of the Penguins"), Mychael Danna ("Capote") and Frank Fitzpatrick ("Scary Movie 3). The event was sponsored by the nonprofit Silver Lake Film Festival, an annual showcase in Los Angeles for independent cinema.

Origins of TRIP

TRIP first began as an original 74-minute contemporary music opus composed by Otto and his creative partner Kohler-Adams. Fourteen distinctively different musicians joined them in countless studio session to create a musical work that explores the roots of jazz, rock, ambient and classical with influences as diverse as Miles Davis, Pink Floyd and Ravel. The music inspired filmmakers to produce four, completely different feature-length experimental films.

The result is a synchronized experience for the senses. Four years in the making, the cutting-edge film-music-art project involved 33 directors, 14 musicians and scores of technicians, and was shot in 12 countries and numerous underwater locations. Each of the four TRIP films can be viewed separately with the TRIP soundtrack, or together in split-screen fashion.

Frank Otto -- Creative Entrepreneur/Enterprising Artist

Truly a renaissance man, TRIP's creator, Frank Otto, is an accomplished musician, filmmaker and painter. Otto is also a successful business entrepreneur, having co-founded VIVA TV (vivamediaag.com), Germany's first music television channel. Today, the channel reaches 32 million households throughout Europe. In addition, he was publisher of Hamburger Morgenpost from 1999 to 2003, which is one of the two big daily newspapers in Hamburg.

Today he is mostly focused on music and film. In addition to TRIP, he recently established two new music labels, Safety Records and Unit Undercover. He also has established Ferryhouse Productions, a company dedicated to developing his own and others' multimedia projects.

TRIP -- Remix Your Experience
1 music soundtrack
4 movies
12 countries
14 musicians
33 filmmakers

Source: Trip Caravan L.A.

CONTACT: Greg Ptacek of LA MONTE + PTACEK, +1-323-660-1935,
gregptacek@earthlink.net, for Trip Caravan L.A.

Web site: http://www.tripcaravan.com/
http://www.vivamediaag.com/

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