Before the 90s nobody in Germany used the term "production design". The set and costume designer, who was responsible for both, mostly got the joyless and ugly-sounding title "Gesamtausstattung", literally "total outfit", a term also used by the German auto industry for its models. On TIN DRUM, since I wasn’t responsible for the costumes – thank God – and since there would be a supervising set designer in each country, we ended up with the title "art director", which has something directorial, but also reminds me a bit of the "artistic director" of our bouzouki joints.

The reason so many design drawings were found is because the job was done in my office and Bernd gathered additional material for the publication of the Schlöndorff and Grass book he edited. They were kept in a very heavy chest of drawers that was hauled up to my balcony by the same mover who loaded my belongings in Munich, when I moved house in absentia in 2000.

DIE BLECHTROMMEL was a typical German co-production that, because of the script, that had to be and could be shot in "cheap" eastern countries like Yugoslavia and Poland as well as more expensive ones like Germany and France. Seeing the budget I realized that I had to work with a restricted means, as in most movies of the "New German Cinema".

I had very little time and many locations – which we had not even found yet – that had to be adapted and many large and small sets on the sound stages of CCC - Arthur Brauner Studios in West Berlin.

I must not forget the key location of the film, the Labesweg alley in prewar Gdansk (then German Danzig), birthplace of Günter Grass, where a large part of the novel takes place and which for subsidy reasons had to be filmed in West Berlin.

All drawings had to be done fast with pencil or ink on drafting paper which could be copied easily and had to include elevations for the director and the producers, as well as construction details and dimensions for the colleagues who would execute them. For all the above reasons, the DESIGN pages are only for BLECHTROMMEL freaks.

With the start of pre-production the co-operating producers from other countries sent their associates to photograph the locations so we could choose the ones to visit during the recce, military slang for reconnoitre. It may be of interest to show how location scouts of different professional backgrounds see their subject. They are often assistant directors or production assistants. Sometimes the art director or the production designer together with the cinematographer do the first scouting. In Hollywood even then there were companies that undertook the job. When I had enough time for pre-production I started scouting with my assistant or a production assistant at the wheel – to avoid getting killed. I’ve chosen the most typical photos – from hundreds – where in some cases the aesthetic of the photographers is apparant and in others their professionalism. Finally, there are some uninspired Polaroids I took at the recce for the reason that we were travelling continuously and there was no time to develop and print any photos.