Trains of Thoughts
Metro System, 2013
“I came back from Prague with 600 metro photos and three photos from the old town. Then I thought that there must be something really interesting, driving, exciting in there”, explains Vienna-based filmmaker Timo Novotny. And that’s how the journey for the music & film project Trains of Thoughts began. First of all it’s a film about trains, but through the comparison of subway systems in six different cities, it’s also a film about the mentality of these different places. By comparing two American (New York City, L.A.), two European (Moscow, Vienna) and two Asian (Tokyo, Hong Kong) cities, Timo shows how trains reflect the urban life. However, Trains of Thoughts doesn’t work in the typical documentary-stlye. It’s an audiovisual exploration of the atmosphere, pulse and soundscape of these cities. Thus the musicians Wolfgang Frisch and Markus Kienzl of Sofa Surfers played a major role in the making of the film and now in the “performing” part of it. Together with Timo they do a fascinating live remix, a moody, reverby jam where the music and visuals blend together so that you find yourself soaked in this train mode of drifting along.
- Camera
- Sarah Brugner
- Simon Brugner
- Michael Luger
- Sound Recording
- Markus Kienzl
- Sound Mix
- Markus Kienzl
- Michael Luger
- Post production
- Simon Brugner
- Michael Luger
Metro System
Metro systems do not only transport the masses, they also exert fascination all over the world through their design, functionality and social impact. Countless movies and pop songs have been inspired by the experience of the metro ride and its symbolic power as a representation of modern cities. Vienna could be considered a late adopter with its first proper U-Bahn line opening only in 1976, whereas many other cities have started constructing metro systems around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. Yet the city gained a lot of ground in the past decades and today has a powerful and reliable network of five lines transporting 1.4 million passengers a day. Several overground station buildings and design elements along the U4 and U6 date back to the late 19th century and were designed by famous art nouveau architect Otto Wagner for the system of urban trains that was in place back then.