WHAT: The Anni & Jasmin International Group decided to make a THANK YOU book for Janina Uhse and Linda Marlen Runge to thank them for their work in GZSZ. We later made a third book for one of the writers to also make sure they know we appreciate their work too.
You can check out the book here.

WHERE: GZSZ studios in Potsdam, Germany

WHEN: 9 December, 2014

WHO: Linda Marlen Runge, Janina Uhse, Nicole, Marion, Doreen, storyline writer (and some others who work at UFA)

** Inside the front cover of the books we wrote a quote from Jennifer Beals. The books for Linda and Janina had;

“Somehow my story just wasn’t there. […] I was that invisible. And certainly when society fails to write your story there is an unspoken message that the story is not worth telling.”

And inside the one for the writers it said;

“And that’s what good storytelling can do. It connects you not only to yourself but to others as well”

So here is a compilation report I made from Nicole, Marion and Doreen who were present to give them the books;

So the GZSZ Digital team were there to make a short report for their website (should be online in the next few days), so at first they filmed some introductions as such and a big HELLO.  They were greeted by hugs from Linda and Janina and were introduced to one of the writers (who we requested be present so we could also give them a book). They then gave them the books and Linda and Janina were completely speechless and totally in awe while they flicked through the pages.

While Linda and Janina were reading through their books, Nicole gave the third book the writer, who said she was totally overwhelmed and that this may be the first time the writers have ever gotten feedback like this. She told them she would tell her colleagues and this will give them such a boost.

They loved the books so much and can’t wait to see a second edition (which we will be making early next year).  They then told them how our little group went from a couple of hundred to over 17,000, with people watching from over 100 countries in the world and they couldn’t believe it. Nicole then explained to them what makes this storyline SO good and the writer was almost in tears.

At this point they told them I had made a THANK YOU video for them from Australia and they all became super excited. If you want to watch it for yourself, check it out here:

After the video they asked if they wanted to Skype with me, which we did. It lasted about 10mins but the connection was so bad it was mostly just laughing and yelling. I got the chance to thank them and told the writer that we LOVE all of them (the writers) and then they all thanked me (what the what?).  At one point Janina picked up the camera to show me where they were and Marion told her that I get motion sickness every time she films…haha so she said she would do it slowly and that’s when both Linda and Janina went all slow motion…super funny.

After hanging up from me they explained how the filming is done for each episode. They film all the scenes for that week that are set in the same location all in one day and then when that is done, they move onto the next location. Super confusing right? And there’s not much waiting in between scenes…it’s all very ongoing all day.

And after more hugs goodbye, they all left. The whole thing lasted about 2 hours.

Some random things from the meeting;

- Linda said there will be music gigs again next spring and she is waiting for all of us to come to them.
– We got the feeling that they all know how important this story is for a lot of people and that they will be careful with it
– Janina confirmed that a lot of improvisation does go on during filming.
– As they were discussing some of the episodes, Nicole mentioned that “Your dreams in the show always take place in the bathroom“ and the whole room laughed.

We just want to thank everyone involved with helping make this meeting possible and to Linda, Janina and the writer (you know who you are ;) ) for all their hard work, day in and day out. And in fact the whole writing team as well as all the other cast and crew involved with GZSZ.

We truly appreciate EVERYTHING you do for us.

Photo from Janina’s Instagram