Review on The Making Of The Siemens Ad

General impression
After the summer of 1998, Vanessa-Mae, participated in the Siemens campaign 'Get Inspired' to support the introduction of their new Siemens SL10 mobile phone. Jean-Paul Gaultier, French designer and fashion icon, and Mika Hakinnen, Finish 2 time Formula 1 world champion (1998 and 1999), were also joining the campaign. Vanessa-Mae had several encounters with her colleagues of which her presentation of a wedding dress on the catwalk in Paris and a visit to the Formula 1 circuit are most prominent. The movie 'The Making Of The Siemens Ad' was partly shot at Vanessa-Mae's visit to the Formula 1 circuit where The Handover of the new mobile phone from Hakinnen to Vanessa-Mae took place. From there, the process of Inspiration for Vanessa-Mae took place since she had to compose a ring tune for the phone.

The Handover and The Inspiration are the topics of this about 10,5 minutes documentary. The documentary is divided in 4 parts showing Vanessa-Mae at her visit to the F1 track (part 1, captures 1-15), during composing (part 2, captures 16-38) and during recording of the new tune (part 4, captures 49-61 and 69-85), and during intermediate part when she talks about her life during relaxing, roller skating and family diner (part 3, captures 39-48 and 62-68). The various parts are discussed separately and in detail below.

Vanessa-Mae provides comments to all the scenes of the movie when she narrates about her experiences and activities in relation to this campaign. Vanessa-Mae's soft voice makes pleasant listening and her stories nicely correspond with the particular scenes shown; the documentary is produced well in this respect! Also the camera handling, lightning and settings are well done making it a good quality documentary and not only an easy movie to just please the fans. All in all, a very successful project and an interesting step in a still progressing career of Vanessa-Mae. Unfortunately, 'The Making Of The Siemens Ad' is only available on the bonus VCD that was provided with the Asian release of 'The Original Four Season' album. Vanessa-Mae's comments are interesting, especially for her fans, because she tells about herself, how she works and with that she provides interesting insight in her way of thinking and philosophy of life.

Description of the contents
The documentary last 10 minutes 40 seconds and can be divided in 4 parts. Below is a description of the various parts. The 85 captures that are shown below for illustration are given in chronological order.

Part 1: The handover (captures 1-15)
The first part of the documentary is in black and white images, which renders this part a real authentic mood of a report on Vanessa-Mae's visit to the F1 track. The Handover opens with scenes shot in and around the workplace of Mika Hakinnen's F1 car and shows mechanics working to prepare the car for training sessions and the race. Music from the first movement of Bach's Partita no 3 played by Vanessa-Mae is used to illustrate the scenes. Next, Vanessa-Mae arrives in a car and after the car stopped she opens the door to step out from her back seat. In the background 'Red Hot' is played. Vanessa-Mae is casually dressed in khaki trousers and a white blouse with short sleeves. Her hair is hanging freely on her back and Vanessa-Mae has a tiny necklace that is visible because of the open top buttons of her blouse. Vanessa-Mae gets a tour around the track and through the workplace and get introduced to the leading people in the team of Mika Hakinnen. Obviously, Vanessa-Mae shows her enthusiasm for the F1 circus as she tells about her experiences, saying:

'Meeting with Mika is great fun. It is my first time at a F1 track and it is very exciting; I even helped the mechanics to fill in their oil.'

She is then meets with Mika Hakinnen who sits in his F1 car having the new Siemens SL10 mobile that he presents to Vanessa-Mae. The documentary then rolls into part 2 where Vanessa-Mae had to get inspiration to compose a ring tone for the new Siemens SL10 mobile phone.

Part 2: Inspiration (captures 16-38)
In the images in this part 2 are black&white too with a warm brown tone that makes very pleasant watching. Part 2 opens with Vanessa-Mae shortly after her wake up moment; she stretches out her body and yawns. She then starts to tell with the plucking notes of 'what will The Devil's Trill' in the background on how she gets inspiration and form what:

'The only thing I need is energy really; I can get inspiration from any moment when I am living; as example from nature, from food, form other peoples music, when I am on tour.

'Through my violin, I speak to people; my violin is my favourite partner in my musical life; without my violin, I don't fit to other people'

'Once I get inspired, I try to focus and write a piece of music based on that. Often, I have many ideas flying around my head, but am on tour and have no time to sit down with a keyboard, computer or a grand piano to compose something.'

Vanessa-Mae tells these stories as comments to the scenes showing her improvising on the piano and violin, occasionally writing down the notes on the score (captures 22-29). She the turn to a table and pours in a glass of milk for herself (captures 30-33). Then she tells about her love for milk and how she likes it the best. Vanessa-Mae explains as follows:

'I love the taste of milk, people think I am mad. People either like milk when it is hot, or people like it when it is cold, cold; but I like it when it is room temperature like babies drink it, you know, warm room temperature warm because then you can really taste it, makes you strong, makes you happy, bone. I love milk so much that when I turned 18 I a milk bath for the first time really.'

At the time, Vanessa-Mae tells about her love for milk she is shown in close-up with a wild-crazy expression on her face as she clicks her tongue to her teeth and lips (captures 34-37). She then says:

'There was a time that a mobile phone happened to influence and inspire me to write a new piece of music.'

Part 3: Intermediate (captures 39-48 and 62-68)
During the intermediate part, Vanessa-Mae walks with Vasko Vassilev in a crowded street (capture 39), having a meal (capture 40-42), playing games in an amusement hall (captures 43-44) and sitting in a car (capture (45) , and roller skating in Hyde Park (captures 46-48). Also to part 3 counts a scene that is shown in between part 4 that shows Vanessa-Mae during a family diner with her mother and grandmother (captures 62-68).

In the scenes with Vasko Vassilev, Vanessa-Mae wears white trousers and a long sleeved pink T-shirt. She tells about her childhood saying:

'I had a childhood, as everyone has a childhood that can never been taken away; but what you do is different from other people and I never regret for one moment. I think there is nothing more exciting than then be in the music business. I had all the things my friends had, I just spent more time working but that was my choice.'

The scene in the amusement hall flows over in the short scene sitting with Vasko Vassilev in the car, when she suddenly says:

'I think when I fall in Love, nothing can stop that not even a busy career; If you fall in love, you fall in love in an organic natural process.

In this part, Vanessa-Mae also explains that she is a classical musician, but at the same time a child of the 90's. She also explains her feelings and attitude towards movement at the time she is shown roller skating in Hyde Park (captures 46-58) when she tells that movement is just a natural expression to her and that she never feels tired playing the violin for many hours; she claims that music and movement are not separate. And then follows a very interesting philosophical statement regarding the world of classical music and her modern background as girl of the 90's:

'I try to understand both worlds and trying to bring both together in one piece of music is very natural.'

Very nice and funny are the moments when Vanessa-Mae is shown at a family diner with her mother and grandmother. At the start of the scene, Vanessa-Mae arrives in a car at the restaurant. The door of the car is opened for her and she steps out wearing a sleeveless black T-shirt. Next she is shown sitting in the restaurant with her mother and grandmother (wearing a hat) reading the menu and during lively conversation in a very relaxed atmosphere.

Part 4: The recording process (captures 49-61 and 69-85)
Vanessa-Mae arrives at the studio walking and followed by an assistant carrying her violin bag. Vanessa-Mae is dressed in a shining bright red T-shirt, a long brown dress and a sweater pulled around her waist with the sleeves. She has shoes with high spike heels as she walk up a steep entrance towards the studio (captures 49-51). During this scene, Vanessa-Mae narrates on her close relationship with her mother who is member of a small team of people around her when she works on her projects. Her mother, though, stays in the background but provide help and advice if necessary or requested by Vanessa-Mae. Vanessa-Mae too explains that she often needs to work alone at composing or practising or working on new ideas. So in this part 4, we see Vanessa-Mae consulting with the technician (captures 52-53) , preparing for recording (captures 54-55) and recording (captures 56-61). Her mother Pamela sits listening in full concentration, giving a few hints occasionally. After the first trial session, Vanessa-Ma sits listening with the technician, and fooling around with a percussionist (captures 69-76). A second recording session is then starting and we see Vanessa-Mae with headphones and a microphone in front of her. She then listens to the result and Pamela makes a sign with her fingers that it is OK and well done. Finally, Vanessa-Mae listens to the result via her Siemens SL10 mobile phone hearing the ring tone version of The Devil's Trill.


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