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The making of Im Revier des Feuersalamanders
(In the Territory of the Fire Salamander)

To BIAFF 2015 results| To Full Making Of Index

At BIAFF 2015 Frank Lauter won 5-Stars with In the Territory of the Fire Salamander

Still from 'In the Territory of the Fire Salamander'.

At certain times every year in rainy weather I collect the fire salamanders from the street and put them back out in the adjacent forest edge, so they will not be run over.

In 2009 my family and I moved into the Zuegelhutte development. We did not know then, that this new estate was built partly in the habitat of specially protected salamanders.

Since 2010 I have been studying the life of this beautiful amphibian in the Wettbach river on the edge of our new residential development. At certain times every year in rainy weather I collect the fire salamanders from the street and put them back out in the adjacent forest edge, so they will not be run over.

Still from 'In the Territory of the Fire Salamander'.
Still from 'In the Territory of the Fire Salamander'.
Still from 'In the Territory of the Fire Salamander'.
Still from 'In the Territory of the Fire Salamander'.

Since I have been an active amateur film maker in my home town of Schwäbisch Hall for many years, it was only natural that I try to make a film about the life of the resident fire salamanders. Since the fire salamanders are mostly on the road on very wet nights, it was not easy to make this project. After a year of gathering my own observations, I knew when and where I could make interesting video recordings for my film.

Still from 'In the Territory of the Fire Salamander'.During so-called "Salamander Weather" I spent many nights in the rainy forest from dusk until 2 a.m. Sometimes I was accompanied by film-making friends and was thus helped by not being alone carrying camera and lighting gear in the Wettbach river area or in the cemetery. Thus I got outstanding shots of mating in the wild and the birth scenes in Wettbach.

For me it was very interesting that the population in the Wettbach area included a mixture of spotted and striped fire salamanders. The variety of different color patterns was very impressive.

I worked on the commentary for several months and repeatedly honed it until I think it exactly fits the video footage and that the visual impression of the film is complemented by additional technical details. A lot of information that can be found on the Internet is, unfortunately, not correct and not supported by scientific examination.

The sound design was devised with lots of natural tones and soft music. And I've taken great care that no "musical wallpaper" is present, but that images are only underlined in some passages.

On the asphalt road, the spotted salamander can be found in large numbers in September and in October. So at this time of year I look every day in the street drains in the village streets, because fire salamanders can be washed down in rainy weather and often drown in the accumulated rain water in the gully bottom. Sadly the amphibians cannot climb the steep walls of the drains. I documented one of the rescues at the beginning of the film.

Still from 'Im Revier des Feuersalamanders'.My little daughter Leni now always looks in the gullies and alerts us when one or more are trapped there again.

In the autumn of 2013 I hit upon a sensible measure to protect the fire salamanders from such a fatal fall into the gullies. I cut out of galvanized wire mesh from the hardware store, grids 44cm by 45cm wide and placed these two layers slightly offset directly under the manhole cover. This highly cost-effective protective measure has already had great success. The larger animals can climb back up from the grid.

- Frank Lauter


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Page updated on 02 May 2015
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