Passion for collecting, king of marksmen, beer brewer, hobby builder: Enrico Dannies has a number of passions. He’s also an extra.
Salzwedel l Enrico Dannies from Perver is a person who is not only very active, but also attracts attention with his ideas and their implementation. As the rifle king, he headed the Salzwedeler Schützengilde in 2014 and 2016. For many years he has been a member of the Salzwedel Altstadt (ASA) working group and is currently its chairman. It is the love of historical things, whether they are small or large. In particular, he collects everything related to the history of brewing in Salzwedel. In this area especially towards the Salzwedeler Bergschlossbrauerei, which has been history since the political change. His passion has grown so great that in May 2019 he acquired the historic half-timbered building on the corner of Nicolaistrasse and Altperverstrasse (we reported). The building complex, which once housed a brewery with a distillery and a restaurant, is still well known to the elderly as the Wande’sches Eck. The buildings stood empty for decades and it looked accordingly both inside and outside.
By chance in a pub for extras
Sometimes he is asked how he can get all the appointments under one roof. He must always keep moving, says the 47-year-old. He is always open to new ideas. And if he liked them, he would implement them, no matter how great the effort. The in and out of media representatives doesn’t bother him either, because at least he has already gained camera experience.
He refers to a part-time job that also takes some time and shows an Enrico Dannies, as one would not expect: namely Enrico Dannies from the small Salzwedel in front of television cameras in the large Hamburg.
“It was such a coincidence,” he says. In a restaurant in Lüchow, a friend told him that she was working as an extra in various television productions. The Salzwedel man’s interest was already aroused. He received the contact address and got in touch with the agency. From then on everything went absolutely smoothly, he recalls. His clothing size was asked for and an interview was arranged. The two contracting parties quickly came to an agreement on the condition.
Contact with actors
The Salzwedeler simply loved having fun. To take a look behind the scenes of a television series production, because who has the opportunity to do so?
And contact with the actors also had its charm. How are the people from film actually? Many questions that the new screen hero was soon able to answer himself. And his first use came faster than expected. In August 2015, he was ordered as an extra for the first shoot. Extras are those in the film that give the plot more fullness.
Mainly used for ARD or ZDF
A film without them would be unrealistic, because there are hardly any places in the world where people are alone. It is the same with Enrico Dannies. Mostly he can be seen in the background. In one scene he is on the phone as a police officer at an office desk while his film colleague Ralph Herforth can be seen as the main actor. A very pleasant colleague, by the way, says Dannies, completely uncomplicated and absolutely no fuss. “Under other circumstances” is the title of the series, in which Natalia Wörner and Martin Brambach can also be seen. You have to imagine shooting in a completely different way than what you will see later on TV, explains Dannies.
It is always shot in the block. This means that it may well be that it is first the end and then the beginning. For every shoot, he would be asked whether he would take part, and then it would start on the set date. There is a daily employment contract for every day of shooting, he says. The fee depends on how long he can be seen in the scene and whether he gets a text in the respective sequence or not. This is followed by a briefing by a member of the film team who is responsible for the extras. And then it’s time to wait. Waiting for the mission, which can be shorter or longer. Individual scenes are repeated until the director is satisfied. Everything always runs very smoothly, he says. He has never experienced the cliché that directors are always excited and shouting around on the set. “Then I would not have allowed myself to be committed anymore,” he is sure. Dannies also praised the catering. There would be great catering. Sometimes the extras are among themselves. But there are also days when the actors dine with the actors.
When asked about the individual films he has appeared in, Dannies can point out a few. In 2019 alone, he was obliged to shoot 30 days. Without exception, they are productions of the public broadcaster, i.e. ZDF or ARD, in which he was and will probably continue to be there. He has already appeared in several episodes of “Solo für Weiss” with Anna Maria Mühe and Simon Brandt.
Resident in TV series
In the series “Soko Hamburg” he met Anna von Haebler, who can be seen as Chief Detective Lena Testorp and Marek Erhardt in the role of Chief Detective Oskar Schütz. He was involved in episodes 13 and 14 of “Helen Dorn” with Anna Loos as chief detective. The miniseries “Faster than fear” with Friederike Becht and Felix Klare was filmed in Magdeburg. In the television series Katie Fforde, he did not play a police officer in uniform or in plain clothes, but the assistant doctor Dr. Magnus Streiter. Everything is possible with television. “There are no limits to professional careers there,” explains Dannies with a wink.
In the film adaptation of the Göhrde murders, viewers could also see the Salzwedeler. The three-part series was broadcast on ARD.
For Enrico Dannies, however, there is always an opportunity to be active as an ambassador for his city. Again and again he brings Salzwedel’s trademark, the Baumkuchen, to the shoot. The crew likes it and the town of Salzwedel is brought into the consciousness of the people via the palate and the stomach. Tasty marketing with sustainability. And for the people of Salzwedel, it is now time to discover Enrico Dannies in one of the many television series.
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