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�DOP JOST VACANO in the submarine set
with his purpose-built gyro-rig and the
prototype IIIC. First Assitant Peter Maiwald
holds the remote focus unit.
Based on the best-selling novel by Lothar G. Buchheim, the film
had actually been in development as an American project
from as early as 1976. Don Siegel and John Sturges were
lined up as possible Directors, while Paul Newman and Robert
Redford were considered for the role of the U-boat captain.
Sturges spent a great deal of time preparing for the shoot in
Munich, where construction of the submarine replicas and
miniatures got underway. The project, however, was impeded
and eventually shut down by creative differences between the
production team and Buchheim, who had right of veto over
the screenplay.
In 1979, a Producer named Günter Rohrbach took over
Bavaria Film Studios, where the Americans had intended to
shoot. It occurred to him that since so much money had
already been spent on the sets and miniatures, which were
there for the taking, it might be worth resurrecting the film as
an all-German production. The budget would still be greater
than that of any previous German film, but he calculated that
by using the footage to create both an international feature
and a longer TV series, he could double his markets and offset
the considerable cost.
Jost Vacano, a local DoP with 15 years’ experience shooting
German TV and features, was hired to photograph the film.
He had never met Wolfgang Peterson before, though they had
heard of each other and quickly formed a strong relationship.
“I communicated with him very well from the beginning”, says
Vacano. They shared a determination that absolute realism
should be the basic credo underlying the endeavour. Peterson
agreed in principle with Vacano’s view that it was vital to film
within the actual confines of the submarine interior set, without
removing walls or ceilings. They had both seen some of the
many ‘submarine movies’ that came out of America throughout
the 1950s and wanted to escape the staged aesthetic of those
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“I HAD VERY STRONG FEELINGS ABOUT
THE VISUALS OF THIS FILM AND IT
WAS NOT EASY IN THE BEGINNING TO
CONVINCE THE DIRECTOR AND THE
PRODUCERS THAT I WAS RIGHT.”
films. Vacano ran into difficulty, however, when he
expressed a belief that hand-held filming would be
the best option: “I had very strong feelings about the
visuals of this film and it was not easy in the
beginning to convince the Director and the Producers
that I was right.”
He was also keen to avoid film lighting, preferring
the idea of placing high-wattage practical lamps in
locations true to original submarine specifications:
“Normally you would bring light to the actors, but I
wanted to light the boat in a certain manner and then
not change it. That way, the actors had to move to
the light, which meant action centred around work
stations in a realistic way.” Although Vacano
acquired a few precious rolls of Fuji’s new 250ASA
stock, making Das Boot the first European film to use
it, he had to make do with 100ASA - the fastest
colour negative then available - for the interiors,
which meant slightly underexposing even at T2.8.