Development Rosefeldt began developing the project by researching and analysing an assortment of textual manifestos. He selected approximately 60 manifestos that he considered "the most fascinating and most requitable" or he thought corresponded to one another. He cited the comments from
Wassily Kandinsky and
Franz Marc as complementing the thoughts of
Barnett Newman, as well as a connection between the texts of
André Breton and
Lucio Fontana, and the writings of the
Dada or
Fluxus artists being potentially "combined into a kind of condensation, a kind of Super-Dada or Super-Fluxus Manifesto". After collating and fragmenting numerous texts, eventually 12 manifesto collages materialised. Rosefeldt's main concept for the project was to have a woman embody the manifestos. Rosefeldt and Blanchett met in 2014 in Berlin through director
Thomas Ostermeier, who had collaborated with Rosefeldt in theatre. Rosefeldt discussed with Blanchett her role as
Bob Dylan in
Todd Haynes' film ''
I'm Not There'', which influenced the conception of the project. Blanchett said she was intrigued by the opportunity to perform multiple roles in a figurative context, noting that "on film, you're usually inviting an audience into a very literal narrative experience. So to allow an audience to free associate and find points of common reference is very exciting". Rosefeldt called it an "homage to the beauty of artists' manifestos − a manifesto of manifestos". The film was subsidised by the
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg with
€90,000. It is a coproduction of the Ruhrtriennale, Schiwago Film GmbH, and the Berlin
National Gallery, in cooperation with
Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Burger Collection Hong Kong, and the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.
Filming Production on the film began on 9 December 2014, lasting 12 days. The conditions under which the crew and actress worked in the Berlin winter, including the very tight time frame, allowed little room for improvisation. The crew had to "plan the shoot meticulously" as sometimes they had to shoot two roles per day. A total 130 minutes of footage was shot. Rosefeldt framed
Manifesto as "a series of episodes that can be seen separately but that can also be seen together in their entirety, as a choir of difference voices". Cinematographer
Christoph Krauss used the
Alexa XT Plus digital camera as his A-camera. Visual effects (VFX) shots were captured in
ArriRaw format. Non-VFX sequences shot with the Alexa XT Plus and the Alexa Plus B-camera were recorded in
ProRes 4444. Krauss used an additional Phantom Flex camera for two high-speed shots. He said he chose
Cooke S4 lenses for the shoot because he likes the "slightly softer skin tones they produce". Cooke S4 lenses were combined with two
Angénieux Optimo Zooms, which were used for "longer focal lengths and flexible second unit shots". Krauss aimed for a natural look, noting that "as in almost all of [Rosefeldt's] works, there is enough abstraction through either deceleration in long takes and slow motion, or unnatural perspectives like high top-shots". ==Release==