Mozart started his career as a composer at the age of four, when he began composing piano pieces. At the age of five he was composing minuets and by age nine he had composed his first symphony. He wrote 20 complete operas, his final and most spectacular being The Magic Flute, which he wrote in the last year of his life at age 35. Mozart was a combination of the revolutionary compositional brilliance of modern day composers such as John Lennon and Paul McCartney with the groundbreaking performance individuality of an Elvis Presley—all rolled into one. He was the ultimate iconic pop-star of the 18th century who traveled across Europe on tour, each one more outstanding than the next. Fortunately for a modern audience his genius has never faded. In celebration of his 250th birthday I wanted to capture some of his most joyous work on film, and decided that a contemporary movie version of The Magic Flute might be workable if told as the backdrop to a modern love story, conveyed on a fantastical scale.

The Magic Flute is an unparalleled masterpiece of music, and this film might be considered an epic in terms of the scope of production. Not only does the film weave between time periods, reality and the imagination, it is also Kevin Sullivan’s first significant movie to incorporate computer generated imagery with live action.

The Neuschwanstein Castle, one of the most popular castles in Europe, is perhaps one of the most magical locations Kevin Sullivan captured for his film Mozart’s Magic Flute Diaries.  Though located in Bavaria, Kevin was able to use the photos he personally took of the castle and, with green screen technology, give his film a fantastic European landscape.  Here’s how Kevin was able to do this.