Production

A film portrait of the actor Danny Liedtke, whom I knew from the Köln 50667 days — before that he'd acted in my short film "Mad and Gay." Danny was one of the first real German social-media stars, very open about sharing his life. The portrait grew out of a shared idea, shot on the Sony A7S; I was hungry for projects back then. To this day the most honest portrait I've made — Danny really opened up.

An intro film for my friend, the sports photographer Oliver Güth, who gave a talk at Photokina as a Tamron ambassador. Oliver had just come back from Japan — snowy mountains, athletes, all shot on Tamron lenses — and wanted to show it at the fair. I went through his images, interviewed him, laid his voice over the video and presented the photos. It ran at Photokina, went over well, and Oliver was really happy. For me a slightly bigger project, also in coordinating people.

A fighter portrait of Lara Werth, whom I knew from the Köln 50667 days — a really interesting character: a lot of art and acting early on, plus German kickboxing champion. She inspired me to go to Thailand; she'd trained Muay Thai there early. Shot around the Düsseldorf Art Academy; she wanted a video for her acting portfolio that showed she can actually fight. On the Sony A7S, shot in a few hours, it went onto her website.

The official music video for Cologne artist SKA510, whom I know from my time on Köln 50667 — her authenticity had stuck with me. A cool side project with DP Rick Schepker, whom I knew from the Köln 50667 and Krass graduating-class days; he shot it on his RED through his own production company. We rented a few locations and filmed in a friend's studio. Here I could focus entirely on directing and writing; a friend of Rick's helped with the edit, and that's how I picked up the music-video flow. It did well.

Back then I worked at Filmpool as an actor and junior editor. At the 99 Fire Films festival you have 99 hours to deliver a 99-second film on a set theme — I think the theme was actually “prank”, because pranks were all over social media at the time. Inspired by the clown-horror-mask pranks, I wrote a short script in which a joke goes too far and shot it with Filmpool's casting director of the time as the detective and a few friends — entirely without artificial light, just the Sony A7S and a cheap shotgun mic, all in 99 hours. Visually still one of my favourite pieces to this day, as old as it is.

A project for the art studies of my childhood friend David Wingenbach, in the middle of the pandemic — after “Landnahme der Kunst”, already our second piece together. David had painted a dark, beautiful canvas, a reflection on the lockdown, and took it into the park: paints and brushes spread everywhere, people invited to add something. In that moment when restrictions were slowly easing and people dared to get closer again, the painting suddenly exploded with colour and input from Cologne's own frequency — a small explosion of hope in an otherwise bleak lockdown.

Made during my time as a Junior Creative Producer at Film Pool, around the mood tape for Unbestechlich. The company had bought a brand-new DJI Ronin 4D, so I took it home to Aachen, where I was studying, for the weekend and put it through its paces — two friends and fellow students on a walk, a colleague making music in the park. The moment it clicked: a fully stabilized one-man cinema rig you can actually shoot films with. That convinced the company of the potential.

An arthouse short for my application to the KHM Cologne art academy — it got me into the final round of an art school for the first time. The year's theme was "polyphonic." Shot with two acting students I'd met back then: an ambiguous dialogue between a couple breaking up — you hear the conversation, the subtitle tells a different story, while you see the two of them apart in their rooms, missing each other. My attempt to do less and bring in some quiet, inspired by French arthouse and old noir films. One of the first projects on the Sony A7S with a borrowed, very sharp Sigma.

A video essay from the lockdown era about space, expression and survival. A friend from school who was studying art in Cologne had a media project on the city and the pandemic, and asked me for help because I was making portrait videos back then. The idea: interview friends — myself included — on the subject and build a mood video out of it. For me also a quiet memory of my student years in Aachen during Corona, where the form itself became the argument.

A comedic idea with a quiet bit of social commentary: take the social-media phenomena of 2016 and stage them as if the algorithms were real — swiping men away like on Tinder, people following you through the park like Instagram followers. At its core it was about the loss of real human connection, now that we talk through channels more than face to face. Wrote the script on the side, shot it on the Sony A7S with a whole crew of old school and Köln 50667 friends I rounded up.

The application video for my first application to the KHM art academy in Cologne. I don't remember the theme anymore — but I'd written and recorded the text in a frenzy, completely drunk, and then shot images to go with it together with friends. A genuine attempt at making art, and maybe one of the most honest pieces I've made — an early experiment with metaphor, analogy and voice-over in film.

My first real music video of my own. After my Abitur my father gave me a used Canon 7D, the camera I made most of my first projects with. Back then I was an intern and production assistant at NorddeichTV and got to experience the entire production of the show “Rising Star” from A to Z — a format adapted from Israel for RTL, a kind of competitor to The Voice, where the audience voted on the talents live via a huge video wall. I'd met the duo Freitag & Krusenbaum there — they made it far in the show. We were the same age, got on well, and so I made them this video for their first own song as a favour. We simply walked through Cologne for a day — Deutz, the main station — I played the music off a speaker, they lip-synced, and I tried out Warp Stabilizer and a bit of colour grading for the first time. A lovely memory, also of my time at NorddeichTV, where I learned the absolute basics.

Made in my very early Köln 50667 phase, around the time of my Abitur, when shisha bars were suddenly popping up all over Cologne and my friends and I were forever sitting around chilling. In editing I'd learned to fake slow motion with After Effects (Optical Flow) — the missing frames get computed in between so it stays smooth. With the first Canon 7D I filmed my friends and myself blowing smoke rings and put it all into slow motion; shot in my 17-square-metre flat in Cologne. For me it was a turning point: the mindset switch of carrying my game-editing over to real life — cool images with cool music, still my favourite thing to do. There was a second, bigger version later.

The very first video that came about when I'd bought my first Sony A7S with a kit lens. I wanted to test the low-light performance, insane for the time — as a broke artist-filmmaker I'd always fought with light-weak cameras and no means for expensive lenses, and suddenly those problems were gone. So I roamed the city at night with a friend from the Köln 50667 days and just caught the vibe — with no stabilisation at all. In the edit, inspired by HBO, Netflix and Korean series, it became more than a test: a small mood piece. The music is by the same composer friend as on Heng Heng. In hindsight one of my first visual impressions towards my project Adler.

One of my very early pieces. This is where I started putting more editing and storytelling in — like a trailer sound from a Transformers film as an audio overlay. Montages like these were how I got into After Effects and Premiere Pro at all; my very first videos I'd cut in Windows Movie Maker, filmed off the screen with a cheap webcam. Here I experimented with a slow-motion plugin, green screen and Cinema 4D for the first time, and dug deeper into grading and sound design. It was less about the most spectacular kills than about effects that aren't immediately obvious. The game's “Cinematics” feature let you re-record matches afterwards from any camera angle — pure magic to me back then. Still one of my favourite montages.

The first, in quotes, cinematic digital content I ever made. Back then I'd been following an older YouTuber who, as a VFX artist, cut the deepest Call of Duty montages — it stuck with me. Through a YouTube editing contest I downloaded the provided clips and edited this video out of them. For the first time I worked with overlays, alpha channels and blend effects, and in the process — without knowing the term — learned what compositing is: layering elements until an effect emerges. A lot of it pieced together from YouTube tutorials, my first time adding my own sound effects. An early piece I showed people and that landed — it wasn't just gameplay, it was a vibe. Came before “Super Epic Montages” and the Dualtage montage.

A DJ friend was playing at Bootshaus in Cologne and asked if I'd come by with the camera — I filmed him and his colleague, and he picked the track himself. At the same time it became a personal first-person vlog. This was the first time I turned the editing instinct from my old Call of Duty montages loose on real footage, cut entirely to the music. It ran on my YouTube channel back then, "HAUS 9", and the club posted it too — still one of my favorite videos.

Very spontaneous, through a colleague: a camera operator had dropped out for the Cologne brass band Querbeat, so I stepped in. One of my earlier event videos — I'd already done a few in Cologne clubs by then, lots of small freelance gigs. One day, not the best camera, but still a few good shots, cut to the track. The first time I filmed on a big stage — I still enjoy going back to it.

An aftermovie for a 90s party at E-Werk in Cologne, made for a DJ I knew from my Filmpool and Köln 50667 days. He was playing and asked for a cool aftermovie. A relaxed night, a bit of filming — a kind of image film for him. Looking back, a really nice video.

A teaser for a vernissage by two artist friends from the Düsseldorf Art Academy, who were exhibiting in a garage in Bonn and wanted something for Facebook and Instagram. Shot in a single afternoon on the Sony A7S — one of my first real digital "cinema" cameras, freshly bought and tested on trips to Korea. A bit of art, a bit of cinematic feel: presenting art.

A brand film for a Turkish restaurant, set up through a colleague — friends were also celebrating a wedding there. One of my first projects with the freshly bought Sony A7S. The idea: capture the vibe of the evening — a nice memory for the guests and a promo film for the restaurant at the same time. The camera's low-light ability was decisive here. Something I'd love to do more often.

Multicam post-production for Foot Locker's SneakerTalk podcast — I cut a lot of whole episodes. This is where I learned multicam editing, syncing several audio tracks cleanly, working under time pressure, rendering and converting long projects properly, building graphics, lower-thirds and subtitles — and finding a workflow for longer video projects. My role: editing.

From my Abitur years, when I started out as a party promoter on Cologne's Ringe. I'd already been trying out short films and little videos on YouTube; through the scene I got into shooting aftermovies for organisers. At carnival I spent the day out promoting the party with a colleague, filmed through the night at the Crystal Club with two cameras — and we cut all night so an aftermovie was online the very next day, doubling as promotion for the other events. We called it “Capture Cologne” back then. My first paid video job; I've worked as a videographer professionally ever since. One of the fondest memories of my youth in Cologne's party scene, and the start of many connections that came later.