Budding Filmmakers and Professional Training in Germany

When, at the beginning of the last century, films were still a fairground attraction, production designers were not yet needed.


Back then, moving pictures, usually presenting burlesques staged using a simple set, were sensational enough in themselves. However, the profession developed as film subjects became more complex, projection areas larger and films longer. Examples include Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Nibelungen, designed by Otto Hunte. Other famous production designers of this period were Robert Herlth, Erich Kettelhut and Karl Vollbrecht.

With the advent of Nouvelle Vague and the young film-makers of the sixties, who preferred original film settings for their productions, the job of production designer nearly died out, according to Annette Ganders, lecturer in scenography at the Film Academy in Ludwigsburg and vice-chairwoman of the production design department at the Berlin Association of Production Designers, Art Directors and Costume Designers (SFK). But then Wim Wenders (The American Friend / Der amerikanische Freund 1976/77, Art Directors: Heidi and Toni Lüdi) and Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Veronika Voss / Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss, 1981/82, Art Director: Rolf Zehetbauer) returned to using built sets.

Rolf Zehetbauer, who also filmed Querelle with Fassbinder, already had an international reputation, partly for his cooperation with Bob Fosse (Cabaret) and Ingmar Bergmann (The Serpent's Egg / Das Schlangenei). Other German production designers, too, made their name internationally, such as Götz Weidner in The Boat / Das Boot by Wolfgang Petersen and Jan Schlubach, who worked with Stanley Kubrick.

Fields of work

For film creators, they are vital. But what is their proper job title: art directors, set-builders, film designers, or production designers? All these terms can be used. But none is spot-on, as none encompasses the whole, varied range of tasks their profession involves. Their main task comprises making a visual application of a script, which means creating relevant settings for the content. To do this, buildings, for example, have to be planned, locations sought and interiors designed. It is essential to liase closely with the director, cameraman and lighting technician. Production designers are not only responsible for the creative work, but also for technical and organisational planning and realisation during filming. And they also need to have business acumen in order to keep within the given budget. Their work is performed throughout all the film's production phases, and ranges from making sketches and monitoring construction work to winding up proceedings and dismantling constructions afterwards.

"We have to be generalists," says Annette Ganders about her job, which not only demands "an absolutely sure sense of style, imagination and a willingness to work hard" but also "the ability to do research," because "the more intensively you get to grips with the film's subject, the better thought-out the set design is."

As was the case in the past, many people in Germany come to this job from other careers e.g. architects and interior or graphic designers. Direct access is also possible by taking a course of studies at film colleges in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Munich, Ludwigsburg, Hamburg or Cologne.