Budding Filmmakers and Professional Training in Germany

No other film school in Germany can pride itself in having so many Oscar winners and Oscar nominees among its alumni than the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film- HFF (the University of Television and Film) in Munich. Caroline Link (Nowhere in Africa, Oscar 2003) and Florian Henckel von Donnersmark (The Lives of Others, Oscar 2007) to name but a few.

Furthermore in the year 2004 Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni were nominated for Best Foreign Film for their film The Story of the Weeping Camel.

In 2000 and 2001 Florian Gallenberger won the Student Oscar and Best Short Film for Quiero Ser. Other alumni nominated for the Student Oscar were Katja von Garnier for Making Up! in 1994, Sikander Goldau for Fragile in 2004, Michaela Kezele for Milan along with Michael Dreher for Fair Trade both in 2007. Last year the university celebrated its 40th anniversary. What is it that makes its graduates so successful?

The mainstays of the course

Every year 55 students are enrolled for the courses in feature film and television feature, documentary film, TV journalism as well as production and media business. They then have the possibility of specialising in the fields of visual aesthetics (camera) and screenwriting. Post-graduates can do a course in production design for film and television and there is also an extension course in theatre, film and television criticism. Additional subjects are available for specialisation such as creative writing, TV journalism and advertising.

"For us it is very important that the students all have a common grounding," explains Dean of Students, Prof. Andreas Gruber, "That is why media and communications science, along with technology, are compulsory elements of the course for all students. In this way a screenwriting student learns how to operate a camera, and a camera student has to come to grips with the basics of dramatic composition." This is the basic curriculum in the first four terms – intensive and demanding. "There is definitely no time at all for any part-time jobs during this part of the course," says Gruber.

The craft, the story, the stance

"First and foremost, film is the art of being concrete. That is at times somewhat uncompromising, but it is always a challenge – there should be no maybe, no possibly, no somehow and no almost. That is the way it is with images," as Andreas Gruber said in the anniversary publication 40 Jahre HFF (40 years of HFF). In his opinion the training the students get in preparation for making feature films and television features revolves around three key elements:
"You have to have an innate ability to think in images, but the way a film is directed can actually be learned. For me the actual craft of filmmaking is of the utmost importance. For this our students have a wide range of courses to choose from – all closely linked with the screenwriting training."

Once you have learned the basic craft, you can then start with learning how to tell a story in a film. In this context Gruber goes way beyond the framework of dramatic composition when he defines "telling a story": "It is a matter of the significance and the necessity of the narrative within any given culture."

The main objective when dealing creatively with material and content is to work out what your personal stance is on the subject. The student has to develop his own catalogue of criteria that will help him or her to form his or her own philosophy on life and to try to get to the bottom of things by asking critical questions. He should strive to adopt a "personal, subjective and even emotional perspective that the audience can follow."

In this respect it is also important to reflect on the function of film. "During a course of study it is essential to ask oneself not only - why do I actually want to tell people about this? But also – why do we want to be told about this? What is the function of the particular film you are making – escapism? Help for the audience's problems?" This is how Gruber sketches the approach.

Openness and tolerance

The HFF can look back over a long tradition of contacts both on a national as well as international level. With the help of CILECT (Centre International de Liaison des Ecoles de Cinéma et de Telélévision) the Munich school maintains a regular exchange on curriculum ideas and course requirements with international colleagues. They furthermore enjoy close contact with the other five German film schools in Babelsberg, Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Ludwigsburg.

Of the 346 students in attendance 67 are from abroad (status: 10/2007), from countries ranging from Mongolia to Ghana. The International Film School Festival that takes place in Munich every year constitutes a vital platform for them. Participants from 20 countries show their films there. This is a welcome opportunity for HFF students to get to know their future production partners. And for many a foreign student an incentive to apply to the Munich school.

Alongside the scope for aesthetic experiments Hollywood cinema plays an important role at HFF, "Theoretically we have no reservations about it. The confrontation with this style of narrative and the strategic inclusion of the audience are taught and adapted at HFF," explains Gruber. This is quite definitely one of the reasons why HFF alumni are to be found among the ranks of the Oscar nominees and Oscar winners.

And even when it comes to the actual structure of the courses at the university there is a breath of tolerance to be found – students who have completed a course in documentary film, for example, are able to graduate with a feature film, and vice versa.

Munich is still home – but with new perspectives

In 2010 HFF will move into the centre of Munich. A brand-new university faculty with all kinds of projection rooms and professional studios is being built near the Pinakothek art galleries. This bears just as much witness to ambitious future perspectives as the Centre for Film Technology that was founded in 2007. This is a place for doing research and for on-the-job training in collaboration with partners from the field of post-production like ARRI, Panther or Cineplus. HFF graduates benefit from the flourishing networking that goes on between the university, the film industry, sponsorship organisations and film industry providers – a networking system that has always enjoyed a great tradition in Bavaria. 90 per cent of all HFF graduates get jobs in the media and related fields.

HFF's mission statement says, "Our university has set itself the goal of not just serving the needs of the film and television market, but to go beyond them and enhance the market with artistic personalities and, in doing so, give a strong, new impetus to filmmaking in Germany." You will see that this goal has most definitely been achieved – whether it is a film at the local art house cinema on the corner, a prime-time TV feature or at a documentary film festival. And, of course, the next time you hear the words, "And the Oscar goes to .....".