Budding Filmmakers and Professional Training in Germany

Roughly 300 films of various lengths and genres are turned out each year at German film schools, recaps producer Susann Schimk in her thesis at the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen Konrad Wolf in Babelsberg.

She points out, however, that these first works are seldom subjected to the harsh conditions of the market. The costs are manageable, moreover, and remain within the bounds of the school budget.

Longer projects, e.g. students’ final films submitted for a degree, are a different story. The development of the material, the writing of the screenplays, the production costs – all that conflicts not only with the duration and conditions of studies at film school, but also with the school budgets. Yet more and more young filmmakers want to make long films that are liable to give them better “assessment prospects and better references for their future careers. If their senior film is a short, the filmmakers put heavy demands on themselves to turn out brilliant work, for the senior film is more than a degree: it’s a visiting card.”

Das kleine Fernsehspiel: a springboard for star directors of the future

German film schools receive funds from regional budgets and various organizations that promote filmmaking, but they’re also aided by service-sector companies, such as raw stock suppliers, printing labs and equipment rentals that give them special deals. For more elaborate productions, it helps to enlist the support of the movie industry and TV stations. To make the necessary contacts as early on as possible, prospective patrons are regularly invited to screenings of the pictures made each year at film schools.

Attending these screenings is part and parcel of the day-to-day work of Burghard Althoff, editor at public TV network ZDF in Mainz. He’s on the editorial staff of Das kleine Fernsehspiel, an institution that has done much to assist aspiring filmmakers over the past 40 years: in fact, it made possible the directorial debuts of the likes of Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Lili Marleen), Alexander Kluge (Yesterday Girl / Abschied von Gestern) and Jim Jarmusch (Down by Law), as well as Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run), Oskar Röhler (No Place to Go / Die Unberührbare) and Christian Petzold (The State I Am In / Die innere Sicherheit). “The collaboration between our editorial staff and the universities is very intensive,” says Althoff, “we keep in touch on an ongoing basis, keep an eye on what is produced there and seek out new talents, new personal styles, for film and TV as early on as possible.”

The collaboration usually begins with the preparation of senior films. The TV editors assist the student directors in elaborating the projects. They supervise the development of the material, help flesh out the screenplay and help with the financing – above and beyond their own funds for coproductions. This is a great opportunity for aspiring filmmakers. For with the aid of the editors, who see them through some 25 new productions of various genres each year, young talents can realize up to three pictures during the course of their studies. And that goes for cameramen and producers as well as directors, who sometimes pool their forces and apply to the editors as a team.

“TV gives fresh impetus to cinema”

The continuity with which Das kleine Fernsehspiel promotes budding filmmakers, giving them public and industry exposure in regular broadcasting slots and at film festivals, is unparalleled in Germany. But other TV stations also provide support and air time to neophytes, e.g. in series like Debüt im Dritten on public TV network ARD. The production of individual documentary as well as feature films is backed above all by the station 3sat, a cooperative venture between Germany, Switzerland and Austria. ARTE, the Franco-German cultural channel, is particularly committed to short films, for which it has created a special TV magazine broadcast. The commercial station SAT 1 pools its activities on behalf of young filmmakers under the label SAT 1 Talents, featuring seminars, workshops, contests, and cooperative projects with universities in the areas of script-writing, directing, acting, production and stand-up comedy.

It makes sense to Burghard Althoff that, apart from some independent studios and cultural and business organizations like the Kuratorium junger deutscher Film, TV stations are the most committed to the new generation of filmmakers. There is no bona fide film industry in Germany, “a cinema culture is still but a dream. It’s television that provides the main impetus for cinema in Germany.”