Budding Filmmakers and Professional Training in Germany

“Many young people opt for regular working hours, weekends off, paid vacations, homeowner’s loans on advantageous terms – and safeguarding their human dignity. Others go into filmmaking”,

remarks Axel Melzener, who studied script-writing at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, in an article on the first presentation of the First Steps Awards for young filmmakers in the year 2000. 24 years old at the time, Melzener entitled his reflections on film studies and prospects in the industry Leiden mit Leidenschaft (i.e., Suffering with a Passion).

He describes how, after the ambitious choice of a vague professional future, a personal metamorphosis takes place while you’re learning the ropes at film school. “Becoming aware of your own abilities” is an integral part of the programme, which he compares – and he means it in a very positive sense – to the “infamous three-point plan at the U.S. Marines Boot Camp: 1. Isolation in a secluded place. 2. Destruction of one’s old personality. 3. Creation of a new personality.” Pretty tough training, in other words. And when it’s over, what then?

“Play the game. Struggle. Or get out.”

“So there you are: a superbly trained, highly proficient, go-getting filmmaker and you don’t rightly know where to go in a country whose international repute rests chiefly on its exports of beer, kitchen appliances and cars,” he relates – and casts a critical eye on the German movie industry. “Welcome to reality.... Welcome to sponsoring committees...inadequate infrastructure, an arthouse film revival and technophobia. Welcome to discussions with often inept producers and TV editors who can’t read a screenplay and with sponsors in neckties who think Heinz Sielmann [maker of animal documentaries – editor’s note] is a famous actor. Welcome to long commercial breaks.” His conclusion: “A film school graduate confronted with the surrealism of the German film industry has three choices: 1. Play the game. 2. Struggle. 3. Or get out.”

Most of them stay with it. But they won’t get anywhere without struggling or taking the initiative. There is no guaranteed employment. On the set, where a movie is supposed to materialize within, say, 24 days, prospective employers generally bank on experience to keep within the budget. Whilst you could still experiment at university, now you’ve got to adapt to the market. You have to win over producers, directors and sponsoring committees to realize your ideas and projects. Just submitting a synopsis and waiting around for a reply won’t do the trick. What’s more, the market’s grown crowded: the days when, for example, new TV stations were desperately seeking fresh talents are gone, at least for now. “During the boom around 2001, 350 TV features were produced, in 2003 it was a mere 200,” recounts TV movie producer Nico Hofmann (TeamWorks), who teaches at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg. The reaction there has been to cut the number of new admissions in directing to six.

Networking and practical experience

Film school graduates, however, do bring a “good dowry” for getting started in the professional world, remarks Andrea Hohnen, organizer of the First Steps Awards for the best newcomers. For one thing, the movies they made during their studies; for another, the connections they made there too – e.g. with producers and TV editors who regularly attend screenings at film schools or with their peers in the course of collaborative student projects. Hohnen finds these “networks” the greatest asset that the schools impart to their students. But getting some experience on professional sets during your studies is also important, points out camerawoman Jana Marsik, who studied at the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen Konrad Wolf in Potsdam-Babelsberg. “You’ve got to start getting involved in professional productions fairly early on to know which rules apply there. We always had all the time in the world. It was a little like being on an island. Students who know nothing outside the university can’t cope afterwards.”

Often enough the only way to get a job – and the requisite practical experience – is to switch to other fields within the domain of the metier you have learned. Aspiring producers who aren’t (yet) ready to risk striking out on their own take jobs as production managers, directors work as production managers or TV editors, cameramen as film material assistants or lighting staff.

Heavy pressure

Not all the aspirants can cope with the constant pressure, what with the demand for maximum creativity and flexibility and the concomitant insecurity. Of the 10 students in Axel Melzener’s script-writing course who graduated in 2003, “only three are left. The others have disappeared, given up, are now studying psychology or have even become nurses.” Melzener himself, who strove successfully to get contracts even during his studies, has started up a script-writing workshop called Typewriter with the two former classmates who are still in the business. Their first movie was hit the movie theatres in April 2004: a comedy entitled Abgefahren (i.e. Screwball).