The second move. Extending knowledge about the interplay of film and media design at the Film Academy since 2003.
Higher image resolutions with the introduction of HDTV in Europe - Vis À Vis
The Film Academy Baden Württemberg is one of the most renowned film schools in Germany. It brought various Oscars for real as well as animated films to the Swabian countryside. And it is considered as a technological pioneer in Visual Effects and Camera. From motion capture to motion control, the courses cover all possibilities. Accordingly, HD became an important issue there when I started my studies, because the format became increasingly decisive on the European market. Now it was possible to bring the quality of the cinema pictures into the living room. For the marketing on the TV channels, I created an individual look as part of a study project to promote the brand powerfully and sustainably. Because the boundaries between the viewer and the image seemed to dissolve, I entitled the project »Vis À Vis«, face to face.
HD gradually became the new standard in the European consumer sector in 2005. ARTE France was the pioneer among the broadcasters until 2008.
Adapting the story for Bang & Olufsen
With higher resolution images, it was now important for manufacturers to produce the appropriate devices. Gone were the times of 14" cathode ray tube monitors that were designed for playing motion pictures in SD quality. The new standard's quality provided razor sharp images and combined them in a wide range of colors with a high-quality sound experience. Bang & Olufsen was considered as a pioneer in this context. The company combined an avant-garde design with the highest technological standards. State of the art. Thus, as part of my study project, I wanted to pay it a tribute and adapted the concept for »Vis À Vis« on the product USPs of the Danish company's Beovision TV model series. Lifestyle and sensuality became the central aspects of this commercial. Technology can be really sexy.
The creation of visual identities for the events fmx and Porsche Award
Once a year, the Film Academy and the Institute of Animation, together with business partners and media supporters like ACM Siggraph, organize the biggest events in media context. On the one hand, this is the fmx, the most renown event for innovations in film, animation, visual effects and technology, on the other hand, this is the Porsche Award in cooperation with Porsche AG that has its focus on advertising films. For both events I created the visual appearance. Of course, moving images played a big role: trailers, idents, bumpers, dividers, lower thirds, etc. The entire repertoire of broadcast elements had to be created. They were an essential part of the visual identity of the two events and were used for international marketing activities.
Promoting the most influencing and relevant German events for film, animation, visual effects and technology in Stuttgart.
To gain professional experience at avcommunication besides studies
From 2004 on until the end of 2006, when I had to finish my thesis, I permanently worked as a freelancing Creative Art Director for avcommunication, an advertising agency that was concentrating on brand & event communication and motion pictures. So, contemporaneously to my studies I was caring about audiovisual projects for clients like Toyota Motorsports, Baxter, Porsche Museum, also producing a television series for ARD & SWR, creating corporate films for Deutsche Post World Net and handling content productions of events for HypoVereinsbank.
When the sun goes down in New York
Since MTV started operating in the beginning of the 1980s, it has become the most important platform for the marketing of music. Because of my personal preference for electronic music, I was fascinated about the interplay of audio and video in all of its facets, especially in the 2000s. Music videos became an experimental medium for creative people and a mixture of film, graphic design, typography, 2D and 3D animation, whether analog or digital. No genre had a major impact on the style of large commercial productions. Movies like David Fincher's »Fight Club« were almost complete music videos, whose look was in turn copied for the advertising market. Conversely, music videos already became own narrative formats with increasing lengths in the early 80s. During my studies, I found this medium absolutely exciting and created one for Cocoon Rec. that showed a fast drive through New York in all its facets and with the use of live-action design elements of billboards or signages to support the song lyrics. Design in film as a design element itself.
Until 2007 MTV was the most important platform for artist development. Then the rise of social media and YouTube as an advertised on-demand service for the promotion and viewing of music videos changed everything.
