by Professor Thomas Haegele
Director of the Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction;
Deputy Managing Director of the Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg
When the Filmakademie was founded in 1991, it was clear that – unlike the film schools in Berlin, Cologne and Munich – it would not be able to draw on an existing technical infrastructure in the Stuttgart/Ludwigsburg region. All the equipment required by students to produce films had to be acquired and made available by the academy. This represented an enormous challenge.
For this reason a whole range of fundamental decisions were made prior to the school’s establishment:
- The Filmakademie had to enable students to work in a way that approximated practical and professional conditions as closely as possible. Access to technology was paramount.
- Basic and affordable equipment had to be available in large quantities, and it was equally important for students to have access to virtually all of the high-end equipment used in the industry.
- Both film and video were to be used as recording media.
- And finally, as the Filmakademie was newly established, cutting edge technology had to be available from the outset.
As a result, along with 35 mm and 16 mm film cameras, we also acquired VHS Camcorders and professional Betacam video cameras, as well as an extensive range of lighting and original-sound recording equipment. Additionally, the academy built a 300-square-meter sound stage.
Regarding postproduction, we decided that film and video would for the most part be edited using the digital offline systems that were then just coming onto the market. At the same time we did not completely abandon classic film-cutting techniques. Apart from acquiring a number of the last Steenbeck editing tables to be produced in Germany, the academy focused above all on installing the non-linear editing systems produced by Avid. In the online postproduction area, we decided to equip the academy with what was then the new digital video system. The Filmakademie set up one of Germany’s first serial digital video postproduction suites, which was equipped with mixers and hard-disk recorders manufactured by Abekas, D-1 tape machines from BTS and the HARRY by Quantal, which was then the standard equipment for digital postproduction of advertising spots. It was also decided that the academy would use digital technology for sound postproduction and film music.
Apart from the great technical potential that such professional equipment offered to the Filmakademie’s students, this large-scale acquisition underscored the level of commitment already characterizing the institution’s work and training back then. The decision to invest in what at the time was new digital technology was widely respected and discussed, and it provided the academy with great kudos, which was particularly valuable during the early years. The development of the film industry over the last 20 years has proven that this decision was the right one.
Over the years, the Filmakademie has made every effort to provide technology for student productions that have grown in number and scope, and it has managed to do so without abandoning the technical standard set by the initial investment. Today the academy’s 450 students and some 250 productions per year require a comprehensive range of technical equipment, which is still provided by the academy, even though it is often necessary to rent equipment from external companies, particularly cameras and lights. The Filmakademie campus is in principle structured like a production company. There are two large sound stages, a set construction workshop, a lending center for digital cinematography, HDCAM, 35 mm and 16 mm cameras, camcorders for various tapeless systems (Panasonic P2, Sony EX), along with a wide range of lighting equipment, a digital postproduction unit for HD, 2K and 4K, numerous workstations featuring extensive 2-D and 3-D software, a sound postproduction unit with sound design workstations, MIDI studios, a recording and sound mixing studio, and over 16 offline editing stations.
In addition, there are several editing tables, as hands-on work with film remains an essential part of the program. At least once, in their second year, all students are required to edit a 16 mm film using the classic editing table method.
Nevertheless, the Filmakademie continues to keep up with and – wherever possible – even set the pace in technological development. Our objective is to enable the students to practice working with the equipment which they will be using in professional life. For example, as part of a special program funded by the state government and the Baden-Wuerttemberg Foundation, we have been able to introduce high-definition video at the Filmakademie as a comprehensive training, production and postproduction standard. We are maintaining a broad range of simple and affordable systems but also offer the complete high-end workflow of digital cinema from recording to cinema projection. To expand and complement these systems, this year we created the possibility of cutting stereoscopic films, editing them in postproduction and viewing them in projection. Thus, the Caligari cinema was equipped with a DCI-conform projector. In postproduction, digital grading and digital mastering can now also be carried out with stereoscopic material.
