In the digital video stone age....

During my school days, one of my visions was it to make movies. But how? You can buy a camera and cassettes, but you cannot use scissors and glue like they do it in the movies - I know it is like that, I'm currently working in one. Fortunately, in the end of the 90s the consumer electronics branch just rolled out affordable hardware to edit your own videos at home! Expensive stand-alone devices were pushed aside by PC cards like the famous "Pinnacle Video DC10" I purchased for over 400 good old "Deutsche Mark"! Damn, I forgot something, the camera! Another story...

Autopia

In 1999 the first really serious project came up. Our school participated in the "Focus Schuelerwettbewerb" when I was in the 11th class. I was not involved from the beginning. Christoph brought me on board to do the video stuff. The main theme for the contest was "Technology of Tomorrow". We concentrated on the early concepts of Telematics and how traffic can be influenced by Technology. Today we all have a navigation system onboard, even in our cell phones. But in those days it was new and still hard to imagine. To go not too much in depth, just watch the result, if you are allowed to. Unfortunately due to possible licence problems I cannot share my first serious work.

Der Digitalisierte Mensch -  The Digitized Human

We placed second in this nationwide german competition. But this was not enough. Right after receiving our price in Berlin, we started to work on the second participation for the year 2000. New topic, new concepts, better ideas, and better hardware! I started to work with a new Sony Mini DV Camcorder and a professional realtime video editing board, a Matrox RT2000, an awesome piece of technology. Both allowed us to set up a purely digital toolchain for production, which is clearly visible in the results. Based on the given theme "Digital Revolution", we created a professional lineup consisting of scientific reasearch, public panel discussion, and of course an outstanding video presentation. Finally we got rewarded with the first prize. Because this time even the music was of our own making, I can proudly present our contribution to the public. The first clip is a 3 minute trailer, which was presented at the Focus Award Show in Munich. The second is the full video presentation.

Schule macht Zukunft

The FOCUS competition management offered Christoph and me the opportunity to produce a promotion clip for the next year and upcoming events. In 2002 we completed out first and only commercial project.

After the secondary school exams, my orientation switched to computer science, which closed the chapter of video creation and a future in the movie industry. The last one is not given up completely. With my knowledge in computer graphics and interdisciplinary experience in visual effects there is a chance to join this business too.

I made many other small productions with friends, just for fun on the one hand, and for further school projects. For those, I have no sources anymore, or I am not allowed to show them, even to a restricted group of registered users. If you probably know about what I am talking, because you belong to the small circle of people I worked with, don't hesitate to JLIB_HTML_CLOAKING for a private copy! I am glad to hear from you!