Innovation in film production from Babelsberg
Potsdam-Babelsberg is a traditional film location – national and international films have been produced at Studio Babelsberg for more than 100 years, as well as series such as Babylon Berlin and TV shows such as Bosetti Late Night. The location also stands for media technology innovations. The MediaTech Hub Potsdam, for example, pools expertise, networks players and is the only digital hub in the Digital Hub Initiative to focus specifically on MediaTech.
But there are also several examples of media technology progress from Babelsberg in the field of audiovisual production. Volucap, for example, developed a volumetric video system that can be used to create 3D images of people and actors. For the film THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS by Lana Wachowski, some shots were taken in the Volucap studio, but also on other sets with the help of Volucap technology. The post-production of the Hollywood film was again carried out at Rotor Film, whose Cinema Stage is one of the largest and most modern studios for film post-production in the world. For their work on THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS, the entire production team was shortlisted as nominees for the 94th Oscars 2022 in the categories “Sound” and “Visual Effects”.
The young production company Arkanum Pictures is also committed to innovation. The company was founded in 2023 and is also based in Babelsberg. The concept of Arkanum Pictures is to combine traditional craftsmanship in film production with innovative, new and exciting approaches – both in script development and in media production.
The DNA of Arkanum Pictures: Finding new approaches
For Sebastian Herbst, Co-Managing Director of Arkanum Pictures, the desire to set up his own production company stemmed from wanting to help shape the media landscape in Germany. Among other things, this also means trying out new things, daring to innovate and doing some things differently to the way they have been done up to now – and basically this is also the DNA of Arkanum Pictures.
In an interview with MTH Potsdam, Sebastian Herbst explains that the founding of the production company was preceded by a two-year process in which he and his business partner Lukas Koll carefully considered how they wanted to set up the company. Arkanum Pictures thrives on the different expertise and experiences that come together in the company. Sebastian himself originally worked in the field of communication design, while his business partner Lukas has a background in film studies, among other things. Zudem hat Lukas Erfahrungen im Animationsfilm. Lukas also has experience in animated film. Among other things, he worked on Laika & Nemo, a short film animated using the stop-motion technique, which won the so-called “Student Oscar” at the Student Academy Awards in the “Animation” category in 2022.
In addition to the management, the entire team with its individual and creative backgrounds also contributes to the further development and success of the production company. Different voices come together that are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but complement each other in a constructive way. “The great synergy that you find is that you have people around you who have perhaps also worked in other media, on other projects, and that you can exchange ideas with each other in this association, where you get perspectives on your own projects that don’t always necessarily have to be identical to your own,” Sebastian summarizes the creative exchange.
In addition, the decision was made that the rights to Arkanum Pictures productions should not lie solely with the production company, as Sebastian explains: “We have found a model in which we enable young producers to work as producers on their projects, which they may bring with them from college or university. In contrast to a traditional employment relationship, where all rights are then only held by the company at the end, we have chosen a model in which those responsible for the projects also hold the majority of the rights to them,” says Sebastian.
The importance of Babelsberg as a film location
In addition, the question of location was decisive for Arkanum Pictures – Berlin or Potsdam-Babelsberg? The two managing directors and parts of the team got to know each other while studying at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF. During this time, they became increasingly close to the Babelsberg location, as Sebastian describes it: “We saw that the location is incredibly exciting as a media location, as a technology location, and that there is a huge amount of film history here, as well as expertise. The Oscars are on the shelves here, so to speak, if you open the right doors. This means that people work here who are basically the best in the world.”
On the other hand, there were hardly any production companies developing their own material. On the one hand, this offered Arkanum Pictures the potential to fill a gap. On the other hand, the Babelsberg film location has a well-developed infrastructure that the young company is taking advantage of.
Since June 2024, Arkanum Pictures has also received the STARTBÜRO BABELSBERG grant from the film university. On the one hand, this provides the team with an office space in the middle of Babelsberg, which above all helps them to make and maintain contacts and establish themselves at the location. On the other hand, the team receives financial support.
Experiments, creative research and collaborative work
Media production and development itself is a small-scale process consisting of several steps. “What we observed was that these different project stages and trades are sometimes very separate from each other, whereby the medium itself can only work with good and creative collaboration. No film is made by one person,” says Sebastian. There are also clear hierarchies and differences, especially on film sets. And while film has always been driven by innovation on the one hand and has always produced innovations on the technical side, for example, the social components of filmmaking tend to be conservative, according to Sebastian Herbst.
Although Arkanum Pictures does not want to question these hierarchies entirely, it does want to break new ground. To a certain extent, this relates to the way in which they work together. For example, the idea of involving people from certain trades in processes in which they would not normally be involved has come up.
They are also constantly trying out new methods of approaching a material. However, this depends on the project in question. In each case, we look at what the production team or the creative managers need to realize their vision.
This is also reflected in the non-profit project Das Kollaborativ, in which the team-based development of material and ideas is creatively researched and tested. The project experiments with forms of material development and idea prototyping from other creative fields as well as agile start-up methods such as design thinking.
One initiative that is organized and hosted with Das Kollaborativ is “Encourage Film Talents”. This format took place for the first time in 2024 as part of the 74th Berlinale and is now being continued as a series of events at several film festivals. “Encourage Film Talents” is both a place for creative professionals to network and a kind of platform for exchanging ideas about the future of the industry, especially with regard to young filmmakers.
Although Sebastian Herbst and Lukas Koll are also the managing directors of Das Kollaborativ, the two realized relatively quickly that they wanted to decouple this project from Arkanum Pictures. “We realized that we needed an entity that wasn’t the production company, a place where you can experiment and try things out more and have a lower ceiling,” explains Sebastian. Because while Arkanum Pictures is always about producing media at the end of the day, Sebastian says it’s completely fine at Das Kollaborativ “if nothing comes out of it in the end, apart from a gain in knowledge and an exchange of knowledge.”
From arthouse to virtual production – current productions
In addition to creative approaches and innovative methods in material development, Arkanum Pictures also focuses on new technologies. In 2024, for example, two projects were realized that worked specifically with virtual production: Wingspan and Interconnection. Virtual production describes a production process in which films are shot in front of huge LED screens on which the digitally created backgrounds are displayed.
In both projects, the concept of virtual production was incorporated into the development of the material right from the start. And for the mini-series Interconnection in particular, the aim was to “push the technology to its limits”, as Sebastian describes it. The LED walls were not only to be used as a background surface, but also as an interaction surface for the actors.
Wingspan consists of a total of three pilot episodes, which are currently being presented on various markets and platforms. The aim is to produce an entire season. The mini-series Interconnection, on the other hand, is currently in post-production.
Also currently in post-production is the first feature-length film in the Arkanum Pictures portfolio, which is to receive a theatrical release. The working title: Blaue Flecken. This is the graduation film of director Sarah Miro Fischer and producers Janna Fodor and Nina-Beyer Seel. Blaue Flecken is a co-production of the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB) and Arkanum Pictures with RBB and is funded by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. Blaue Flecken has already received the “Work in Progress Award” (WIP Award) at the San Sebastián Film Festival. Nothing stands in the way of the film’s successful festival run or theatrical release.
More about the MTH Blog
The media technologies of the future are already being used today – not only in the entertainment sector but in a wide variety of industries. For our MediaTech Hub Potsdam blog, we talk to tech enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and researchers once a month and tell the stories behind their innovative business models, ideas, projects and collaborations.
