ALEX HOTZ

Hey there. I’m Alexander Hotz.

I’m a journalist and filmmaker. I cover politics, the environment, and technology, but I’m mostly interested in people and their stories.

My work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, UPI, NPR, Global Post, Huck, Mashable, The Daily News, The Guardian, Fusion, Univision, This American Life and others.  I’ve also produced commercials or sponsored content for clients like Singha Beer, Jimmy Choo, Microsoft, Vespa and Hendricks Gin.

When I don’t make videos, I often teach others how to do so. I have taught digital media classes at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University and Webster University’s Bangkok campus. I’ve also consulted for New York City’s Creative Communications team.

I’m a graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where I received two fellowships to extend my studies: the Digital Media Associate teaching fellowship and the New York World reporting fellowship.

I was born in Durban, South Africa but mostly grew up in the USA.

BERND T. HOEFFLIN

I was born in the previous millennium on the edge of the Black Forest. After an apprenticeship as a precision mechanic (not a good idea) and the study of digital media (good idea), my career as a cable carrier in film began, which reached its first climax with the millennium change and the rise to a producer for feature film and advertising.

As an entrepreneur and producer, I am particularly interested in digital transformation, change in the communications industry and the promotion of young talent.

For several years I have been the main lecturer for advertising film at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. I am also a member of the German Film Academy and the German Advertising Film Academy.

My passion is photography and music, in winter you can find me mostly on my snowboard somewhere in the Alps.

CARO ELLERT

Hi, I’m Caro and I work as a copywriter and creative director.
My clients are German and international brands & companies.
Mostly I design large-scale campaigns and brand concepts, but also any kind of online and offline idea, copy or text. I think and work across channels and it is important to me that my ideas and stories touch people in the most diverse forms. Many of my works have received international awards and I am a member of the Art Directors Club Germany and Europe.

And just in case Hollywood reads this: I also have some good scripts in mind.

CHRISTIAN BACKEN

For more than 20 years I have been involved in the technical and procedural transformation of organisations and communication as a consultant and doer. As a coach, I am curious about what people do in these systems to find their role – and how I can support them. The mix of these two attitudes is my greatest motivation.

CHRISTIAN VATTER

I’m a psychologist developing businesses and brands. I focus on exploring the relationship between organizations and their audience (customers, users), and creating concepts and strategies that satisfy diverse stakeholder demands.

Coming from brand management and marketing communication I concentrate now on Brand Experience: shaping situations and encounters that arise when people deal with a company, its products, services or employees. I believe it is becoming equally important how companies make people feel, not just what they say about themselves. For too long, brand communication and brand behavior have been designed separately.

I believe in creating value for both people and businesses as a basis for a respectful – and first and foremost sustainable – relationship. This is how contemporary marketing should be. To achieve this, I combine methodologies from psychology, branding and service design to fulfill marketing goals and user needs at the same time.

I founded and run Rlevance, a human-centered business consultancy. Rlevance helps companies to become more relevant to people – customers and employees alike, by creating strategies and concepts for brand identities, customer experiences, products and services, organizational cultures and internal processes. He has 18 years consulting experience across industries, from startup to international car manufacturer.

DAVID MAUPILÉ

Politicians, dock workers, actors or CEOs in front of my camera are all the same. I basically meet everyone with deep respect and true interest. Exciting people, beautiful places and good light are the ingredients for a good image. My ability to achieve an excellent result even under the most adverse circumstances is what distinguishes me. I seem to succeed again and again in taking people’s natural shyness in front of the camera, to let them be completely natural in their gestures and to show themselves despite their insecurity. Good preparation, my experience but also spontaneity and flexibility help me. I can think in single frames, but I can also tell stories. For me, photography is the key to the most diverse worlds. I can move well in many worlds and feel at home in them.

DOMINIK MEIS

I was born in Münster, grew up to some degree in Hamburg and gained experience all over the world, among other things with honest work. Even though I always liked Hamburg best to stay, my profession allowed me to get to know different cultures, countries and their people on all continents.

I think both are always right. If we listen to each other, are honest and put people at the centre of our interests, we can only learn and benefit from each other. I have also sharpened my senses by watching and producing thousands of films. If I want, I can hear quite well, especially electronic music. Those who have not yet seen “Birth”, “Heaven” and “Harold and Maude” and have not yet heard “Consumed” should do so urgently. One of my absolute favorite brands is Udo Lindenberg. From his straightforwardness, openness, honesty, strength and statement not only many people can take a big slice.

GESCHE REMITZ

I come from the North Sea and have always searched professionally for places that have water and seagulls. The sea and its waves give me inspiration and energy for my work. Seagulls have the ingenious ability to laugh and float above everything. Both the enjoyment of what you do and the ability to take on different perspectives are a basic prerequisite for my kind of media consulting.
Where the sea meets the land, man has built lighthouses. They have a central meaning – not only for me. Lighthouses provide orientation and show a clear path. The small and large ships of the Elbe are like the different customers who have shown me the most different needs and challenges in my job.
I learned one thing from the sea and internalized it: Every 6 hours there are changes with low and high tide, but what remains are the basic laws. This also applies to the media industry. Not everything has to be questioned, but many things have to be reinterpreted.
I advise advertisers and media to orientate themselves in the flow of digital transformation. How can brands grow sustainably? What relevance does which medium have for the target groups? What does the Customer Journey look like? I like to dive deep and don’t stay on the surface. It is often the hidden details in the depth of the data that make the difference when you put them back into the larger context.
I believe each strategy is unique and individual. One must pay attention to the currents, but must not let oneself be blindly dominated by them.

Today my home port is Hamburg and even though I could gain experience at many other locations the Elbe has called me back again and again.

ISA PRAHL

I was born and grew up in Münster and took to one’s heels right after graduating from high school. Berlin, Hamburg, Milan, Siegen were my stops. I washed across the Rhine and ran aground in Cologne. I studied a lot – graphic design, literature, culture and media and finally film – and I was always interested in one thing: storytelling.

I am always surprised how much there is to discover. My curiosity keeps me awake. They are little things, behind which whole worlds and great stories are hidden. This is my passion, content is king my credo.

When I’m not making movies, I travel the world.

JENNIFER KÖLLEN

As a journalist, I know how important facts are. And not the alternative ones. What happened so far: lived in Munich, Berlin and Hamburg, studied psychology, worked for the Abendzeitung, Emotion Magazin and Spiegel Online, now on the road as a freelance journalist. Literally, because I write not only about social and psychological topics, but also about travelling. For German media and my website.

I don’t know how many people I’ve interviewed. I’d say I don’t care what celebrity sits in front of me. I find it more exciting to ask psychologists like Remo Largo how everyone finds his own way. Or talking about life in Costa Rica with someone who emigrated from the USA and has lived in the jungle for 50 years.

We are blinded enough by illusory worlds these days. I think people crave something real. Something true. So do I.

LARS BUECHEL

Observe.
See, try to understand.
What I see.

Most of the time it’s the light. Film and photography is light.
Especially in the north – where I come from – there is the soft one,
diffuse light. Not hard, far from dazzling,
it often dips the landscape into a fog.
Hard to light this light, rarely at its zenith,
for the long and short films I make.

Probably that light brought me to the film.
Tell stories, develop your own narrative voice,
I’ve been trying to do that for years.

And yet I always realize how challenging it is to direct good, touching films.

It exists, rarely, but again and again, the good movie.
With passion, doubt and skills I search for it and don’t stop.

Lars Büchel

MANON STEINER

I am Manon, a passionate writer, editor and videographer. Over time, my work shifted from print to online and from journalistic writing to content management and digital marketing.

I am always looking for exciting projects and love to tell stories that allow people to take a different perspective. In my free time I design and produce mini-documentaries about cultures, start-ups, people and what else makes our lives interesting and diverse.

NELE PACHNICKE

What I believe in and what I do: I believe in the power of empathy and curiosity. Because they help to understand people and their motives, patterns and needs. From these insights I develop target group relevant strategies for brands, innovations and communication. Empathy and curiosity also help me to understand my clients and their goals in order to develop a specific approach for them that is oriented towards their concrete needs and objectives. I choose the appropriate method from a proven set of methods: Explorative customer and target group workshops, ethnographics, semiotics, ideations, trend analyses.

PETER DIETRICH

Peter began as a creative director and loves to immerse himself in a variety of cultures as a director. His commercials are a seamless mix of surreal action, humour and photographic composition. He has worked worldwide for agencies and well-known clients in Paris, San Francisco, Shanghai, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Brussels, Prague, Vienna, Zurich, Beijing and of course also in Germany.
Peter co-curated two exhibitions on football-influenced art and shot an accompanying short film, which was broadcast on Swedish television, MTV Spain and Italy and shown at the EXPO in 2010. His works have received many awards, 10 of his commercials were presented on SHOTS. According to “Best Ads On TV”, he was voted best director worldwide in 2016. In January 2018 he was listed in Lürzer’s Archiv as the third best director worldwide.

RALF GRAUEL

Business journalist, publicist, consultant. Inventor and editor of the bestselling non-fiction book “Deutschland verstehen”. Has worked for ten years as an editor and author for “brand eins” and “brand eins Wissen”, before that he was a reporter for “Zeit Magazin”. Grauel lives in Berlin and develops books, magazines and digital platforms for brands, regions and institutions with tailor-made teams. Works developed by Grauel for clients and agency partners have won all important national and international awards (ADC Germany, BCM, DA&D, One Show, Fox, Mercury and German Design Award). Ralf Grauel is a member of the Art Directors Club Germany. 

SVEN SCHRADER

I love my job.

As they say: Choose a profession you love and you won’t have to work a day in your life.

I sign that to 100 percent!

I love the jobs where the client trusts you .. where they don’t talk you in and control you all the time. From my experience that’s how the best films are made. There are also the assignments where you end up wondering: why did you book me? You do everything differently than I suggest to you anyway .. This is sometimes sobering and is much less fun because in the end nothing of the actual idea or my own visual language remains.

You get a better, more open view of the world through the many journeys. It’s a great privilege in our profession.

I very much enjoy documentary work. Especially when the protagonists have something great to tell. To illustrate this is my great passion.

TOBY DYE

Toby Dye has directed an acclaimed catalogue of highly distinctive work. He began his career in documentary, before falling into advertising as a result of a happy accident when his Grierson Award winning documentary “Bodysnatchers of New York” caught the attention of Massive Attack, resulting in Dye’s music video directorial debut with “Paradise Circus” for the iconic band. Earning a D&AD Pencil and Best in Book from the Creative Review Annual for his trouble, a career in music videos and commercials was born.

A constantly innovative director, whether crafting fiction or documentary work, he combines techniques from both disciplines with often startling original results. He’s helmed campaigns for major international brands such as American Express, Ford, Lurpak, Heineken and Sky. His “Free the Kids” film for Persil won Best of Best Gold Award at Campaign Magazine’s Brand Film Festival and a Bronze Lion at Cannes. “One Breath” for Nicorette picked up a 2017 D&AD Pencil and a Silver Cannes Lion. Last year, his film installation “The Corridor” formed the celebrated centerpiece to hit London art exhibition “Daydreaming with .. Stanley Kubrick”. Hailed as “Mindboggling, funny and mildly disturbing” by the Daily Telegraph, it’s a fitting summation to the best of Dye’s work.

More recently Toby has directed Michael Fassbender and the rest of the cast of Ridley Scott’s “Alien: Covenant” for “Phobos”, a short film set within the Alien universe for 20th Century Fox. His film for Heineken, “Worlds Apart”, brought his work to global attention after it touched a nerve with audiences worldwide. With over 35 million views, the film sparked a global conversation, with extensive media coverage everywhere from the Washington Post, Good Morning America, to Time and The Guardian.

WALDEMAR OBERMANN

I was born in 1984 in Osakarowka, Kazakhstan and came to Hamburg at the age of 8. As the son of a passionate amateur filmmaker, I was confronted with the medium of film at an early age and developed a fascination for the moving image. After I had to give up my dream of a professional soccer career due to an injury, I studied media informatics and have been working as an editor, cameraman and director ever since. After several short films and music videos, “Jetzt ist später” is my first feature-length documentary.