Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg Campus Magazin 23/24

ALUMNI IN FOCUS
and he actually received a reply from singer Gero Ivers.
Sebastian could hardly believe his luck.
VFX FOR BLOCKBUSTERS AND
SUCCESSFUL TV SHOWS
After he had received his diploma from the Animationsinstitut—he
had been studying VFX there until 2011—
he spent a year in Los Angeles working for companies
such as Ingenuity Engine, where he helped to create a
music video for Eminem. Back in his hometown Berlin,
he was part of big productions like the film CLOUD
ATLAS.
In 2018, Sebastian founded his own company, InHouse
VFX, together with Florian Ast. They are, for example,
working on the VFX of the successful TV show
BABYLON BERLIN. InHouse VFX has also been involved
in films such as MATRIX RESURRECTIONS or
GUNS AKIMBO with Daniel Radcliffe. “Initially, we
mainly landed jobs from German companies, but recently
the inquiries have become more international, for
example from large Netflix productions.“
KNORKATOR VIDEO BECOMES A
PASSION PROJECT
Although the budget for the ambitious Knorkator video
was not big enough, Sebastian tried to get the most out
of it. “The shoot itself was kind of a family project: my
parents did the catering, and I brought some of my own
furniture to the set.”
The band also helped out. For example, they asked their
fan community to send in videos of themselves singing
the choir part of the song. Sebastian particularly
highlights the effort of Tonio Freitag, with whom he
has been realizing film projects for two decades already.
„He designed the virtual world with the screens and got
everything done very precisely and beautifully,“ he raves.
Tonio is a freelance VFX and technical artist and also
works as a freelance lecturer at the Animationsinstitut.
Sebastian and Tonio were classmates at the Filmakademie.
“In some shots, you can see over 5,000 smartphones,“
Tonio recalls. „To do something like that, without
noticing a repetition, is a task of overcoming creative
and technical problems that I am good at.“
"THE FILMAKADEMIE PAVES THE
WAY FOR FILMMAKERS IN ALL
AREAS˝
”The images that came to my mind when I first heard
the song have also made it into the final video,“ Sebastian
recalls. „It was like going back to my roots—to the
old days at the Filmakademie—when I learned how to
independently realize a small film project from A to Z.“
His training helped him a lot in producing the video.
”The Filmakademie paves the way for filmmakers in all
areas,“ emphasizes Sebastian. “You get an extremely good
network and learn to use all the tools.” This pays off. He
frequently meets “Aka” graduates while working. “This
isn’t supposed to sound arrogant, but when you meet
them somewhere, you know that things will go well. We
are simply well-trained.”
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