Christopher Schlierf
“On New Year’s Eve, my friends and I would create these big fantasy events in the forest where we would invite everybody in our street. We created our own costumes and these quests that you had to pass through, before you could get to a secret area where the celebrations were going on. So we had some really great New Year’s parties growing up!”
“I guess my love for storytelling came from my mother. She was incredibly good at dreaming up stories which she would then tell me before I went to sleep. My other great influence was my childhood friend (Benny Matzke), who is another amazingly creative person in my life.”
“As kids, we were forever drawing cartoons and comic strips which we would pass to each other in class all day long. It was such an amazing thing to have a friend that could share your creative journey with at that age! It was and still is a very unique friendship, for sure.”
“Although I was never one of the cool kids, being able to draw and being the lead singer in a rock band at school, certainly helped me to find my self-confidence. I always knew from a young age that being creative would help me develop as a person.”
“When it came time for university, I applied for a film and media school because they had photography, media design and animation. I really enjoyed the technical part to photography, editing, sound design, along with the graphical side to animation, 3D and web. But I really had a fire for cameras and storytelling.”
“I realized that making movies was the perfect fusion of all of these skill. Photography is part of everything you do in filmmaking, as is storytelling and writing. Then there is the musical part and the rhythm part and the sound design. And then there is the journalism part that comes from exploring the real world from which we find our stories to tell.”
“And most importantly, there is the people part to filmmaking! I have always been a people person, so I love working with actors and the crew, with whom we can explore the real world with. I have always felt that filmmaking was meant to be my journey. This is what I want to be doing, because it condenses everything I love so much about this art form into something that entertains people.”
“Writing the story, has always been important to me. For example, with my university film, I wanted to do something that was incredibly complex in terms of narrative. And so I created a psychological thriller based on something that happened in Switzerland.”
“The idea was about this father who was looking for his daughter, who had recently vanished. Only to finally learn, that he had been hiding her in his basement! So the framing for the story, was all about this guy who was forever chasing himself.”
“I wanted to delve into mental disorders, schizophrenia and multiple personalities, but in this very unique way. As part of my diploma, I also had to do the background research as part of my theoretical studies. I found researching this subject incredibly interesting, while still trying to make into an entertaining film.”
“It’s funny, because I really love humor and until this film, I had always done goofy shorts. I love doing shorts, because you can play around with different narrative styles. I regularly entered the 99 Films Challenge here in Germany, where you have 99 hours to make a film about a given theme. These were really cool challenges, because you had a new film after only three days!”
“My friends and I did pretty well with these films, regularly making it through to the finals twice for best film and cinematography and winning the Best Fil Best Cinematography. It really was like a mini Oscar Show for us, because there were always loads of people from the German film industry there.”
“I did a lot of these types of film challenges while I was doing my diploma, just to make connections throughout the industry. I then won a scholarship to travel to Los Angeles for a number of months, to do a film program which also allowed me to work for Constantin Films. This was fantastic, as I was learning from top Hollywood industry people all about the art of filmmaking. You do everything from directing, producing to working with cameras and actors!”
“Through the scholarship I got to work on the Warner Brothers lot with Joel Silver’s company who did the Matrix. They had me reading all of their scripts to analyze and then to give feedback to their producers. I actually got to read the script for the ‘Book of Eli’ for example, so this was a truly amazing experience for me.”
“I also worked on one of the Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey Jnr. As an intern it also was my job to help the guy who did all of their art design and working on the layouts for their presentations. As a fanboy of Robert Downey, it was super nice to meet him and to shake his hand while working on one of his movies!”
“When I returned back to Germany, I got my first real job working for Fiction Films as one of their two directors. I thought this was cool start as I now had a fixed income with this great production company, who had all of these in-house creatives and a full post facility. This was fantastic for me because I could now do what I have always wanted to do, which was filmmaking.”
“They would come to me and say, ‘here is your client, now write them a concept.’ So suddenly, all of these commercials and corporate films became my own babies. And I got a lot of really cool projects that landed on my desk!”
“Half a year later Ben joined the same company. He was working as a post-production supervisor and as a Nuke composer and was great with all of the technical side to things. So in those early days, I was always asking him to do the concept art and 3D renders for my directing projects.”
“We were on the same level and had exactly the same style and taste, so I was happy to pull Ben into all of my projects. We connected creatively, very, very fast and soon became best friends. From then on we pulled our desks together and started working on everything together. We ended up traveling the world shooting all of these really cool projects and created memories that bond us for a lifetime.”
“Fiction Films’ clients, needed very slick corporate style films. After a number of years of only doing these sorts of projects, I felt that I couldn’t challenge myself creatively like I could with short films and passion projects. I really couldn’t go where I wanted to go. And so in the end, I decided to leave and try to explore things as a freelance director.”
“I started out on some smaller projects to begin with, and then directed the BMW Individual commercial. Which then followed with commercials for Volkswagen and Adidas. And all the time, I would try to get Ben involved in all of these commercials. He also had bigger dreams and was thinking of becoming freelance.”
“After a year of freelancing as a director, I then got a call from a producer wanting to connect me with Marvel Studios. They were working on a new feature and wanted a fresh new director to pitch on a project. They couldn’t tell me much except that they needed a director who is really good with visual effects.”
“And so I immediately asked Ben to come to that meeting with me. When we arrived at Trixter, they took us into their in-house cinema to see a presentation about the upcoming Ant Man movie. They wanted us to pitch for a scene where Yellow Jacket, the villain, is selling himself to his investors.”
“So this was the first project where Ben and I teamed up officially as a ‘directors duo’. We had to do the storyboard, an animatic, the sound design and voiceover. Together, we then pitched to the director, Payton Reed and Marvel President, Kevin Feige.”
“They loved our idea and so we ended up creating that sequence for Ant Man. Working on a super hero project for Marvel was a great starting point for our creative partnership. Our scene was completely animated. We did think about shooting the scene, but in the end, everyone thought it should have a really graphical style.”
“It was such a great experience working with all of these specialists at Trixter. Working with their concept and storyboard artists was truly amazing. They were so fast at drawing. You’d just tell them what you are thinking for the frame, and then an hour later you have it.“
“After the Ant Man movie, we engaged an agent to represent us as the Directors Duo. She then got us this great project for the German military shooting ten films for them. Although it was a really hard project to produce, it was so much fun to do. We ended up riding on tanks, speedboats, helicopters and shooting low flying jets! It was a dream come true for any director, but especially me!”
“My father is a huge fan of military stuff and has a basement full of model helicopters, military planes, tanks and ships. He had always wanted to be a military pilot, so me working for the military was as much a dream come true for him, as it was for me.”
“Our working together at Fiction Films, really laid the foundation and the bonds of our friendship. We have the same goals but come at it from completely different approaches. Ben is a great director on set and is brilliant working with the crew, the agency and clients. So we can work as splinter units, especially on shooting days where it gets pretty tough.”
“Ben can be directing his scenes with his camera crew, and then I can be doing my scenes with my camera crew. Because we are connected creatively, each one of us knows what the other is doing and we completely trust each other. We effectively double the amount of work you can get from a single director!”
“When it comes specifically to the filmmaking process, I can focus more on the preproduction part, such as the concept, writing and storyboarding. With the directing part, I can be more about the rational construction and what’s needed for the edit. Then Ben comes in and takes care of the photography, the art design, lighting and visuals by pushing everything to look even better and better.”
“I am good at starting something from scratch and getting us to 80% of the way. And then Ben comes in with all of his ideas about pushing the details. He just loves all of those important finishing bits and pushing every little detail to the maximum and making everything absolutely perfect. So we are two directors working as one, with double the amount of skills for the same price.”
“Our secret is that we love bouncing the creative ideas back and forth with each other, which is the most valuable part of having a creative partner. So when you are stuck in the limits of your own imagination, having someone else’s ideas to improve and develop the whole idea, is amazing. So Ben ignites something in my head by having these different creative perspectives.”
“When we get to the edit, I usually do the rough cut because I am really fast at it, given I already have the idea in my head. And then Ben is awesome at the fine edit, massaging every frame to make sure it is perfectly synced with the music. He makes sure the edit is more fluid and the coloring and mastering is exactly what we want.”
“Ben will do the matte paintings and sky replacement to make sure we get the absolute best from every image. Both parts of us are necessary to complete the full picture.”
“Currently we focus on combining all our creative and technical expertise to create entertaining live action game trailer content and branded entertainment films that fill the gap between commercial and genre film. Our goal is to be the number one contact for clients who want to become entertainment creators themselves and helm exciting film projects with them in the future. Creating these exciting worlds and making our films an enjoyable ride for the audience is something that let our hearts beat even faster.”