Studio BRAIN: a new chapter

What might be taking shape on this construction site? For us as (creative) filmmakers, our studio is not just a place for productive work on the post-production of our projects. Rather, it is at the same time a place of exchange, a workshop for ideas and an environment in which ideas can be developed further and realised together. Because working on projects together is more than just an informal exchange that could be moved to the home office these days, as the COVID period has lastingly proven. For us, the most important aspect of being and working together “physically” in the studio is the creative process. Over the last three years we (like many others) have been able to gather a lot of experience of how collaboration works and has to work in different industries. The most valuable experience this time allowed us to gain relates less to the work on set (which, of course, can only take place in “physical” collaboration) than to everyday work. By building our new compact studio, the BRAIN, at Frankfurter Landstraße 35 in the north-western part of Hanau, we can make optimal use of the advantages of our hybrid model, which has proven to be the model that works best for the different areas of responsibility and realities of life of the team. Both the transport and infrastructure connections (which turned out to be, well, a solid hurdle in our “old” studio: keyword public transport in the countryside) and the reduction in floor space that this made possible are a good step into the future for us from an economic and sustainable point of view. As a company we have made it our task to bundle the resources (electricity, water, space, travel distances, budgets (!) etc.) for our everyday work in the best possible way. On reflection, the result for us is higher quality of work and results with a lower use of resources and thus a lower impact on the environment, without restrictions. But there is another aspect we are looking forward to at the new location: we are moving in together with the plan-d akademie, with which we have been cooperating from the very beginning. The plan-d akademie specialises in innovative digital education and realises a wide variety of multimedia projects in Hesse. In addition, the plan-d akademie offers high-quality and inclusive programmes for job seekers that are geared to the realities of the participants' lives, not the other way round as is the case with conventional education providers. With a similar philosophy, we are working together to use our skills to make the world a little bit better for different target groups: through knowledge, through entertainment or through both together. With the BRAIN we want to create a place that is optimally tailored to the needs of creative film and media production for our companies (both in terms of infrastructure and creativity) and that offers everyone who realises projects together with us a place to go when it is needed. We are looking forward to this new phase, to the work still to be done (which is expected to continue until mid-March), to all the successes (and failures too) and to all the projects, joint work and humorous moments that will follow. The chapter 2024 can begin!