Directors Christopher Schlierf and Benjamin Kratzin have been working on projects together across the globe as Directors Duo Kratzin & Schlierf, collaborating on VFX work, commercials and blockbuster features. We caught up with Ben and Chris, based in Munich, to find out how their collective came about, how they put together a sequence pitch for Marvel’s Ant-Man, and how they’re using Movidiam to keep an eye out for great talent. Check out their work at Directors Duo Kratzin & Schlierf
When did you both start collaborating together creatively, and at what point was the Directors Duo collective conceived?
Christopher Schlierf was awarded a scholarship after his studies for film and animation, and went to Hollywood for a couple of months to work at Constantin and Warner Bros. In 2011 he started working at a company in Munich as a director and met Benjamin Kratzin, who worked there as a visual effects supervisor. A job took us to the United States, Asia and around Europe, and that strengthened the bond between us a lot. We teamed up for many jobs that hit our desks following this and traveled around the world together a lot. We started co-directing our spots and figured out a way to work as a duo and sync our visions. In late 2013 Christopher left the company to work on a freelance basis, and Ben directed his own work, but we always kept in mind a future collaboration as we always shared the same visions and style. At the beginning of 2015 we finally joined forces to create “The Directors Duo“ and hit the film and commercial business as a duo.
What are the benefits of working as a duo? Are you always in sync when it comes to pitching ideas or concepts?
There are many benefits of working as a duo, on every level of the filmmaking process. The creative exchange is one of the most important parts. As we both have different backgrounds, we have different ways to approach our visions, and that helps us think out of the box. We discuss our ideas constantly and try to sync our vision of a project very early on. On set we build a tight union, and we’ve got blind trust in one another. That gives us freedom in creativity and allows us to double our energy on every project.
“Start with a big explosion and slowly increase throughout the film” is quoted on your website. Does this reflect your philosophy when approaching filmmaking? Are you creatively ‘big thinkers’?
Both of us have always been fans of blockbuster cinema; big scope and epic scale, and we guess there is nothing to say against a nice explosion every once in awhile…hahaha. The truth is, we love visual, especially visionary storytelling.
“On every project we try to push the boundaries and get the little extra production value that makes the film unique and pleases the audience as well as the production company or client.”
We are constantly reaching for the stars and are convinced that the sky’s limit when it comes to creativity and dreams.
“As a director you should know where your limits are but keep that childish freedom in your mind, because that’s where ideas are born.”
There is a sense of epicness and grandiosity in the productions you’ve both directed. Is this what led to your involvement with Post-House Trixter and creating and winning a sequence pitch for Marvel’s blockbuster ‘Ant-Man’? How did that all come together?
A commercial producer from Munich, who knew that we have a strong background in post production and always are looking for visual concepts, connected us to the post house Trixter. They had just finished post productions on Iron Man 3 and Avengers 2, and we got the opportunity to pitch for a sequence in Marvel’s new blockbuster Ant-Man. For the pitch they were looking for commercial directors, because the sequence for Ant-Man should be a 60 seconds commercial that should run full-frame in the movie. It was obvious that we would have to pitch against big VFX houses from LA, and had less than five days left. So we decided to focus on a very cinematic approach. We drew a storyboard and transformed these drawings into a 2 1/2-D animatic to define the rhythm, camera moves and the edit of the movie.
In cooperation with sound studio Orange Sound from Munich, we recorded a voiceover and layered the animatic with strong sound design and music. We felt that this should give Marvel a very specific vision and feel of what the movie would be like. We also delivered concept art that we developed together with Trixter’s storyboard and concept artist Paolo Giandoso. The ideas were pitched to producer Kevin Feige and director Peyton Reed via cine-sync. After a few days of crossing our fingers, Trixter got the “go“ . Marvel wanted to stay as close to the animatic as possible and even kept the sound, music and the voice. The next steps were building all assets in 3D: characters, environments etc. and refine the look development.
The creation of the sequence itself was a massive collaboration between different teams and creatives, from concept to completion. What were the challenges of working with such a big team and production?
The different departments worked pretty hard to get the sequence done in a short amount of time, because the schedule was very tight. A lot of assets had to be built from scratch and the character model had to be modified to work best for us. The hardest part was the look development. Our vision of the sequence was based on a very slick and highly stylized look, but Marvel wanted a more simplistic look with outline shaders and point clouds to make it look much more like a computer-based simulation. We created dozens of styles to get the look right that they were looking for.
How do you think Movidiam can help you as a duo? What are the features you are more interested in?
We think Movidiam is a fantastic platform for filmmakers and creatives around the globe. A slick looking and very functional page that allows people to connect in such an intuitive way. It’s always important to keep looking out for new talent and what’s new on the market, and on Movidiam we have the opportunity to see others’ portfolios, find their location and connect with them easily. For us as directors it’s so important to know the talent out there and to find an easy way to stay connected with them, to probably hire them for the next project. Movidiam gives us a great networking tool on a professional level.
Check out some of their others commercials and reel below.
