We are back!

You could call us filmmakers, creative professionals, or artists, since we are involved in the entire filmmaking process—but above all, we are storytellers! Always on the lookout for that magical idea that will set a new, exciting story in motion!

Writing is and always will be simply amazing. It has become our most important tool and we love it! Because the more you experience and produce, the more you realize how incredibly important the actual story is.

The sheltered years at university

But let's start at the beginning of our naive early days in 2002: in our first projects at the Bauhaus University in Weimar, we not only gained extensive experience in film design, but also learned the basic workflow with camera equipment and the hardware and software needed for production. A lot of our personal work was created during this time. But to be honest, college couldn't really prepare us for life after graduation—unless you want to become an avant-garde artist. In the end, we had to teach ourselves what really counts out there.

Doreen:

„Our first festival screening took place in 2007 – with What did you think? A year later, we were on a proper festival tour with Ralle & Bolle. That time gave us deep insights into the world of feature films and brought us together with fantastic people with whom we still work today – definitely an important stage in our careers.“

Graduation in the bag – now what?

2008 – we are certified filmmakers. But what happens after the protected environment of a university? A really difficult question for almost all of our fellow students. As already mentioned, now was the time to take the plunge – because if you want to stay in film, you need clients and from then on you work for them. So we put our personal projects aside for the time being and went into television, or more specifically, German children's television „KIKA“.

The insane world of German television production

Graphics and animation

Here, we were confronted with the harsh reality of everyday production life. Tight deadlines, high quality standards, different camera equipment every day. And lots of work. We started out in graphics, creating broadcast packages, animated trailers, and broadcast designs. Later, Kikaninchen joined us, and even the movie Mullewapp 2.
The specified time could easily turn into endless acceptance loops. Unfortunately, we were only paid for the specified working hours, but that never dampened our enthusiasm for the work.

Video journalism

Later, we moved to the online department as VJs – video journalists. Which basically means: you are the cameraman, sound engineer, interviewer, and all the other positions that a TV report requires, ALL IN ONE PERSON. You can imagine what that means. Especially when you're always shooting with someone else's equipment. But there were also shoots with the editor, so at least there were two of us.

Winni:

„Once, I didn't get any feedback on my headphones because the camera wasn't working at that point, but I saw the level meter and just hoped that the sound would be recorded. And luckily, it was.“

But the hard times also had a silver lining. In those few years, we learned more about film production than we did in twice that time at university. I had a dozen different cameras in my hands, such as the legendary Canon 5D Mark II and the groundbreaking Sony A7S. We also developed an instinct for difficult situations on set. We had already been through all the worst-case scenarios – and mastered them. What else could happen to us now?

With all this knowledge, we were able to found our own production company in 2014 – „bellmannmedia“. A step back to our roots: independent filmmakers.

Film production as a service

In 2017, Matthias Montag from the KIKA online editorial team gave us a choice. „I could employ you 24/7 starting immediately. Are you in?“ That would have meant losing everything we had built up under our own banner. We didn't want to only half commit, so we took the plunge into complete independence and (spoiler alert) have never regretted it!

Doreen:

„The deep insights into various areas of our society, industry, and science. It's an incredible treasure trove that we can draw from. And it gave us the opportunity to get to know other corners of the globe. To be inspired by completely different cultures and grow as artists as a result.“

Winni:

„We expanded our workflow to industry standards and learned so much more about storytelling, clever film editing, and post-production. You stop building castles in the air and start recognizing what's essential and focusing on that. You become a storyteller with your own repertoire. Now our films are no longer as confusing as they were in the beginning; they get to the point because they have to.“

The result is countless commercials, music videos, and image films shot on several continents. You can find a selection at bellmann-media.de.

Today, it's time to come back

Yes, we want to bring all these experiences back into the genre we started out with: feature films. Because... while we were working for clients, we collected ideas. Lots of ideas. And we want to bring the best of them to life.

They will be different films than before. Workflows have changed, we have changed. This is a journey into the unknown. This website is our logbook. We want to find out how AI can support us, and we want to document how far we can push the visual style beyond commercial imagery and what new forms of cinematic storytelling we will encounter.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to introduce ourselves and our plans. If you would like to follow us on this journey, please feel free to check back regularly. We intend to publish a blog post every week and already have a lot lined up.

Let's go! Winni & Doreen.