Studio Babelsberg builds new set to attract more filming
Berlin’s film and television production hub Studio Babelsberg started work last week on a new exterior set: the Neue Berliner Straße.
By Alexandra Zeevalkink 11 Aug 2014
Berlin’s film and television production hub Studio Babelsberg started work last week on a new exterior set: the Neue Berliner Straße.
The so-called modular hybrid set will offer German as well as international film producers a wide range of shooting possibilities with state-of-the-art technical facilities.
The exterior set will provide a large variety of streets in various architectural styles, in total adding up to an area of more than 12,000 sq m. The classic removable facades it will use can be deployed as separate units and can be easily joined up with moving image backgrounds for green and blue screen filming.
Depending on needs, the layout as well as the digital backgrounds can be exchanged, added or altered according to the projects' requirements by moving the set walls, streets and pavements, or through conversions and extensions of apartments, shops, and frontages.
The Neue Berliner Straße will be managed by the studio’s subsidiary Art Department Studio Babelsberg and will cost the studio €12m. The set’s predecessor, the Berliner Straße, was used for no fewer than 350 different productions.
Germany’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke commented that the studio complex has always been good at combining myth and modernity and that the new exterior set is a good example of this. “The old Berliner Straße [exterior set] has undoubtedly written German film history. Its successor will now meet the established technical standards [needed] for film and television production. It is also through such further developments that film and TV formats can remain competitive in the digital age.”
Charlie Woebcken, Studio Babelsberg AG’s CEO said: “We are competing with film production hubs throughout the world. A permanent exterior set was always an important element in Babelsberg's attractiveness as a location. We will meet the current artistic and technological demands with the Neue Berliner Straße and hope that the new offer will enable us to continue to acquire both German and international TV, advertising and feature film productions.“
Recent productions to have used the German facilities are Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel (pictured), George Clooney’s The Monuments Men and Beauty and the Beast directed by Christophe Gans.
To find out more about filming in Germany, please check out our production guide here.
The exterior set will provide a large variety of streets in various architectural styles, in total adding up to an area of more than 12,000 sq m. The classic removable facades it will use can be deployed as separate units and can be easily joined up with moving image backgrounds for green and blue screen filming.
Depending on needs, the layout as well as the digital backgrounds can be exchanged, added or altered according to the projects' requirements by moving the set walls, streets and pavements, or through conversions and extensions of apartments, shops, and frontages.
The Neue Berliner Straße will be managed by the studio’s subsidiary Art Department Studio Babelsberg and will cost the studio €12m. The set’s predecessor, the Berliner Straße, was used for no fewer than 350 different productions.
Germany’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke commented that the studio complex has always been good at combining myth and modernity and that the new exterior set is a good example of this. “The old Berliner Straße [exterior set] has undoubtedly written German film history. Its successor will now meet the established technical standards [needed] for film and television production. It is also through such further developments that film and TV formats can remain competitive in the digital age.”
Charlie Woebcken, Studio Babelsberg AG’s CEO said: “We are competing with film production hubs throughout the world. A permanent exterior set was always an important element in Babelsberg's attractiveness as a location. We will meet the current artistic and technological demands with the Neue Berliner Straße and hope that the new offer will enable us to continue to acquire both German and international TV, advertising and feature film productions.“
Recent productions to have used the German facilities are Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel (pictured), George Clooney’s The Monuments Men and Beauty and the Beast directed by Christophe Gans.
To find out more about filming in Germany, please check out our production guide here.
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