In the center of Leipzig, TU Ilmenau alumni Benedikt Sittko and Michael Werner produce top-class image and advertising films for clients such as Mercedes Benz and Porsche. They owe their agency foundation to a seminar in their Applied Media and Communication Studies course, which turned them into professional filmmakers and businessmen while they were still studying.
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... Sittko Werner Film Production? Authentic image films with a special perspective
"Who can say they enjoy coming into the office every morning - we certainly do," say Benedikt Sittko and Michael Werner. In the center of Leipzig, the TU Ilmenau alumni have created their ideal working environment in the office of Sittko Werner Film Production. Their agency, an old building in an art nouveau villa, is bright, inviting and offers enough space for offices, editing suites, a technical room and an elegant entrance lobby complete with reading chairs. Long-standing clients such as Total energies, Porsche and VW regularly come and go here. Michael and Benedikt have already produced hundreds of image and advertising films in the last 13 years since Sittko Werner Filmproduktion was founded. For the agency owners, one thing is certain: they have found their calling in filmmaking.
First orders in the study
As students of applied media science, Benedikt and Michael came to the TU Ilmenau in 2006. Benedikt brings with him experience as a TV producer for a local station, while his fellow student is familiar with video editing programs and programming. Together they shoot small TV reports for the student channel iSTUFF in order to deepen the theoretical knowledge of their studies in practice. Benedikt discovers his creative vein and directs the Bergfestfilm, now Ilmpressions. Michael helps him with his technical know-how around camera technology, video editing, finances and planning. The students quickly realize how well they complement each other.
In the fifth semester of their bachelor's degree, they receive the decisive assignment that will determine the rest of their lives: In the project management seminar, they are to produce an image film for the Ilm district, which the district will later use to present itself at trade fairs throughout Germany. The film impresses the district office - a second assignment from Erfurter Kreuz, an industrial association representing corporate interests and cooperating with more than 130 companies, follows. To create a legal framework for their work, the students found a GbR in 2010 - the start of Sittko Werner Filmproduktion. The contacts they make with companies at Erfurter Kreuz pay off. Soon more orders follow for well-known companies such as Lufthansa Technik and Rolls Royce. The two students become professional advertising film producers and businessmen:
When I look back today on what happened back then, our early success while still in college seems unreal to me. But we always approached things with a healthy dose of self-confidence and gave ourselves a lot of credit. We knew we were doing a good job and created our profession ourselves
Michael recalls the early days of his agency.
Image film of the TU Ilmenau awarded in Cannes
Word of the quality of their films spreads quickly in Leipzig. There they settle down with their agency after their studies at the TU Ilmenau and generate new customers. Sittko Werner Filmproduktion's concept for success: authentic image films that emotionally engage viewers and highlight a client's USP. When a company approaches the agency, Benedikt takes a close look at it, reads company reports or looks at the product range of his client: He then creates a vision for the image film:
I am very visually inclined and think in pictures. My approach is not to immediately highlight the most obvious, but to find a special perspective.
If the concept convinces their clients, the filmmakers' work really begins: They create storyboards for shoots and visit companies on location. Their work takes them to grocers' workshops, car manufacturers' production halls or even concert halls - and back to their roots. A few years ago, they produced the image film of their alma mater, "Wir sind die TU Ilmenau." In Cannes, this was awarded a Golden Dolphin at the 2018 Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards.
Benedikt spent a month researching for the production, visiting laboratories, lecture halls and affiliated institutes such as Fraunhofer IDMT, talking to researchers and students to find out what makes TU Ilmenau special:
Why do people do research? What drives us? I experienced the Spirit of Science here back in my student days, yet I found many new aspects of the university. The TU Ilmenau is characterized by really wanting to make a difference and contribute to the progress of mankind.
Even today, Michael and Benedikt are strongly connected to the TU Ilmenau:
We owe a lot to the TU Ilmenau. The university gave us the freedom to try things out. The broad-based course content also opened our eyes to many areas in the media. With this interface competence, we understand many departments of a company and can put ourselves in the shoes of technicians or computer scientists.
Impressions from the daily work of Sittko Werner Filmproduktion
