WORK FOR IPN and Kiel University
COOPERATION
For eight years, we have been working on a wide variety of film projects for both Christian Albrecht University and the Leibniz Institute for Science Education in Kiel. It all started with a film about teacher training at CAU, which aimed to provide a fresh and relaxed insight into teacher training at the university. We fell in love with Kiel – and our love was reciprocated. Since then, in addition to several conference films (e.g. for QuaMath), our film production company has shot a recruitment-oriented image film for the IPN, an introductory film for a new field of study at the CAU, a semi-documentary accompanying the Science Olympiad 2025 and, most recently, a short film for the 60th anniversary of the IPN. The entire spectrum of our cinematic work in science communication.
SCIENCE OLYMPIAD
The Science Olympiads bring young people together and inspire them to take an interest in science. The IPN organises six competitions here, including the Federal Environment Competition and the International Physics Olympiad. In 2025, we produced an accompanying film for the Youth Science Olympiad. The particular challenge was to get as close as possible to the students on film without disturbing them as they worked on their tasks. This is a task we are very familiar with from our documentary work. Despite the complex programme, we found many small ‘time islands’ where we could produce interviews or initiate situations. It was particularly important to us to have uncomplicated contact with the young participants – on an equal footing.
IMAGEFILMS IPN
Films, especially at institutes and universities, are always ‘political matters’ – in which, for example, it can be important to give equal consideration to different areas of research. This sometimes leads to particular challenges for us as a film production company!
In 2023, we were grateful for the opportunity to produce a promotional film for the IPN that focused on the working atmosphere at the IPN – and to find images that captured the special quality of life that Kiel offers. More than 15 people to introduce, at least as many locations to film – and all in 4 minutes?
Our idea was to visually merge the rooms, make cuts invisible and thereby bring tension to the film. But the most important thing – and in the age of AI, we consider this to be crucial – was an aesthetically relaxed approach. Naturalness and atmosphere were explicitly more important than an advertising aesthetic – after all, the video aims to recruit new employees for the IPN.
In spring 2026, we had the pleasure of producing a completely different image film for the IPN: to mark its 60th anniversary, we were asked to create a short presentation of the institute and the importance of research in the field of science education in just over two minutes. This gave us the opportunity to combine the material shot over two days of filming with animated sequences and blend it aesthetically using a classic voiceover. We are very grateful for the many years of collaboration and hope that, despite all the budget cuts, we will still be able to film in Kiel often.
