The Permanent Conference of Nazi Memorial Sites in the Berlin Area commissioned us to produce the film »Bible Students – Incredible Courage« – a historical classification of Jehovah's Witnesses during the Nazi era.
The background to this is the planned memorial in Berlin's Tiergarten park, which is intended to commemorate the resistance of this religious community: for reasons of faith, Jehovah's Witnesses refused to participate in Hitler's killing machine and accepted persecution, imprisonment, and murder as a result—an act of resistance that is still little known today.
Design and implementation
Post production as a creative hub
The actual filming required for this movie was relatively minimal. The creative focus was clearly on post-production – especially editing, where we significantly developed the structure, dramaturgy, and content density. Film projects like this one are primarily conceived in the editing room.
Archival material and visual contextualization
The visual basis was predominantly formed by historical film and photo documents from various archives and collections. Working with such source material is always a bit of a challenge for us as filmmakers, as it requires very careful selection and contextualization that reflects on the content. In addition, we designed animated graphics specifically for the production, which visually accentuate key historical image documents and dramatically reinforce their relevance.
Integrated workflow and technical implementation
We did all the editing, color correction, and VFX compositions in DaVinci Resolve. This allowed us to work in one program throughout the entire production process and avoid using external programs such as After Effects or Motion. This consolidated workflow was very efficient and minimized interface losses. It also enabled us to respond very flexibly and quickly to our client's change requests.
Dramatic sound design
Another important aspect was the choice of music. We wanted a sensitive and dramaturgically precise sound design for the film that would do justice to the depth of the subject matter in each sequence. In its compact length of 3.5 minutes, the short film offers an informative approach to a previously little-noticed chapter of history and at the same time draws attention to the significance of the planned memorial as a place of remembrance.
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