You started out mainly working on fairy-tale films?

Tom Zickler: Yes. Costumes and make-up were always a big issue. Before making the dresses, the fabrics were screen-tested. Up to 250 people were on the staff of one film. That helped me a lot in my career, because it took away my fear of big teams. After two years there I went and studied film production in Babelsberg. And, in retrospect, that is actually more my thing than being a cameraman.

What about you, Martin?

Martin Schreier: When I was five, I saw “The Empire Strikes Back” on TV and knew immediately I had to do something like that. Of course, as a little boy, I first wanted to be an actor, then, when I was ten, I noticed that there are far more ways to express yourself behind the camera than in front of it. I was fortunate in that my dad always had good camera equipment at home, and I started making my own little films—in stop-motion with action figures, for example—and I haven’t stopped doing it since. I studied VFX for a year, but that wasn’t the right thing for me. I’m a storyteller who wants to reach and move people. So, I studied at the Film Academy in Ludwigsburg. I worked on my final thesis project with ProSieben with Teamworx and at the time we were working on “Robin Hood,” with Ken Duken in the lead. That led to producer Sebastian Fruner finding out about me, and even Til Schweiger knew about the film. They then called me on-board for the film about the German rapper Cro: “Unsere Zeit ist jetzt.” That led to me to get to know Tom Zickler—which was love at first sight. And because we all worked so well together, Tom Zickler, Sebastian Fruner, and I decided to do our next thing together as well. And we've been living a dream for the past two years working on “Traumfabrik” together. From the development phase through filming through to postproduction, everything has been incredibly fun because we all wanted the same thing.