CURRENT:

In May 2012, I started on Roland Emmerich's "White House Down", starring Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, James Woods and Maggie Gyllenhaal, again as co-producer and VFX supervisor. This time, I also functioned as 2nd Unit Director, shooting several action and narrative sequences in Montreal, Quebec, as well as Washington, D.C. The release date is June 28, 2013.

HISTORY:

I studied directing and producing from 1991-1994 at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Germany. During my studies, I produced several commercials and award-winning short films for German TV and became visual effects producer on the TV movie Der Letzte Kosmonaut, directed by Nico Hofmann. The movie won the "Prix Futura", and was the first collaboration with Volker Engel, who went on to receive the Academy Award for "Independence Day". I moved to Los Angeles in 1994, after receiving a scholarship from a German producer's association.

In 1995, I became VFX Project Manager for "Independence Day", for which I created "Digital Assistant for Visual Effects", a project management software to manage, schedule and track the filming of VFX elements. I founded the company Dreamscape Imagery Inc. with my wife Stacey. In conjunction with the VFX software, I also developed a design for a visual effects production board, together with manufacturing company Hollywood Production Boards. Between 1996 and 2000, I created new software versions to include the post-production process. Digital Assistant for Visual Effects has been used for several feature films, including Stuart Little, Alien: Resurrection, Flubber, Volcano, Godzilla, Wing Commander, Monkeybone, Bless the Child, and X-Men, as well as on TV movies and series. Dreamscape Imagery Inc. sold the source code to the Internet company Creative Planet, Inc. in 2000.

As visual effects supervisor for Dreamscape, I worked on a plethora of international feature films, TV movies, series and commercials, most notably Disney's Flubber, Seven Days To Live, Muppets from Space and The Drew Carey Show. I also worked on a few select documentaries, earning Dreamscape the CINE Golden Eagle award.

In 1997, I held the master class "action with effects" for the European Film Academy. I also taught digital compositing classes at the Art Institute of California - Los Angeles and was speaker at the iHollywood Forum in Los Angeles

In 1999, I founded the production company Uncharted Territory LLC with long-time friend and colleague Volker Engel. The first production, and my first movie as a producer, "Coronado", was shot in 2001 in Mexico and Los Angeles. In 2003, I co-produced the movie "Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King" and served as visual effects director together with Volker Engel. In-between film productions, Uncharted Territory also created the "Intermedia" logo animation which premiered before "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" and provided visual effects services for Roland Emmerich's "The Day After Tomorrow" in 2004. In 2005, I wrote the screenplay Southern Skies and produced and VFX supervised the mini-series "The Triangle" together with Engel and Kelly Van Horn, for executive producers Bryan Singer and Dean Devlin, for which Volker and I won the EMMY award in 2006.

In 2006, I wrote the screenplay "Force Majeure" and developed "Raising Phoenix" and "Red Sea" with writer Kurt Frey and Volker Engel. "Raising Phoenix" will be my directorial debut, starting pre-production after our current project, in the forth quarter of 2009. I also served as visual effects supervisor on the Canon EOS commercial "Welcome To The Playground". In 2007, I served as visual effects supervisor for Kellogg's and Tropicana commercials, and as vfx producer for CafeFX, working - amongst other projects - on the Hogwarts castle ride film for the new Harry Potter Island of Adventure at Universal Studios Florida.

In 2008/2009, I was co-supervising and co-producing Roland Emmerich's "2012" for Sony Pictures with business partner Volker Engel. "2012" was in the "bake-off" selection of 10 pictures for the Aceademy Awards in 2010.  I received the Satellite Award, and 2 VES award nominations.

In 2012, I was executive producer and VFX supervisor on Emmerich's "Anonymous", starring Vanessa Redgrave and Rhys Ifans. I received a VES award nomination for our work.

This was followed in 2010 and 2011 with several projects that started pre-production or development, but have since been post-poned, amongst them "FOUNDATION" (for Sony Pictures, based on Isaac Asimov's book series) and "SINGULARITY" (for Sony Pictures, based on Ray Kurtzweil's ideas). Bridging the time between Foundation and Singularity, I worked on the academy award winning "HUGO" as VFX supervisor for my company Uncharted Territory, and the Kevin James comedy "Here comes the Boom".