Berlinale Talents 2015: "Smoking Hot: The Wide World of Web Series"

Katja Blichfeld, Ben Sinclair
moderated by Florian Weghorn

In cooperation with Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.

Bite-sized, punchy and readily available on your devices, web series are a thing of economy and substance that are here to stay. Not created for the big screen, and tailored to different kinds of viewership, web series defy the limitations of more traditional formats. Cocreators, writers and directors Katja Blichfeld and Ben Sinclair will lead a case studyon the idea, development, production and audience reception of their cult web series HIGH MAINTENANCE. Showing episodes from the series as well as other visual materials from its development and production, Blichfeld and Sinclair will discuss how the web series format is conducive for testing new ideas as well as production and distribution models rather free from the structures of classic filmmaking.

KATJA BLICHFELD
Katja Blichfeld and Ben Sinclair are a married writing/directing duo, based in Brooklyn, NY. Their first collaboration, HIGH MAINTENANCE, has been recognized as one of the best web series by The New Yorker, Slate, EW, Time, & others. Katja, an Emmy-winning casting director (30 ROCK), and Ben, editor, actor and star of High Maintenance, also produce the series.
imdb profile

photo of Ben Sinclair

BEN SINCLAIR
Katja Blichfeld and Ben Sinclair are a married writing/directing duo, based in Brooklyn, NY. Their first collaboration, HIGH MAINTENANCE, has been recognized as one of the best web series by The New Yorker, Slate, EW, Time, & others. Katja, an Emmy-winning casting director (30 ROCK), and Ben, editor, actor and star of High Maintenance, also produce the series.

Moderated by

FLORIAN WEGHORN
Florian has been the programme manager of Berlinale Talents since 2014. He studied film science in Bochum and Cologne and holds a master’s degree after he majored in the subject of visualization of melancholy in film. Since 2002, Florian is working for the Berlinale, first as an assistant and programme coordinator, and since 2008 as a curator and deputy head of the Berlinale Generation section. He is a member of the selection committee for the Berlinale Competition and also serves on the jury for the children's film fund of the BKM (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media). Apart from the festival, Florian has worked as an author and editor of several publications for film and young people.