Pete Schilling

Pete Schilling was born in 1987 in the western part of Germany. His connection to the English language originates in his mother being an English teacher, so English radio and TV programs were always present in his childhood. From a young age, Pete enjoyed writing short stories and watching movies. By 14, he picked up a camera for the first time and started mainly shooting skate videos with his friends. Most of his free time was spent editing those fun films. At 17, Pete traveled to the United States to attend his senior year of high school in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Since American films highly influence the German cinema landscape, it felt like coming home for him. Arts, music, and TV production were the most exciting classes for Pete. After returning to Germany, he started attending art college to study communications design. During his studies, he shot numerous small short films and two documentaries, covering every department ranging from writing, directing, camera, editing, color grading, and even music production. In 2012 he won the "German Web Video Award" for his bachelor's thesis and founded a small production company for his commercial work called "Neuland". In 2014 he finished his studies with a master's degree and worked as a commercial director primarily for car brands. It allowed him to develop his directing and editing skills further. It also created a lot of empathy for the viewpoint of the production company and the producer, since Pete was not only responsible for the creative execution of the projects but also for the production aspects of it: like budgeting, negotiating, producing, marketing, assembling of teams, and building a trustful and long-lasting relationship with clients. In 2019 Pete started writing his first feature film script idea. Two scripts for short films followed in 2020, "Rosa" and "Brothers", which he shot in 2021.