The Work That Made Me: Benjamin Entrup
A graduate of the prestigious Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg film school, Entrup grew up in Berlin and now splits his residences between his hometown in Germany and Los Angeles, California. He has traveled the globe on assignments and cut numerous projects for directors including Andreas Roth, Hanna Maria Heidrich, John X. Carey, Thomas Garber, Søren Schaller, and Ryan Staake.
He was drawn to editing by watching movies by Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott; seeing worlds being created out of nothing made him want to be a part of the industry. Entrup is gifted at being able to help create worlds, stories and emotions. He loves trying to find new ideas how to tell stories and affect people, push things further and create something memorable, touching and unique. Get to know Benjamin as he discusses the work that made him who he is today...
The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…
Probably all those Marlboro Wild West commercials they showed in Germany that were as effective as the films I’ve watched in me wanting to see the US.
The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…
Smirnoff's 'Triple Distilled'. I watched this during my first internship, right after high school and before film school and it was one of the reasons to get into film editing. I wish there were more projects that explored the possibilities of editing and visual storytelling as inventively as this.
The creative work that I keep revisiting…
The Way Of The World, by Nicolas Bouvier. Maybe the most beautiful travel book ever written. Reading it made me want to explore the world and see it as the author did, away from the tourists and postcards. I ended up following his route, going overland from Berlin to Bombay before starting my first internship.
My first professional project…
VHS - 'I Love You'. A project I worked on together with a good friend while still being at film school. We travelled around the world filming people in every city we went to. Still amazed at the trust of the client to just let us go without much prior professional experience but they definitely got their money's worth: it's still playing in cinemas across Germany.
The piece of work that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…
Can’t say that I’ve ever been really angry during a project but the feeling that comes closest is probably the end stage of a project when a client keeps messing with the edit and is so undecided that you end up with 50-100 versions.
The piece of work that still makes me jealous…
Hennessy - Manny (Johnny Green, edited by Sam Sneade). I love the rhythm, the camerawork, and editing. Brilliant and poetic storytelling.
The creative project that changed my career…
'We Miss You' - a project I edited during my second year at film school, it ended up opening lots of doors and I am still thankful to have met the director Hanna Maria Heidrich at film school. We are still frequent collaborators.
The work that I’m proudest of…
Hopefully still to come...but in general I’d say I’m the proudest of the great collaborative relationships. Working with great directors like Martin Aamund, Hanna Maria Heidrich, Søren Schaller or Matthäus Bussmann and seeing that creative relationship develop over time is very rewarding.
I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…
A selective memory helps!
Two recent projects I was involved in that excited me the most…
The first is 'Sky - Balloons', the director's cut for a piece I worked on two years ago. Thankfully it finally came out this year thanks to lots of extra work by the production company and the VFX house to finish all those additional shots.
The second is 'Skoda - Live Like You' which was my first time working with directors Dorian&Daniel, who are also graduates from the film school I went to, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. Working with them was a real joy and everybody, from the production company to the agency and client, loved the idea and supported it to their fullest.
