What exactly is it that you do?

This is a question I get asked a lot.

The short answer is I’m a Sound Designer and Re-Recording Mixer for film, based in Berlin. I studied Tonmeister for Audiovisual Media at the Filmuniversity Konrad Wolf in Potsdam-Babelsberg and worked on several award-winning films.

But does that really describe what I do?

Not quite. The answer has more to do with my past and the experiences that have shaped the way I work, how I think and how I create. So here is my story.

According to my parents, I’ve been fascinated by all kinds of sounds since I was born. It could be the sound of the wind rushing through trees or simply a door creak.

I felt the urge to express what I experience, so I tried all kinds of things: dancing, drawing, singing, playing the piano, acting, writing poems, making mostly awkward short films with my sister and friends, playing in a band and more.

But it was while watching movies that I could get so immersed in the sound and story that I would barely respond to anything around me. I discovered that sound could add another layer of feeling or meaning, something that might not be expressed through the image or dialogue.

Eventually, I realized that sound was the way I wanted to express my experiences. The technical side, however, was rather intimidating at first.

So after school, I decided to pursue another thing I loved first: singing.

I applied to study classical voice but soon realized that I didn’t want to make a living from it.

Nonetheless, the voice has stayed with me. Today, I sometimes use my own voice in sound design as an expression of an inner state, or as the starting point for more abstract sounds.

I moved from Düsseldorf back to Berlin, where I was born.

Still driven by a curiosity for sound and stories, I started studying restoration and specialized in the preservation of coated records. There was something almost magical about restoring a recording from the past and suddenly being able to listen to something that hadn’t been heard for a hundred years! Finding the story behind each recording meant listening beyond what was immediately audible.

I also approach film this way today. I become curious about the perspectives and stories of the people involved, as well as the imagined backstories, motivations and personalities of its characters. Those characters can also be a chair, a house, a machine or the wind. I’m interested in what they can tell us, and it inspires my work.

After my bachelor’s degree in restoration, it became clear that I needed to study what I had wanted to pursue all along: Tonmeister at the Filmuniversity Konrad Wolf.

There, I began working closely with directors, screenwriters, composers, producers and many other departments involved in filmmaking.

What I value most about this work is the communication about the film: Bringing different perspectives together, talking about what a film is trying to say and how sound contributes to it. I learned that creative freedom comes from trust. And I believe that trust is built by being curious, listening carefully and being willing to question an idea, including my own. My expertise showed me that talking openly about practical limitations such as time, budget and technical possibilities can lead to inventive solutions.

Balancing these aspects, finding a connection between them, and exploring the possibilities and details of sound is what I love about my work.

In the end, all these steps in my life have given me the competence and ability of approaching and creating sound in my own way.

So, what exactly is it that I do?

I observe. I ask questions. I experiment.

I try to understand what is and what could be.

Photography & Collage by Rokka Kollektiva