German-based cinematographer Tim Pfautsch was a uniquely excellent choice to lens the experimental documentary Fassaden (internationally titled Curtains). Narrated by acclaimed actress Sandra H ller (Zone of Interest, Anatomy of a Fall), the documentary explores the onset and progression of domestic violence, interweaving expert advocate testimonials with raw dance sequences. With a strong background in music video and experimental filmmaking, Pfautsch worked intimately with the director and choreographer to depict the emotional rollercoaster of an unraveling relationship. The cinematographer looked to the versatility and nimbleness of Astera Titan and Hyperion Tubes to light the pivotal dance scenes that structure Fassaden.
Fassaden is no lighthearted film, tackling heavy and complex themes with a careful, nuanced touch. The film has a very clear arc and structure, Pfautsch explains. When interviewing the women for the film, our director Alina Cyranek found that almost all, if not all, of these toxic relationships start the same. While there are many different reasons why women might stay with a partner there is a very real danger that the relationship will end with a femicide. The filmmakers aimed to share this story in way that was palatable and instructive while artfully opening audiences to a painful topic.
The explosively emotional core of Fassaden is found in the choreographed sequences of a female and male dancer which illustrate a relationship poisoned by violence. The dance sequences operate as a canvas that Sandra H ller's voice paints over, Pfautsch says. For these scenes to embrace their full potential, he needed a versatile lighting set up that would not restrict the dancers or camera's ability for dynamic movement.Due to a typically modest documentary budget, Pfautsch and his gaffer would be the only lighting crew on set. As such he needed a comprehensive lighting set up that could be quickly adjusted for diverse looks, without additional manpower. I decided to use a 20 20 ft overhead rig made of Astera Titan and Hyperion Tubes that we could place before the shoot. He designed lighting zones' which could be brightened or dimmed using the Astera App to create novel ambience without ever touching the fixture. The Astera App was really crucial everyone knows how to operate the app, so even if my gaffer of choice wasn't available, I could easily have someone step in to control the console.
Pfautsch affixed four 79.9 Hyperion and eight 40.7 Titan Tubes to a square frame, sandwiched with Ultrabounce above and Grid below. Battery-powered and lightweight LEDs, the Tubes were easily lofted into place over the studio floor on a prep day. During the two shooting blocks Pfautsch and his gaffers, Benjamin Hirlinger and Stefan Hannig, would tweak the zones remotely from ground level, and when an additional backlight was required, they introduce one movable unit, a Kino Flo shell with four Titan Tubes mounted inside.
With this deceivingly simple lighting setup, an extraordinary amount of emotional variation could be exercised. Pfautsch cultivated variations in shadow and color temperature to illustrate the fraying of the relationship. One really impactful dance scene takes place after she gets away from her abuser. She has this very contemplative moment, by herself where she examines her own body. We talked a lot about how we wanted to feel like we were inside her head, the cinematographer describes. That informed the lighting and camera work. A chill stillness permeates the scene, as the lighting color is pushed to a super cool daylight. The woman's awakening and relief are etched through intimate cinematography that traces her pained self-reflection.
Elsewhere warm lighting creates a potent feeling of tension combined with handheld camerawork. In the second to last scene, she dances herself free. She has escaped the relationship but is chased by flashbacks. We shot flashbacks handheld and set the color balance to be much warmer, and then really saturated that warmth in post-production, as if to underline how much pressure the character is under.
With overhead, versatile lighting the dances and camera fluidly traverse the studio space, to breath-taking effect. Pfautsch embraced a dichotomy of light in Fassaden, creating an unforgettable experience. For many viewers the film helps illuminate where domestic violence begins that it can be very small actions that grow, he relates. It's a film that tries to educate where psychological and physical abuse can start, before violence necessarily.
Astera has been with me since the beginning, concludes Pfautsch. For this project, we put a lot of care into how to depict the emotions and lighting was integral to this.
Learn more about the film and future screenings: www.instagram.com/timpfautsch
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
23/09/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
23/09/2025
College Football and NFL Preseason Drive Increases for ABC Affiliates ( 4%), ESP...
23/09/2025
The DJI Osmo Pocket 3 is one of the most versatile compact cameras on the market, perfect for creators who need high-quality footage in a travel-friendly size. ...
23/09/2025
IRVING, Texas Although ABC has announced that Jimmy Kimmel Live! will return to its late night schedule on Tuesday Sept. 23, Nexstar Media Group, Inc. has iss...
23/09/2025
German-based cinematographer Tim Pfautsch was a uniquely excellent choice to lens the experimental documentary Fassaden (internationally titled Curtains). Narra...
23/09/2025
VisualOn, a global pioneer in multimedia playback solutions, and Axinom, a leading provider of DRM technologies, have partnered with a global communications and...
23/09/2025
Matthews, known for their extensive line of C-Stands and other grip gear, introduces a better solution to help lug equipment from vehicle to set and back. The n...
23/09/2025
In its sixth year, the Awards again received applications from across the world
Rise, the gender diversity network for the media technology industry, today an...
23/09/2025
DHD reports strong interest in its expanding range of digital audio production equipment at the 12-15 September International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterd...
23/09/2025
Advanced Systems Group, LLC (ASG), a technology and services provider for media creatives and content owners, continues to expand its global reach with the appo...
23/09/2025
The DPP, the international network for media and technology, is delighted to announce that nxtedition will be the Headline Sponsor for the DPP Leaders' Brie...
23/09/2025
AMSTERDAM TV Tech has named its Best of Show Awards winners for IBC2025, which wraps up today. Entrants were judged by a panel of industry experts on the criter...
23/09/2025
AB InBev and Netflix have announced a multiyear global marketing partnership that the two companies are calling unprecedented in terms of its global reach and...
23/09/2025
A recent announcement by the Trump administration that it plans to crack down on the roaring costs of prescription drug advertising as part of a push to curb mi...
23/09/2025
Visitors to the 2025 IBC Show were eager to discuss the latest trends and test out new products and services, all with the goals of content monetization and lea...
23/09/2025
ESPN has announced that its coverage of NCAA men's and women's ice hockey on its networks and streaming platforms will total more than 620 games during ...
23/09/2025
The Walt Disney Company has issued a short statement saying that Jimmy Kimmel Live! will return to its standard late night time slot on ABC on Tuesday Sept. 2...
23/09/2025
Graduate Spotlight: Tom s M rquez The educator from San Juan, Puerto Rico, shares how he went from Berklee ABLE Assembly conference attendee to graduate stude...
23/09/2025
Energy efficiency in large language model inference has improved 100,000x in the...
22/09/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Pixellot's Rob DeSalvo on the Automated-Production Revolution ...
22/09/2025
For NYRA and FOX Sports, Horse Racing Isn't Just HorseplayThe broadcaster and racing association are rejuvenating the sport on TVBy Dan Daley, Audio Editor ...
22/09/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Telemetrics' Michael Cuomo on Joining With EVS, the Role of AI...
22/09/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: LiveLike's Samuel Westberg on Turning Digital Use...
22/09/2025
Making Sense of the Generative AI Landscape: A Primer From AWS and Google CloudGoogle Cloud's Sud Aravamudan, AWS's Paul Devlin explain what you need to...
22/09/2025
The silence came first. In the spring of 2020, as the world locked its doors, the exuberant, continent-spanning pulse of Afrobeats suddenly had nowhere to go. D...
22/09/2025
On November 14, 2023, at London's O2 Arena, Rema made an unforgettable entrance. Stadiumgoers held their collective breath as he rode onto the stage on a bl...
22/09/2025
It's the mid-'90s and the song Allen Avenue can be heard through speakers on the streets of Lagos. This classic by the London-born Nigerian rapper Wei...
22/09/2025
In the stillness of a lockdown caused by a global pandemic, Afrobeats did not stall. It recalibrated. Deprived of dance floors and festival stages, the genre...
22/09/2025
About 50 kilometers southeast of the Colombian city of Cartagena rests the villa...
22/09/2025
Last month, Spotify introduced the ability for Premium users to mix their own pl...
22/09/2025
MELBOURNE, Fla., Sept. 22, 2025 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) and Shield AI successfully demonstrated an artificial intelligence-enabled drone detection s...
22/09/2025
Fred Hargreaves OBE - Director, Strategy and Engagement at L3Harris Technologies - chairs a panel at DSEI 2025....
22/09/2025
L3Harris showcases the cutting-edge capabilities of DiSCO during live demonstrations....
22/09/2025
Here are 6 reasons why you should attend IBC 2025
Discover more about Calrec: Learn more about Calrec's legacy of innovation in broadcast audio solutions, ...
22/09/2025
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. DirecTV has announced that the DirecTV app has launched on on Vizio Smart TVs. Rolling out today, customers will be able to access and enjoy ...
22/09/2025
North America's Top Rental House Secures 50 Units One-Third of Global Stock Cementing Its Position as the Leading Provider of Live Event Technology and ...
22/09/2025
WASHINGTON In response to the controversy over the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel's late night talk show, the NAB's president and CEO Curtis LeGeyt has post...
22/09/2025
22 09 2025 - Media release Screen Australia amplifies 46 distinctive local stori...
22/09/2025
It's back! To mark the return of the 14th season of the TODAY Show, Ireland's most successful and longest-running afternoon show, RT releases new prese...
22/09/2025
OpenAI and NVIDIA just announced a landmark AI infrastructure partnership - an initiative that will scale OpenAI's compute with multi-gigawatt data centers ...
22/09/2025
X-Rite Adds New Pantone Fashion, Home + Interiors (FHI) Color Library to Pantone...
22/09/2025
Monday 22 September 2025
Current slide, 0 0, undefined1
0
Sky Studios Elstree...
22/09/2025
Back to All News
AB InBev and Netflix Announce Global Brand Partnership
Business
22 September 2025
Global
Link copied to clipboard
The unprecedented multi...
22/09/2025
Fox Corporation Names Robert Humann CEO of Credible San Francisco, CA and Los Angeles, CA - September 22, 2025 - Fox Corporation (FOX, FOX A; Fox the Compa...
22/09/2025
New RT Investigates documentary reveals cotton produced by forced labour camps ...
22/09/2025
Special programmes across RT television, radio and online, plus special initiatives
#ISL #IDSL #IWDP25
RT is proud to once again support Irish Sign Langua...
20/09/2025
iPhone 17 and USB-C: Unlocking Pro Mobile Audio New iPhones, New Possibilities Last Tuesday Apple announced the latest generation of iPhones and needless to say...
German-based cinematographer Tim Pfautsch was a uniquely excellent choice to lens the experimental documentary Fassaden (internationally titled Curtains). Narrated by acclaimed actress Sandra H ller (Zone of Interest, Anatomy of a Fall), the documentary explores the onset and progression of domestic violence, interweaving expert advocate testimonials with raw dance sequences. With a strong background in music video and experimental filmmaking, Pfautsch worked intimately with the director and choreographer to depict the emotional rollercoaster of an unraveling relationship. The cinematographer looked to the versatility and nimbleness of Astera Titan and Hyperion Tubes to light the pivotal dance scenes that structure Fassaden.
