From television technician to screenwriter
Created: 08/18/2022, 09:00
By: Dietrich Limper
Korbinian Hamberger can now make a good living from his work as a screenwriter.
© Caspar
Landsberg/Berlin - When a German screenwriter is mentioned in the US trade magazine "Variety", he has made a breakthrough in the international film industry.
This is what happened to the native of Landsberg, Korbinian Hamberger, who was mentioned in the same breath as former Vice President of Netflix Erik Barmack and producer Benjamin Munz ("Blood Red Sky") in the spring of this year.
The 42-year-old attended the Johann-Winkelhofer secondary school in Lechstadt.
According to his own statement, he managed to graduate “with a bang”, only German was his thing.
A pointer for the future?
The irony of history is that Korbinian Hamberger completed an apprenticeship as a radio and television technician.
"So I got involved with TV straight out of school, albeit in a very different way than today."
Above all, however, he had learned during his training that he did not want to work in this profession for the rest of his life.
He completed his vocational diploma in Cologne as the best in his class and then began to study business administration at the university of applied sciences in the cathedral city.
During this time he developed his love for writing and was able to land his first jobs in private television.
"I have a few skeletons in the closet," says Hamberger, laughing, "but that's how I learned the basics and saw how television works."
He successfully completed his studies and, during a one-year stay abroad in Australia, threw himself into the topic of "market research".
Only to realize again that this is not his thing.
“After three apprenticeships, I finally realized that I wanted to be creative.
But these detours later benefited me, because I had gained a lot of life experience.
Essential for a scribbler.”
At the age of 28 he came back to Landsberg and came into contact with the editors of the popular Bavarian series "Dahoam is Dahoam".
He was allowed to submit a test script - and that convinced those responsible at Constantin Film so much that he was offered a permanent position.
“I then wrote for this series as a permanent writer for four years, later also in a managerial capacity.
Luckily, as I was born in Bavaria, I didn't have any problems with the dialect."
In 2013, Hamberger took the next step and crossed the pond to Hollywood.
He enrolled at the University of Los Angeles for three months in the "Professional Program in Producing" major and got an insight into the film business at the heart of the industry.
Far more important, however, was his successful application to “Serial Eyes”, a nine-month training course to become a series screenwriter, for which only twelve participants from all over Europe are admitted each year.
The move to Berlin followed: “That's where I learned how to work in a writers' room.
How to develop and prepare materials and work with other authors.” He was able to finance the coveted crash course by working as a freelancer at “Dahoam is Dahoam”.
Hamberger estimates that he was involved in around 200 episodes of the series.
The training at “Serial Eyes” bore fruit: After that, it all happened one after the other.
In 2016 he wrote five episodes of the animated series "The Adventures of Young Marco Polo" for the children's channel KiKa - an experience that Hamberger would not want to miss: "I had to rediscover my inner child and deal with humor for kids.
That was very cool.”
After that it got much more serious, because the author switched to crime fiction and wrote for the series "Soko Wismar", "Soko Munich" and "Watzmann determined".
"Of course you get a kind of bible in which all the characters are described," explains Hamberger, "but I was allowed to contribute my own ideas with my co-author Olaf Köhler.
It was a blast coming up with creative murders.
For example, a poisonous needle when jousting a fisherman.
It is good for me that I absorb everything that is happening around me through newspapers and other media.”
More structure
In order to be able to fully concentrate on the creative processes, he has been represented by the agencies "gattys global" in Munich and "CAA" in Los Angeles for a few years.
“They take care of all the contractual matters or bring new materials to me.
Working with Christina Gattys is particularly important, she sometimes gets me out of a creative hole.”
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The success made it possible for Hamberger to rent its own office in Berlin.
This gave his life a little more structure, the author assures with a grin.
Also in the shared office is a certain Niko Schulz-Dornburg, whom he already knew from "Serial Eyes".
The colleague was in the middle of developing the series "Kitz" for Netflix.
A little later, Hamberger sat in the Writers' Room and developed six episodes for the streaming service with four other authors.
“When I work in a team, I have to leave my ego at the door.
I have to accept when my own idea isn't the best.”
The Landsberger is currently working on a series for the "Sky" channel, which he is not allowed to talk about.
And the movie “The Chase” mentioned at the beginning.
"I can't say much about that either.
It is a German version of 'Fast & Furious'.
However, with more depth and social relevance.
The story I came up with is pretty much in place, but now it needs to be fine-tuned.”
And what advice would he give to young people aspiring to the industry?
Korbinian Hamberger laughs: "Just watch a lot and write, write, write!
You must not let yourself be defeated.
90 percent of my ideas are rejected.” He heeds the advice that an old hand gave him: Not everyone has to like your project, but the right person in the right position.