(copyrigth: Laura Afolter)

Films

In the area of film I love developing a variety of formats and topics, writing scripts myself and helping others through consultation. I like to work for series, but also short and feature film. I have a special passion for the youngest audience which I know very well though my creative writing classes. With my special focus on animation, I am working a lot for the international market. But I also have a passion for historical topics and adaptations.

I am a fast writer with a constant high output of text which is well researched and thoroughly thought through beforehand. When I am away from my desk, I love being at networking events and pitching my ideas with passion. My series project „Bubbly Brains“ has been nominated for the Germany’s Next Animation Award and I managed to secure public film funding for a lot of my concepts.

Script development:

I enjoy the dialogue writing aspect of script writing a lot and also the visualization of my ideas. The challenge of writing according to the special need of this special medium is very enticing to me. I prefer writing collectively as a team of co-writers or within a writers room environment together with other creative minds. My experience with consultation as well as my various writing classes are helping me enormously with this.

Esther-Kaufmann-Webserie-Stadthelden-von-Sinan-Al-Kuri

(copyright: Sinan Al Kuri)

Esther-Kaufmann-Der-Kleine-Stern-Animationsserie-von-Christian-Liebisch-Chrizle-Media

(copyright: Christian Liebisch / Chrizle Media)

Dramaturgical consultation:

I am consulting for colleagues and bigger companies concerning all aspects of story development. When I am doing a general content feedback, I am giving advice f.e. for how to position your project within the international market and the hidden potential it may have. Additionally I like to help with writing pitch documents. I am especially happy to do the dialogue editing since my focus is dialogue writing.

Collectively working on different exciting projects and enriching them through my experience as a writer myself until they are perfect is something I enjoy very much.

Story Bibles:

I can create story bibles for single creators as well as for bigger studios and production companies. I can take care of both the creation of helpful working documents for writers rooms and series writing teams as well as the pitch or sales bible for presentations and contests.
I have learned this art at the Academy for Childrens Media f.e. with Armin Prediger while studying animation series writing. Also my close connection to small kids helps me to develop really fitting bibles for young audiences.

Esther-Kaufmann-Serie-Sprocket-Popcorn-Pictures

(copyright: Sprocket)

Esther-Kaufmann-mit-den-Ladies-aus-der-AG-Animation-auf-dem-Hamburg-Animation-Day

Animation Day with Maike Sarah Reinerth (AG Animation), Susanne Molter and Annegret Richter (AG Animationsfilm)

(copyright: Esther Kaufmann)

Film reviews:

I am regularly writing film reviews for the Kinderfilmwelt by the Deutsches Kinder- und Jugendfilmzentrums. This is a multimedia Information- and learning platform for kids with a focus on children and family films. The online portal informs about all new films in a way that children themselves can understand. I am the animation specialist and visiting the Hamburg based press previews. I have also been writing reviews for the professional blog of the animation business INDAC.

“Esther was supporting us with valuable impulses and helping us build meaningful networks when she acted as our local partner for organizing a cinema preview in Hamburg with a thematic discussion afterward, which she moderated. We appreciate how reliable, enthusiastic and tactful she was preparing the event for us. We especially loved her heartfelt, easy-going and very well prepared moderation of the discussion with Margarethe von Trotta. Hopefull there will soon be another project with her!

Gesine Mannheimer (Managing Director Jetzt und morgen GbR)

“Our movie was the first that I didn’t write myself. And luckily the new collaboration with Esther worked right away and I was able to communicate with her about the script in a relaxed and positively straight forward way.”

Franz Indra (director and independant film maker)

“Together we created a great series bible. I love the ease of creative thinking and passion of Esther!”

Martyn Niman (Producer KingBee/London)

“The task was using established stories for a kids theatre audience and create a script for a TV animation series based on these which needed to fit right in with modern educational TV shows. Esther took on this challenge with lots of passion and ans empathy. She is a very independent creator who added news aspects and offered her input in a very convincing way. When at times we differed concerning some aspects of storytelling techniques she was always happy to find common ground and use new elements in her own way which immensely added to the results quality. Esther really immerses herself into the projects and convinced us with her engagement to keep the quality of the storytelling even through the more tricky topics and the challenges of teamwork. Working with her is simply a pleasure.”

Matthias Tode (Project Manager for Der kleine Stern at Chrizle Media / Ohrfilm)

“The result of our collaboration is best described as – watch the movies and see two great, funny shorts for kids with touch of coming of age. In the end we even won a short film prize together and what more could you wish for?! I love Esthers motivation and all the ideas she put into the project. Working together was a very relaxed, laid-back experience and we always saw eye to eye, just the way I prefer to work!”

Steffen Schmidt (director and producer of “Mit Bobby an meiner Seite”)

“I am happy to have found a great, professionally communicating and extremely friendly as well a always happy co-leader by my side with with Esther. I appreciate especially her open-minded, affectionate and pragmatic approach to our work. She always as an overview of the projects and is good at communicating her borders in advance.”

Susanne Steube (1st Chairwoman of the LAG Youth and Film Hamburg)

“Esther Kaufmann is really knowledgeable about kids movies and has a lot of passion for this genre. This also shows in her film critique work and this is what she evokes also in her young readers through her wonderful choice of words. Also she is very professional concerning skills such as working fast, structured and reliable – as an editor, I couldn’t wish for more.”

Christian Exner (responsible editor Children’s Film World and deputy director of the German Children’s and Youth Film Center (KJF))