Improvisation on Set: A Conversation with Film Director Jakob Lass

Acting without fixed dialogue? For Jakob Lass, this approach is a way of creating greater authenticity and immediacy on screen. This webinar focuses on his improvisation-based approach to filmmaking. The aim of this working method is to create authentic and vivid scenes. Lass works with status dynamics to shape a narrative, explores together with the actors how relationships emerge from concrete needs, and investigates how active listening and openness can lead to believable reactions and cinematic presence.

Jakob Lass

...was already making his mark on the stages of the Bavarian provinces at a young age. After several rejections from German film schools, he made the mockumentary Bademeister Paul in 2007, which won his first festival awards. In 2009, he began studying directing at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. Already during his first year, he directed Frontalwatte starring Franz Rogowski. Jakob Lass gained international attention with Love Steaks, which won several awards at the Munich Film Festival in 2013 and was nominated for the German Film Award. He completed his studies with Tiger Girl, which premiered at the Berlinale in 2017 in the Panorama Specials section. This was followed by the improvised adaptation So Was Von Da and the comedy series How to Dad (2022), produced for the ARD Mediathek. In 2019, Jakob Lass received the Villa Aurora fellowship in Los Angeles.