DOCUMENTARIES

Great Inventions

On behalf of ZDFenterprises we produced five episodes of 45 minutes each for the series “Great Inventions”.

GREAT INVENTIONS provides insights into the creation and functioning of numerous groundbreaking inventions that have become an indispensable part of everyday life. We rely on hundreds of inventions every day. They often start small, but many discoveries find imitators and continue to be improved. The first electric subway, for example, was inaugurated in London in 1899. Today, the largest subway network, at 637 km long, is in Shanghai – while London has only 402 km.

Glass

Glass, the first material ever artificially produced by humans, is a life-changing invention. This film tells fragments of its history of invention, because glass can be found everywhere, from our mobile phones to the houses we live in. In the episode GREAT INVENTIONS – GLASS, we look back to its origins and embark on a 4000-year long transformation from a dull, dirty pearl to the high-tech material of the future.

  • Director: Jennifer Gesslein
  • Camera: Ricardo Esteban Garzon Mesa, Lawrence Richards
  • Sound: Paul Heydecke
  • Editor: Lodur Tettenborn
  • Grafics: Garrit Pieper, Ciarán Ryan
  • Sound Editor & Re-Recording Mixer: Peer Hoffmann, Fabian Helpenstein
  • Production Team: Eva Frank,Lars Bockius, Max Knepper
  • Executive Producer: Wolfram Giese

Combine harvester

Combine harvesters are often described as the smallest factories in the world. Invented in the USA in the 1920s, these work horses are real all-rounders that can cut, separate, chop and thresh – all at the same time. They can harvest up to 70 tons of grain in one hour. Great Inventions shows charming archive footage of the first machines chugging across a field behind a tractor and provides spectacular images of the smart combine harvesters of tomorrow – even gamers have discovered a penchant for these high-tech behemoths.

  • Director: Viola Löffler
  • Camera: Ricardo Esteban Garzon Mesa, Lawrence Richards, Dustin Hasberg
  • Sound: Paul Heydecke, Daniel Mauthe , Mike Glöckner,Bobby Dehzad
  • Editor: Lodur Tettenborn
  • Grafics: Garrit Pieper, Ciarán Ryan
  • Sound Editor & Re-Recording Mixer: Peer Hoffmann, Fabian Helpenstein
  • Production Team: Eva Frank,Lars Bockius, Max Knepper
  • Executive Producer: Wolfram Giese

Hook and loop fastener

The hook and loop fastener is such a natural part of our everyday life that hardly anyone has ever thought about the exciting story behin

d this crucial invention. This is the story of the Great Inventions episode “Hook and Loop Fasteners”.  The Swiss engineer Georges de Mestral recreates the great burdock plant with nylon. He changes the world.A journey through the past 70 years – and to places where we would never expect to find this great invention.

  • Director: Henrik Diekert
  • Camera: Ricardo Esteban Garzon Mesa, Lawrence Richards, Georgie Uris
  • Sound: Bobby Dehzad, Mike Glöckner
  • Editor: Lodur Tettenborn & Klaus Kübel
  • Grafics: Garrit Pieper, Ciarán Ryan
  • Sound Editor & Re-Recording Mixer: Peer Hoffmann, Fabian Helpenstein
  • Production Team: Eva Frank,Lars Bockius, Max Knepper
  • Executive Producer: Wolfram Giese

Protheses

Masterpieces of medicine and technology. This film tells the story of the invention of prosthetics and takes the viewer on a journey of achievements. In GREAT INVENTIONS – PROSTHESES, we look at all the problems that had to be solved up until today. But we not only look into the past. Today’s prostheses don’t just improve people’s lives , they can also enhance them with senses never seen before.

  • Director: Jennifer Gesslein & Henrik Diekert
  • Camera: Ricardo Esteban Garzon Mesa, Lawrence Richards
  • Sound: Paul Heydecke, Mathias Hopfenmüller, Michael Riffel
  • Editor: Lodur Tettenborn & Klaus Kübel
  • Grafics: Garrit Pieper, Ciarán Ryan
  • Sound Editor & Re-Recording Mixer: Peer Hoffmann, Fabian Helpenstein
  • Production Team: Eva Frank,Lars Bockius, Max Knepper
  • Executive Producer: Wolfram Giese

Hoover Dams

Electricity, drinking water, protection – provided by giants – that are built by human hands. That’s the subject of the Great Inventions episode “Dams”. The Egyptians built dams from blocks of stone. The Romans invented concrete. The Greeks used water wheels. Today’s dams are the result of techniques developed by great cultures. The history of the Three Gorges Dam in China, the Hoover Dam, the Aswan Dam and the Emosson Dam, located high up in the Swiss Alps. An epic journey through the ages.

  • Director: Henrik Diekert
  • Camera: Ricardo Esteban Garzon Mesa, Lawrence Richards,
  • Sound: Paul Heydecke
  • Editor: Lodur Tettenborn & Klaus Kübel
  • Grafics: Garrit Pieper, Ciarán Ryan
  • Sound Editor & Re-Recording Mixer: Peer Hoffmann, Fabian Helpenstein
  • Production Team: Eva Frank,Lars Bockius, Max Knepper
  • Executive Producer: Wolfram Giese

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