A former industrial hall. Nearly a hundred windows. Sunlight cuts across old brick while movie lights glow through the haze. Henning Baum sits on a bed, shaving. What happens next? He looks as if the camera could start rolling at any second. It already has.
For Interliving’s tenth anniversary, Huckleberry Friends develops the entire campaign, from the initial idea through creative development and storytelling to execution across every format. Christian Angerer, a board member of the company and an award-winning photographer, brings it to life on a cinematic scale. His ambition: advertising that stops people in their tracks. Images that catch your eye and make you want to know how the story unfolds.
His toughest critic is in his own head
Creative director, photographer, brand strategist, sales professional, storyteller – inside Angerer’s head, these roles fight it out before the client ever sees the idea. “Many ideas I want to bring to life as a photographer on a grand, cinematic scale fail because of the sales concept I impose on myself – or because they cannot translate across every relevant touchpoint.” That first “wow” is the beginning. An image also has to make the brand recognizable, work everywhere from catalogs to the point of sale and help sell the offer. If an idea fails that test, it is out. No matter how beautiful it might be.
One golden clapperboard for the entire campaign
An anniversary needs a symbol. A gold cake, confetti, a giant ten surrounded by stars? Too familiar, too generic, too interchangeable. They mark the occasion but tell no story. Huckleberry Friends develops a golden film clapperboard instead: first as a rendering, then as a real prop built for the shoot. Every setup starts with its snap. It sparks curiosity about the next scene and carries the cinematic idea all the way into promotional messaging. The white border is not decoration either. It separates the warm, gold-toned imagery from its surroundings and makes the campaign recognizable across formats. Simulations tested its impact during development.
Hollywood lighting and a ticking clock
Inside the hall, sunlight moves through nearly a hundred massive windows. Instead of blocking it out, Angerer makes it part of the script. Two shoot days are planned almost minute by minute. A kitchen weighing roughly a ton cannot simply be moved because the light has changed direction. What looks effortless in the final image was planned with precision.
At Huckleberry Friends, photography, film, digital formats, social content and sales come together from day one. Its network brings together the specialists who turn the idea into a shared visual world. For the client, that means fewer handoffs, less duplicated work and greater control over quality, schedule and budget.
“Without a seasoned team that brings the same precision to the big picture and the smallest detail, you will never get exceptional work. That is why we bring the best people in each discipline to the table,” Angerer says. That collaboration carries every shot. Henning Baum, with whom Angerer has worked several times, wrote after seeing the first images: “Incredible light. Unbelievable how light and space work together. Outstanding.”
No advertising poses, just cinematic scenes
“A picture should make you wonder what happens next.” Angerer’s guiding principle becomes the visual language here. Baum drinks coffee beside a motorcycle, cooks with his dog at the kitchen island and plays chess on the sofa, with the dog facing him as if he were playing along. Every frame feels like a fragment of a larger story. Movie lights, a projector and haze remain visible. The set is part of the scene.
The press portraits carry the same cinematic language: Baum among massive industrial machines, movie lights and haze, with the golden clapperboard as a recurring signature. They feel like the next scene in the campaign. The lines in Baum’s face survive postproduction. No beauty-retouching theatre, no glossy mask. Angerer thinks in faces and characters. The products belong inside the story. Huckleberry Friends conceives and shapes it from the first idea to the very last format, with the aim of turning that first glance into the desire to keep watching.
