Translator: Nora Oberlaender Reviewer: Darina Stoyanova
I almost died twice,
and that was just this year.
Thanks to a team of fast-moving physicians,
nurses, other healthcare professionals,
and people from my personal environment,
I am able to be here with you tonight.
And I am so grateful for this because I love to be alive,
as most of you probably do as well.
However, before I continue,
I would like to share with you some impressions of my daily grind.
(Video in German)
Bastian: Could you please give me the water?
- Line producer: We're ready, Bastian. - Bastian: Alright.
Line Producer: Quiet please! We are shooting.
Make-up-artist: One sec…!
Bastian: Alright…
Video image looks good. The image is sharp then, I guess.
Cinematographer: Yes.
Bastian: Then please…Sound!
Sound editor: Rolling!
Bastian: Camera!
Cinematographer: Rolling!
Bastian: Slate!
Assistant director: Scene 25. No. 2. Take 1.
Bastian: Action!
(Video ends)
I am sorry for those who expected some healthcare routine images,
but the spinal muscular atrophy,
the terminal disease I am living with, is just one aspect of my life.
So I decided to shift the perspective a little.
Actually, that was me on the set,
shooting a video with our university's student racing team.
Besides being disabled all day long, I have a pretty busy life
working as a video producer and finishing my bachelor's degree.
With my film teams
I have already shot award-winning short films,
image films for companies and institutions all over Europe,
been flown out by helicopter to shoot an aircraft security video,
and recently started to enter my latest fictional short film,
with a well-known cast, into festivals.
Living with a terminal disease and being a movie producer
are also just two aspects of my person.
As I already mentioned, I am a student too,
as well as a beloved son, a proud brother,
a highly respected community manager,
a writer who seldom writes - unfortunately,
an attentive friend,
a competent consultant
and many, many more.
And I am sure
that does not make me any special.
Since everything in life, every person, has different aspects,
the one we see
depends on the perspective we focus on.
Tonight, I would like to focus on two aspects of my life.
First of all, being a video producer.
For all the people who have not shot a professional film yet,
I would like to reveal a fact
that everyone in the movie business knows:
it never runs as it was planned.
Want an example?
Okay. Imagine the following situation.
There is a film crew of about 20 people
standing on the terrace of a penthouse suite
at the number one hotel in a huge German city.
It is half past one in the morning, quite cold,
and this is the last night
production can afford this awesome location.
Suddenly the star actor needs to see a doctor.
Even though his life is not in danger,
the actor has to leave the set afterwards.
Due to an absolutely tight schedule,
production will not be able to shoot with this actor again
within the given period of time
the shootings had to be finished.
I must admit,
that is one of the bigger challenges.
And there are hundreds of smaller ones during a movie production.
Fortunately, there are people involved in a production,
whose job it is to handle those kinds of situations.
Right. Movie producers, as I am one myself.
I am basically paid for planning things out
and finding solutions if it does run differently.
Throughout the years I've developed a routine,
so at work nothing can unsettle me.
Need to move a whole shoot from Berlin to Munich?
Not a problem!
Need to shoot a security video for an aircraft within 36 hours
when the aircraft is still at the assembly hangar?
Okay, fine!
Whenever I come across an unexpected challenge,
there are specific steps I go through.
First of all, stay calm.
This is the most simple, yet the hardest step.
Maybe you have spent hours, if not days or even weeks,
to plan something out.
When it turns out different,
everything you imagined so beautifully
will not happen that way.
So you might be sad, frustrated, or even angry.
Skip that!
Because there is nothing you can do at that very moment
to change the situation.
The second step: find a new solution.
Yeah, you already had one.
The one which seemed to be the best because you decided to go for it.
But now you need another one.
The sooner you face it, the sooner you are done.
Maybe you already had other ideas in mind.
Now is the time to sort them out again.
If you do not have another idea,
be creative.
Approach your situation from different perspectives.
Also, be open to new ideas or unusual ones.
If there is the possibility,
talk with other people about that situation.
They might have a different view on things,
so you come up with an idea how to fix it together.
For that security video of the aircraft
we put up a blue screen at the assembly hangar,
so we could flip backgrounds fast in post-production.
The situation with a dropped-out actor was not that easy to be solved.
But at the end, we cast another actor and adapted the script.
The last step is simple again -
work that new solution out.
It might take time.
It might take energy.
But the truth is, it needs to be done anyway.
So just do it!
Whenever I face a new challenge,
these steps proceed in my subconsciousness
by themselves.
I do not need to think about it.
It took me a while to figure out why.
One day I realized,
I've been practicing, I've been training these procedures
not only every day at work,
but every single day of my whole life.
When I was not able, because I was not strong enough,
to use my standard joystick for my power wheelchair any longer,
I found a company providing no way joysticks.
When I was not able to leave my parents shelter,
as every young man does,
I fought the authorities,
so I found resources to live on my own with assistance 24/7.
When I was tired
of always asking my assistants to push up my glasses,
I started having with me a Chinese chopstick all the time.
All those just mentioned examples
could be looked at as traumatic experiences.
But once you shift perspective,
you realize it has been the best training one could ever imagine
for being a solution finder.
And that is what I am paid for nowadays.
There are things in life,
no matter whether tiny or huge,
we cannot change.
An unfinished aircraft unable to even start the engines;
an ill actor,
even though every other detail of the production was flawless;
or a terminal disease you were born with.
But there is one thing we can always do.
Shifting our perspective on the situation.
Thank you.
(Applause)