Your Berlin fixer — English-first, Bezirk-fluent, invoice-clean.

Usually yes. The Drehgenehmigung is the Bezirk’s general film permit, required for any commercial shoot above mini-team — more than five crew, any lighting, or a tripod in a prominent public space. The Straßensondernutzung is the special use of the street permit, required the moment you place anything on the pavement or road — a truck, a lighting stand, a crowd-control line. Add the Verkehrsrechtliche Anordnung from the Ordnungsamt if a lane actually closes. We file all three at the correct Bezirksamt and tell you which ones your brief genuinely needs.

Both, depending on scope. BBFC (Berlin Brandenburg Film Commission) is useful for overview and Brandenburg-side permits such as Studio Babelsberg. For a Berlin-city shoot the Drehgenehmigung has to be filed directly at the Bezirksamt that owns the pavement — Mitte, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Pankow, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Tempelhof-Schöneberg. We file direct with the Bezirk and use BBFC as a second pair of eyes on unusual multi-Bezirk or cross-Land briefs.

English is the default across our Berlin bench — call sheets, crew briefings, WhatsApp threads, wrap packs. The permit filings themselves must be in German at the Bezirksamt; we handle that in-house. Invoices are bilingual — line items in English, MwSt and USt-ID footer in German for legal compliance.

For B2B clients with a valid EU VAT number, we apply the reverse-charge mechanism — MwSt (19%) is not charged on the invoice and is self-accounted by your side per §13b UStG and Article 196 of the EU VAT Directive. Your USt-ID goes on the PDF alongside the reverse-charge clause in English. UK clients post-Brexit are treated as outside the EU VAT area — invoiced without MwSt, with a no-VAT statement. US clients are invoiced in USD or EUR with no MwSt charged.

Berlin’s mini-team rule exempts small shoots from the Drehgenehmigung — a maximum of five people on set, one tripod, no lighting, no kerb or pavement obstruction, no traffic impact. It is filed as a notification rather than a permit, making it appropriate for lookbook teams, social content, documentary B-roll and scout stills. The moment you add a fill light, a second tripod or a sixth crew member you are in full Drehgenehmigung territory. We call the exemption where it honestly fits and don’t when it doesn’t — the fine for over-claiming lands on the production company.

Yes. Tempelhofer Feld is operated by Grün Berlin — its own film-permit process, roughly two weeks minimum, motif agreement required for commercial use, bird-breeding restrictions April through June in NSG and LSG zones. The hangars go through Tempelhof Projekt GmbH. Teufelsberg requires Teufelsberg Berlin GmbH for the access licence plus Bezirk Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf and Forstamt Grunewald — typically two to four weeks. Spree waterline depends on Bezirk — Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg for Oberbaumbrücke, Mitte for Museumsinsel.

Common. One contract can cover Berlin plus Ibiza, Berlin plus Mallorca, or a road-trip brief across multiple German cities. Same producer, one NDA, one invoice. A typical pattern is a lookbook combining a Kreuzberg street story with an Ibiza finca resort beat — we crew both separately but manage contracts and wrap on one thread.

Emails answered same business day, typically faster. Brief in by Monday morning — quote, crew list and permit flag-list back by Tuesday. Recce reel with stills, video and geolocated pins within 48 hours of confirmation. We don’t run through a middle layer, so there is no translation delay between your brief and the producer running the shoot.