PRODUCTIONS WITH A SMILE
Your Berlin production company — from the airport.
Kreuzberg base. English-speaking DPs, gaffers, stylists, fixers. A van that actually fits on Oranienstraße and a producer who speaks to the Ordnungsamt before you land. Fashion and commercial campaigns out of Berlin — Hessnatur, Liebeskind Berlin, Armed Angels, Club of Gents. Quote back in 24h, in English or German, MWSt shown cleanly for your finance team.
Berlin isn’t expensive — Berlin is mistranslated. The Ordnungsamt closes its walk-in window at 15:00. A Tempelhof hangar needs a separate application from TempelhofProjekt. The van you rented in Schönefeld won’t fit on Oranienstraße and the fixer the London agency found on Google hasn’t filmed in a bike lane since the Radstreifen rules changed. We run an all-English Kreuzberg bench that already knows which office signs what, which streets the Bezirksamt will actually close, and which neighbour will call the Polizei at 06:45 on a Saturday.
What we handle
Full-service production
Producer, coordinator, PA stack running your brief from brief-in to wrap report. One thread, one invoice — nothing to hand off, nobody to chase across time zones.
Crew booking (English-speaking)
DP, 1st AC, gaffer, grip, HMU, stylist assist, DIT — names on our bench, not scraped from a directory. We publish a named crew list with every quote.
Location scouting — Berlin
Kreuzberg courtyards, Tempelhof hangars, Teufelsberg domes, Spree waterlines, Mitte rooftops. In-house library, in-person recce on request.
Permits & Drehgenehmigung
Ordnungsamt filings, TempelhofProjekt, BVG tram-stop releases, park department sign-offs, Polizei pre-notifications. Filed in person — no cold email chains.
Equipment rental & DIT
ARRI, Profoto, Aputure, grip truck, colour-managed DIT cart, on-set proxy and backup. Standing accounts with two Berlin rental houses.
Studio, vans & logistics
Studio partners in Kreuzberg and Wedding — daylight, cyc, seamless. Sprinter and 3.5t options that actually clear the Altbau courtyards. Crew catering covering vegan and halal.
Recent work
How we work
Brief
One call or a one-pager. We come back in 24h with a quote, a crew list and a permit flag-list. No holding pattern waiting for a middle layer to translate.
Scout
Location shortlist within 48h from our in-house Berlin library. Recce walk-through on request — in person or on video. We drive; you approve from wherever you are.
Produce
Permits filed, crew confirmed, kit list locked, vans mapped. One producer as your single thread across time zones from pre-pro to wrap.
Wrap
Return, reconciliation, wrap report in English with MWSt broken out. Media archived, DIT drives shipped, NDA honoured.
Berlin — our base
Berlin shoots happen on four registers — Kreuzberg’s tile-and-graffiti courtyards, Mitte’s Altbau stairwells, the Tempelhof airfield’s unreal scale, Teufelsberg’s concrete domes over the Grunewald. We know which Hinterhof lets you park and which one calls the Bezirksamt by lunch.
| BEST LIGHT WINDOW | Apr–Jun & Sep–Oct · 06:00–10:00, 16:00–19:30 |
| NEAREST AIRPORT | Berlin Brandenburg (BER) · 35 min door-to-Kreuzberg |
| PERMIT LEAD TIME | 5–10 business days (Ordnungsamt) · 15+ for Tempelhof/Teufelsberg |
| CREW BENCH | 12 English-speaking producers + fixers, Berlin-resident |
Lovely CPS is a Berlin production company running fashion, editorial and commercial shoots out of a Kreuzberg base for agencies booking from London, New York and Paris. The bench is English-speaking by default — DPs, gaffers, stylists, DITs, fixers — so nothing gets lost between the mood board and the Drehgenehmigung. We price in euro, invoice in euro or GBP/USD on request, and break MWSt out cleanly for your finance team. A quote plus a crew list lands in your inbox inside 24 hours; a recce reel, inside 48.
On the ground: Ordnungsamt filings for Mitte, Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg and Prenzlauer Berg; TempelhofProjekt coordination for the airfield and hangars; Berliner Forsten sign-off for Teufelsberg; BVG notifications for tram-stop work; Polizei pre-notifications for anything after 22:00. Kit from ARRI, Profoto and Aputure sourced from two Berlin rental houses we have standing accounts with. Studio partners in Kreuzberg and Wedding for days you need four walls and a seamless. Sprinter and 3.5t truck options that actually clear the Altbau courtyards — we know which addresses need the smaller van.
Working across cities? One contract, three postcodes. As a Berlin production company we also service-produce in Ibiza and Mallorca on a single MSA — one producer, one NDA, one wrap report. That’s how an editorial can do a Teufelsberg cover and a Cala d’Hort resort swim with the same phone number, and how a Paris agency can put a Berlin street shoot and a Tramuntana permit on one PO.
Questions we get a lot
Are you a service company, or a full production house?
Both, depending on what you need. When a London or NYC agency comes in with DP, stylist, talent and mood board locked, we run service production — crew, permits, kit, studio, vans, catering, fixing. When the brief is “we need a Berlin campaign, help,” we produce end-to-end including casting and post-logistics. We’ll flag which mode suits your brief on the first call.
How quickly can you turn around a Berlin brief?
Emails answered same business day, usually 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 brief confirmation. We don’t run through a middle layer, so there’s no translation delay.
Where does your crew come from?
Staff bench of 12 producers and fixers, all English-speaking, all Berlin-resident. Freelance roster of approximately 90 DPs, gaffers, grips, HMU, stylists and DITs we have actually worked with on a shoot in the last 24 months — no directory-scraped names. We publish a named crew list with every quote, including roles and previous reference shoots.
Do we need a full Drehgenehmigung for a small crew?
Often no. Berlin’s Kleindrehgenehmigung regime lets a team of five or fewer with a single tripod shoot on most public footpaths without a filed permit, as long as you’re not blocking traffic, using additional lighting, or on sensitive sites (Tempelhof, Teufelsberg, rail property, BVG infrastructure). We’ll assess on the first call — if your brief fits the exemption, we say so and don’t charge for a permit we don’t need to file.
Can you handle permits for Tempelhof, Teufelsberg and Spree locations?
Yes — these three are where the friction lives. Tempelhof is a separate application to TempelhofProjekt (15 or more business days; hangar use is a different tier than airfield). Teufelsberg requires Berliner Forsten plus operator sign-off, typically 10–15 days with an access window negotiated per shoot. Spree waterline depends on Bezirk — Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg for Oberbaumbrücke, Mitte for Museumsinsel.
Do you have your own studio?
We don’t own a stage — we have standing rate cards with three Kreuzberg and Wedding studio partners (daylight, cyc, seamless) and book at member pricing. Our Kreuzberg base is the producer’s office, meeting room and prep space, not a shoot floor. If you need a booked-out studio for more than three consecutive days, we’ll point you direct to the partner to cut out the middle margin.
What about Berlin plus another city in one trip?
Frequent. One MSA across Berlin plus Ibiza, Berlin plus Mallorca, or Berlin plus Hamburg and Leipzig on a road-trip brief. Same producer, one NDA, one invoice. Typical pattern is a lookbook combining a Kreuzberg street-story with an Ibiza finca resort beat — we crew both cities separately but manage contracts and wrap on one thread.
Do you produce sustainability reports?
We ship a baseline carbon tally on every production — crew km, kit freight, studio energy, catering weight — using the AdGreen schema most agencies already use. Fuller Albert or AdGreen reporting on request, typically for brands already reporting scope-3 emissions. We don’t greenwash — we tell you what we can reduce and what we can’t.
Send us the brief
We’ll come back in 24h with a quote, a crew list and a permit flag-list.
NDA on request. Responses in English or German.
