Media Division Interview - Robots, Lenses And Kubrick (IBC 2023)

In our last video from IBC 2023, we talk to Nikolas Moldenhauer from the Media Division about new gear, old films, the creative process, Stanley Kubrick, and much more.

The Media Division

The Media Division channel on YouTube is the brainchild of Nikolas Moldenhauer and was initially created as a passion project in 2017 but turned into one of the most in-depth (yet entertaining) content sources for filmmakers on YouTube.

Moldenhauer’s deep knowledge of both the technical and practical aspects related to filmmaking as well as his willingness to try new things and achieve a big-budget look with very little support is a testament to his skill and vision but also to how far the industry has come in recent years and what can be done on small budgets (and a lot of help from some good friends with cool toys).

In an age where attention span is getting shorter by the hour, the Media Division pushes for high-quality long-form content with videos of 50 minutes and in some cases even over an hour. However, despite a lot of technical information and complex subjects the result is always exceptionally well presented with a coherent narrative and above all visually appealing.

IBC 2023 talk and more

We had a chance to sit down with Moldenhauer during IBC and ask some questions and learn a little about the process of making his videos and his thought process (special thanks to Top Crane and Avi Choen, Cinematographer extraordinaire, for allowing us to interview in their booth).

We started by discussing some interesting trends and specific products Moldenhauer had a chance to check including some interesting robotic arms (including the ones from Zinema Motion which we covered) new Cine lenses from different companies including the new DZOFILM PAVO 2X Anamorphic Primes and the new NiSi Athena line (which was also covered) and we also briefly touched upon the new Sony Burano camera (we covered it on our interview with Sony at IBC as well).

Next, we talked about Moldenhauer’s process of creating episodes for his channel and how he got ideas for his videos. Moldenhauer talked about his project on shooting dry to wet for this recent LAOWA Pro2be review video.

This started an interesting dive into dry-to-wet and other underwater filming techniques used in the history of filmmaking (especially ways that do not require building large complex sets underwater).

Next, we covered Moldenhauer’s special interest in Kubrick’s work. He claims that he thinks of Kubrick as a fellow geek who had an idea for a complex technical shot that later became the basis for an entire film (Moldenhauer admits that he doesn’t know if this is indeed the way Kubrick’s mind worked and how he developed his films but he likes to think so).

This is the last video we post from IBC 2023, it took almost a month and a half to edit more than 50 videos and shorts that we recorded during the show. We shall soon publish a look back at the show on LensVid Talk so stay tuned.

Be sure not to miss any of our IBC 2023 videos and articles on our special show coverage page.

Special thanks to our sponsors for IBC 2023: SmallRig, Ulanzi, Godox, Zhiyun.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.