Stefan is working with media content for almost 20 years in different areas, from single images to 24 images per second, from business to creative and from atoms to bits. His passion is photography and film either in a suit in a boardroom or in jeans and t-shirt shooting on location.

His creative work as a photographer has appeared in various magazines and has been used in commercial campaigns in the US and abroad.

With dividi.de he founded and launched one of the first web DVD rental companies in Germany taking the traditional brick and mortar business to the digital world. Dividi.de was sold in 2006 to the French media company Glowria.

At VCL Film + Medien AG he held the position as COO being responsible for acquisition and distribution of over 1,500 feature films and TV programs.

During his time in Italy with Olivetti he ate tons of great food and worked in software and information systems design for international retail clients.

Stefan received a degree in Management & Business from the University of Munich in Germany.

He grew up in Germany close to the Alps in Munich skiing a lot. Today he lives and works with his family in New York.

Stefan is fluent in German and English. He also speaks Italian and French well enough to order food and get by.

As a New York based editorial and commercial photographer his clients include among others Kodak, New York Times, Vanity Fair, Syms, Wall Street Journal, Glamour Magazine and advertising agencies.

His creative work has won awards and has been exhibited.

In his personal projects he is working on creating awareness for social issues such as unemployment and the environment.

Photography and film share a similar theme: They are about telling stories and they both are heavily influenced by the opportunities that digital distribution brings.

His portfolio can be seen here.

He co-founded and successfully launched dividi.de one of the first internet-DVD-rental companies in Germany, shifting film distribution into the digital world, away from the classic brick and mortar delivery concepts.

The company was founded in 2003. Stefan was instrumental in getting the business plan off the ground, securing financing and delivering initial supplier deals.

In 2006 dividi.de was sold to the French media company Glowria.

At VCL Film + Medien AG Stefan was a partner and held the position as Chief Operating Officer. In his 10 years at the company he was involved in acquisition and distribution of over 1,500 feature films and TV programs.

During his tenure as COO from 1999 – 2002 the company grew from 28 million Euros revenue to 95 million Euros.

He negotiated and struck deals with international production partners, such as New Line, Turner, Discovery Channel, Tele-Muenchen, Spelling and others at the domestic and international film markets in Berlin, Los Angeles and Cannes.

Some of the films he worked with were box office hits such as TERMINATOR 3, SE7EN, THE SIXTH SENSE, Woody Allen’s CURSE OF THE JADE SCORPION, DANCES WITH WOLVES, and BASIC INSTINCT. He also acquired children’s programming such as TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES and SPEED RACER.

He has lectured “Film Acquisition” at the HFF (University for Film and Television) in Munich, Germany.

VCL Film + Medien AG has a long history as being one of the most influential and creative distribution companies, continuously trying to develop new distribution concepts. VCL was originally founded by Datty Ruth.

His first stint after university led him to Italy and the computer manufacturer Olivetti where he held the position as key account manager.

Around this time he also developed software for a rights management system for feature film contracts. The software is still used in various companies in Europe today.

He found out that skiing and food on the other side of the Alps was also very good.

Advisory

At BYkids Stefan serves as an advisor with regards to distribution.
ByKids empowers children of the world to tell their stories. With the help of mentors these children are creating moving documentaries about their lives.

Disclaimer: All opinions expressed in this blog are solely the opinion of Stefan Radtke and not of his clients or the companies he works or has worked for.

“Love Life.

And now let’s answer the question: “WTF does “lichterwald” mean? It is German … how unexpected. Not an everyday word. It is a combined noun, “lights” and “forest”. Germans like to do that a lot. The best translation is probably “forest of lights”. Film and Photography cannot exist without light. Do we need a whole “forest” of it? No. Just one light will do to create, but that one light can be different things and be used in different ways to create looks and evoke emotions.