STEPSTONES
KARL KASES

Karl Kases was fascinated by moving images from his very early years on and made his first experimental film in 1965, at the age of 14, with his father's 8mm camera.

At 19 he got his first job as second camera assistant under the great Kitsch-director Franz Antel in the famous "Wien Film Studios".

He then becomes focus puller on his first Hollywood production "Visions of Eight", the official Munich Olympic film from 1972. This gives him the opportunity to work together with the world's eight best directors, each shooting an episode of the movie. Names include Milos Forman, Claude Lelouch and Arthur Penn.

At the age of 26, Karl Kases is cameraman on his first feature film.

For the Bavaria-Film studios he shoots various seasons of "Schimanski-Tatorte" (Moltke, Broken Flowers, The Exchange), then 26-parts of the TV series "The Riddle of the Sands" for Studio Hamburg, a North Sea sailing drama in winter.

As soon as he hears rumors that some episodes of the legendary TV-series „Dallas" in 1988 are planned to be shot in Europe, Karl Kases applies. The producer and director Lenny Katzman, after looking at his showreel, hires him right away as Director of Photography. The great Hollywood adventure can begin for Karl Kases. He moves to America and shoots his first 90-minute TV movie "The War of The Ewings", the "Dallas Reunion Show" with Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Linda Grey.

He is also the director of photography for many international productions, "Mindwalk" with Liv Ullmann, "The Foot Shooting Party" with the young Leonardo Di Caprio, or "Rain Without Thunder" with Jeff Daniels and Linda Hunt.

As Lenny Katzman creates a new TV series, “Walker, Texas Ranger”, starring Chuck Norris, Lenny brings Karl Kases exclusively on board as D.o.P. for 130 episodes. At the same time, several Movies of the Week are being produced for CBS. "The President's Man" Logan's War" or "Sons of Thunder".

In 1998 Karl Kases was appointed by the executive producer Chuck Norris being to direct "Walker, Texas Ranger" and has been a member of the Directors Club of America since then. (DGA)

In 2012 Europe calls him back and Karl Kases moved to Berlin, where he directed more than 20 television films and more than 70 series episodes for ARD Degeto, ZDF, Sat 1 and ORF. But writing novels is his new passion.