Potsdam, January 29, 2026 – UFA Serial Drama has always been characterized by innovation and efficiency in its daily series. Especially in the technical area, the daily productions can try out new things or discard them faster than usual due to the daily business. Starting in February, GUTE ZEITEN, SCHLECHTE ZEITEN is now taking the next step at the Babelsberg location – supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.

The pilot project “GZSZ goes VP“ aims to test the technical, creative and organizational integration of virtual production (VP) into the production of serial content using the example of GUTE ZEITEN, SCHLECHTE ZEITEN (GZSZ), taking into account economic efficiency and quality standards. The aim is to gradually integrate AI and VP workflows into the regular production process.

Funding is now being provided for a test shoot lasting several weeks in the LED studio (Studio Babelsberg) to test AI-supported virtual production workflows in the reproduction, optimization and expansion of scenes previously shot on location – with a focus on hybrid production approaches, increased efficiency and realistic integration of urban Berlin spaces where, for example, filming permits have so far been difficult or impossible to obtain.

The GZSZ team is supported by Arkanum Pictures, an up-and-coming local company with a high level of expertise in virtual production (e.g. “Wingspan”) and by Jonathan Ho, Virtual Production Supervisor (e.g. CALL MY AGENT – BERLIN). They are accompanying the project as creative consultants in all phases. Other partners are Studio Babelsberg, ICT, Robe, LAVAlabs, Lux AI, Sons of Motion Picture and Sony. With this project, the parties involved want to establish a showcase standard that will make the location attractive for a wide range of productions – from daily series to shows and commercials to drama series – and enable the establishment of a virtual production studio with scalable, economically viable structures. Ernst Feiler is responsible for project management and consulting. He has many years of experience in the industry, including as Director IT/Technology at UFA, as Managing Director of Ludwig Kameraverleih and most recently at Pharos – The Post Group.

Katja Bäuerle, GZSZ producer at UFA Serial Drama: “This test is an exciting challenge for the extremely professional and technology-interested GZSZ team. We have high quality standards and at the same time clearly defined framework conditions in terms of time and budget, which allow little to no leeway. Our expectations of the results are correspondingly clearly defined. We will evaluate this project in an open-ended, pragmatic and analytical way and ideally not only be able to decide for ourselves at the end whether we will continue to work with this technology as a daily series, but also provide other producers with more transparency about the status quo of LED.”

Helge Jürgens, Medienboard Managing Director of New Media Funding: “We are delighted about this joint project here at the location! It brings together key players and concentrated expertise for a new idea: the innovative application of AI and virtual production for serial formats. The Medienboard funding was provided as part of the broadcasting cooperation with RTL and thanks to the financial support of the Brandenburg Ministry of Economic Affairs. The aim is to further expand Babelsberg as a forward-looking production location!”

Jörg Bachmaier, CEO of Studio Babelsberg: “Virtual production and artificial intelligence open up new ways to improve the efficiency, predictability and quality of high-quality series and film productions. The decisive factor here is not just the technology, but how we use it: responsibly, cost-effectively, economically and always with people at the center.
Projects like this show how innovation creates concrete added value – for creatives, producers and the entire market. We look forward to working with strong partners to further strengthen Babelsberg as a leading location for the creative community.”

GUTE ZEITEN, SCHLECHTE ZEITEN is a production of UFA Serial Drama for RTL. Katja Bäuerle is the producer. Line producer is Christina Vogel-Froehlich. Co-producers are Katrin Birkner, Christine Melzer and Christian Schönfeld. RTL’s executive producer is Christiane Ghosh, the editors are Christina Pachutzki and Luisa Schnicker. The early evening classic runs Monday to Friday at 7:40 p.m. on RTL and at any time one week in advance on RTL+. GZSZ is produced in UHD and broadcast on RTL UHD.

About UFA SERIAL DRAMA

UFA bundles its activities in the program genres of serial drama and fiction as well as show, factual and documentary under one roof. The core business of UFA Serial Drama is the development and production of serial formats: With GUTE ZEITEN, SCHLECHTE ZEITEN, the company established the first and still most successful daily series on the German TV market in 1992. This was followed by UNTER UNS in 1994 and ALLES WAS ZÄHLT in 2006. Other formats that the company has produced in recent years include SPOTLIGHT (since 2016), NACHTSCHWESTERN, LENßEN ÜBERNIMMT, VERBOTENE LIEBE – NEXT GENERATION, EVEN CLOSER – HAUTNAH, IRGENDWAS MIT MEDIEN and spin-offs of the successful GUTE ZEITEN, SCHLECHTE ZEITEN brand such as SUNNY, NIHAT and LEON. The latest formats from UFA SERIAL DRAMA include LENßEN HILFT, UFERPARK – GUTE ZEITEN, WILDE ZEITEN, a GZSZ format for the younger target group, and KRASS KLASSENFAHRT – DIE NEUE GENERATION. The longevity of the series and the company’s innovative strength make UFA Serial Drama the market leader in its segment. UFA Serial Drama is managed by Markus Brunnemann.

The press release as PDF for download: