Walter Bienz

Walter Bienz has worked in film advertising for over 25 years. After seven years cutting trailers and leading creative campaigns, he became frustrated watching marketing assets fragmented across multiple suppliers, so in 2007, he founded The Solid State, a film marketing agency built to unify strategy, storytelling, and execution under one roof.

Today, TSS is Australia’s most experienced and awarded film marketing agency, creating trailers, teasers, key art, social campaigns, and sales materials for local and international distributors including Netflix, Amazon, Universal, Paramount, Stan, and leading independent producers. The company has delivered more than 400 campaigns and received over 50 international awards for creative excellence.

In recent years, Walter has pushed the agency earlier into the filmmaking process, applying trailer craft and audience positioning at the script and development stage. Through concept trailers and finance materials, TSS has helped filmmakers communicate tone, marketability, and audience potential long before production begins. That work has helped more than 45 films raise over $50 million in production financing.

This philosophy led to the creation of Working the Pitch, an intensive three-day masterclass where filmmakers learn to develop, position, pitch, and market their projects by building trailers from the earliest stages of development. The program reflects Walter’s broader belief that marketing should not be treated as an afterthought to filmmaking, but as part of the storytelling process itself.