My first push into the world of cinema happened when I was nine years old and I watched a horror movie that was not intended for children at all. My mother passed away a year previously, and my father was busy with work, so I was raised by the TV screen.
My first push into the world of cinema happened when I was nine years old and I watched a horror movie that was not intended for children at all. My mother passed away a year previously, and my father was busy with work, so I was raised by the TV screen.
The one movie that brought it all back was Gore Verbinski's "The Ring", and my first thought (after sleepless nights, of course!) was: I want to make this movie! But this film already existed, it had a director and credits, so I decided that I had to reshoot it on my first phone, and then I realized that I could make films myself.
During the history of my life, I found dozens more films, the creator of which I dreamed of becoming like, and each of them brought me closer to my project, which is still ahead.
I went to a theater studio during high school, then entered the university as a director, putting all my efforts into it. Unfortunately, there was no opportunity to develop in cinematography in my hometown, so I learned the art of theater in order to be able to work with actors, which also helped me in my further work in filming. I went to non-state training to learn the basics of camera work and feel the frame. When I graduated from university, I left my native home. I didn't know then that these were the last peaceful months there, with whole buildings and peace on the streets. In Kyiv, at the university of cinema on a master's course, I started shooting films that were not available in my hometown. I had an internship at a TV channel, I worked on the set as an assistant, and I wrote scripts so that as soon as I got my diploma I would start shooting my own projects, but one day bombs started falling on our heads.
My hometown and the capital lost what I dreamed about all my conscious life: the opportunity to film. We were just surviving.
Then I packed a small backpack and went on the evacuation trains further and further away from home. The German film school became my home for a year, I lived in an office room with no family and no home, in order to go to seminars and work on the set learning everything. I was an assistant director, an assistant cameraman, I recorded sound, I was an assistant producer to learn as many jobs as possible to teach myself how to make films. Disappointing news constantly came from home, but I knew what I was working for the future of art.
Cinema was my motivation to fight in the dorm basements when I was hiding from bombs, at the train station when I thought I was going to die from the explosion next door, and every second beyond. I remembered this process, which I love more than anything in the world. How the gaffers work on the lights, how the clapper updates the data every hour, how the make-up artists fix the actress's hair before she walks into the frame, and, best of all, how the text from the paper script turns into another world that you can see and hear on playback.
My films, my experience and knowledge are unique for our century, and my motivation is unbreakable, just like my country Ukraine. I will create each of my films with love and desire to make this world happier. Let people watch and be scared, laugh, cry and feel catharsis. I am sure that it is precisely for this reason that I survived.
Read Less