… or how you become an American film producer?
Esther Turan, the co-producer of the film "Thursday" reports.
Part 1.
You simply make all the efforts for it and go even to Hollywood if that’s what it takes!
Well, during Film School I could work as an assistant in various American films that were shot here in Budapest, among others I took lunch for Ben Kingsley :-) I learnt a lot during those years, at the beginning of my 20s, and since then I’ve been grateful to fate and to Péter Miskolczi, who was our production managing teacher and he invited me to shootings at the end of the freshmen year. I am most grateful because here the miracle happened to me and I found my vocation and committed myself to film making!
Then commercials sucked me in.
After (and sometimes meanwhile) making TV commercials non-stop for 10 years, I started to have a desire again to take part in real storytelling besides the commercials. Why would you become a film professional if not for making sometimes movies as well?!
( A magyar nyelvű bejegyzésért kattints ide! )
Moviebar, our production company together with Viki Trepper, had already been co-producer in a Hungarian feature film, and we had produced several short films as well. We have won awards. But I thought, an American feature film would be different and my business partner, Viki encouraged me in this pursuit.
In January 2013 while in the States, among many others (I had some 50 meetings) I reached out to director Balázs Juszt – in the hope of a coffee meeting – since I heard a lot about him from our common friends. Mostly make up artist Adrienn Schön - who is a key figure in both of our lives - had a great role in our encounter. Throughout this meeting, I had the feeling as if we had known each other for a long time. We could finish each other’s sentences, we knew what the other one was thinking of, we share the same sense of humor and we had similar backgrounds. We socialize at same places, and we also have very similar goals in life! I even got to know in the meantime that my loved uncle – who unfortunately has not been with us for quite a long time – was on really good terms with Balázs’s father. There are no incidental happenings, and accidental meetings are even more rare and life is the best dramaturge.
photo by Tímea Sághy
During our talks, Balázs told me that he wanted to shoot his first feature film in Romania, a film titled “Thursday”. He wouldn’t just direct it but also wrote the screenplay of it based on the work “The Man Who Was Thursday” by G. K. Chesterton. Regarding its genre this film is a mystical thriller and will be realized solely with the money of foreign investors as an American production. I was glad to read the screenplay and received the opportunity to meet with his producers, together with Balázs!
Balázs and I first met Guy Moshe and Matt Zamias, the producers of Picturesque Films, in a Hollywood restaurant near their office. I was quite nervous and tired, since I had already had two meetings before in the other end of the city. I arrived with Doma Schrank, who is one of my best childhood friends. He’s a musician, lives in Los Angeles and helps me with everything when I’m there since LA is a jungle! :-)
I was showered with tons of questions for hours with regards to the Hungarian film tax incentive through crew members to Moviebar itself, they asked about simply everything. My head was buzzing.
I wanted to convince them to come for a location scout to Budapest, too, besides Bucharest and enthusiastically explained to Balázs that he should believe that there IS another way of film making in Hungary other than he feared of – deservedly. Not to mention the fact that he knew perfectly well, that as for exterior locations we have such an advantage when compared to Bucharest. This story almost entirely takes place in Rome, Italy which is much easier to reproduce here than there and though Balázs lived in Bucharest and knows that city well, Budapest is of course still better in his head when it comes to locations since it’s his hometown... Not to neglect also the 20% tax incentive, which sounds really attractive to the producers. (This means that if someone comes to Hungary to shoot and spend their money here, let’s call this 100%, then after the shoot they get back 20% which means that in reality the film costs 80%.) Finally, I was (and still am) totally convinced that Hungarian film profession skills are unique which Balázs also knew (and knows now) and I believe that I can act for this conviction quite suggestively :-)
It seems that I could stand the test because once in May, they were already there, in Moviebar office, on the Hajogyari Island, in Budapest, Balázs Juszt and Guy Moshe. Bucharest was already behind them and they had a clear picture in their minds what they would get there, so the lesson was definitely given for us! From the very beginning I involved production manager István Erkel, who already took part in the Skype conversations when I was still in the States. He was standing by my side in the moment after the last one, still is and I do hope that he will be in the future, too :-)
But back to the story: we started the location scout. Guy Moshe, Balázs’s producer, is actually a director as well, with Hollywood movies next to his name like the “Bunraku” from 2010 featuring Demi Moore, Josh Hartnett and Woody Harrelson. He’s an extremely creative person, a real co-creator who in this situation let his director, Balázs to unfold but he also had a say even during pre-production. When we were out on a scout in the desolate building complex of Lipótmező, we all knew it right away that we hit the jackpot and this is exactly what we had been searching for. Other cardinal locations were Gellert Bath and Dürer Club just to name a few of the locations. I also introduced them to a few possible key crew members i.e. the brilliant Csuti, a.k.a. Judit Varga, a production designer nominated for an Emmy Award twice, or the fantastic costume designer Andrea Flesch.
Then there came huge silence. Guy flew back to LA and for about a week, we did not know whether it’s going to be Romania or Hungary running-in. And then once it turned out that it is us and Budapest will be the location!!!
From then on, we moved into the office and started the feverish non-official prep, then the official 4-week pre-production period. The beginning date of the shooting constantly changed, first we were to start shooting mid-June then this luckily was postponed. On July 15, the American crew members also arrived for the pre-production and the real Thursday adventure started.
To be continued.
You can read the first coverage of our film in the Hollywood Reporter:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/borgias-riddick-actors-join-indie-622324
Official IMDB link for Thursday:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3079222/?ref_=rvi_tt
Pre-production @ Moviebar office
Balázs Juszt, photo by Doron Ritter
More on Balázs Juszt:
Balázs Juszt was born on 9th December 1982, in Budapest. He started directing musicals and plays at the American International School of Budapest. He graduated at the Royal Holloway University of London, earning his BSC degree in economis, and then graduated from UCLA, after receiving his MFA, Producers Program.
As a Director’s Assistant he took part in the film „Rokonok” directed by István Szabó, who is Balázs Juszt’s mentor. He also worked for Gerber Pictures on „The Dukes of Hazzard” as well as being an executive producer at Skyfilm on the film „Lora” by Gábor Herendi.
Director, screen play writer and producer to the short films: A jóéjtpuszi (2009), It Happened in TLV (2011), Split Perfect (2012), Lethologica (2012).
Balázs Juszt, photo by Doron Ritter
