My name is Maryna Kovalevska, I was born in Kyiv, Ukraine in 1995. I got the Bachelor’s degree at Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University in Italian translation, and after that I completely changed my life, and in 2017 went to Los Angeles where I have recently graduated with honors from the New York Film Academy (Los Angeles) with the Master’s degree in Film & Media Production. Since 2014 I wrote and directed more than 10 short films.
indieactivity: Why did you get into filmmaking and screenwriting?
Maryna: From early childhood I was interested in different kinds of arts. I was taking dancing classes and playing a guitar in a rock band, I was studying painting and photography; I used to organize events and concerts. And at one point in my life I discovered the thing where I could combine all my passions – Filmmaking. To be honest before that time I was never interested in films and even considered watching a movie a waste of time, as I was a pretty active child and I would have had better draw something than spent an hour and a half in front of the screen. But after taking an almost accidental course of filmmaking in Italy a whole new world opened for me – the magic world of motion picture.
indieactivity: How can an independent filmmaker distribute their film?
Maryna: Distribution is always the hardest part. I would say that an indie filmmaker should promote him-/herself using his/her movies to find more future projects with higher budgets and larger possibilities. Of course there are Film festivals and film markets where filmmakers can try to sell their ideas, find opportunities to develop their short film into a feature one, etc.
indieactivity: When can an independent filmmaker start planning for distribution?
Maryna: Of course, it’s development of the idea of your movie. When you just start thinking about your concept, the audience that your film will be related to, the ideas that you want to bring to the masses. At exactly this point the understanding of distributing possibilities comes. Ether it’s a family comedy which you can try to promote to the TV channels, or horror film where you can make a product placement.
indieactivity: How can an independent filmmaker get their film into theatres with an indie budget?
Maryna: Film festivals are the best way to see your movie on a Large Screen. Winners of big film festivals are usually getting the opportunities for more screenings. Winning a festival is a good chance to be noticed by producers and production companies, to meet people who are interested in your works and willing to work with you on larger projects.
indieactivity: How can independent filmmakers finance their projects?
Maryna: For indie filmmakers’ executive producers are usually family and friends. I also had a good experience with crowdfunding, and my advice would be – try it! But of course, it depends on a type of a project, there is always a product placement and producers who are interested in certain types of the movies.
indieactivity: What films have you written?
Maryna: My first film made in Italy actually made me to fall in love with the filmmaking was “Ma Perche’?” (But why?) 2014. After that I started developing my skills in filmmaking and I’ve made such movies as:
“Cassie”, 2015; “Liar”, 2015; “Beauty”, 2017; “Some things never change”, 2017; “Sin Bar”, 2017; and “15 minutes”, 2018.
indieactivity: What films have you made?
Maryna: Except writing and directing I had a chance to work on many other projects with very talented filmmakers as a Director of Photography, Production Designer and Make-up Artist. I’ve shot the movies “AliCe”(2017), directed by Natsumi Shibata; “With Love the Neighbor” (2017), directed by Donatella Vacca; “Plus Size” (2017), directed by Ala Waznah; “Aberdeen” (2018), directed by Megan Mann, and others.
indieactivity: What is your concept on collaboration?
Maryna: I am sure the success of my movie 70% depends on my crew and we build good relationship on the set. From the other hand it is really hard to find a balance between being a good friend and the respected director at the same time. So far on all of my sets I just created a really friendly atmosphere always open for suggestions of the team and giving a creative space for people working with me. I allow myself to be straight to the point and not let chaos to happen during the shoot.
indieactivity: How do you find the process of filmmaking as an independent filmmaker?
Maryna: It is always so fun! As indie filmmakers don’t have much budget they always need to come up with creative ideas to make their movie look fantastic. I really like those challenges and I always take them with huge enthusiasm! I had experience of building a dolly from a skateboard, cheating traffic on a freeway in a small garage, making a fatal car accident not moving cars even for an inch. Of course, such tricks require good pre-production and planning, but sometimes I let myself to improvise right on the set, and so far improvised shots turned out to be the best.
indieactivity: Describe your recent work?
Maryna: My recent movie the “15 minutes”(2018) – is a tragic story of a father who loses all human boundaries trying to save his dying daughter. This movie shows complicated relationships between family members and people who see each other for the first and last time in their lives. I came up with the idea of this movie thinking about the concept of the time, and how crucial even few minutes can be for human life.
On the stage of development of the script my producer was trying to convince me that this movie can’t be done with the small budget, as I had a huge car accident, traffic on the freeway at night with the ambulance stuck in it, dying child and many other crazy things. But after a good amount of time spent with amazing Producer Syuzanna Avetisyan and talented Director of Photography Gabriele Fabbro working on the script to make it work we came up with brilliant ideas that let this movie happen.
The casting was tough, it was really hard to find good actors who are willing to work for free for such low budget film, but after 3 casting sessions I finally found my cast! Emotionally strong James Arthur Lewis – for the lead role of Liam, charismatic Ellison Hall – for the role of Casey, heartwarming Christopher Hazlehurst – for the role of dying Tom, Charming Megan Duquette – for the role of Nicole and a little princess Emily Priestly – for the role of Molly. And finally, after 2 month of pre production we moved to production. We had 1 day and 2 overnights shoots, it was really fun and fast movie production.
The crew was a little less than 20 people so we all felt more like a family than crew members. I highly appreciate work of each of my crew members, without them it won’t happen. Post Production was about 2 month, and now the movie is done! And we started our festival journey. So far “15 minutes” has 9 official selections and 5 nominations at film festivals in LA. I’m not going to stop on that and I’m going to promote my movie even more. I have a huge desire to find an investor/producer who is going to be interested in adapting this short film into a feature!
indieactivity: What are your future goals?
Maryna: For the near future I’m planning to do two short films, one of them I really want to make back in Ukraine with the Ukrainian team of filmmakers as we have many of talented young people who just don’t have a chance to prove themselves, I want to give them this chance! And after that of course I want to shoot my first feature film. This process is much more complicated than a short film, but I’m not afraid to dream and to set goals for myself, because only doing that makes us to move forward and up!
indieactivity: What does an independent filmmaker need in today’s world of filmmaking?
Maryna: I would say that indie filmmakers, especially nowadays should have strength to fight with all the sequels that are done today and move the art into the masses. We need to give new ideas, genres and stories to filmmaking industry. We need to be brave and persistent to make the world see the true art that we are making.
indieactivity: Write briefly about or career?
Maryna: The New York Film Academy gave me not only an excellent educational background, but a chance to meet talented people from all over the world! I had a pleasure of working with the amazing Producer Syuzanna Avetisyan, who proved to solve any problem on the set! Herewith I evaluate my dear friend Natsumi Shibata whom we always worked together with on every of our endeavors; I used to always be her Director of Photography and she always was my Assistant Director.
Thus, I shot the short films: “Sparkle” (2017), “AliCe” (2017) and other. Natsu made an AD for the “15 minutes” (2018) and DP for my “Sin Bar” (2017). I guess we just feel each other’s vibe and can understand each other with no words. I was as well pleased to work with gifted Gabriele Fabbro – an amazing Director and cinematographer. He is DP of the “15 minutes”.
In my turn too, I played in his music video “Can’t take my eyes off you” (2018) as an actress, and we’ve recently finished production of his short film called “8” where I was doing makeup, wardrobe and PA. I highly appreciate the enormous support of Ellison Hall put in my productions. He was composing music for the two of my best productions: “Sin Bar” (2017) and “15 minutes” (2018), and he did an amazing job! I just can’t list here all of the incredibly talented people I worked with as the list would never get ended.
I wish to thank everyone who I worked with for the amazing experience you guys gave me! Let’s make more movies – altogether! You can check all or recent projects on links below
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In Conversation with Michael Oblowitz Director of Confidential Informant
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