The Press in Movies

#8 Nonlinear Film School - how to use the press in a film

Oct 27, 2024

Hello from Seattle, friends!

I know it’s been sometime. I hope this newsletter finds you healthy and inspired. Stay tuned for another update next week with lots of exciting news.

What role does the press play in a film?

Today, I will introduce you to another aspect of the post-production on our new film SPOKE - the creation of newspapers to tell an effective story.

But let's start from the beginning: I met Christofor Balabanov in 2019 during the Bulgarian tour for my film THERE. Christofor is a graphic designer and photographer, and at that time, he was enrolled to study film directing at New Bulgarian University under Professor Georgi Dyulgerov, a renowned Bulgarian filmmaker. Mr. Dyulgerov won the Silver Bear award at the prestigious Berlinale festival in Berlin in 1978 for his film "Avantage." Here is an excerpt from the film:

We affectionately call Christofor - Fori; he designed the camera avatar for our production company, Filmabee. If you need any graphic design work he is your guru.

In 2022, Christofor accompanied me as a photographer throughout Bulgaria during the "Kaval Park" tour. His keen eye for detail and artistic sensibility added a unique dimension to our journey, capturing the essence of each location and event.

With Fori at the world premiere of "Kaval Park" in Koprivshtitsa.

In the summer and fall of 2023, we hired Christofor to shoot and create video content during the filming of the feature film "Don't Close Your Eyes." Most of the behind-the-scenes photos promoting the film will be his.

Christofor Balabanov on the set of "Don't Close Your Eyes."

Christofor works from his studio in the center of Plovdiv, on the lively Main Street, and in the evenings, he returns to his village in Brestovitsa, to the house he is restoring himself. I called him with great pleasure at the beginning of the summer to invite him to work on SPOKE. We usually communicate via Viber - me while walking the dog in the mornings, and him while playing with his son before going to bed. Our conversation went like this:

- "Whatever you need, I'll do it," he says.

- "We need to create nine newspapers that reflect the scale of Rudy's journey in the US in 2010."

- "Do you want them to look real?"

- "No. Stylized," I answer.

- "Will they be printed?"

- "Yes. The team animating them wants to print and photograph them."

Thus, began a discussion about fonts, printing paper, and other details. I started uploading examples of American newspapers to Trello - a project management tool we’ve been using since the beginning of the year. There, I also shared the texts for the newspapers.

Organizing the project in Trello. Each column has its purpose. In the middle, we worked with Fori.

Although most of the headlines and articles in the newspapers will be seen for just 1/10 of a second, and some may not be seen at all, I decided to pay attention to every detail. The photos below reflect our collaboration.

This first fictional newspaper is from the city of Burnaby in Canada, where Rudy served for 30 years as a firefighter. Under the photo of Rudy riding a bicycle is the headline: "The Voice That Travels the Galaxy." The image is of the Golden Record from the "Voyager" spacecraft. It features the song "Izlel e Delyo Haydutin" by Valya Balkanska. Her voice is traveling through space with the idea of introducing extraterrestrials to us - humans.

After the headline and the photo of Rudy, the logo of the Seattle SuperSonics basketball team follows, along with an article we created about the team. I was a big fan of theirs. And in '96, just a year after I arrived to Seattle, I watched them play in the finals against the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan. The other article in the newspaper is a fictional review of my short film "Listen."

In this newspaper from the city of Portland, the drawing of the geese is by Marina Ivanova - a 21-year-old artist from Bulgaria who is working on illustrations and sketches for SPOKE. We will introduce you to her art later on.

Here, under the photo of Rudy and the article about his fake wallet, is the headline: "My Farewell to the American Mall" and an article about another kind of an American dream…

For the newspaper from San Diego, I came up with the idea to feature the American Bazilio, who, along with Bulgarian Educational and Cultural Society PCHELA (who supported my last two docs) and a dozen other volunteers, organizes the Balkan Festival in San Diego. The drawing is by the Bulgarian artist Mariana Kalacheva.

In the newspaper from Texas, the photo features a scene from the film with a farmer who saves Rudy’s life. Below the photo is an article about the film "Delicatessen" from the blog of our cinematographer, Matthew Skala. If you read English, you can read the entire article here.

So here it is, when you watch our film SPOKE one day, you will know a little bit more about our creative process and the making of the newspapers.

Follow the pen (and the camera)

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