We caught up with Marie Dvorakova, currently finishing her Masters degree in film at Tisch School of the Arts in New York, who scooped up the top prize of 3,911 euros for her filmic piece, Steenback Story at this year’s Porsche International Student Advertising Film Award held in Ludwigsburg, Germany.
Do you know yet how you’re going to spend your prize?
I am going to add in the money into the budget for my thesis film. We are going to shoot it next year in Europe. It’s a period piece taking place in a Cistercian monastery. It’s a comedy. The film shoot itself will be quite challenging as we have to pull off lot of film tricks on set in front of the camera. We are planning to do some quite elaborate CG in the post too. I am really excited about it and I hope there will be way how to work on this project together with the Animation Department at the Film Akademie in Ludwigsburg.
What were the main challenges of shooting Steenbeck story?
I guess the biggest challenge was the Steenbeck machine itself.
I wanted to use in this short spot the same old school movie tricks that I used to see as a kid in old Czech films from 70s, everything done the traditional way on set in front of the camera. That required two identical editing machines. One was a prop with no engine and we could disassemble it into pieces for the planned effects. The other machine was real and working – sometimes :-). The machine was fooling around with us. The entire shoot was directed by that machine – we had approximately 1.5 hour intervals in which we could shoot before the machine would give a big bang and smoke would come out of it. My gaffer always rewired the inside parts and we could keep on working again until it broke again. By the end of the last day it was dead. We couldn’t fix it. It was lot of fun though. I have really nice memories for this shoot.
And your future plans?
I would like to stick to advertising and keep on shooting commercials. I do enjoy the short form, the variety of different projects and the fast pace of work.
Where do you see your strengths lie?
I guess in the humor – I am always trying to find it anywhere I go and I try to use it in every film piece I am working on. The very human quality of humor you can see in the earlier films by Milos Forman. I grew up in the Czech Republic with these films. And I grew up with people who so much resembled the characters from these movies. It was and still is endless inspiration.
And then I like stories and storytelling, which is why I always stick to classical story structure.
When did you first pick up camera?
I used to have an old Nikkormat still photo camera as a girl. I spent a lot of time in the dark room. I dreamt of becoming a photojournalist. It was later on when I came to renowned Prague Film School – FAMU, where I discovered the real motion picture cameras. It was great. I was also lucky enough I had the best guidance – my mentor & professor – Jan Spata (famous Czech Documentary Filmmaker and DoP). There are times when I still would need his advice. But unfortunately I have to help myself out. He is no longer among us.
And a quick resume please of where your film studies have taken you…
I studied at the School of Journalism at the Charles University in Prague.
After that I was accepted to renowned Prague Film School – FAMU, where I was focusing on documentary filmmaking. But I also made a couple of short – award winning fiction films.
In 2006 I was awarded the Dean’s Fellowship by the Tisch School of the Arts, NYU to come and complete my master’s degree in New York – primary focus on directing fiction. And that’s where I currently reside.
To see Marie Dvorakova’s winning ad and her showreel:
http://studionyc.com/reel/MARIE_DVORAKOVA_REEL.mov
