Ivan Zacharias jumps high, but sets his own bar
| by: | Feb 1, 2005 |
There's an old Czech proverb that says, "Do not protect yourself by a fence, but rather by your friends." Director Ivan Zacharias seems to have taken the advice to heart. With London's Stink for the last five years (and repped by Smuggler in the US and Spy Films in Canada), he has surrounded himself with a small core of people, including owner Daniel Bergmann, producer Nick Landon, and longtime friend and DP, Jan Velicky. And in 2004, the 32-year-old became a father for the first time.
Commercials found Zacharias more than 10 years ago while he was still a student at Prague's well-known Film and Television School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU), leading him towards a Gold Lion and away from a probable career as a documentary filmmaker. At the time, he also found an important partner in fellow student and cinematographer Jan Velicky.
While the pair have been working together since those school days, it's two spots they created in 2004, "Pilot" for Stella and "Matrioshka" for Smirnoff (which they shot on location in Russia), that prove there's no commercial director working today with a more classically cinematic style and natural storytelling ability.
In 2003, Zacharias was attached to direct a movie to be produced by Matthew Stillman of StillKing, but that hasn't come to pass. Perhaps it's indicative of the mysterious workings of Hollywood that he hasn't made the jump to feature films, but it might just be that he wants to make sure he takes all his friends with him when he does.
I started to do commercials by accident. Some guys called me to see if I wanted to do a commercial. I said yes because I didn't know what to expect. [Laughs] And I was screwed for 10 or 11 years. From time to time I work as a DP on documentaries, but not as a director anymore because it takes so much time that I wouldn't be able to do commercials.
Jan and I met at school and then I decided it would be good to work with him. Since then I've never shot anything without him, apart from a few little jobs I did myself. He's a really good friend. And it's nice to work with friends. It's very important, I think.
We like to do little stories, almost short films. We prefer to work on one thing for a longer time rather than do a 20- or 30-second commercial. You can give more attention to everything and usually have more time to prepare. And we always do something different, which is fun.
"Pilot" was originally set in the French Revolution, but we changed it to [a World War II] story. We shot it in black and white because we thought it would be nice to make it more [cinematic]. It's my favorite campaign because it's always like an epic story.
Shooting in Russia was quite an adventure. There was an option to shoot [Smirnoff "Matrioshka"] in Prague, pretending it's Russia, but it would never have been the same. It was a mess, but it was really good fun. The crews change there every day. We'd have meetings at three or four in the morning to find out who was doing what. One day, they forgot to bring the stock, so we were waiting for four hours. Then when we were actually ready to shoot, there was no tape in the recorder. Every hour there was some surprise.
We didn't get stressed. There's no point when you're shooting. You can't get stressed, because you would die. So you have fun and try to improvise and change things, but stick to your vision. At the end, you always get it done.
I really wanted to do a feature when I was at film school - it was like a dream - but not anymore. I want to do a film but only if I'm absolutely sure that I know what I'm trying to say with it because there are so many crap films. It's the same with commercials. I can't do a script I don't really like because I won't be able to go on the shoot and wake up in the morning and talk to the actors and the crew. I can't imagine working like that.
I don't think I want to do a big film controlled by a big studio because then you don't have enough power to be in charge. When you spend two or three years on something, you want to finish it. I'm not in a hurry. I'm happy to wait a few years unless I find something I'd really like to do.
We do three or four commercials a year because it's enough for us to enjoy it. Doing 10 a year would be hell. I can't understand how people can do it and still enjoy it. It's just too much. You want to have a bit of a life in between.
