As I went to Prague to study for a documentary filmmaker
I did not have an old dream to get into FAMU - And to become a director, like many of whom I met in Prague. At some point, I just wanted to run away from Moscow for a short time, because it was sad. I always wondered what it was like to be a European student: for the past few years, I have continually met people who have been promoting ideas that have been hard to believe. They said that you can learn all your life, that it is never too late to try something new and that if you have not received the Pulitzer Prize at the age of twenty, this does not mean that you are a loser and everyone despises you.
Arrival
The international branch of FAMU has several programs. The most popular of them are the annual one, after which you will receive a certificate and the opportunity to enter four famous letters in the resume, as well as a three-year magistracy for scriptwriters and directors, and a two-year one for operators. Many come to study under the Erasmus program, but not a single Russian university cooperates with FAMU. I decided to apply to the magistracy for documentary films - but at the same time I was sure that I was not going to stay in Prague for three years.
When I first opened the "How to apply" link, I was a little scared: for people like me who are not used to studying, the list of requirements may seem too long. I had to provide a certificate of language proficiency (a common thing for many, but I never even tried to pass such exams), shoot a ten-minute documentary (my last film was fourteen years old, and my younger brother played the main role in it) make a self-portrait (it’s not so easy if you don’t know who you are and why you are) and a number of ordinary papers like a university diploma, a motivational letter, a resume, recommendations from teachers and so on.
I found out what documents I need for admission in April 2015, closed the site and, of course, was sure that half the work had been done. I remembered my grandiose plans only in February 2016, and applications for admission to FAMU were accepted until March 31. In a magical way, I did everything in two months solely thanks to the help of my friend photographer, who agreed to become my operator and editor. We shot and edited a film that I hope no one will ever see. The rest compared to this was easy. Of course, I didn’t go to the magistracy, but they offered me a program for a year - I agreed.
New town
I arrived in Prague in September. The sun was shining brightly outside, the apartment in which I rented a room was directly opposite the Buildings (one of the best places in the city - the Vltava River Embankment with bars and the market on weekends), everything was red and unusual European in autumn, at the tables in the cafe peacefully dozing dogs. My new neighbor left town for the weekend and told me to pick up the keys to the apartment in a bar under the house. I was fascinated by what was happening and went to the bar for the keys. In the smoky cheap pub, completely different from the friendly European cafes, flashing in the instagrams of friends traveling around Europe, of course, there were no keys. The bartender didn’t speak English, but a kind frequenter translated his words to me, the meaning of which was approximately: "Girl, have you ever seen this guy at all? I am sure that you were not deceived? Maybe you could drink a beer better?" This was my first beer in Prague.
A couple of days later, at the first meeting with the head of the international department of FAMU, I saw for the first time my classmates, who turned out to be very nice and ambitious guys. Someone just finished school and dreamed of finally finding out what it was like to go to university, someone, like me, wanted change. One of the first weeks we went to team-building at a boarding house owned by the Academy of Fine Arts. Here I saw the films of the guys who passed the three-year magistracy (by my standards, they really were very good - some even managed to attend international festivals), self-portraits of their classmates (original and funny) and for the first time held a microphone gun in their hands during a night shooting. Then we all got drunk together - after all team-building.
First half year
I have been to Prague several times before. I liked this city - beautiful and gloomy at the same time. This time, he impressed me a lot less - I rather quickly put on him the label of a boring city with inhospitable people. Even architecture has lost its charm: it seemed that enjoying it was the lot of tourists. Allegedly, the gloomy Kafkian spirit that I liked before irritated me: if in adolescence I was still drinking in my sadness, now my depression and everything that reminded me of it was infuriating. I fell in love with Prague after the New Year, when significant places for me, good friends and, finally, the sun appeared in the city.
At school, the gap between the Czech and international departments became noticeable almost immediately - local students are skeptical of FAMU International, because the best professors do not speak English. Looking at these stylish, confident in their talent and bright future guys, I understood how foreign students felt at the journalism department of Moscow State University. This fragmentation has consequences: last week I received a message from a second-year student of the documentary department asking for help with a film that turned out to be on the same topic as mine, which had been defended a month ago.
Eighteen people study in my group: three - on the documentary program, seven - on the director's, five - on the camera, and three more - on the script. The biggest competition was, of course, among the directors. At the same time, the guys who presented a good portfolio, but did not pass into the director's group, were offered to come to the program for scriptwriters (two of the three) and documentary (one of the three). In general, it quickly became clear how I managed to get here with my useless portfolio.
Our curriculum consists of three parts. The first is the workshops where we discuss ideas of future films every week, problems we encountered during the filming and their possible solutions. Once in a foreign country and not knowing anyone here, it is difficult to organize the process, but since the workshops are headed by experienced and well-known local directors and producers, it is much easier to work than it seems at first. In addition, people like me it is important to know that the one who teaches me is an accomplished professional. Of course, this has its drawbacks: classes are often canceled or postponed to other days, as the teacher regularly leaves for shootings or festivals. But on his return, he can agree to have your film shown on Česká televize - Czech television - and this, in my opinion, is an interesting experience.
The second part of the curriculum is the elects. Each student must choose several courses for which at the end of the semester he will receive points if he successfully writes an essay, edits a video or does something else that the lecturer requires. Among the electives there are interesting and useful lessons, but there are also those in which the lecturer puts "Ivan the Terrible" Eisenstein for the third time in a semester.
The third component is additional modules and invited guests. For persuasiveness, I will cite the name of one of the famous guests - in the spring Vittorio Storaro, the operator of Apocalypse Today and Social Life, came to the school with a lecture.
Student films
We do not have so many practical classes - it seems that the FAMU philosophy is based on the fact that students are so talented that they will come to terms with everything themselves. At the beginning of the school year, I really wanted to be taught to mount, put in front of a laptop, opened the Avid Media Composer (ok, I had enough Adobe Premiere or Final Cut) and told me how to make it look like a real movie, and not Video Mounted in Windows Movie Maker. I did not find anything like this in the list of electives. I had a month to grumble about the insufficient number of applied classes - in November we started making the first film.
For the year you have to shoot two short films and a few exercises. In the first semester, everyone shot a ten-minute documentary portrait and video for two or three minutes (in my case it was a report) on a 16-mm Bolex camera. In the second semester, documentary filmmakers direct documentaries, and gaming directors and cameramen make fiction films. You can shoot on film - all equipment is provided by the school.
When shooting starts, modules and lectures go by the wayside. While working on the film, you learn a lot from what you thought were missing in the program - you learn because you have no choice. After a few weeks spent editing the footage, I began to think less and less: "Wow, how did they do it?" - while watching movies. It’s clear that one could learn all this in Moscow with the help of Google, but in Moscow they were hampered by work, friends, lack of motivation and endless thoughts: "Why all this, life will not get better anyway."
My first film was shown in February. I honestly hated everything in it: the ugly colors, the confusion of the plot, the stupid font of the text, the superficiality. If he so annoyed me on the laptop screen, it was hard to imagine what it was like to watch it on the big screen. My work was the penultimate, and, of course, everything that my classmates had shot seemed brilliant, gorgeous and amazing. When the turn came to me, I pressed my head into my shoulders and tried to breathe deeply so that no one could hear how hard and stupid my heart beats. I came to my senses at the end, when someone patted me on the back. The audience turned out to be merciful to the film than I did. True, the impostor's syndrome still remained with me, and I still do not know what to do with it.
Perspectives
The fact that the decision taken two years ago was the right one, I began to understand only now - last week or the week before last. The first four months in Prague it seemed to me that I live with a feather pillow instead of a head. I did not understand why it was for me, whether it would ever be useful in life, and what to do when the year was over. I still don’t have an answer to the last question, but I don’t already have the first ones. It was a lot of fun to make a film, in many respects because amazing people worked with me. Terribly talented, incredibly smart, those who have something to learn. For example, one of our operators worked on the shooting of "Ghost hunting", which received the prize for the best documentary film at the Berlinale this year - in principle, this is the best film I've ever seen in a long time.
On the question of whether to go to study at FAMU International, I probably do not know what to say. I knew about all the shortcomings of the program before I bought a plane ticket. Even so - I was surprised at how little I grumble and resent when I finally began to learn. Perhaps because this is my first experience in the movie and I have no idea how it is different. At the same time, I don’t think that a person who has already received film education will learn something new here. On the other hand, FAMU, like most eminent schools, is primarily a networking: here you can really get acquainted with interesting and useful people, and the school logo in the credits of the film can be an important detail at some European film festival.
Photo: Szasz-Fabian Jozsef - stock.adobe.com, Stefan Thiermayer - stock.adobe.com, PHB.cz - stock.adobe.com, Renáta Sedmáková - stock.adobe.com
