Your new movie Parallel
- in a few words, what is it about?
In Parallel a young man finds his missing father's car that appears to
be a tool to traveling through alternate universes. During his journey to
find his dad he witnesses the differences between parallel universes and
faces some of the most exciting but emotionally difficult situations of
his life. How did the project
come into being in the first place?
First of all Parallel
was literally a dream of mine. A couple of years
ago I woke up in the middle of the night with the image of Gábor (our
protagonist), the car and some key moments of the film. I got out of the
bed, ran into my editing room and wrote down everything I could remember
from the dream. A couple of days later I told this idea to my long time
collaborator, József Gallai [Jószef Gallai interview -
click here], who also liked this vision and started
working on the script based on my ideas - however the final version of the
story was completely József's imagination.
The final film itself was the product of several extremely talented
people from all over the world (as the film was financed with the help
of crowdfunding).
To what extent can
you identify with the concept of parallel universes on a personal level,
and did you at all research theories and/or watch movies about the subject
in preparation for filming Parallel?
My whole career as a filmmaker started because of the Back to the Future
trilogy. I think you can all figure it out by now that the films
have had a huge effect on how I wanted to create Parallel.
I really like sci-fi. I like just sitting for a couple of minutes,
sometimes hours, and thinking about the meaning of our lives. What is the
purpose of it? What can be found in the afterlife? Is there any
afterlife? What if the exact same world exists parallel to ours but with a
little twist on it? Based on these ideas in my head I always wanted to make
a science fiction movie, and with Parallel,
one of my dreams come true.
What
can you tell us about your writer (and long time collaborator) Jószef
Gallai [Jószef Gallai interview -
click here], and what was your collaboration like? I
have had the pleasure to work with József since 2012. We first met at the
university thanks to one of our lecturers and I am happy to say that this
friendship means a lot to me. We directed several projects together and
even if we direct separately, we are there for each other as a
screenwriter, an editor, a DOP, a composer or just as a good friend who
has a good idea. József is not just a great filmmaker who can get the
most out of each member of the crew but a real friend with whom you can
discuss every aspect of your life. A
few words about your directorial approach to your story at hand? I
really wanted to highlight the emotional aspects of an extraordinary
situation like the one Gábor finds himself in the film. Although parallel
universes have thousands of exciting opportunities and questions, I was
curious about the idea of taking a look at our universe without being the
part of it. You
also did the music for Parallel
- so do talk about scoring your movie for a bit!
I started composing music in 2012 basically because our projects were
lacking original music and I have been a huge film score fan since my
childhood. In case of Parallel I started writing demos way before
shooting the film. As we made the film in two shooting segments, I was
able to score it during editing. Being both the editor and the composer
of the film helped me a lot to find the best pace our short needed.
The original soundtrack of Parallel
(can be found here:
https://elgergo.bandcamp.com/album/parallel)
has become a modern, thematic-based score, which has been nominated as
Best Soundtrack at the Oniros Film Awards in July 2018.
Do talk
about Parallel's
key cast, and why exactly these people?
In short, they were the best! After a long casting period, I chose Péter
Inoka as our protagonist Gábor. Péter was exactly the person I
imagined when I was reading the script. He is a very talented actor who
can become anybody you wish. Since Parallel, I had the chance to work
with him on József's short Echoes, and he was fantastic in that flick
too.
I can say exactly the same about Csinszka Flóra Kiss. She arrived at the very last minute of the film, but was determined to play the role of
Annamari, and outplayed every other actress.
Dávid Kiss however came as a joker. He is a good friend of mine, we did
several films together in the past, but in Parallel
I wanted a complete
new cast. After some unfortunate tries, I finally decided to approach Dávid
with this role and he nailed it!
A few words
about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere? We had
a great time shooting the film although sometimes the weather was more
than ugly. There is a scene close to the end of the film, which was
recorded in such a wind that some of the cast were frozen by the end of
the day. For me, Parallel
was one the most difficult shoots I've ever
had mainly because of the lenght of it. Despite all the difficulties, it
was great to see the excited faces of the cast at the end of the day when
we watched the recorded materials and had nightlong discussions, full of
jokes and great atmosphere. The
$64-question of course, where can Parallel
be seen? Parallel
is currently doing its festival circuit,
so right now it is not available for a wider audience. As soon as we
finish with the festivals, it will probably end up online. Anything you can tell us about audience and
critical reception of Parallel
yet? Right now I can say that Parallel
has mixed reactions
from the audience but fortunately the number of positive reviews are more
than the negatives. It has been part of 3 film festivals (Oniros Film
Awards, Prisma Film Awards and Los Angeles Cinefest) yet and we are trying
to find as many more as possible. Any future projects you'd like to share?
|
Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned) |
The links below will take you just there!!!
|
|
|
I
am eagerly waiting for the shooting of József's next feature film Spirits in the
Dark, where I will be a DOP, an editor, a composer and a
producer. I think that one is going to be an awesome adventure not just
for us, the crew, but also for the audience. Keep on eye on Spirits in the
Dark! Your/your
movie's website, Facebook, whatever else? Parallel
can be
found on Facebook
(https://www.facebook.com/parallelshort2017/)
and on IMDb
(https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6184132/).
If somebody is interested in my composer page, you should also check my
bandcamp page here:
https://elgergo.bandcamp.com/ Thanks
for the interview!
|