A Russian-British filmmaker living and working in Los Angeles, California and a graduate of the University of Southern California and Edinburgh University. Anton Kudryashov represents a new multi-cultural generation of young filmmakers shaping new cinema to their unique vision.
A long time fan of Kudryashov's work who goes professionally by the name "Anton Kudrov", I have taken the time to speak with him about his career and what the future may hold. Both in terms of his upcoming projects and the Coronavirus pandemic's unprecedented effect on the film industry.
Q. What is your background as a filmmaker? What was the eureka moment that had you commit your professional life to storytelling?
A. I found my way into filmmaking after a long time of loving film but never thinking I could actually do it. The first real short film I directed was during my first semester at the University of Edinburgh, where I was studying English Literature. I joined a club called the Edinburgh Movie Production Society. In this society we were forced into a team, we wrote a script together, and the way I realised I had to direct was actually very natural because we got on set, and nobody knew what to do! But I wanted to make a movie.
So I started talking to the guy with the camera about how we could shoot this, talking with the actors about how they should interpret the script, and pretty soon I realised that, without knowing it, I was instinctively directing. The experience was so creatively fulfilling that from that day on I was just hooked. I formed a team, I started making short films in all kinds of genres, eventually, we made commercial content, a web series and I never want to stop. Plus, getting into the best filmmaking programme in the world was a good indicator that I was heading in the right direction.
Q. Any inspirations that continue to push you?
A. I am hugely inspired by the films of Alfred Hitchcock, Christopher Nolan and David Fincher because I think they are masters at creating suspense and that’s the feeling I want to capture in my work.
Q. As a recent graduate of USC’s master’s programme in Film and TV Production, how do you feel about the current global environment for young filmmakers? Not just in terms of the pandemic crisis but the options available for films to be made and seen?
A. Honestly, I am in the middle of figuring that out. On the one hand, there are a lot of platforms that, apparently, want young voices and you hear people saying that everyone wants content but at the same time there are still a lot of barriers to getting your foot in the door. People don’t want to deal with strangers so the way you get in, and it’s been like this for a long time, is through your connections. Luckily I have some but nobody is going to get your film made for you. It’s the same competitive business we’ve always heard about.
As far as how the pandemic will affect young filmmakers, for me personally, as a screenwriter, nothing has changed. I am still indoors working on my projects and doing a lot of thinking. At the same time directing has obviously become quite a challenge but the break gives you more time to prepare and when things get started up again hopefully that extra work will be reflected in the content.
Q. Any particular experiences in school or in work which have shaped your methods, what collaborations have been your most rewarding?
A. My most formative experiences in school came from the two toughest classes I took, Intermediate Screenwriting and Advanced Directing. For both, I had very tough professors who were brutally honest with me about my work, which made me go back and rethink my approach to screenwriting and directing. So from the screenwriting class, the biggest takeaway was: the structure is key. I realised that without a good structure you just can’t go, but once you know what it looks like everything becomes a lot easier. And in the directing class, I figured out that I want to, and I should, be making thrillers. That’s what initially got me into filmmaking and that’s the genre people really enjoyed seeing from me. Because before I tried to tackle everything, but your strengths are your strengths and you should own that.
Q. Are any of those collaborations going to continue in the future?
A. Over the last year especially I have tried to build up a troupe of actors and filmmakers who I want to keep building relationships with. So now when I am thinking about my feature films I am already planning with those guys in mind. Working with the same people is very rewarding because you start to evolve together and that just elevates the work.
Q. Your most well-known film “Grounded” has a quite lighthearted, romantic tone about two neighbours courting one another. How did the success of that film move your career forward and shape you as a filmmaker?
A. Yes, Grounded won at the Merced College Film festival, where it was best in show and at the Violetta Film Festival where it won best directing. It was also selected by Moscow Shorts, Short and Sweet Film Festival and a semi-finalist at LA Cinefest.
Honestly, that film was a liberating moment for me because I always wanted to make something my family could watch, like my grandparents especially, but I know they couldn’t understand English and didn’t want to see anything too risqué so I made this almost silent very PG film. After I made it I’ve let myself become a lot more liberal with the subject matter, which let me experiment a lot, and it’s put me on the track I am on now to make more mature movies.
Q. What are you most proud of with that film?
A. I am really proud of the casting for that film. One of the characters was written as disabled and I really wanted to find someone who could portray that honestly. It was by far the biggest challenge in making the film but I was very committed to it because I think representation is important and also creates a much more respectful performance. So I was very lucky to find Lupita who lived in Northern California and came down all the way just to be in our movie. She has actually since moved to Los Angeles and is being mentored at CBS I believe.
Q. What are the links the bind your films together? What makes ‘Anton Kudryashov’ stand out from the crowd?
A. I try not to think about that too much because then you start making the films that you should be making so that they all fit this pattern, rather than the films you want to make. But, objectively looking at my work, I’ve realised over time that my films feature strong female characters, perhaps because I was raised predominantly by my mother and in writing, I am very driven by originality. I think you would be able to spot a film of mine because it’s unlike something you’ve seen before, whether that’s in subject or format.
For example in Grounded shooting entirely through the windows, or in my thesis film, making a whodunnit where the detective is kind of clueless and the suspects catch the killer. The same is true in my feature film ideas like Natural Causes, a murder mystery set in a retirement home, or what I hope to be my feature film debut, Domestic Incident, a found footage political thriller.
Q. So you're developing projects at the moment but is there anything coming out on the horizon that you're excited about?
A. I actually have a lot of projects due to be released this year. They are all currently in post-production and came from the Advanced Directing class I mentioned earlier. There is a sci-fi Noir film, a new wave film about a disillusioned director called, a docudrama about a parole officer, a WWII action-comedy, and my thesis film, a female-driven murder mystery, Lybeck.
Q. During your time at USC, you wrote a script “The Handshake” which was awarded the Sloan Foundation Screenwriting Grant. Explain what the means to you, what is the future of that project and what drew you to its detailed orientated story?
A. Yes. Winning the Sloan Grant and subsequently being shortlisted with the Tribeca and Sundance Institutes could not have come at a better time for me. First of all, practically speaking, it paid for my last year at USC, and I wouldn’t have been able to graduate without that financial aid. Secondly, it gave me a lot of confidence in my screenwriting ability and inspired me to write all the short films I wrote last semester and continue my writing into this year, with my series pilot Vavilov and Domestic Incident.
The details, of course, had to be spot on, because this grant is only awarded to projects that promote accurate portrayals of science and scientists in film. But I was more attracted to the story of the Apollo Soyuz Test Project because it represents a unique moment in history when Russia and the US actually put aside their differences and worked together on something significant. For me, it's so important to remember these stories because in these times of political conflict we have to remember that it doesn’t have to be this way. American and Russian identity can coexist, just look at me.
Q. What is your motivation as a writer-director, what are the type of stories that fascinate you? How does screenwriting inform your skills as a director? Or vice versa?
A. For the most part, I am motivated to write so that I can have something to direct. So I am writing and thinking about what’s feasible for me to do, what can I actually put on the screen with the resources that I have. But when I am not writing with that purpose in mind I think I gravitate towards historical dramas. The second project I wrote was Created Equal, the true story of Elizabeth Freeman, an African-American slave who sued her master for her freedom and won. Then there is The Handshake, the story of ASTP, and now I am developing Vavilov, the story of biologist and adventurer Nikolai Vavilov who travelled the world collecting rare species of crops in order to end the Russian famine in the early 20th century.
I think I’ve naturally moved towards Russian stories because I don’t see a lot of them being made out here, and I think the way to culturally move closer is through having stories in common. It’s easier to understand the other when you know more about the other. Also, I think the Russian bad guy stereotype has just been in circulation too long and I must do something to stop it.
Q. Your work has primarily consisted of short film work such as Grounded and Lybeck but with The Handshake’s preliminary success, are you preparing to make the leap to feature-length projects?
A. I am! It is absolutely the next step. I’ve learned a great deal over the last three years and now that I understand the structure of a feature film I just have to do it to take my filmmaking to the next level. I am actually currently working on a feature-length script, my 6th by now, which is a found footage conspiracy thriller. Found footage is a format that obviously keeps the costs down, doesn’t require known actors, but also has the potential to add something new to the thriller genre.
Q. In terms of the future, how are you finding ways to remain active in work during the Coronavirus pandemic? As a Los Angeles resident, I’m sure you and every colleague are holed up trying to write the great American pandemic script to pass the time?
A. My schedule is literally the same as its always been, except now its a home office. I get up, breakfast, and I work until 6 pm developing, writing, supervising the post-production of my short films.
As far as pandemic scripts I don’t necessarily have anything I am actively developing on the subject but a pandemic themed sitcom did cross my mind. Honestly, I just want things to get back to the way they are so we can make films like we always do.
Q. Do you believe the pandemic will be the catalyst for long term to changes to filmmaking and film distribution? With everyone essentially shut down for the foreseeable how do filmmakers such as yourself keep themselves relevant?
A. I don’t believe that the pandemic will be a catalyst, I certainly hope not because I think films have to stay in the cinema. And filmmaking is a collaborative task so I don’t think we can fundamentally change the way we make films either. But I do think it's possible that something positive can come out of all this, like a framework for compensating workers during disasters like this in the future, or a revival of drive-in theatres.
I think as filmmakers the best way we can stay relevant is by writing, and honing our craft that way.
Q. Regardless of dire futures, what do you hope your impact on cinema could be defined as?
A. I hope I can be remembered as someone who brought a piece of Russian culture to Western audiences and changed some minds. The rest of my impact will have to be decided by my audience.
For more information about Anton Kudryashov and his work feel free to visit the links below.
Official Vimeo for available films and showreels
Interview conducted by Corey Bulloch on March 25th 2020.
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