New “Megafon” spot shot in Georgia has been recently aired. The Martini Shot owner and executive producer Nikita Kochkarev told us about how it was.
FGT: Congratulations with your new Megafon spot that just was aired. Please tell us how it was and if there were any difficulties? As shoot is always a kind of an unpredictable thing.
Nikita: Yes, around a month ago we shot a spot for Megafon in Georgia. It calls “Neighbours”. We served as a service production and worked together with the Moscow Filmservice production and Instinct creative agency. And yes, you’re completely right about the unpredictable things. This is not the first spot we shot in Georgia and we got used to some unexpectable situations and obstacles happening there. But this time it was something completely freaking us out. A night before the shoot we found out that all the approved costumes needed next morning just vanished.
FGT: Really, how come? Did somebody steal them or what?
Nikita: Not really. Firstly, I must say we had a Moscow stylist on this project who brought all the costumes with him to Georgia. So, as it appeared later one of the passengers who flew with our stylist on the same plane had similar suitcase. So, he simply took our luggage with all the costumes instead of his by mistake. And imagine, all that in the night before the shoot! We just knew that that passenger was from Georgia, but we were not sure even if he’s from Tbilisi at all since he could be from any other region and could have left quite far from us already. And as long as he was local and most likely went home it was almost no sense to check his name in the hotel lists. Although, we also couldn’t wait until he realizes that he took the wrong bag and reports to the police. It was a tremendous challenge for the whole crew and we started brainstorming immediately how to find that man within one night. I must say it cost us a great effort.
FGT: So, how did you settle down that issue?
Nikita: Oh, it turned into a really detective story. With the help of the airport personnel and CCTV we managed to establish the identity of the man who took our luggage. Afterwards our crew managed to get in touch with the criminal department of Georgian police and they agreed to help us. I won’t stop repeating that Georgians are very friendly people in general and especially to film crews. They found that man within a couple of hours and brought our bags back. It was pure magic!
FGT: Sounds so! So you didn’t have to postpone the shoot, did you?
Nikita: Yes, we shot everything according to the timing and everything went as planned before.
FGT: I’ve seen that spot and must say it looks really awesome. By the way, there’s a pure Russian style village house. Where did you find that one here? We have completely different architecture.
Nikita: This is another difficult moment we experienced. We were pretty well aware that in terms of village houses Georgian architecture is completely different from Russian. So we initially suggested to build a house on our own. However, in order to reassure director and client and to prove our decision is certain we arranged a proper location scout. After it we unanimously decided to construct a decoration set. Georgian art crew worked 4 days in a raw to make it. And I believe me you can live there in summer. It’s not just looks like a house, but it is a real house made of wood and high-quality materials.
FGT: Are there any other future projects in Georgia you already know about?
Nikita: Actually, we just have another one and already started preps. But I can’t share any details until its release. So will tell you everything a little bit later. One thing I can say that It’s going to be a large-scale project)