I have been a filmmaker my whole life. I was 14 years old when in 1979 a local film festival featured my first film in the three-minute category.
Five years of study at the VGIK (High Filmmakers' School) and several years of making films and programs, as a documentary cameraman and film director, has given me an experience which is still useful anywhere in the former Soviet Union.
For worldwide productions I am working since 1994.
My key aim when filming in any sircumstances is to make the director feel grateful in the edit suite.
I've been working on both ways: traditional shoot, as a member of the filming crew, filming on full size camera and by small camcorder on my own, with director's away.
When you work as a one man crew with a small camcorder in hands, demands a lot from the individual filmmaker. You have to be everything: cameraman, director, soundman, researcher, interviewer, location manager and troubleshooter.
If you do it proper, your camera becomes almost unnoticeable and you can weave in and out of your subject's ordinary lives and develop close relationships with your characters. I call this method «flying mosquito filming».
Welcome to filmmaking in Russia — in thrilling environments which abound here where we are certain to succeed.