Anila Nugmanova is a talented young producer from Kazakhstan. Anila produces projects in the BAZELEVS production company - Timur Bekmambetov's studio. Behind Anila Nugmanova participation in various international projects. Despite her relatively young age, Anila has already worked with such Hollywood stars as Tom Berenger, Val Kilmer, William Baldwin, Robert Knepper and Denise Richards.
How can a childhood love of Asterix and Cleopatra and Back to the Future lead to Hollywood? Perhaps, Anila Nugmanova, a successful producer from the very heart of the global film industry, can tell about this in detail. Anila talked about why dreaming about the Oscar is not harmful, especially when walking along the Walk of Fame.
HP: Everyone has their own childhood dream. What did you want to be as a child? Did you manage to make your dream a reality?
ANILA: As a child, I really liked to watch cartoons and movies on TV. I remember that my favorite cartoon was "Asterix and Cleopatra" in 1968. I could watch it several times a day and it didn't get boring at all. I was 6 years old then, and I had not yet been abroad, but when watching this cartoon, it seemed to me that I already knew everything about Egypt, about the pyramids, about local life, and there was a feeling that I personally know Cleopatra! It probably sounds funny now, but then the TV was my window to the world. And the three parts of the film "Back to the Future" directed by Robert Zemeckis became my first and most favorite Hollywood films, which I watched and rewatch to this day with the same childish delight and admiration. These films won my heart, turned my world upside down so that my childhood dream was born - to make films in Hollywood! And now, years later, I am here in Hollywood, producing films with famous actors, and in my free time I walk along the Walk of Fame (the area where I live), draw inspiration for new films and dream of an Oscar ...
HP: Tell us a little about your childhood and your family. What is the most vivid impression from childhood left on your subconscious?
ANILA: The family is the foundation, and I have it strong, he is my dad, mom and brother. Parents got married when they themselves were children, they were 18 and 20 years old. If I'm not mistaken, after a couple of years I appeared, and after another 4 years, my brother. So we grew up together. Parents are young ambitious career dreamers, they did not have enough time in the day to do all their business. And yet, Sunday was a day that was dedicated exclusively to the family. We set the table for breakfast together, mom baked fragrant buns, dad turned on his JVC Biphonic tape recorder and inserted cassettes - these were Beatles, Queen, Guns'n'Roses, Aerosmith and many others. For some reason, the Aerosmith song “Crazy” came to mind now, dad sang along with the song and emotionally portrayed playing the guitar, we also sang along and danced what we heard, mom didn’t really like loud music, but she always looked at us with a smile and occasionally join.
GP: Do you need to maintain and expand knowledge in your profession? Are there courses? Or perhaps you need to endlessly hone your skills in practice?
ANILA: Of course you do! The world does not stand still, technologies are developing, and along with this, new formats of filming, film screenings, new ideologies, trends, moods and much more are developing that affect the film industry and, I think, the whole world. Regarding courses, in the age of the Internet, boundaries are blurred and courses can be taken online anywhere in the world. There are a lot of them, the main thing is to conduct a thorough analysis and choose the course that suits you. Knowledge in theory is always consolidated in practice. Therefore, practice is important, and if there are plans to hone skills, then, of course, the advice is to shoot and shoot. With each shooting comes a new invaluable experience.
GP: Timur Bekmambetov's production company BAZELEVS, so to speak, stood at the origins of the screenlife genre ("screen life"), and you, in turn, were in the thick of things, working on the 1968 digital series. Tell us what you did on the project and what is it like to be pioneers in a new genre of film narration?
ANILA: “1968 digital” by Mikhail Zygar is not an ordinary project. The idea of this documentary web series was that each episode, up to 10 minutes long, tells about a specific bright event or person who left a mark on history in 1968. The uniqueness of the project lies in the fact that they decided to show the history of that year through the prism of modernity and social networks, as if in that distant 1968 the Internet and social networks such as Instagram, Facebook, Vkontakte already existed, and people would use smartphones. Just imagine how much we would learn if Jacqueline Kennedy or John Lennon had gadgets and were active users of social networks, went live on Instagram to tell their followers about how they spent the day, or tweeted on Twitter about your love or engagement. Personally, I would very much like to have the opportunity - to learn about the events of 1968 literally firsthand. And, of course, the project was entrusted to our company, where we tell stories in the Screenlife format. 1968 digital went into production in 2018 and was one of the first screenlife web series for mobile screens. Our task was to translate the project from the script into interesting episodes for the audience. I led the process of creating the series from scratch, that is, from creating the animatic (videos with sample interfaces and pictures that give a general idea of how the series will look like) to the final version of the series. The process was new, so by trial and error, I deduced a pipeline (a system with work stages) that was ideal for us, on which I later advised our colleagues in the Moscow office.
GP: Do you and your team continue to develop new technologies in filming today? How many screenlife projects do you have under your belt?
ANILA: Yes, of course. The world is changing and we are with it. We delve into the methods of shooting a film, a series already in the Screenlife format. That is, if we take as an example “Unfriended”, one of the earliest films in this format, and “Searching”, a film released already in 2018, we can see that the capabilities of the Screenlife format have reached a new level. If, for example, in the first film we almost constantly see the entire desktop of the hero, then in the second film the camera shows us that it is important to see what to pay special attention to with the help of zooms (zoom in and zoom in on a specific part on the same desktop). Of course, we continue to develop the Screenlife language, we even have such a guide to learning and understanding the language, which describes in detail, for example, how to convey emotions while seeing only the screen of a computer or smartphone. Let's say you like a person and you don't know how to start a conversation with him. And so you write one message, and then erase it, thinking that it’s some kind of nonsense, then write another message, stop and erase it again, and you can do this several more times until you print the same message that you send. Throughout this process, we understand that you are not indifferent to the person and you are worried, so you carefully check every word. I think that now everyone remembered such a situation in themselves and understood what was at stake. Screenlife is an opportunity to look into the personal space of a person that he so stubbornly protects and see his real. I have also worked on another documentary series Captured with VICE, also a web series with Snapchat called Dead of Night. It turned out to be so popular among Snapchat users that more than 14 million users of this social network watched it, and in 2020, in the wake of the pandemic, we filmed and released the second season of the series. Also, we have more than 10 projects in development.
GP: Is there any competition in your profession or each producer is able to fill his own niche?
ANILA: Competition is everywhere, especially in the cinema, where literally everyone is fighting for a place in the sun. You can, of course, find your own niche, in the case of a producer, for example, make films in a certain genre or cover some specific topics. You can do it for yourself. But this is not in human nature. And where there is society, there will always be competition.
HP: What is the difference between working in your hometown and working in Hollywood?
ANILA: There are a lot of differences, you can talk a lot about it. But I will list what immediately catches the eye. First of all, the scale of the film industry in my city is much smaller, it is in a developing stage. When like Hollywood - well, this is the heart of the film industry. Then, in Kazakhstan, there are no trade unions yet that protect the rights of all professionals in the cinema. Therefore, the salaries of filmmakers are not the most attractive - sometimes they even work on sheer enthusiasm. But this also has its advantages - a team full of enthusiasm charges everyone with the energy of life. In Hollywood, such compromises do not have to be found, the unions clearly monitor that the rights of professionals are not violated, that they pay according to work experience, pay for overtime and give a certain amount of time to rest so that a person has time to recover.
GP: Do you need connections and acquaintances to create in America? Or does your profession allow you to join any team?
ANILA: As a producer, I usually put together a team for myself, that is, I hire a screenwriter, director, actors, cameraman, and everyone else involved in the process of making a film. But, of course, connections and acquaintances are desirable, so the process goes faster - connections and acquaintances can recommend good professionals, share great ideas for the film, talk about new locations for filming, and so on. In addition, contacts and acquaintances can share ideas for financing the project.
GP: Tell us about your work with the stars, what have you managed to do abroad so far? What has been achieved?
ANILA: I managed to work on many projects with various famous and talented actors. One of the first was Callan McAuliffe, who starred in the movie Hello Julie (Flipped), who also played the young Gatsby in The Great Gatsby. Managed to work with Clifton Collins Jr., who played in such films as The Last Castle, Pacific Rim, Traffic, Babylon, Star Trek, Honey and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood; with Robert Knepper, who is best known for the Breakout series, as well as the TV series Heroes and the movie The Hunger Games: Mockingjay; with Peter Facinelli, known as Dr. Carlisle throughout the Twilight movies; c Greg Grunberg, known for such films as Star Trek, A Star Is Born, Mission: Impossible 3, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Sunrise"; c Val Kilmer known for such cult films as "Top Gun", "Alexander", "Batman Forever", "Fight", "True Love" and many other Hollywood stars. When working with stars, it is important to remember that they are people first and foremost, and their personal space must be respected. I was lucky to work with the most talented directors, actors and film crews, the collaboration with which brought many prestigious awards.
GP: You have to communicate with people often, everyone has different personalities, do you get tired?
ANILA: Yes, sometimes the batteries run out. When this happens, I take a vacation and go to nature. Well, in general, it's great that all people are so different and unique. It's interesting to listen to everyone.
HP: What are you aiming for?
ANILA: If we talk about career aspirations, then, of course, to receive an Oscar and joint projects with Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino.
HP: What are your idols in the film industry?
ANILA: Oh, of course, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, Michael Bay are directors. And the idol producer is the incomparable Jerry Bruckheimer.
HP: Are there any interesting stories related to filming?
ANILA: There are a lot of stories! I'll tell you one of them. We came to shoot in Hong Kong and on the first day we went on a city tour - such a beautiful and authentic city that it was a sin not to get out. In the evening, the whole team went to dinner and after that someone went to the hotel to sleep, because the next day there was a production meeting according to the plan, and someone went on to walk in the karaoke bar. The next day comes, we gather in the conference room with the whole team. Everyone came, except for the cameraman, one of the key people on the set. Waited half an hour, called - no answer. Called again and again, no answer. And so several times. Then we decided to go up to the room. We knock, it doesn't open. We go down to the reception to find out if the guest left the room and it turns out that no. guest in the room. Meanwhile, 2 hours have passed.
Then we somehow persuade the hotel staff to open the door to the room for us. And when the door opens, we see our operator lying pale, covered in sweat and shivering from the cold, but unconscious. Unable to wake up, we call an ambulance. They take him away and say that it may take several hours until he regains consciousness, so they will call us when he wakes up. Drugs were found in his blood. But after the IVs, everything will be all right, they assured us at the hospital. We went back to the hotel, a couple of hours later we get a call from the hospital and they say that our friend has run away. Everyone was frightened, they did not know what to do, because it was a foreign city, a different language. A couple of hours later, our operator flies into the hotel in a nightgown with a bare booty and eyes big with fear. He says that he was in a bar, met a girl, they kind of talked nicely and then he wakes up and sees IVs in his veins, there are Chinese doctors around, he is in pajamas and the only thought that slipped through his head at that moment was that he was going to organs to operate. He, as in the films, did not even look for his clothes, but quietly through the back entrance and ran away. I caught a taxi, but I don’t know where to go, I didn’t remember the name of the hotel. And the taxi driver does not speak English at all. And so, from memory, he ran out of the taxi when he saw some familiar buildings. It turned out that not so close to the hotel. People on the street directed him, since there were not so many large hotels in that area. And after 20 minutes of such wanderings, he arrived at the hotel. It remains only to understand how he returned at night to the hotel. Then the surveillance cameras helped with the answer: it turned out that he came with a girl who, apparently, drugged him, thought to rob him, but, apparently, without success, because she left the hotel rather quickly. In general, such a cinematic adventure turned out.
HP: What are your plans for this year? Discover the secret of what are you working on now?
ANILA: We have more than 10 projects in development in different genres. All very interesting and I hope that very soon you will hear about them. And also, in parallel with the development of projects, this year we plan to shoot a short film (more like a teaser), a feature film and launch a project with a personal story into development. This is a very important project for me, which you will definitely learn about soon.
HP: Greetings to our readers!
ANILA: Take care of your health, be kind to everyone, believe in yourself and boldly follow your dreams, they tend to come true!
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