Hungary’s Korda Studios has changed the landscape of film production in Central Europe since it opened its doors just over a year ago. Korda scored high marks from director Guillermo del Toro who shot the $72m Hellboy 2 at Korda last year giving other studios in the region a new benchmark to shoot for. According to Del Toro after a six month shoot at Korda the studios are "perfectly calibrated to host a film of any caliber."Hellboy 2 was the largest ever production to shoot in Hungary with an international cast and crew of over 350. Chris Symes exec producer of the movie declared that "Korda Studios is a high-tech facility as good as anywhere you'll find."

Named after Sir Alexander Korda, the famous Hungarian filmmaker who revived the British film industry, $127M Korda Studios development is backed by Sándor Demján, the region's most respected real estate developer, known for the construction of new cultural buildings such as The Hungarian National Theater and the Palace of Arts, winner of the prestigious 2006 FIABCI Prix d'Excellence. Now Korda is set to up the ante with the opening of its new 6000 m2 stage Superstage with an interior clear height of 20 m which is understood to be the largest soundstage in the world. While the opening is slated for 2009 Korda already has five of the most modern, sound-proofed, air-conditioned soundstages in central Europe on offer. But if size really does matter-its not the only thing that matters in filmmaking. One of the other important factors is the sophisticated infrastructure that is on offer at Korda. Korda has signed an alliance with Budapest-based post-production company Colorfront whose owners developed the digital cinema (DCI) colour-grading technology now known as Lustre. This will give filmmakers using Korda facilities access to cutting edge technologies without leaving the Korda complex at all. Using this technology it is possible to see the previous day’s shots in color-graded, cinema-quality, as it will actually appear in the final film. Colorfront creates low-cost digital „dailies” using the original shooting footage.

The studio complex is 34 hectares, of which 10 hectares are designated backlot space. Korda currently has Europe's largest permanent outdoor backlot set: a 360 degree gritty Brooklyn, NY set with 4 story buildings and two intersections. Professional expertise from overseas aids the next phase of Korda’s construction, in the form of Charlie Arneson, who has come to Korda Studios late last year to run the studio. Arneson played a key role in the production of James Cameron’s mega-production, Titanic, by supervising the construction of the numerous water stages – including the world’s largest watertank – purpose-built for the shoot at the Fox Baja Studios. After the production wrapped, Arneson was asked to stay and run the studio, and during the next 10 years he created the studios’ theme park, and further developed the watertanks and the on site special effects technologies. But Korda Studios has also been given the thumbs up by local Hungarian filmmakers looking for international production values within the local filmmaking scene. Starting this month Korda Studios will be servicing its first Hungarian production starting next week: Krisztina Goda's (Children of Glory, Just Sex and Nothing Else) new film Kameleon will be using Korda Stage's and facilities in May and June.

Korda Studios has everything needed for international film productions: star, regular, and crowd dressing rooms, hair and make-up facilities, production offices, a 50 person movie theater, small screening rooms, an audio post and editorial wing, workshops of various sizes with adjoining offices, and state-of-the-art security, all in beautiful, quiet rural surroundings just outside of Budapest.

• Sound Stage 1: 2000 m2, 11m clear height

• Twin stages 2/3: opened together 3600 m2, 11 m clear height

• Sound Stage 4: 1000 m2, 11m clear height

• Sound Stage 5: 2350 m2, 14m clear height

Each stage has NC-25 sound proofing, high-powered air-conditioning and heating, broadband connections, and sound trap doors.
The Korda Studios team will be in Cannes this year. If you want to discuss your next production or co-production please contact us.

SPONSORED STATEMENT: KORDA STUDIOS

For further information please contact:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Daniel Kresmery
international marketing
Korda Studios
tel: +36 70 455 6830 (in Cannes)
tel: +36 22 556 004
fax: +36 22 223 980
www.kordastudio.hu

 

 

 

 

Genghis Khan might seem an unlikely hero for our times but he is currently enjoying a wave of popularity in the cinema, first with Sergei Bodrov’s Oscar nominated Mongol and now world renowned theatre director Andrey Borisov offers us another view of the man Time magazine named “Man of the Millennium.”

Mosfilm Cinema Concern is set to expand its world-class Sound Studios complex this June with the opening of a newly reconstructed building housing four new state-of-the art sound studios.

The new studios are a unique acoustic project developed by English acoustic architect Andy Munro and will offer a Dolby Premier-class large mixing studio, foley studio and two studios of ProTools system digital edition making the new facility one of the best and most modern in Europe.
The project is just one part of an ongoing, multi-million dollar investment programme carried out over the past 10 years that has made Mosfilm Cinema Concern’s Sound Studios both the largest and the best equipped sound studios in Russia and one of the best in Europe.
The Mosfilm Sound Studios are presently housed in a modern four storey building covering 6000 square meters. This includes 12 studios which provide a full range of sound facilities: music recording, dialogue recording studios, foley, electronic synthesis and soundtrack restoration. Mosfilm also offers a number of sound libraries of foley and music, Pro Tools operating rooms, Dolby final mixing, mixing for DVD and TV in all formats as well as three music recording studios and a mastering studio for recording music of all formats and genres.
Formerly many Russian producers preferred to edit or mix the material shot by Russian companies abroad. But today Mosfilm’s Sound Studio offers producers all the latest equipment found in any European film studio as well as operators who are first class professional specialists.
Mosfilm’s music studio became one of the best in Europe after a large-scale modernization overseen by the famous English acoustic architect Mr. Roger D’Arcy.
Mosfilm’s mixing studios became the first studios in the world to be granted a Dolby-Premier certificate from Dolby Laboratories in 2006. Mosfilm is especially proud of this achievement. The certification procedure included particularly stringent testing of studio acoustics, compliance with monitoring standards (both for sound and picture), the analysis of equipment stock and quality of its installation, the testing of the accuracy of synchronization systems as well as the examination of the competence of operating personnel.
In December 2007 Mosfilm finished a major modernization of its electronic synthesis, foley and soundtrack recording facilities. This was prompted by the growing demand for creating specific sound effects for new movies. It is not exaggerating to say that Mosfilm is the only modern sound effects facility in Russia. All this is the result of a complex modernization of Mosfilm’s technical capabilities that has been a priority business development direction for the studios for the past 10 years.

Recently the volume of production at Mosfilm has grown significantly as a result of both the boom in the film production business in Russia and Mosfilm’s own expanding and increasingly competitive technical facilities. The Sound Studios barely keeps pace with demand from all the existing projects and the foley studio which is unique in Russia with its technical and acoustic capabilities is constantly fully booked.

Mosfilm also carries out the work for distribution of foreign films in Russia, with dubbing, rerecording and prints all made using Mosfilm’s facilities. Thanks to Mosfilm the Russian audience has seen such popular films as There Will Be Blood, Juno and No Country for Old Men with high quality Russian dubbing and prints. This highlights the achievements of both the studios’ professional specialists and its modern equipment.

SPONSORED BY MOSFILM CINEMA CONCERN

MOSFILM CINEMA CONCERN

Address: Russia, Moscow, 119991, Mosfilmovskaya str.,1
Phone: +7 495 143-91-00, 143-97-85
Site: www.mosfilm.ru

 

FNE would like to correct information published on 19 February under the headline Nine Miles Down Wraps in Hungary

The festival boasts both a national and international competition but it is the 12 films in the national competition that draw international visitors and hungry fest programmers from around the world.

Cinema Concern Mosfilm is both Russia’s oldest and its newest film studio. Founded in 1923 the studio combines a proud history that includes the greatest names in world cinematography with state-of-the art production facilities that today host the demanding professional producers of Russia’s booming film and television industry. Foreign producers are also increasingly discovering the advantages of working with Mosfilm when they shoot in the Russian capitol.

Russian director Karen Shakhnazarov’s new film Vanished Empire (www.mosfilm.ru) looks set to make its mark on the international festival circuit with this warm and very real story of young love set against the background of student life in the 1970’s when it seemed the USSR would last forever.

Kornél Mundruczó's Delta won the main prize for best feature film at Hungarian Film Week in a year that most critics said was dominated by Hungarian documentaries. In his acceptance speech, Mundruczó described Delta as a breakthrough for him. Offers from international festivals are rumoured to be already pouring in

The Hungarian Filmlab is already celebrating its Oscar victory even though the awards ceremony has not taken place yet. Both Joseph Cedar's Beaufort (Israel) which was nominated for a foreign-language Oscar and Srdan Golubovic's Serbian thriller The Trap which was short-listed did all their laboratory work at the Budapest-based Hungarian Film Lab.

This year's Hungarian Film Week underlines the overwhelming success of the Hungarian Motion Picture Act, which is now in its fourth year of operation. The system of support it introduced for the Hungarian film industry is obviously thriving both artistically and financially.