FNE spoke with Kollar about the development process that the film went through as a participant in ScripTeast (www.scripteast.pl).
FNE: How important was ScripTeast to the development of The House?
MICHAL KOLLAR: This workshop and the award jumpstarted an entire era in Slovak films. Up until that May of 2007 we were mostly internationally known for interesting documentaries and one or two films (I'm talking about Slovak cinema, not Czechoslovak - meaning mostly Czech). The fact that this award was given in Cannes during the festival stirred quite an interest in the screenplay. It was literally coming from nowhere -- a country that doesn't produce that many films suddenly produces somebody who is recognized by world class filmmakers such as Agnieszka Holland or screenwriter Bernd Lichtenberg. On a more practical level, this has opened the doors to MEDIA and Eurimages support for the film, and of course, local support and TV stations.
FNE: Who did you work with, and how did their input alter the script and the production of The House?
MICHAL KOLLAR: This is more a question for Zuzana Liova, the writer and director of The House, but I know it was help from Bernt Lichtenberg and James Ragan of ScriptEast that propelled the story in the direction the final film represents.
FNE: You have a second project now with ScriptTeast. What stage was the your new project Red Captian in when you submitted it to ScripTeast?
MICHAL KOLLAR: Our recent project in ScriptEast is a little special, because it is a very commercial adaptation of a bestselling book. We submitted the first "distillation" of the book, meaning we were very cautious to address it as "the distillation" not "a draft". Our tutors and ScripEast management were very kind to encourage us to take the first step and that is to throw away the book. Sounds easy and obvious, but it really took the ScripEast brand for me personally to be bodler with the material. Yet another kick-starter for another of our projects!
FNE:. What was the development process like at ScripTeast?
MICHAL KOLLAR: The best way to describe it is to quote what they promise - strip your script down and make it better! I'm happy to state that we are in the later part of this process.
FNE: What was your overall experience of participating in the ScripTeast program?
MICHAL KOLLAR: What is wonderful is the fact that the workshop is truly designed in such a way that everybody can take away what he needs. Everything is there: the tutors, the fellow screenwriters. For me personally it was the page-by-page analysis of our genre by somebody who had truly written a successful Hollywood thriller. The page-by-page analysis is not a cold technicality, but in the case of a genre piece it's a necessity, because to break some rules one has to master them first!
FNE: What did you learn from the ScripTeast process that you are applying to current and future film projects?
MICHAL KOLLAR: Our tutors gave us the courage to throw away a lot of stuff that was tied to the book we tried to adapt. In some sense, they taught us the true meaning of the word, to adapt!
Contact information:
Michal Kollár (Sokol Kollar / Fog'n'Desire Films)
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Sokol Kollar: www.kollarfilm.com
Fog'n'Desire: www.fogndesirefilms.com
