Denes Ruzsa
Hungarian videomaker
Interview: 10 questions
1. Tell me something about your life and the educational background
I studied Media and Communication. I have been making experimental short films and documentaries, which participated in many international film festivals. From 2007 I have been making films commissioned by artists, museums and art galleries. This is a very interesting and varied job for me. I have the opportunity to meet a lot of people, artists and get to know different ways of thinking.
2. When, how and why started you filming?
I have been interested in filmmaking since I was a child. In those days I often went to the cinema. I watched not only the contemporary works but I also looked for classical movies. At the beginning I was interested in scriptwriting, later when I started studying media I had the opportunity to try directing and photographing. Soon I recognized that my special subject is experimental filmmaking.
I started filming because it is a very complex art, it gives you a lot of possibilites. We don’t know its limit. A lot of people „speak†in the language of film, no matter where they live or what culture they belong to.
3. What kind of subjects have your films?
The interrelation between man and nature is in the centre of my short films. My documentaries are about art and artists.
4. How do you develop your films, do you follow certain principles, styles etc?
For me the most important thing is to find my own way. I pay great attention to contemporary experimental films. I think indirectly these films have the greatest influence on my work. For me the film is not about new technologies. To choose the best form to my message is what I consider most important.
5. Tell me something about the technical equipment you use.
I just started shooting with an HD camera. I use also my own photos as footage.
6. What are the chances of the digital video technologies for creating art using “moving images†generally, and for you personally?
Digital techniques are available to everyone so it gives the opportunity to a lot of people to tell a story or message with moving pictures. But we must not forget that it also goes with great responsibility. It matters what we report from the world to the world. Certainly we have to think in a different way about this new technique. Often we can’t speak about footage in the traditional way, because everything happens in a virtual space which computers create.
7. How do you finance your films?
I make low budget films. I work with a tiny crew. I can realise my ideas in my own little studio. Sometimes I finance my own films from the commissioned ones.
8. Do you work individually as a video artist/film maker or do you work in a team?
if you have experience in both, what is the difference, what do you prefer?
I work with a tiny crew. I regularly work with Fruzsina Spitzer, she is the editor and animator in all of my films. I am lucky because I can work together with talented musicians like Autumn Music, Mariann Kiss, Kornél Kovács, Marcell Takács.
9. Who or what has a lasting influence on your film/video making?
There are moments which crave to be filmed everywhere. You only have to recognize them. They can be in the street, it can be a news item on the radio, an artwork in an exhibition, etc. For example in my newest short animation I was inspired by photos taken of melting arctic sea ice.
10. What are your future plans or dreams as a film/video maker?
At present we are working on a one minute animation. It’s also about environmental problems. One of my future plans is to make portraits of famous Hungarian artists.
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