Braaking Newz is a drama between two successful news anchors Lorra and Anna delivering the newz with unexpected appearance of Bigfoot, the comedian and the President.
It was our pleasure to interview Peter Boiadzhieff, the director of Braaking Newz.
How did you start making films and what was the first film project you worked on? Let me try to answer the question in a non-typical way. I consider myself a rebel, as someone said “I don’t want to be normal”. I grew up in a small town called Petrich in the country in my great country Bulgaria and my grandparents told me to stay in our small town and you will be fine, but I am not a normal wanted adventure and moved to the capital city Sofia. My father told me to get a job in the military and become a driver and you will have a save job and anyone will respect you, he was right at this time, but I am not normal and at this time was fascinated with computers and played games like Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders. They told me that I cannot be a software developer you do not know Mathematics, later it become my profession. You cannot give a speech, but I did over 40 speeches at Buckhead Toastmasters. You cannot be a comedian, you are not funny, but I did. They told me you cannot be a filmmaker you must have money need to have actors, writers, video cameras, but I did it anyway because I am not normal, I am the rebel who can change the world. My name is Krassimir Nikov but I am using a stage name Peter Boiadzhieff, but this is totally another story.
In old days making films was not easy and accessible as it is today. There was no internet, only black and white TV with two channels. However, my entire life is like a movie and film making is an escape from reality, especially for myself. I read lots of books how to make films, joined few film and actor classes, but the most useful was the practical classes at ForkShop organized by Stephen Blackmon, where one day you can be actor another camera operator, next one audio and you able to learn all aspects of film making. The practical experience is something that you cannot learn from the film classes, you just need to do it.
I first started with old camera that used types and just filmed the nature and everything what I see. One of my first project that I did with my best friend David called “The Threat is Real” that was a short film 2 minutes and 30 seconds, 6 years ago. Let me describe it with Log Line: “I am playing a game, a gangster threat me if I do not pay the money my car will explode.” It was really fun to make it and for me and my friend was a great success, because we able to release our first film online.
What genre of filmmaking are you looking to work on and why? I love to work with all genres but my preferred once are comedy, documentary, fantasy and science fiction. I wrote a script about big snakes and alligators swimming in the water, big birds are flying in the sky eagles, finally, mermaids are diving in the river, I hope that one day I have the skills to make it happen.
Also, I love to write about love drama with unexpected ending, to keep audience under the edge. Once they saw the episode to ask questions themself, like what just happened and to want for more and more, which I was unable to achieve in my past projects, because I found that I am making the film for myself not for the audience. In other words, prefer to work on comedy with fantasy and love drama that are character-driven.
What is the most challenging aspect of being an independent filmmaker? There are many challenging aspects when making a movie, budget, location, actors. However, I am not Walt Disney Studio and at the beginning, as an indie filmmaker, you should be able to do everything by yourself, utilize the resources that you had. I always heard the same stories like one filmmaker told me, hire a writer, film director, casting director, 25 actors, costume designer, make-up artist, and etc. My answer here is please stop doing that you are not a big studio, who is going to pay all these people, you are an indie filmmaker you do not have that kind of budget.
I hope that you get the point you are a very intelligent audience, but let’s get on the topic for me the challenging aspects are when you are filming a scene with 15 people but you have just one camera, what I did took several takes actually 50 takes from different angles, then filmed all the actors at close up and it was a nightmare for editing. As an indie filmmaker, you should use your creativity and do something outside of the box.
Another challenging aspect is the location, make sure that you know the location for filming first then write the script for that particular location, also make sure that you have permission to film on that location. And finally, to be able to adapt the script to the obstacles, for example the actor is not shown up, you should be able to continue filming with the new actor. To summarize my challenging aspects are filming scenes with 15 people with one camera, the location, and adapting the script to new actors.
How challenging is it to fund indie films? Raising money is not an easy task, at the moment I am self-funding my project I do not need a big budget to create a movie, because simply I make a film for fun and entertainment. However, if you do not want to use your own funds and you go in the route hiring big casts, crew, fancy locations, the special effect you might use a web site like indiegogo.com, to start a campaign. Few filmmakers were very successful using these kinds of fundraising, but I was not. If you have a great network on Social media you can use PayPal to create a donate button, and people can contribute money to your project.
You can use private donors when the money is going to be over $100K there is a way in which people could qualify as such donors. You need to be very careful with that money because people will expect a return on investment. Also, you should have money for distribution, advertisement, and other expenses.
Please name three of your most favorite directors. How have they been influential in your work?
One of my favorite directors is Robert Rodriguez who create his first film El Mariachi with limited resources, I watched the movie several times and it is great story telling and wonderful cinematic experience. He wrote the book Rebel without a Crew and I can relate to some of his experience because as an indie film maker I am one-person camera.
Another one is Michael Bay who directed The Island (2005) with the lead actors Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor’s and the movie is amazing I watched at least 35 times and I love it.
Once you are on the film set, we are filming immediately and we are going to take several takes and film 25 pages dialogue in one day, these are my words not Michael Bay.
My other influential director is Keith Smith he is a local film director in Atlanta Georgia, Usa. We filmed a short film in August this year and he is amazing great energy and he has the ability to turn any bad situation into positive one. He was able to put to cast the actors in a few weeks 2 lead actors and 5 kids, and we had an issue with the location 3 days before the filming and he booked another one. I asked him: did ask for permission to film on that location? He replied: If I asked for permission any time I won’t be where I am today, get all your equipment and we are starting at 3:00pm, and don’t be late. And we filmed the movie and I believe it will be a huge success.
What is your next film project and what are you currently working on? I have several scripts but I need to choose on which one to work, I really wanted to make web series like Forever on CwSeed.com two people are investigating crimes. Already have the people in mind to cast just need to set up the date and film it.
Currently, I am working on my rafting videos had a lot of footage that will be like different episodes up to 1 hour. I must finish the editing of Brakking Newz episode 2 and 3.
What inspired you to work on Braaking Newz? I was inspired by one of my childhood movies that were shown on the TV, it was about one reporter, camera, and he is traveling to different places in each episode.
The film was not planned in the normal way, it supposed to be a horror movie but it turns out to be like a comedy, someone said a parody. I wanted to create a Christmas movie, but my idea of Christmas was crazy more about how to cancel Christmas and get all my presents for myself. Well, I am very happy that went in this way and I see a big potential in this movie.
How did you find the cast and the crew of the film? The casting and crew were not easy, I posted advertisement job on IMDb, I received lots of responses, but most actors were out of state and asked to cover all expenses, it is great to be an actor these days, they the big company pay you all expenses, hotel, food, flying tickets. This is why I am joking sometimes, if you pay me all expenses I will be in your movie for free!
I helped other filmmakers with their film projects and met the actors while filming their films, was able to talk with actors, cast them, and got lucky that they agree to be part of my movie.
The casting is very time-consuming even if you hire a casting director which you need to pay a lot.
What is the distribution plan of the film and did the film receive any screenings or was it featured in festivals? I do not have a distribution plan when I filmed the movie, because my goal was to complete the film which I did. While researching the festivals I found out that the distribution plan is more important than creating the movie and you must have additional money, too. I created over 100 dvds and some promo material did not want to spend lots of money and used the streaming service on Vimeo on-demand:
These are the festivals that have selected Braaking Newz as an official selection, semi-finalist, finalist, and category.
· Crown Wood International Film Festival, Official Selection, Comedy Film
· Kalakari Film Fest, Official Selection, Best Web Series
· Kosice International Monthly Film Festival, Official Selection
· Indie Short Fest, Official Selection
· Vesuvius International Monthly Film Fest, Official Selection, Best Short Comedy
· Mile High International Film Festival, Semi-Finalist, Best Comedy Short Film
· Cyrus International Festival of Toronto, Semi-Finalist, Best Comedy
· IndieX Film Fest, Semi-Finalist, Best Comedy Short
· Independent Shorts Awards, Finalist, Best Comedy Short and Best Parody Short
My other short film “The Secret Project 53” has been included in the festival and featured on Roky Channel Short Daily starting October 09, 2020.
Why do you make films and what kind of impact would your work have on the world?
This is a very interesting question it is like, why the water is wet or more appropriate why the manhole covers are round? Simple answer because they are round.
To get on the point because I love making films from writing the script, develop the characters, casting the actors, crew, finding a location, filming, editing and finally delivering the final cut on DVD or online. Creating the film is giving me the possibility to create something that does not exist even making the impossible possible. Imagine a world where you have a dream and you knew that you won’t fail. Creating films gives a new perceptive to feel alive, solving, talking with different people that you won’t meet any more and it is only placed when all people come together working as a whole team.
What impact I will make on the world at this moment I really don’t know, but maybe not now or maybe in another universe, let see in 10 years ahead and I might be able to answer more specific on this question in the future in 2030.
My whole life is like a movie and to be able to make it as a movie it is a magical feeling, I love any aspect of film making. It was a pleasure to be interviewed by Toronto Film Magazine, again thank you so much!