#KAMA_ALUMNI: Serafima Kutsenko – producer at Radioaktive Film.

Serafima Kutsenko is a graduate of the FILMMAKING course.

Serafima, you studied at KAMA. What has changed in your life since then?

While studying at KAMA in the Filmmaking course, I worked in an advertising agency and changed my position as a copywriter to a producer. After the Academy, I was a producer at the agency for a few more years. I has collaborated with large clients, production companies of Ukraine and engaged in in-house video production.

Later I became a freelance producer. For a short time I worked directly with clients and tried to build my own production, but I quickly realised that at this stage of life to do business is not mine. And literally a few months later I was invited as a freelance producer to Radioaktive Film.

What do you do now?

I am currently a producer at Radioaktive Film.

Radioaktive Film is a service video production and my task is to implement video projects on time, within budget, and to make sure that the process and result, at least, meet customer expectations, and ideally – exceed these expectations.

I communicate with a foreign group (producer, director, cameraman and others), coordinate local departments – art department, locations, casting, style. I also monitor the budget and the implementation of all tasks. Usually many people only see me on set, but in reality, I spend most of my time writing letters, spreadsheets, at phone calls, and meetings.

Tell us about your most interesting cases.

One of the most interesting projects for me was shooting commercials where there were no actors. The main characters were balloons, smoke, fireworks, optical prisms and water in its various states. It was a very unusual job, because many people can argue, for example, about the colour of the blouse on some actress, but it is much more difficult to argue with the laws of physics. The real challenge for us was the task of making fireworks in a huge glass cube filled with smoke. At the same time, this cube was also located in a historic location.

Despite numerous tests, at the time of filming, the creative team doubted whether the director’s plan would be realized. It was not easy to conduct rehearsals for choreography of balloons with a diameter of one and a half to two meters. I never thought I would know so much about glycerin and laser refraction. As a result, the commercial turned out incredibly beautiful, the director and the client were happy.

What advice would you give to those who are just starting out in the creative industry?

Regardless of profession, age and gender, my main tips are:

– Exercise daily – at least 15 minutes of exercise a day will make you feel better and perform creative tasks more efficiently.
– Do not neglect sleep. Never.
– To be interested, to learn something new, luckily in the age of the Internet we have so much knowledge available.
– Communicate with smart people.