I am Juls Dekarchuk, Ukrainian filmmaker, and I would like to invite you to a little story of one of the best months in my life…I feel just to say „thank you“ would not be enough to express how grateful I am to Degeto, Pyjama pictures, Train to Work project, Crew United, EBFP movie team and all the people supporting Ukrainian filmmakers.

So, my story begins with one brave girl, one great project TTW supported by Degeto, one supportive curator Denis Glebik, guiding through all the processes and one video-call with producers Ina-Christina Kersten and Sebastian Gleinig, that believed in this girl and gave her a chance to find out, on what she’s capable of.

To experience all the movie-processes I was given an exclusive opportunity to join several departments each in turn: Costume, Camera, Regie, Postproduction office.

I would say lies if I tell it was easy🙈 It was damn challenging, every day: getting up 5 a.m. (most of the time), finding the way to different locations in foreign city, speaking a foreign language (even two, actually) with ~40 new people you see first time trying to remember their names, doing the job you never done in your life… Sounds scary even to me now, but looking back I feel only excitement, happiness and gratitude to all involved!

I met beautiful sunrises at U-Bahn station on my way to set, all the crew members were extremely supportive, friendly and patience to me, I improved my English and German skills every day, and in every department, I gained more and more knowledge, new terms and understanding how it all works from inside and what a titanic work was made on pre-production, was making on my eyes and on post-production stage.

In Costume department I was welcomed very warm and despite my little experience I was given real tasks and was able to work as well as behind scene choosing and preparing outfits, sticking brands on clothes and shoes not to pay fines for using TM😀 and also on set with extras and actors, making sure they are warm and dry, and outfit looks exact the same in every shoot. I’m very thankful to girls from Kostüme Petra Kilian, Antje Terp-Janiesch, Nici Lancaster, Julia Simmen for their attention, patience and guiding me through the “movie world”.
I would also like to express a separate gratitude to main actor David Rott that every morning asked “How are you today, Juls?” and about the situation in Ukraine, Produktionsleiter Olaf Kalvelage for their opened heart, kindness and compassion.

Second week on Camera department the atmosphere felt some different… light humor, team-work and creativity. But still every day mind blowing🤯 with new information, names of the equipment and a brand new to me technic world. I’ve learned which lens is the best for which scene, what is T-stop, ND filter glass, pick up, Gimbo, Combo, transmitters and receivers have become common words in my arsenal. And I’m very grateful to Kamerafrau Claire Jahn and DOP assistants Franca Heiden, Florian Hornung, operators Luis and Bent to explaining of how all equipment works and letting me, a newcomer, be a part of shooting process: writing on the clapboard and making this “clap” at the shooting start, tasting to roll T-stop to blur the background, helping to change the lenses and watching the batteries are charged and the directors 7inch monitor it put into right position, I was watching how the drone pilot works and the beauty appeared on screen.

The last one, but not the less exiting was the director’s department, where I saw the true team spirit between the Film Director Katja Benrath and her assistant Mirjam „Mimi“ Wille. My main goal here was to understand how it all works in movie, and the answer was – to understand the director’s way of thinking, the hardest task I suppose😀 In spite of being extremely busy, Katya and Mimi explain das much as possible of what they do and what are they watching while filming, what tell actors to change or express the proper feeling. I even debuted in my movie-career, shooting as an extra, crossing up the street.
And got the explanation from Patrick Piepiorka of how the continuity in movie works and how to keep the objects, gestures of actors, replicas etc. to make it well cut to final movie.
After when I got to the post-production studio, I understood the importance to keep all in the same place. I’ve learned the names of professional editing programs and got a chance to see how all shoot pieces come all together into a real movie, it was a very fast and marvelous work.