MY: What do you hope to accomplish with the film?
I am submitting to festivals right now, if you have an "in" let me know! I just want to someone to see it, if Panzer Corps wins an award I might learn how to do a back flip.
I am sending to festivals now and I have to say this is the worst part, the waiting. I think once Panzer Corps makes it's way into a festival everything will be worth it. At this point I have spent so much time, money, and thought into something where I know every flaw. It is the bane of every filmmaker I guess, you can't sit back and see what is good about it, I think you need someone else to see it and to relay that to you.
MY: What would you like the audience to take from it?
AV: You ask a good question, the audience. Mainly to not hate it, second to like it, third, to understand the film is about one person standing up to orders and ideologies, and doing the right thing.
Here is the real hard part, finding your home. I know I haven't made the next Saving Private Ryan but it Panzer Corps isn't crap either... Well, I hope not! So when you're in the running with thousands of other filmmakers all hoping to emerge and be seen sometimes you wish you could skip forward a year to see what happened, did it your film get accepted and where, did it fail? But then I would miss the payoff.
MY: What advice do you have for other aspiring filmmakers?
AV: I will give you a pro and a con:
Pro: The world of filmmaking is the best as it has ever been. Today, you can own a camera, a way to edit and show it to the world for almost nothing! You can make a film that the whole world can see! Five years ago that was impossible, think about that!
Con: Everyone can make a film now. What do you do now? Make more films, make every project better than the last, explore new medias, learn new techniques and software, expand. Filmmaking is like drumming, it is easy to do it badly. So, do it well.
MY: If you don't mind me asking, what was your budget? We have a lot of young filmmakers who would like to create a film like this and have no idea.
AV: No problem, the working budget was somewhere around $3000 and it should be about $5000 after festivals (minus travel). The biggest expenses were the props, food, stock footage and sound effects. Panzer Corps is not a historically correct film, it is a 'what if' film. With that in mind I was able to use props that could conceivably be from that time. Such as their uniforms are not what a WWII German paratrooper would wear, the helmet is right but everything else is fictitious. The missile should about 20 feet longer, their radios are modern, etc., but people only call me out on the obvious like the AK47 assault rifle, then I point out the film is set in 1953.
My advice to young filmmakers is to make a film in modern day but if you're going to do something historical keep the cast to a minimum. If you want to outfit troops in proper gear you would burn through a small budget in a heartbeat.
MY: What are you working on at the moment?
AV: Getting Panzer Corps into a festival, I think I may wait a year to start a new project unless I can quit my job to take on a new one.
Michele, thank you for the interview. I really admire Toolfarm, this has been an honor for me. I have spent many hours on Toolfarm's site and your customer service is top notch!
MY: Thanks for saying so. We strive for great customer service. Thanks for the interview too. It has been very interesting and educational.
