How the Ukrainian moved to Hollywood, changed his name and persuaded the star to star in his film

Ukrainian director Evgeniy Nozhechkin, known as Jensen Noen, talks about moving to the USA, collaboration with Jay-Z and feedback from the director of “Iron Man”.

Photo: instagram.com/jensennoen

Evgeny Nozhechkin is a Ukrainian director working in the USA. Four years ago, he moved to Los Angeles and took on the pseudonym Jensen Noen. During this time, he managed to work with Jay-Z and Grande. Now Nozhechkin is preparing for the premiere of his feature-length debut. In the film "Premonition" Oscar nominee Eric Roberts played a key role. The director tells The Village Ukrainewhat it's like to find your place in Hollywood.

For some reason, it is very difficult for Americans to pronounce the name “Zhenya”. The first producer I started working with here advised me to take the pseudonym “Jensen.” No one could pronounce the surname “Nozhechkin” at all, so I shortened it - left the first two and last two letters. It turned out to be “Jensen Noen”.

My entire childhood was connected with music. Quite early, I found my first musical group, and later I managed to play in several more. The most famous of them is Down & Dirty. In this project we worked with Denis Shaforostov, who later became the frontman of the American group Asking Alexandria.

Music was an opportunity to be creative, but a little later I discovered cinema. This was a great discovery: visual media offered much more possibilities for telling stories. As soon as I got a camera, at the age of 19-20, I started making videos for my bands. This was the pre-YouTube era - we were making cool stuff, but there was no platform for it.

It came out to the audience a little later: I shot a video for Down & Dirty on the track Move It, and it got over a million views. Thanks to this, we were offered a contract by the American label Sumerian Records, which mainly works in the genre of progressive metal. We went to record the new album in the USA.

In 2013, I flew to Los Angeles and shot the first video. Everyone was pleased with the result, after a few months I was invited again. The first trip to the United States was a revelation: I saw how developed the country is in the music industry and how many opportunities there are to implement my ideas. I know that in recent years the gradation of musical styles has significantly expanded in Ukraine, and it has become easier to make high-quality music. But then the situation was different.

Since I was already known as a video director, new job offers immediately began to arrive. For example, there was a request from Roadrunner Records - this is a label that collaborates with Slipknot and Nickelback. They were looking for a director who could shoot videos for young rock bands. At the same time, I continued to work in Ukraine as a music video director: for example, I shot videos for the groups “Hands Up” and “Leningrad”.

Photo: instagram.com/jensennoen

At the beginning of 2014, I arrived in the USA and tried to live here for several months. In the end, everything started to turn out, my wife and I made visas and moved to the United States. Since then, I have been working in Los Angeles.

My partner Sam Malko and I started Scissor Films. Our specialization is production and post-production. In particular, we are responsible for editing and visual effects. We've worked with Jay-Z, The Weeknd, Future, Ariana Grande and Bryson Tiller; I will be making a film for Tiller for the release of his new album.

For example, the Kill Jay-Z video is a very complex work. Roughly speaking, you need to be in the American context to understand what the author wanted to say. This is a deliberately simple clip, but it caused a big resonance. Jay-Z wasn't on the set, but he clearly explained what he wanted to see - and we made it happen.

Gambit is a short film I made with my friend Nick Bateman. This is a very cool dude, he communicates with all the stars associated with YouTube and Instagram. Even before this, Nick was casting for the role of a Marvel comics character: he reached the final stages of selection, but in the end the studio chose Channing Tatum. He liked the character so much that he decided to make a short film about him. We shot the film in one night under a bridge in downtown Los Angeles - without any permits. We just wanted to make a cool video, but we received a lot of feedback - from the tabloid TMZ, for example.

“I called the producer and said I should make a film.”

Los Angeles is a city that lives by the film industry. There are a lot of people working in this area. There is a special energy here - everything motivates you to make your film. And the more time you spend here, the more you realize that this is real. It’s not easy, but it’s definitely more realistic than in Ukraine.

I tried not to be idle: when I was not working, I attended workshops and meetings. At one of these events, he met with director Joshua Caldwell, who himself shot a film called Negative. He worked with a limited budget, spent almost a year of time, but it looked like a real film. It was a great inspiration for me: after the meeting, I called my producer Sam and said that I needed to make a movie.

Trailer for the film "Negative". You can remember the leading role of Simon Quarter in the “World of the Wild West”.

We started looking for the script. Found a good option for the Australian screenwriter: the priority, of course, was the story, but there had to be a script that could be shot.

Preparing the film took about two years. For some time we rewrote the script and looked for investors. There are many people in the US who are willing to invest money in cinema, but they all want to work with successful directors; even if you made a film for two dollars and sold it for ten, that’s already a success. Unfortunately, few people look at the director's talent; more attention is paid to whether you have commercial potential. In addition, experience with full-length films is assessed - no one is interested in the fact that you shot advertising or music videos.

I like blockbusters, but intellectual ones - like the films of Christopher Nolan, David Fincher and the Wachowski sisters. These are visually beautiful films with a lot of technological features. But history always comes first. This path is also close to me.

Photo: instagram.com/jensennoen

At a certain point, we decided to make a film on our own, that is, without external support. With this in mind, we only had three weeks for the filming process. This is a super tight timeline. Usually such films are filmed for at least several months. After that, even 7-8 months, we finished small fragments.

The biggest challenge was precisely the compressed time frame. I used to work with other people's material, mostly with major labels. If something didn't work out, we simply went beyond our time and budget. When you shoot yourself, you are responsible for everything yourself. This is a lot of stress: I had to make compromises, filming was easier than I wanted.

Photo: instagram.com/jensennoen

Be this film studio, he had to come out last year. But since this was our project, we allowed ourselves to postpone the date of the premiere. Therefore, we otherwise wrote out the marketing strategy of the film: we decided to make a bid for promotion in social networks, and only then show it to distributors.

A few years ago, the distributor determined the fate of the film. There were two options: either release to hire, or release on DVD. Now filmmakers can make their demands. In addition, with the advent of digital distribution like Netflix channels for contact with the audience has become much more.

Photo: instagram.com/jensennoen

"This is a job for which I am not ashamed."

“Premonition” is a story about a writer who suspects his young wife of cheating and decides to test her fidelity. My film is completely different from anything I've done before.

Perhaps, if I started this project now, I would not dare to shoot a thriller. Action and horror is easy to shoot, there is no need for an exemplary acting game, everything can be attributed to the genre. In turn, in thrillers the actors have to play flawlessly. To achieve the ideal result is much more difficult here than in any other genre.

I couldn't imagine it would be so difficult. Working with the highest level of actors is something else entirely. For example, the role of the main character's best friend in "perception" is played by Oscar nominee Eric Roberts, brother of Julia Roberts.

Due to budget constraints, we could only afford one big name on the cast list. At first we considered the option of Jonathan Banks from Breaking Bad. But there were problems with the filming schedule; he was busy on another project. When Roberts came to the table read (the first meeting where all the actors read their roles for the first time - ed.), he hit the nail on the head with his vision for the character.

There were no problems with Roberts during filming. I know from my experience that stars of this level can be lazy to take another take, but he offered himself all the time. Eric is not a young guy anymore, but he has a lot of energy. He has appeared in several minor films over the past few years; These were simple roles, I was even worried whether he was still in shape. But he proved himself to be a true professional.

Photo: instagram.com/jensennoen

Am I happy with the end result? Yes, this is a job for which I am not ashamed. Indicative for me was the feedback from the very cool director Shane Black - his film “Iron Man 3” earned more than a billion dollars at the box office, he also wrote the scripts for the films “The Last Boy Scout” and “Lethal Weapon”. This is a good friend of ours, we arranged a screening of our film at his home.

I asked him to be as frank as possible. When we watched the tape, Shane asked what the film's budget was. When he suggested that the tape cost 5 million, we told him that in fact it cost several times less. “I had certain comments, but I’m shocked that you made a film for that kind of money. Just don't tell anyone how much it cost! Sell ​​it to a distributor first, then pitch it as a success story,” Black told us. In short, we have no doubt that this film will pay off.

In Los Angeles I keep in touch with Lubomir Levitsky. He shot “Adit” and “Shadows of Unforgotten Ancestors” in Ukraine, and is now preparing to shoot his first film in the USA. We didn’t know each other in Ukraine, but we communicated online for some time. For some reason, there is a story in Ukraine that people in the party do not share their experiences and stay away. Here everything is completely different: everyone helps each other, consults constantly. I am now helping him, he is helping me. For example, he helped us with the first trailer for Premonition.

Photo: instagram.com/jensennoen

"Be like water"

I would like to focus on movies in the future. Now we are working with a partner in parallel with the production, but I already have a script for another movie. I want to go directly to the next project.

Am I considering returning to Ukraine? Yes, sure. I hope that I will be able to show “Premonition” at the current Odessa International Film Festival - we are currently negotiating about this.

I have many friends at home. In particular, a close friend and favorite cameraman Yuri Korol, who shot Cyborgs, the Watchtower and the Indestructible. Therefore, I watch Ukrainian cinema, communicate with people from the industry.

The main thing is to have a clear idea of ​​what you want. It's corny, but it works. If you want, for example, to make a film or open your own business, then you need to clearly define this for yourself. The next stage is to understand that every day you have 12 hours during which you can do something. Therefore, this time should be used to implement the goal in life step by step.

When I concentrate, I clearly formulate the next task. For example, when I started making a film, I almost refused offers to make videos. Otherwise, the preparation of the tape would have taken me not two years, but seven.

Photo: instagram.com/jensennoen

Another piece of advice is to not be afraid to adapt. Many people who come to the US actually stay at home - this remains the Soviet mentality. As for me, you need to be open to new things. “I’m used to living this way, I was raised this way” is not an argument for me. Why not try something new? The Japanese have a wonderful saying - be like water. I try to constantly adhere to this principle.

Actually, that’s why I decided to take a pseudonym: I’m not giving up my roots, but I’m doing it so that it’s easier to communicate with me. Finally, 90% of professional situations are all about communication. People who come to the United States from Ukraine have problems with this - and not only because of the language barrier. How to communicate with people correctly—I’ve also been working on this for quite some time. You must not go ahead, destroying everything in front of you, but look for ways to achieve your goal smoothly. This does not mean that you have to change your principles. No, you just need to look for opportunities to realize what you have in mind.

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