KVIFF Grasp of Ceremonies Michal Caban Interview

Attendees of the Karlovy Differ Worldwide Movie Competition (KVIFF) are inclined to rave concerning the lineup of stars attending, the celebratory, even celebration, ambiance that takes over the picturesque Czech spa city through the occasion – and people action-packed opening ceremonies.

Previous years have seen the likes of ice skaters, horses, flames, and bloodbaths getting the fest off to the races with a bang and leaving company breathless. This 12 months’s 58th version of KVIFF kicked off on Friday with a form of best-of assortment of characters and themes from previous ceremonies.

As has turn out to be custom, the enjoyable and pleasure is served up by the Caban brothers. They’re Michal Caban, director of opening and shutting ceremony, KVIFF, director, choreographer, and grasp of ceremonies, and his brother Šimon Caban, co-director of opening and shutting ceremony, KVIFF, architect, stage designer, and director.

Michal Caban, in an electronic mail interview, advised THR concerning the duo’s inspirations, challenges they’ve confronted with a few of their daring stage exhibits, how the annual magic comes collectively because of a Fast Motion Unit, and his different work, together with on the Paris Summer time Olympics.

You will have finished so many wild and thrilling Karlovy Differ movie pageant opening exhibits – with ice skaters, fireplace, vertical dancing and extra – which at all times appear to depart the viewers breathless and in awe. How do you get your inspiration yearly?

I’m not alone on this. I’ve been doing the opening exhibits with my brother Simon for the previous 28 years. This offers us an important benefit as a result of not less than one in all us comes up with one thing each time. And happily, we’ve had sufficient concepts for now. Our pageant and brotherly collaboration stems from our joint theater venture, Baletni jednotka Krec (Ballet Unit Cramp). We based this group within the Nineteen Eighties and outlined that we like huge, dynamic footage filled with a powerful ambiance. And I believe we introduced that over to the pageant.

Do you ever fear you might run out of concepts? And do you keep in mind any exhibits when inspiration got here to you in a very uncommon or humorous manner?

Generally the concept comes later, however we don’t fear about not having one. Very often, through the realization of [the show of] a given 12 months, an thought for an additional present comes. Often, now we have a number of views, after which in a joint dialogue with my brother, we give attention to one. Inspiration comes from in every single place – we simply look, we understand, however most significantly now we have a fairly vivid creativeness. I used to be watching TV at some point, and there was a report from some world championship in pair leaping on trampolines. Truly, I didn’t know on the time that such a factor, synchronized trampoline leaping, even existed. So I believed, let’s do it with extra individuals, a bit of dance-like, completely different strikes… and that was it. The curtain opened, 4 males had been hanging within the air, and instantly they had been let go from an important peak, the corridor gasped… after which they landed on 4 huge trampolines.

One other time, in the summertime, I watched our younger kids slide across the backyard on plastic strips of some kind of slides, which had been being watered. It was on a flat floor and it was going like loopy… So we created extra slides within the Nice Corridor of the Thermal Resort and we let it rain down from above. Fairly enjoyable and fairly harmful. Water and electrical energy don’t like one another…

And typically you must let concepts ripen. For instance, final 12 months’s opening present with ice skaters was one thing we considered about 15 years in the past, however again then the know-how with synthetic ice wasn’t far sufficient alongside to make it occur… so we simply waited. By the way in which, we’ve been working with this synchronized skating staff since 2004, principally sporting occasions. Did you discover the phrase “synchronized”? We prefer it in choreography and in our fraternal collaboration…

By which date or month do you must determine on the massive thought and choreography for the KVIFF opening ceremony to drag the exhibit? How a lot time do you want for the performers to observe the choreography and the place do you observe with them?

The various years of cooperation with the pageant administration and its president, Jiri Bartoska, is predicated on big belief. After all, this was constructed based mostly on good work situations, that means particularly the liberty in creation, and in addition based mostly on outcomes, which have by no means disillusioned. So, no person is pressuring us, somewhat we ourselves attempt to have a imaginative and prescient originally of the 12 months, which we goal to current to the pageant in April or so. Then we put collectively a staff. This takes place round Might.

Nonetheless, [we have] nearly everlasting collaborators who’re capable of do something with us at any time. That’s why we name them the “Jednotka Rychleho Nasazeni” (Fast Motion Unit). And since the area at Thermal is so particular, we will solely rehearse elements in Prague, which we then “assemble” collectively on the spot. The size of rehearsals and technical preparations varies from 12 months to 12 months. Generally it’s one or two days, typically 4 or 5 rehearsals.

Our rehearsals differ, we don’t have a everlasting area. It was once at Czech Tv, the place we rehearsed, for instance, with wheelchair customers – that was a really uncommon 12 months. Recently, we principally attempt to do a lot of the preparations within the halls of the MeetFactory, another tradition heart in Prague.

When was the primary 12 months you labored on the KVIFF opening ceremony and the way did you get that job initially?

In 1995, on the time when the second trendy version [of KVIFF] was being ready beneath the course of Jiri Bartoska’s staff, Simon, as an architect-scenographer, was approached by the pageant’s producer on the time, Rudolf Biermann, if he want to beautify the pageant in Differ. After all, he needed to. Simon was really helpful by Ales Najbrt, a classmate from UMPRUM [the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague], a graphic designer who had simply designed the poster for the movie Vasnivy bozk (A Passionate Kiss) by the aforementioned movie producer. The {photograph} for a similar poster was taken by Tono Stano.

Along with structure, my brother organized the opening and shutting of the pageant within the first 12 months somewhat than directing it. It was only a technical award presentation somewhat than a ceremony, which I then turned it into.

After the tip of the thirtieth version of the pageant, the Karlovy Differ Worldwide Movie Competition Basis met to judge the earlier version and put together for the following one. Václav Marhoul, then director of the Barrandov Movie Studio, was additionally a member. When it got here to the query of the ceremony itself, the group and course of all of the accompanying occasions, he recommended me by saying that, and I quote, “he didn’t know of anybody who may do it higher.”

Since then, now we have operated as a four-person artistic staff: Ales Najbrt as major designer of posters, program and all visuals, Tono Stano was the photographer of the poster, Simon turned the architect of the pageant, and I turned the director of ceremonies and the organizer of many accompanying packages and social occasions. This was the case for a few years. Right now, nonetheless, solely Ales Najbrt’s graphic design studio stays in its capabilities, and my brother and I focus primarily on the opening and shutting exhibits and ceremonies.

Did you ever have to take a seat out a 12 months since you had been too busy or is that this simply an excessive amount of enjoyable to overlook?

Sure, we skipped one 12 months. In 2003, after eight years of cooperation, the preliminary monumental enthusiasm was somewhat exhausted and by some means we anticipated issues to get so as. I don’t need to dwell on it an excessive amount of, as a result of we owe rather a lot to the pageant, however it’s true that, amongst different issues, we didn’t really feel that there was a bent to regulate the finances to the evolving calls for of the occasions, the technical requirements and simply the circumstances. My brother Simon, in his function as architect, additionally struggled with the identical feeling. He started to really feel like a storekeeper simply pulling previous artifacts out of storage.

On the whole, it was nice enjoyable, but it surely was additionally a horrible accountability. So we determined it was greatest to stop whereas nonetheless forward…

It was a very good resolution. The thirty eighth version was ready by a distinct staff, which put such a pressure on the pageant manufacturing, each organizationally and financially, that we returned in 2004 beneath significantly better situations. That’s, just for the ceremonies, my brother didn’t return because the architect of the pageant.

How tough was the dialogue concerning the present throughout COVID?

The 12 months 2020 was a irritating one for the entire world. On March 12, 2020, the world nearly got here to an finish because it was actually paralyzed by the [COVID-19] pandemic. Six days later, we had been to current our imaginative and prescient for that 12 months to Jiri Bartoska. The assembly was canceled. Every little thing stopped. It was clear that the pageant couldn’t happen throughout COVID, for the primary time since its inception in 1946…

When there have been indicators in Might that one thing can be finished in Karlovy Differ, we thought, given the state of affairs, we may use the empty auditorium for the primary and hopefully final time.

The corporate Stary & Stary, which has been manufacturing the design of the pageant for a few years and can also be our provider of decorations, needed to swap to one thing else. They began to disinfect premises. We needed to make use of their tools within the “Disinfection” choreography and rename our Fast Motion Unit because the “Disinfection Fast Motion Unit.”

In the long run, the whole lot was completely different. The pageant got here up with the good thought of a movie showcase referred to as Tady Differ (Differ Right here), which was distributed in 96 cinemas throughout the Czech Republic. And so I went to Karlovy Differ this time and directed “solely” the president of the pageant Jiri Bartoska and moderator Marek Eben within the empty Grand Corridor of the Thermal Resort. Collectively we ready a good opening of the movie showcase, which was streamed to all taking part cinemas throughout the Czech Republic.

Was there ever an enormous KVIFF opening present thought that you just needed to change or let go as a result of it was too loopy?

We had and have various concepts that we want to use within the exhibits, however it is going to by no means work, as a result of the Grand Corridor is primarily a cinema, and after the opening present, we additionally have to display the opening film in full high quality and with an empty area in entrance of the display. It’s not a theater with a revolving stage, backstage, and so forth. for us to afford sophisticated remodelings.

That’s why I nonetheless don’t perceive how in 1999 we obtained three hydraulic lifting platforms on the stage, that are used for instance beneath automobiles in auto restore outlets, that exceeded the scale of the doorway door. I assume we’ll by no means discover out. As a result of that 12 months the theme of the pageant was a bit concerning the movie lover Oldrich Novy, a Czech actor. And in the long run, we got here up with a barely erotic, synchronized “mattress” scene. The feeling when the beds erected on these platforms to a peak of seven meters was spectacular.

In addition to your brother, are there every other key collaborators in your KVIFF exhibits?

My brother Simon and I’ve been creating the present for 29 years now, and most of that point has been spent with us by our complete manufacturing staff, together with costume designer Simona Rybakova, video projection designer Vojtech Kopecky, producers Ilona Labutova and Jakub Svejda and, after all, the aforementioned group of dancers related to the Fast Motion Unit.

What different major work have you ever centered on since final 12 months’s Karlovy Differ pageant and what’s arising for followers of your work?

Personally, I’ve a reasonably big selection. I do the realizations for various social occasions and different ceremonies, movie music live shows, co-create sports-cultural initiatives – simply form of leap from style to style. I take pleasure in it as a result of it interacts in a constructive manner. Generally I take a look at a precept at a business occasion that works properly for me later on the opening present on the pageant, and different occasions it’s vice versa.

Since final 12 months’s pageant, for instance, I inaugurated the previous Computerized Mills complicated in Pardubice, roughly an outside occasion, I ready a musical venture of a singer of common songs for the O2 Universum corridor within the O2 Enviornment, the most important Czech enviornment, I directed a live performance by opera diva Eva Urbanova, and in the identical area, however on ice, I collaborated on the celebration of 120 years of the Prague ice-hockey membership.

And just lately, in Might, through the opening present of the Ice Hockey World Championship, I ready the cultural a part of the celebration of 130 years of a Prague [soccer] membership within the Commerce Truthful Palace, I noticed two musical initiatives within the conventional Lucerna Corridor and after this 12 months’s pageant, I’ll go to Paris to inaugurate the Czech Home as a part of the Summer time Olympic Video games, solely to maneuver to Cesky Krumlov, the place I’m filming a [Egon] Schiele dance efficiency on the revolving auditorium within the citadel park. It’s colourful, I’m not complaining…

Is there any movie and TV work you’ve got finished over your profession that folks can take a look at?

I turned extra concerned in movie and tv within the Nineteen Nineties. As a choreographer, I additionally labored on overseas movies, corresponding to Dune and Kids of Dune, and as a dance troupe, the Ballet Unit Cramp, we additionally carried out in Milos Forman’s movie Amadeus in 1983.

I just like the Czech movies Prazská 5 (Prague 5), Kour (Smoke), Prazakum, tem je tu hej (Prague Choice), which I choreographed. In 1992, my brother Simon and I made our solely characteristic movie to date, Don Gio, concerning the kind of Mozart-inspired insanity that occurred within the Czech Republic after the Velvet Revolution. The subtitle of the movie was “Expressive, morally cultural horror”… which speaks for itself.

My brother and I’ve made a number of dance movies for Czech Tv, and the movie KusPoKusu (PieceByPiece) received the Screendance award in Cologne, Germany. I’ve additionally choreographed and conceptualized various tv stage items set to music by Bohuslav Martinu and Erwin Schulhoff. A few of them received awards on the Golden Prague TV Movie Competition. We now have additionally made particular recordings of musical initiatives ensuing from the collaboration of our Ballet Unit Cramp and the musical group Laura and Her Tigers – The Thomas Tracy Present, Time of Rhythms, Ritual 199X.

It was a colourful time, however at this time, sadly, the TV stations should not fascinated about a majority of these issues anymore. And so we additionally turned to musicals and opera, however that’s one other chapter.

Some other enjoyable or scary Karlovy Differ anecdotes you possibly can share?

I believe I’ve mentioned sufficient. However there’s yet another factor I may point out. And that’s that I’ve had most likely one of many worst work moments additionally linked with the pageant.

In 2007, we considered the theme of silver fringes [hanging over the stage], which dancers may manipulate and dance with. It was glittery and spectacular. Opening night time was an enormous success. Every week later, it was time to organize for Saturday’s closing ceremony. Within the Nice Corridor of the Thermal, the screenings ended after midnight on Friday, and by 9:00 a.m. the corridor was ours once more. The technicians got here in to re-hang the rigorously folded fringes. We all know what it means once they get tangled. That’s why we did a rehearsal beforehand specializing in the storage. However – and that is the BUT – with a distinct sort of fringe from a distinct provider (cost-savings on the flawed factor). It backfired badly: the rigorously folded fringes obtained utterly tangled. Uncombable. Horrible. It was clear to us that since they had been shipped all the way in which from Italy and weren’t low-cost, there was no likelihood of getting new ones rapidly. Fast resolution – get as many momentary employees and other people keen to assist as doable, put a rake of their fingers and comb them out…

Time was passing, the director of the TV broadcast was nervously pacing, however as a result of now we have identified one another for a very long time, he didn’t even “flinch” and patiently trusted us. Within the meantime, I used to be already making ready a plan in my head, what we’d exchange it with, inside about 7 hours, for the night. One of many “worst” moments of our artistic profession…

A couple of dozen volunteers had been quietly and patiently combing the perimeter little by little, and we had been simply praying that we’d be capable of get not less than a number of the fringe prepared by the beginning of the closing ceremony.

Earlier than six o’clock we needed to end the work. To at the present time, the second after we introduced the required finish of the sweaty effort brings tears to my eyes. Some made it, however some didn’t and needed to go away the unfinished work crying.

It was heartbreaking. We didn’t have every other selection and went straight to the closing present with no single rehearsal. It labored. Thanks, all! At the moment, Czech Tv was nonetheless broadcasting in 4:3 format, so the image was crammed with fringes, and also you couldn’t inform that the world was truly narrower than through the opening.

Interview edited for size and readability.