NOT AN ORDINARY MECHANIC, 5min., Latvia, Action
Directed by Jurijs Kruze
Nick Mecha is a person of many talents, who works as a mechanic at the workshop, but dreams to become a great dancer and perform on a big stage. But Nick's "luck" always gets him into different tricky situations. This is one of them.

https://www.facebook.com/jurijs.kruze
https://www.instagram.com/jkruze

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

To be honest it was more like an improvisation, all started in a gym with a small action camera DJI Osmo Action, we filmed a funny fight video and it turned out so good that I said to our team that we gotta make a short film, only thing we need is an idea of why they are fighting and for what. All that we had in the beginning was an unfinished fight sequence.

The script was created in the last moment before shooting started.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

Actually It took around 2-3 days of fight training and 1-2 days of writing a script in my head (yes it was never written on a paper, just original copy in my mind)

But we had to reinvent a lot of fight moves on the location, which we were lucky to get just a day before shooting.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?

That's a hard one. It's always a problem for me to describe something in two words, haha! Okay, let's say "Kindness with fists"

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

The biggest obstacle was for sure my perfectionism, as we had only a weekend (2days) for shooting and yet I had to prepare a lot of things before, not to forget what and how I wanted to shoot, not to forget some small things like showing a hand dumbbell and a glass bottle before the fight so during the fight it wouldn't appear out of nowhere. As I mostly had yo do everything myself it was super exhausting and challenging.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

Actually I already forgot that there's gonna be some audience feedback video and I was really happy to watch it! Felt heartwarming! Thank you so much for that!

6. When did you realise that you wanted to make films?

When I was a kid probably, but my family didn't have money to buy a camera back then. I bought my first camera only in 2015.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?

I think the most viewed one is my all time favourite "The Legend of 1900" - watched it more than 30 times for sure!

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?

Good question! But nothing comes up my mind, as you already doing a great job!

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?

As it's my first time there, it was a bit stressful and took some time to understand how it works.

10. What is your favorite meal?

Chicken breasts with mashed potatoes and mushroom sauce - Number 1!!!

11. What is next for you? A new film?

Yes, we definitely want to shoot 2-3 more episodes of Nick Mecha, to reveal more his true feelings and emotions, but that will be a hard one for sure as I want to keep the same duration of not more than 5 minutes.