The nation of Ukraine has been within the headlines of most main information retailers since February 24, 2022. Previous to that, on a regular basis life was not not like ours in the US: children went to highschool, individuals shopped in native shops and ate at eating places, companies thrived.
However even then, some Ukrainians regarded the U.S. as a spot with totally different sorts of alternatives. Amongst them is an entrepreneur from Chernivtsi named Stanislav Puzdriak, founding father of Rebel Monkey Production. Arriving in Philadelphia in 2020, he has continued constructing his post-production firm in Ukraine from right here. Now, within the midst of the continuing warfare, he devotes his time to documenting the protests within the U.S. supporting his house nation to make clear the state of affairs there and the anti-war sentiment overseas.
On this installment of Made in Frame, we take a look at Stan’s journey as he’s crafted tales from two continents, whereas his coworkers proceed to work whilst Russian missiles explode outdoors. It’s a narrative about grit and guilt, however it’s additionally an instance of how expertise helps us share the experiences of actual individuals, and the way vital these tales are to understanding the world round us.
A world workforce
When Stan began Insurgent Monkey Manufacturing 5 years in the past, there wasn’t fairly as clear a purpose for them to name themselves rebels. On reflection, the title is spot on, as they proceed working even because the warfare rages.
The origin story goes like this: “I unintentionally met a man from Chicago on-line who wanted assist with video enhancing. After which I noticed that he wasn’t the one one, so I began hiring individuals,” Stan says. “It was fairly difficult in my hometown of Chernivtsi, as a result of there have been no professionals within the business. So I made a decision to coach individuals myself.”
Stan not solely educated new individuals, he designed and applied a coaching program and video enhancing course.
His want to maneuver to the U.S. had nothing to do with wanting to depart Ukraine. Quite, his plan was to domesticate new enterprise and to scout for brand new expertise. After three declined visas to the U.S. and one to Canada, he made it right here two years in the past.
“There are only some members of the workforce positioned within the U.S., largely shooters,” Stan says. “All post-production and administration groups are positioned in Ukraine. Proper now we’ve 30 individuals in our firm and plan to rent 10 extra throughout 2022.”
Serving production-company shoppers within the U.S., Canada, and Australia, Insurgent Monkey handles post-production duties from artistic enhancing to movement graphics and visible results for commercials and company work. All the things is completed within the Adobe Inventive Cloud, utilizing primarily Premiere Professional and After Results. And, after all, they share concepts and belongings with one another and their shoppers via Body.io.
Connecting throughout a nationwide nightmare
We at Adobe and Body.io discuss rather a lot about how tales join us, and the way we construct functions to allow storytellers. Stan, who has been documenting the U.S.-based protests against the invasion of Ukraine, is an ideal instance, utilizing his short videos as a name for assist and solidarity.
His weapons of selection? A Sony A7S III with a DJI Ronin RS2 and Tamron 28-75 2.8 lens. “That is my favourite setup,” he says. “It’s very transportable and lightweight and I’ve many choices of wide- or close-up angles. And the gimbal offers me the power to create dynamic photographs. I shot protests in 4K XAVC HS in S-Log3 image profile. I all the time shoot in S-Log3 since it gives me a higher dynamic range.”
Which is useful when he’s shade correcting in Lumetri. “It’s getting higher and higher with the brand new updates,” Stan says. “The HSL tool is my favourite.”
At a time when he’s distant from household and mates, he feels it’s his accountability to amplify their circumstances. “Each time individuals ask me how our workforce in Ukraine is, I reply ‘they’re protected.’ And they’re, in comparison with the japanese cities,” Stan says. “But additionally, they aren’t in comparison with what was once regular life. A number of occasions all through the day sirens go off, which signifies that Russian rockets are on their means and folks want to cover.”
The Insurgent Monkey workplace is positioned in a basement, so the workforce doesn’t need to take additional shelter once they hear the sirens. “For the primary few days, it was arduous to proceed working,” Stan says stoically. “However now, they don’t even react. Individuals bought used to it like we bought used to carrying masks throughout COVID.”
If something, the present state of affairs has impressed the studio to create extra. “We’re one of many few companies that not solely didn’t shut down, however continues to develop.”
Story of the American Dream
The studio has beforehand produced a number of documentary and fiction shorts, which Stan describes as “extra like a pastime.” However his present documentary undertaking, Tale of the American Dream, is greater than a pastime. It’s a calling, particularly now.
Now out there on Amazon Prime, Stan makes use of this movie to look at the truth of the so-called American dream, interviewing quite a lot of individuals who had been born right here, together with quite a few immigrants.
Clearly there are greater than two sides to the story, with the immigrants believing that alternatives abound within the U.S. if one is keen to “struggle for it.” On the flip aspect, there’s the expertise of African-American individuals, whose ancestors had been introduced right here as slaves, and whose alternatives proceed to be impeded by racism, oppression, and inequality.
As a rustic constructed largely on immigration, the numbers don’t lie: in keeping with the Brookings Institute, nearly half of the Fortune 500 companies were founded either by immigrants or by their children. By comparability, over the complete historical past of the Fortune 500, there have been solely 18 Black CEOs—with solely 4 as of 2021—regardless that 13 % of the American citizenry is Black.
Stan has thus far attended protests and performed interviews within the Philadelphia and New Jersey areas, New York Metropolis, and Los Angeles, with plans to shoot in Las Vegas, as properly. His digital camera bundle consists of the Sony A7S III (capturing in XAVC 4K) and RED Komodo in 5K R3D MQ. Editor Roman Fushtei works with the unique RED information in Premiere Professional and creates proxies for the Sony footage, and graphic artist Valentyn Perchyk creates the movement graphics in After Results.
“The workflow is fairly easy,” Stan says. “Roman sends me all of the interviews, and I go away feedback in Body.io in regards to the particular soundbites I like and in what order to make use of them. He sends me a brand new reduce, and I go away extra particular feedback. It’s not the primary undertaking the place we’ve used this workflow in Body.io, however it’s the largest thus far.”
The workforce is steadfastly loyal to Adobe merchandise, doing audio enhancing and sweetening and even ultimate shade grading and mastering in Premiere Professional. “Since I do a number of interview-style commercials it is vitally vital for me to have sound enhancing instruments in my NLE. That’s why I like Premiere Professional. All the things is there and it’s very straightforward to handle. I can all the time repair my audio with a number of clicks.”
“I can create a very high-quality industrial with out utilizing any further software program or plugins. I additionally use Lightroom and Photoshop rather a lot once I have to edit nonetheless photographs or do monitoring or masking work,” Stan says.
“I like Body.io not solely as a result of it makes the revisions workflow a lot simpler, but in addition as a result of it’s a lot quicker than all different platforms.”
With a time distinction of +7 hours from Philadelphia to Chernivtsi, the workforce in Ukraine can get to work very first thing of their morning and have new work to point out Stan when he wakes up. They then have hours of overlap the place they will talk, frame-accurately and in actual time, with an web connection via Body.io. “I like Body.io not solely as a result of it makes the revisions workflow a lot simpler, but in addition as a result of it’s a lot quicker than all different platforms for importing video.”
A dream for the long run
Regardless of his self-admitted survivor’s guilt, Stan continues on together with his mission, assured that he’ll be capable to construct the video manufacturing business in Ukraine and supply extra jobs. “I imagine we will go from 30 individuals to 1000 in a number of years, particularly as People turn out to be not solely in our providers but in addition in our films and TV exhibits,” he says.
Ukraine has been making notable movies for years, with quite a few premieres at prestigious festivals akin to Venice and Cannes, and 5 movies accepted into the Oscars’ competitors for Finest Worldwide Movie. With higher publicity, you possibly can solely think about there can be extra.
In the meantime, Stan will proceed to doc the protests and the immigrant tales because the assaults on Ukraine proceed. “It’s inconceivable to simply sit right here and never do something. I attempt to share the information within the American neighborhood as a lot as potential, and need to thank all of the individuals who have supported us in such tough occasions.”
“I might love our workers to have the ability to come right here and learn the way People do enterprise. We are able to study rather a lot.”
And he’ll proceed to study from his time within the U.S. “I hope to carry extra individuals over right here, however largely to study, share new experiences, meet new individuals, after which return house. I might love our workers to have the ability to come right here and learn the way People do enterprise. We are able to study rather a lot from you.”
If there’s one factor we People have realized from this horrific warfare, it’s that we will additionally study rather a lot from Ukrainians. Their bravery and willpower have these of us who’ve by no means woke up to our cities, colleges, hospitals, and roadways being bombed watching in awe.
And we at Body.io will proceed to look at Stan and the Insurgent Monkeys, and hope for his or her security and prosperity as they construct the movie and video business in Ukraine. As a result of now, greater than ever, they’ve vital tales of human braveness and resilience to share with the remainder of the world.
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