-  Tell us a little about yourself?  What were the reasons that you left in 1964 the Czech Republic and moved to the U.S.? What role did it play in your destiny?

Pavel Cerny: My family emigrated from Czechoslovakia in 1964, when I was just a teenager.

For a few months that year the Czechs partially opened  the borders and let a few hundred families leave the country with a condition that they give up their citizenship. We were the very first family with children to legally immigrate to the US since the 1948 communist takeover

While getting a Czech passport was comparatively easy, it took us many long months to get a US visa, as there was no immigration quota for immigrating from Czechoslovakia.

I was very unhappy at first in the US. The huge Los Angeles had at the time only four small theatres (less then 99 seats), a couple of houses where New York shows came when on tours, no opera, no ballet, the Museum of Arts was only being constructed. I went back to High School and everyone was asking me whether we had radio in Czechoslovakia (no one believed that we actually had TV for many years), flushing toilets, etc. I was a rarity to be shown off with.

I never forget the first Christmas in Los Angeles. I was used to the holiday season in Prague, where the statues and the gas lights on the Charles Bridge were covered by snow and the Christmas markets were full of people. In Los Angeles. I saw large lots selling Christmas trees but those were  all flocked (covered by artificial snow)–pink, baby blue, even orange with black stripes…I was never involved much in politics and I wanted desperately to return to my school friends and places I knew..

My uncle paid for my studies and forced me to study economics which I had no interest in, but a year later I rebelled and signed up at the UCLA Theatre Arts Department to study Film .

Four years later, when I was in danger of being drafted to Viet Nam, I returned to Prague on a scholarship from the famous Prague FAMU film academy and invitation to work as an assistant (very few people spoke much English then) to several great New Wave directors. That was July 21. 1968. A month later the Warsaw Pact tanks rolled into the streets of Prague..

In the first couple of years after 1968, the conditions were still relaxed a bit and I studied and started writing screenplays for the Prague TV and directing theater and my first professional films for the TV and the Kratky Film Studios. I also worked as an assistant on Jiri Menzel’s brilliant (and immediately banned) «Larks on strings».

In May 1972 I signed contracts to direct two feature length films based on a Soviet short story by Natalia Baranskaya «A week after a week» and a classic Czech novel «A miner’s ballad». I got married in Prague early in June and we left to Los Angeles to visit my parents. When I wanted to return in August to start prep-work on the films, my application for CS visa was turned down. I sent copies of my contracts to the embassy in Washington D.C. asking for explanation, but received only a short reply:

«We are not required to give reasons.

Signed: xxxx

The First Secretary of the Czechoslovak Embassy».

That was the end of my career as a movie director. I ended up in the US without any of my films (those went to some safe in Prague), no contacts, and no idea what kind of material the US producers want from me. After the four exciting years of studying with and working with the top directors of the Czech New Wave I was completely naive, offering US producers screenplays which were more Ingmar Bergman then Ingrid Bergman. I worked for several years as a night clerk in a Liquor Store, getting occasionally robbed at gun point, and only after some time I was able to find jobs teaching theater and film at some colleges and universities and eventually working as an Assistant Director and Location Manager.

- Do you regret of having left homeland?

P.C.: The almost 20 years of not being able to return to Prague were very difficult I have regretted leaving my homeland mostly because of its beauty but also because I was not able to accept that after my promising film career I had to work as a servant to directors and producers who often knew much less than I did. Eventually US became my adopted homeland, I got used to the life style there and even though I need every year at least a week or two of Prague I am not sure I could live there again permanently .

- How did the idea of founding «THE FILM OFFICE» company arise? What are the main goals and tasks of «THE FILM OFFICE» company?

P.C.:It was my work as one of the top Location Managers in Hollywood, that led to establishing first of the «EAST EUROPEAN FILM OFFICE», which I last year changed to «THE FILM OFFICE» to reflect the new growth in my company. Early in 1990 I was asked to lead a delegation from Twentieth Century Fox to see what are the possibilities of filming in Eastern Europe. Due to my knowledge of many languages (I speak 7) and many countries in Eastern Europe, I was the logical choice. Our delegation visited East Berlin, Prague, Brno, Vienna, Budapest, Zagreb and back again to Warsaw and Krakow. I have made many contacts and so I decided to establish my own company to work as a go between for US Producers wanting to film in Eastern Europe. I started by signing representation agreements with the «Barrandov Film Studios» in Prague and some smaller companies in Prague and Budapest. I helped to put together several projects but there were suddenly many competitors. When I was visiting the head of production of the Universal Studios to discuss my company’s services, he suddenly told me: «Pavel, forget Prague and forget Budapest, everyone filmed there already. Find my new countries with less known locations and lower prices». That was when I contacted companies in Romania, Latvia, Ukraine, Serbia, and Croatia. Eventually I had to change the name of my company as I was getting representation requests from other countries around the world. We added  Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Iceland, Jordan and now we are in the process of adding to our website also production companies in Albania, Kosovo, and the Maldives Islands. Who knows where all this will lead.

With the growing size of the company, it was not me anymore begging for appointments to meet with the Hollywood producers and studios. Suddenly I was being asked to come by and bring along Price Lists for different countries, and picture books of locations in various places that I was offering.

It is not always easy to find a project. Many of the large studios have European representatives (mostly in London) and use them as a bridge to European production. Filming in my other countries is (with a rare exception) limited to commercials, or a few short scenes for some blockbuster film.

- Tell please about Your vision  of the current state of film industry in the U.S. and in the world, of the major trends in American film industry?

P.C.: Hollywood is going through a crisis. Ever since Spielberg’s JAWS made hundreds of millions of dollars, the studios are no longer interested in making small or medium films–those are being made only by smaller independent companies. The studios («Universal», «Warner Brothers», «Paramount», «Sony»,) have all become properties of huge industrial companies interested only in profit. That’s why every summer and winter holiday season the movie theatres are full of huge blockbusters, often costing well over hundred million dollars and expected to make back many times the original investment. No one is willing to take any risk. The studios are looking for material that has been proven to make money. That’s why there are so many new versions of old movies,  old TV series, films inspired by comics strips, and most of all– each successful film is guaranteed to have 3,, 4 , 5 and even more continuations. Even mediocre films «Pirates of Caribbean 4» result in billion dollar profits, because audiences all around the world want something that has been proven to entertain them in the past. That is why most foreign countries only serve as .background, exotic locations for the latest «Hangover», latest «Transformers» etc.

Despite what my friend at Universal told me, it is again the proven locations in Europe with with well developed, western style film industry and definitely good English speaking crews like Czech Republic , Hungary, and lately Bulgaria where a smaller US company built a large studio complex..

- As for You, what are the prospects of co-production?

P.C.: Occasionally I get requests from independent producers who are looking for for a co-production or servicing in a country off the Budapest / Prague axis, a country with new, unknown locations, and most of all country where the cost of services is not so over-priced.

I get 1-2 projects every month. I learned not to get too excited till the producer has all or at least most of his production costs in the bank which happens seldom.

In Los Angeles almost every other person is writing a script and everyone if full of dreams about becoming the next big name in the film industry. Sometimes, even with a good script there is no guarantee that it will see the light of day, because the ability of getting the finances together depends on having a first rate agent and lawyer who will be able to get you a meeting with the right producer or studio, on what personal contacts you have ( if you are the daughter of Francis Coppola, you have an easier chance to raise finances than if you are the child of some unknown Joe Schmuck), and especially it is important to have the right project at the right moment when that genre is fashionable and asked for. (My son who is a great screenwriter and director of many music videos, was asked a year ago to write immediately a horror film because several horrors in row made lots of money and there was a shortage of good scripts. He wrote a brilliant, scary, but very elegant screenplay. Unfortunately just before he turned it in, a couple of horror films «Scream 3» bombed in the box office and suddenly there was no one willing to even read his script. Six month ago if you had any rights to some of the superhero characters, you had a guaranteed deal for a movie. What will be the next fad? Who knows?

- By what criteria do You choose partners for Your company in other countries?

P.C.: When I was choosing partners to represent in the US I had several criteria:

The foreign company had to be highly  professional with a proven history of servicing or co-producing, or at least producing first rate movies or commercials in their own country.

The company must be able to put together a first rate film crew, that is able to work the required 8 hours+ work days, usually 6 days a week. No drinking, no drugs, no shirking from work.

I try to bring in large companies,  used to Hollywood work ethics. My own reputation is at stake. If my US client is disappointed, not only will he not work with the company I recommended, but also they will never work again with me.

Of course. I also must have trust in the head of the foreign company that they will honestly pay the commission that «THE FILM OFFICE» has coming according to our contract. I have avoided several interested companies, because I did not trust their record or the customs of doing business in their country.

- In general, what can you say about the prospect of filming American movies in Ukraine?

P.C.: I have high hopes for filming in Ukraine because 1) the country has a long tradition of film making and 2) the films that I have seen coming out of there have high professional quality.

Ukraine has many locations to offer that can be used in various genres.

Just now we are dealing with a company that needs to film in Chechnya and Moscow. While Kiev can substitute easily for Moscow (all you need to film in Russia is the Red Square), there are parts of Crimea that have mosques, and population that looks like the Muslim population in the Caucasus.

I hope that as soon as a few smaller projects get under way in Ukraine, other producers will come too. It will of course require modernization of the «Dovzhenko Studios» (like the ones in Prague, Budapest, and Sofia did) and putting together several film crews that speak fluent English (including the technical terms),assembled from the top echelons of the Ukrainian film assistants, cameramen, electricians, set builders etc. Let us see if my Ukrainian client «FRESH PRODUCTIONS» and my own «THE FILM OFFICE», can become the pioneers on the field of servicing and co-production in Ukraine!

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