Director Bálint Szimler and cameraman Marcell Rév have been busy since the end of July shooting Balaton Method, the feature length Balaton version of Kodály Method. The weather has been anything but kind to these guys over the entire summer, but on Monday the god of meteorology was merciful. We got the chance to see what a day of shooting looks like where drummers tap the beat on the top of Poski 126s and Ladas organized based on colour codes, while on the bridge of the ferry normally commuting between Szántód and Tihany the silhouette of Veronika Harcsa and Bin-Jip is set against the crimson coloured sky and the outline of the northern shore.
Currently at about halftime, the shooting period has not always been something straight out of a Balaton fairy tale. For example, it was raining cats and dogs several times. On one of these occasions, when lightning had been flashing above the crew for a while, they decided to call the meteorology service to inquire whether the storm zone was heading their way. The rain was supposedly going to pass them by. Yeah, right. Within minutes a massive thundershower hit the entire team.
Director Bálint Szimler jumped into a car to get out of the rain, jumping immediately right back out after he spotted a frightened dog on the seat next to him, which had picked the same sanctuary to wait out the downpour, coming in through the opposite door. The frightening scene came to a close worthy of a Disney movie: the friendly pooch laid his head on the director’s lap, waiting for the storm to pass. The car got soaked in the mighty flood, and it took until 6 am the next morning to clean and dry it completely, so nothing could be shot during the day. Another shooting day for the same clip got washed away as well, so the team is going to have to have a third go, but luckily this has been a unique case so far.
It was smooth sailing at the shooting day attended by representatives of the press - just like for the sailing boats whose passengers looked in confusion at the extraordinary performance of Bin-Jip and Talamba, who were drumming in and on the cars. The motor vehicle mayhem did not impress everyone: the elderly owner of one of the pristinely maintained Ladas did not leave his car all morning after seeing that the Tambala crew kept beating and tapping on all parts of the cars, sometimes even jumping on top of them - very carefully, of course, so as not the damage the four wheelers or cause harm to themselves.
Balaton Method is going to be a feature length film full of single-take clips. Adhering to the road movie genre, the story is interspersed with scenes showing the crew and the bands travelling from one location to the other. The musical spectrum is as broad as can be: the shooting has featured nine acts so far from Deezer talent show winner Middlemist Red through alternative Hó Márton and the Jégkorszak to Péter Egyed of Óriás. Potential future collaborators include Soerii & Poolek, Quimby, András Lovasi and Punanny Massif. According to Land of Storms and White God cameraman Marcell Rév, the clips are actually sketches with linking elements in between to tie the whole thing together and to make sure that the different parts are not too densely packed one after the other. Of course, music will take centre stage in the film as well as in the concert-filled premier.
Planned for spring 2015, the premier and the subsequent party will include performances by bands featured in the film, with the tour hopefully continuing around Lake Balaton next summer. Such a beginning-of-summer event will surely be organized at the Fövenyes Outdoor Cinema, as the unique movie theatre populated by sunflowers, basil plants and tomatoes was used as one of the filming locations. Whether traditional cinema screenings will also take place is yet to be decided, but such events are not necessarily among the plans of either the Szimler-Rév director-cameraman duo, or producer Gábor Osváth. They are definitely planning on entering the film at various festivals, though.
By the time everyone told us what the fate of the movie was going to be, it had turned out that a movie shoot is just as predictable as the winning sequence of the lottery. The ferry was moved a bit by the wind, so the previously composed background also moved out of shot. Thus began a new round of radio-telephone messaging and vessel repositioning. Problem-solving expert production manager Veronika Nemes-Jeles got a request to notify the ferry’s captain. When everything was finally all set up, golden yellows and crimsons lit up the sky, producing one of the most beautiful sunsets of the year as the background of the unusual ferry shot.
If you donated at least 10 euros to the project on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo, you can watch the final product knowing that you have contributed to the first Hungarian movie produced with this kind of funding method. Also, in return for 10 euros worth of endorsement you’ll be invited to the premier and the official after-party, which will definitely include a few jam sessions. Being the media partner of Balaton Method, welovebalaton.hu was more than happy to contribute professional assistance to the production.
