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Ana Atanesyan (MSc Banking and International Finance 2005)

From Finance to Film

How do you become a film producer? Or, to put it more accurately, an independent film producer? I would never have been able to answer that a few years ago, and I am 29 years old.

I recall many fellow students at my school during the end of A Levels, who already knew or had an idea of their career path; I certainly did not. Even as I pursued a conventional education path, I had no idea who I wanted to become.

I went with the safe choice in higher education, choosing a Business degree to specialise in finance. But after that I still couldn’t find a job that would excite me and make it worth my time.

In 2004/5 I decided to do an MSc in Banking and International Finance at Cass, City University London. The university itself attracted me due to their great reputation, so I thought my knowledge of finance could expand and I would eventually work for a financial entity.

Studying at Cass was a great challenge. The workload and the intensity of the course has made me into what I am today both professionally and mentally.  Although I don’t work in the financial sector, producing films involves a great deal of financial sense, so when the time came to make the move, I was confident and eager to conquer a completely new industry.

After graduation in 2005, I worked in a trading company for two weeks. It didn’t work out and I moved on to being a Head of Finance at a prestigious health and sports club. At this time, my now husband Sam Holland, had written a feature script called ‘Zebra Crossing’.

He was always going to become a filmmaker, as writer/director/producer, and when I read the script I realised that I could make it come to life. All I had to was to read the right books on how to make a film, and join a number of industry courses. It took me a few intense months to learn enough of the new craft, before embarking on the pre-production (budgeting, casting, hiring crew, choosing locations, equipment). After that I quit my job and we went into full production.

One of my favourite film books was written by Elliot Grove. His inspirational writing infected me with the drive to succeed as an independent producer with a low budget film. After that, I never looked back, not once did I regret quitting a ‘normal day job’ for this new, exciting career.

Another thing I should mention is that most new filmmakers produce a short film (or a series of short films) as their debut, as that takes a lot less time, money, thereby less risk. We decided to go ahead and make a full-length feature, which we hoped would be our ‘calling card’ for any future projects. In this industry, you have to prove yourself (make a good film that makes money!) to attract financing for your future projects.

We formed a limited company called Crown Films. The entire production was self-funded, so we saved up and pooled our assets. Then we shot for seven weeks on location around London. During post-production (editing, sound mixing) we had to go back to day jobs to help pay for the film’s progress. This took a long time. During this period, I worked for a Hedge fund for just under a year, until the film festival season started.

One of our main goals was to get into the Raindance film festival, which is the biggest and most prestigious film festival in the UK for independent films. The film was not fully complete and the deadline for Raindance was approaching fast, so we decided to hand it in unfinished, by promising on the application form that it would be definitely complete by the start of the festival, should they accept it. We had a long wait, fingers crossed.

Luckily, we got in! It was the happiest day.

In the mean time we were invited to the US to premier ‘Zebra Crossing’ at the Southern Californian film festival. We won The Best Film in the Festival award, our first critical acclaim. There followed a series of other international film festivals, where we proudly collected many awards (please see our website for more info: www.zebracrossingthemovie.com or www.crown-films.co.uk)

Our proudest moment was when we were nominated for the British Independent Film Award in November 2008, and won it. It was a real shift into the industry and we were suddenly rubbing shoulders with many of the top industry professionals. It was great to be part of it.

In April 2009, we were invited to the European Independent film festival in Paris, where we collected the main award as the Best European Film.

However, despite all the festival success, the film remained too long to be commercially viable. So, we hired Bafta winning Editor Justin Krish, who came on board and cut the film down to 93 mins (from the original 2 hours 15 mins). It made a fantastic transition and after a few more months of post-production we were approached by a UK Distributor and signed a deal for a UK distribution rights with a cinema release.

‘Zebra Crossing’ had a cinema release across the UK from the 28th of January 2011. It has been available on DVD from the 31st of January 2011 at most retailers such as HMV, Sainsbury’s, ASDA, and via online stores such as Amazon, Playstation and others.

We have a number of new and exciting projects in development, and a feature film ‘7 Days of Insanity’ which has already gone into pre-production.

Was it always my lifelong ambition to be a filmmaker? No. But it has certainly became a lifelong obsession. One I feel I will never get bored with as no two days are ever the same.