http://scifi.uk.com/2007/07/22/nightwatch-daywatch-dnevnoi-dozor-russian-fantasy-horror/

Day Watch (Dnevnoi Dozor): A Russian Fantasy Horror Epic
Release Date: October 5 2007
Night Watch To Day Watch
Featuring the cinematic vision of cutting-edge Director/Writer Timur Bekmambetov, Day Watch (Dnevnoi Dozor) is based on the novel by Sergei Lukyanenko and Vladimir Vasiliev. When the previous installment, Night Watch, was released in its native Russia in July 2004, it became an instant smash hit breaking all film gross records in post-Soviet history. Made for a mere $4 million, the film out-grossed both Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King and Spider-Man 2 at the Russian box office, eventually taking in more than $16 million. Day Watch has done even better, grossing over $30 million.
A dazzling mix of state-of-the-art visual effects, amazing action sequences, and nail-biting horror set in contemporary Moscow, Day Watch revolves around the conflict and balance maintained between the forces of light and darkness — the result of a medieval truce between the opposing sides. This ancient war between the forces of Light and Darkness is reaching a tragic outcome. Each side has gained a powerful Great Other, who are headed for a clash, and Anton Gorodetsky is once again caught up in the midst of this conflict.
On one side is Anton’s son, Egor, who has joined the ranks of the Dark Others, while Anton’s love interest Svetlana is the hope of the Light. But that’s just the beginning of his troubles: Anton is on the run after having been accused of murder. Things are getting worse, and only the ancient Chalk of Fate can save the day. The problem is the magical Chalk was lost hundreds of years ago…
Day Watch stars Konstantin Khabensky, Maria Poroshina, Vladimir Menshov, Galina Tyunina, Victor Verzhbitskiy, Zhanna Friske, Dima Martynov, Valeriy Zolotukhin and Aleksey Chadov. Directed by Timur Bekmambetov from a screenplay by Bekmambetov, Sergei Lukyanenko and Alexander Talal, Day Watch was produced by Konstantin Ernst, the General Director of Channel One Russia, Russia’s biggest and most successful television network, and Anatoly Maximov, Deputy General Director.
The behind-the-scenes creative team includes Director of Photography Sergei Trofimov, Art Directors Valery Victorov and Mukhtar Mirzakeyev, Editor Dmitri Kiselev and Costume Designer Varia Avdiushko. The film’s music is composed by Yuri Poteyenko.
Mini Synopsis:
A man (Khabensky) who serves in the war between the forces of Light and Dark comes into possession of a device that can restore life to Moscow, which was nearly destroyed by an apocalyptic event. Set in contemporary Moscow, Day Watch (Dnevnoi Dozor) revolves around the conflict and balance maintained between the forces of light and darkness—the result of a medieval truce between the opposing sides.
Featuring the cinematic vision of cutting-edge Director/Writer Timur Bekmambetov, Day Watch” is the second installment of a trilogy based on the best-selling sci-fi novels of Sergei Lukyanenko entitled Night Watch, Day Watch and Dusk Watch.
A dazzling mix of state-of-the-art visual effects, amazing action sequences, and nail-biting horror, when Night Watch was released in its native Russia in July 2004, it became an instant smash hit breaking all film gross records in post-Soviet history.

http://static.thecia.com.au/reviews/n/night-watch-nochnoj-dozor-production-notes.rtf.



NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR)


Production Notes



Rated R; Run Time 1 hour, 56 minutes


FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES Presents
In Association with CHANNEL ONE RUSSIA
A TABBAK Film
A BAZELEVS Production
Directed by TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV
Produced by ANATOLY MAXIMOV, KONSTANTIN ERNST
English Screenplay Adaptation by TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV and
LAETA KALOGRIDIS
Based on the Novel by SERGEI LUKYANENKO

A Film by Timur Bekmambetov
UNDERSTAND THE NIGHT WATCH: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE GROUNDBREAKING HORROR FANTASY EPIC

From Russia, with horror, comes the stylish horror fantasy film that has revolutionized post-Soviet cinema: NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR). The film brings to the fore the cutting-edge vision of director/writer Timur Bekmambetov (whom Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov called "our Tarantino") and is the first instalment of a trilogy based on the best-selling Russian sci-fi novels of Sergei Lukyanenko (which also include Day Watch and Dusk Watch). Featuring a dazzling mix of state-of-the-art visual effects, adrenaline-fuelled action sequences and nail-biting terror, NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) was an instant smash hit in its native Russia when it was released in July 2004 shattering all previous box office records. Made for a mere $4 million, the film surpassed both LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING and SPIDER-MAN 2 at the Russian box office. In a country that had not seen a native film make more than $2 million, NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) went on to gross eight times that number. Internationally acclaimed, it was also Russia's contender for the 2004 foreign language Oscar®.
Set in contemporary Moscow, NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) uncovers the other-world battle that upholds a 1000-year-old truce between the forces of Light and the forces of Darkness. For centuries, the undercover members of the Night Watch have policed the world's Dark Ones -the vampires, witches, shape-shifters and sorcerers that wage treachery in the night - while the Dark Ones have a Day Watch that in turn polices the forces of Light. The fate of humanity rests in this delicate balance between good and evil but that fate is in jeopardy…
Ancient prophecy foretells that one day a "Great One" will arrive who can end the apocalyptic battle between Light and Dark conclusively. That time has arrived in Moscow - but which side will the Great One choose?
 NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) stars Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Menshov, Valery Zolotukhin, Maria Poroshina, Galina Tunina, Victor Verzhbitsky and Dima Martynov. Directed by Timur Bekmambetov from a screenplay by Bekmambetov and Sergei Lukyanenko, NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) is produced by Anatoly Maximov and Konstantin Ernst. The behind-the-scenes creative team includes Director of Photography Sergei Trofimov, Art Directors Valery Victorov and Mukhtar Mirzakeyev, Editor Dmitri Kiselev and Costume Designer Varya Avdyushko. The score is composed by Yuri Poteyenko.
 Fox Searchlight has acquired international distribution rights to both NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) and its sequel. The third part of the trilogy will be filmed in English and will be produced by Fox and the Russian broadcaster Channel One Russia, which produced the first two films.
INSIDE THE NIGHT WATCH: ABOUT THE FILM'S ORIGINS

Sergei Lukyanenko's novel Night Watch - and its sequels Day Watch and Dusk Watch - marked a watershed in Russian literature. The book's story of supernatural battles breaking out on the frenetic, everyday streets of modern Moscow struck a resonant chord with a whole new crowd - young Russian readers, fantasy fans and Internet users - who turned them into instant hip, cult classics, selling 500,000 copies. Since the Russian release of the feature film of NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR), the trilogy has gone on to sell another 2.5 million copies.
A prolific author who was originally trained as a psychiatrist, Sergei Lukyanenko had always wanted to write an epic tale of ancient magic set loose in our modern times. "I'd been eager to write fantasy for quite some time, but neither gnomes nor elves were of any interest to me," explains Lukyanenko whose other books include the trilogy Line Of Reveries and Knights Of The Forty Islands. "Then, I had an intriguing notion: this idea of the Night as a battlefield for magicians who live in hiding among us ordinary people and can only fight when it won't disturb humanity. From this came the further idea of the Night Watch, a special unit created to control the magicians. This then led to the development of the Night Watch's antagonist, the Day Watch, and their eternal battle against one another."
Soon, the supernatural beings who run the Night Watch and the Day Watch - beings with devastating magical powers who operate just one step away from the normal urban reality of rundown apartments and crowded subways - were captivating readers across the nation. Among those readers was leading Russian film producer Konstantin Ernst, who is also the General Director of Channel One Russia, Russia's biggest and most successful television network. Ernst wasn't usually drawn to works of fantasy, but when he picked up Night Watch, he found that he couldn't put it down. Now, fuelled by a passionate enthusiasm for the story's cinematic possibilities, he immediately dove into development, along with fellow producer Anatoly Maximov. Nine months later, shooting began with a screenplay adapted by Lukyanenko himself in collaboration with Timur Bekmambetov.
To direct Lukyanenko's tale of witches, warlocks and vampires set loose on city streets, the producers knew they would need a true visual innovator. They started looking for someone with a distinct and original sense of both story and style - and someone who could combine the powerhouse thrills of modern special-effects filmmaking with a personal understanding of the Russian soul. They found what they were looking for in Kazakhstan-born Timur Bekmambetov, an acclaimed creative powerhouse in the fields of commercials and music videos, who has helmed more than 600 ads for brands including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Apple, Microsoft, Ford and Procter & Gamble. Bekmambetov made his feature film directing debut in 1994 with THE PESHAVAR WALTZ, an art-house film about the war in Afghanistan, and his second film, GLADIATRIX (2000) (also known as THE ARENA), was filmed in English and co-produced by the legendary Roger Corman.
"Timur is highly visual," says producer Anatoly Maximov, "and he also goes very deep with the characters, in a Stanislavski way. It's from this combination that the film's style was born."
Konstantin Ernst first met Bekmambetov when the former was the host, producer and director of a Russian monthly arts and culture TV show called "Matador." The two men often shared an editing suite and discussed making movies together. "One of my biggest aims has always been to recreate the Russian film industry, and we talked about that," explains Ernst. "I explained to him that I wanted to forge a new image and get to a new level in Russian movie making that would make it a real part of the international movie arena - not just for art-houses or for festivals, but with exciting films that appeal to a mass audience. With NIGHT WATCH, we had that opportunity."
Bekmambetov brought to the project a deep personal love of modern Hollywood masters of action, counting among his major influences such filmmakers as James Cameron, Ridley Scott, Roger Corman, the Wachowski brothers and Quentin Tarantino. Still, he was initially sceptical about creating a horror fantasy that would appeal to Russian audiences.
"Unlike in America, there were no fantasy movies shot in Russia before this one," the director points out. "But in reading the book, I suddenly realized Sergei had managed to distil magic and miracles, the transcendent and the supernatural, into our way of life. I found that the story really was something special because in it, fantasy not only meets reality - but Russian reality - and it's the first Russian movie that has this unique point of view. The story takes place in the real world, in real Russian life, but it's also fantastical. So my idea was to make it feel as real as possible on the screen, while also finding a context for the mystical and the fantastic in contemporary Moscow life. It was a wonderful challenge."
The more he read, the more Bekmambetov was hooked on the vision of vampires roaming the often chaotic and troubled streets of current-day Moscow. "The books became poetry. They were cool. They were funny," he says. "It woke me up because I started to think about how you could connect these things: Red Square and vampires, vampires and the Russian ballet, etcetera. It was such an interesting mix and I found that it produced in me a very personal feeling because one half of me is the filmmaker who loves vampires, Roger Corman and THE MATRIX. Meanwhile, the other half of my mentality is a Russian reality where there are lots of problems - where there are very bad cars, very dirty houses, very rich oil barons and very poor people. This story brought these two sides of me together: Russian reality and American movies."
Bekmambetov began to see the film as a way to mesh all his influences together into one original entertainment - and he peppered the film not only with wild chases, hair-raising stunts, powerful explosions and other-worldly creature effects but also with that particular mix of sly humour, rich philosophy and human insight that has always marked Russian literature.
He was especially drawn to the story's allegorical exploration of the fragile balance between good and evil in the world today. For Bekmambetov, the members of Night Watch and their opposite members in the Day Watch represent two different, competing social philosophies. "They represent two different ways to live - total freedom versus responsibility," he comments. "The Day Watch are the Dark Ones and they represent a kind of totally free independence, but the Night Watchers are all about responsibility and conscience. It's a dualism that's existed for a thousand years. It's a very old idea that you must consider the consequences of your actions."
Bekmambetov worked closely with Lukyanenko to adapt the novel to the screen - and found Lukyanenko more than willing to play with his creation, even adding in new elements to heighten the moviegoer's experience. "We added in the subplot of Anton (Konstantin Khabensky) and his long-lost son Yegor (Dima Martynov) to make it more dramatic, more emotional, more Russian," explains Bekmambetov. "On top of the action, you have this tale of a father who lost his son, feels terribly guilty, and then spends his life trying to solve this problem that is plaguing his conscience - it's a very Russian story."
In preparing to shoot the epic story on a far less-than-epic budget, Bekmambetov always kept in mind what his friend and mentor Roger Corman once told him was a vital lesson in filmmaking. "He said the most important thing for the director is to think about how to imitate a bigger budget than he has," Bekmambetov recalls. "It's all about creativity."
Key to Bekmambetov's creative vision of the film was an omnipresent and intense realism laid over the pervasive and inventive special effects. Indeed, the director says he wanted the film's hair-raising vampires, witches and warlocks to seem at once menacing... yet as real as a person's next-door neighbour. "Russian audiences don't have any experience of this kind of film, because we've never had any fantasy movies or comic books - it's all new. So the only way for me to begin was to make everything very realistic, so the audience would believe in it enough to accept the fantasy," he explains. "For me, this meant I too had to believe in a world where vampires exist, even if I know that they don't."
For Anatoly Maximov, Bekmambetov's approach brought to the film an undercurrent of relevance that made it even more exciting. "The world he creates is hyper-realistic but recognizable," he says. "The characters, the social situations and the psychological elements are all familiar to us. It becomes a movie about a man's moral breakdown and the forces of Light and Darkness fighting for his soul - it's big stuff."
JOINING THE NIGHT WATCH: ABOUT THE CASTING OF THE DARK ONES AND THE LIGHT ONES

At the heart of NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) are the supernatural creatures of both the Night Watch and the Day Watch who wage a nocturnal war when the city of Moscow is mostly asleep. Director Timur Bekmambetov knew that a key to making his film viscerally and emotionally exciting would be finding actors who could stand clearly on opposite sides of the Good and Evil divide. This took a very special casting process.
Bekmambetov began by separating leading Russian actors into two different groups. "I felt that there are actors who look like actors and there are actors who just look like people. We cast the actors who look like actors as the Dark Ones because they are very cool, very original, interesting and proud. But those actors who look like regular people, they were cast as the Light Ones, the members of the Night Watch. So for example, there is the character of Svetlana, the woman who wherever she goes misfortune happens. To play her we cast Maria Poroshina who to me looks like a normal Russian girl from the street. On the other hand, to play the character Alyssa from the Day Watch, we chose an actress, Zhanna Friske, who in real life is a famous Russian pop star."
Taking advantage of Russia's highly trained ranks of actors, Bekmambetov also put the emphasis on finding those who could handle not only the film's intense action but also would probe their characters emotional and psychological worlds. He believes this sets NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) apart from other modern horror fantasies. "In American fantasy movies the characters aren't usually so deep," he comments. "But here we have access to Russian actors who have a very strong schooling in Stanislavski. So, because of that, we could bring to the fantasy genre very deep characters and very complicated relationships and a lot of complexity of story through the performances."
Bekmambetov cast Konstantin Khabensky, one of Russia's most popular actors, in the lead role of Anton Gorodetsky, one of the premier Protectors of Light as a member of the Night Watch. Defending the centuries-old truce between Light and Dark on a daily basis, while coming to grips with his temptations towards evil, Anton is an everyman on a journey of self-discovery. He is about to cross paths with the Great One, who - as prophecy foretells - will bring shift the balance between light and dark.
"Before NIGHT WATCH, Konstantin Khabensky was one of the top three Russian male stars, but after NIGHT WATCH, he is number one," says producer Konstantin Ernst. Ernst had previously cast the former theatre actor as a policeman in the hit Russian TV series "Impact Force" and recommended him to Bekmambetov for NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR).
Bekmambetov found Khabensky a perfect match for the wide-ranging role of Anton. "Konstantin is a very good dramatic actor but at the same time he has the skills of a character actor," says Bekmambetov. "He's like a clown, he can play funny, he can play extravagant, and it's a good combination, because to bring the Russian audience into this world of vampires I needed an actor who would be entirely believable."
As Boris Geser, businessman by day, leader of the Night Watch by night, Bekmambetov cast Vladimir Menshov, the star of the Oscar-winning film MOSCOW DOES NOT BELIEVE IN TEARS and a multi-talented actor, writer and director. The head of the Protectors of Light for centuries, Geser is both a father figure and a figurehead of all that is good. He is instrumental in saving his comrade Anton from a near-fatal encounter with the Warriors of Darkness.
"Boris is one of the few Russian directors to have won an Oscar, and he is a very Russian person," notes Bekmambetov. "His image to Russian audiences is like that of political party chief or bureaucrat - so I thought he would be an interesting and a funny person to represent the leader of the Light forces."
In contrast, as Zavulon, leader of the Day Watch, Bekmambetov called upon Victor Verzhbitsky, a friend from art school, who appeared in both THE PESHAVAR WALTZ and GLADIATRIX. A master of all that is evil and dark, Zavulon rules over the Day Watch. Though the Warriors of Darkness have maintained balance with the Protectors of Light, the vampires and shape-shifters that make up the Day Watch are desperate to command the soul of the Great One - which will shift the balance of power in their favour.
Zavulon remains in the shadows throughout much of NIGHT WATCH, making the revelation of his appearance all the more powerful. "I've known Victor for 20 years and he's a very good actor," says Bekmambetov. "I felt that he was so good an actor that he could stay in shadow for half of the film just to make that one moment so much more exciting."
Filling out the cast are a combination of Russian theatre and film actors, including Galina Tunina as the Sorceress Olga, Maria Poroshina as the mysteriously cursed Svetlana, Alexei Chadov as Kostya the young vampire, Valery Zolotukhin as Kostya's father, Zhanna Friske as the Day Watch's Alyssa, Ilia Lagutenko as Andrei the vampire and Rimma Markova as Daria, the witch.
CREATING THE NIGHT WATCH: ABOUT THE LOOK OF THE FILM

A large part of the thrill of NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) is its extraordinary visual energy - as it creates a fully-realized fantastical universe on the scale of a STAR WARS or MATRIX, while also providing a rare, eye-opening glimpse of modern-day Moscow. The world of NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) is one in which a dilapidated old flat might be a hiding place for vampires and an ordinary Moscow repairman might turn out to be an undercover magician.
For director Timur Bekmambetov, the sharp, eerie, visceral look and feel of the film was always a key priority. Having studied theatre and cinema design at the Tashkent Institute of Theatre Arts, Bekmambetov adopts a hands-on approach to every physical detail of his films. "I'm an artist," he says. "I spent eight years studying drawing and it's what I like to do."
His vision for NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) began with the idea of creating a mythology around the declining state of Russian cars, furniture and homes in the post-Soviet era. "We wanted to create a mythology around these Russian items and make everything that was considered ugly and unfashionable become part of a magical world," he explains. "Russian people tend to be ashamed of their belongings, of their simple, very old chairs, or their loud and bad cars; and their buildings that are dirty tower blocks. We felt that it was sad because nobody knows what's good or what's bad. So we created stories around why an old chair might be the best, or why this old car is so tough and cool. And it seems to have had an impact."
Indeed, the film's world quickly began seeping into Russian popular culture. Lines of dialogue from the film have entered the Russian lexicon while Anton's long coat has become a hot clothing item among certain Moscow youths. "The costume of the Night Watchers, this big coat especially, is very fashionable," notes Bekmambetov. "It's become a kind of fashion cult."
Bekmambetov also wanted to inject a dose of visual caffeine into the arm of Russian cinema with NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR). Rather than the slow and leisurely pace favoured in the years of state-sponsored filmmaking, NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) introduces break-neck speed, lightning-quick film cuts and hyper-kinetic cinematography to Russian movies - and there may be no turning back.
"Young people like this language, they like the energy of music videos and the clarity of commercials," comments the director. "They like the speed of the story, they like the action fast and dramatic. And we choose this style because we felt it would speak to our audience, and, of course, because we as filmmakers like it as well."
Within this visually dazzling universe, Bekmambetov also hoped to present a picture of Moscow that has never before been seen by much of the world - that of a vibrant, youthful, active city. "The typical image of Moscow is of a very grey, depressing city," he explains. "Our idea was to make a movie that changed that image to something much more fun and cool and happening. Over the last two centuries the government has altered the image of the Russian soul and made everything grey and white but originally Russian culture was very colourful, very emotional, very dramatic, and we decided to go there, to go back to this type of visual intensity. So in our filmmaking and our colour correction, we emphasized making Moscow filled with bright splashes of colour, almost as if it was Mexico."
Bekmambetov filmed all of NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) and 80 per cent of its sequel in 90 days at the tail end of 2002 and the beginning of 2003. The production shot in more than 200 authentic Moscow locations, including the world-famous tourist locale of Moscow's Red Square, as well as the city's expansive, underground Metro system. Most of the action is centred in and around the Ostankino Tower, the city's soaring communications tower that stands over the north-west sector of the Russian capital, a focal point of both the city and the story.
"Much of the original novel takes place around Ostankino Tower, so it was important for us to shoot there," Bekmambetov explains. "In Russian, Ostankino is a very mystical name. It means ‘remnants,' and there are a lot of mystical explanations why Sergei set his book there. But there is a practical one too. He's not from Moscow - he came from Kazakhstan - and Ostankino became the one place he always knew, a centre-point for locating everything."
Bekmambetov was keen to shoot as much as possible on the streets of Moscow, capturing a raw reality behind the chills of his supernatural thriller. "It was essential that the film show real images of contemporary Russia," he notes. "We present very real images, but with a little bit of a twist, heightening the immediacy with the photography, because we wanted every Russian viewer to think, ‘That's my house,' ‘That's my street,' 'It's not artificial, it's real life.' It's one of the tricks of the film and one of the hooks of its success. Only the apartment interiors were sets - but even with these, we had a very good art director and he created highly realistic homes, with a lot of detail. They even smelt real."
In bringing to life the world of NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR), Bekmambetov called upon an artistic crew that he has worked with on his previous two films as well as numerous commercials over the last decade. "I have a very good team that I have collaborated with for maybe 10 years," comments the director. "This includes director of photography Sergei Trofimov and art director Valery Victorov, who is also my girlfriend. Valery was the creative producer overseeing the film's entire style - from the sets to the costumes to make-up. Together, we developed this idea that every element in the film has to feel real - but with a surreal context."
To this end, the director also searched for locales that would inspire primal reactions of fear and anxiety. "We started looking at all the mystical and scary places we have around us," he says. "For me, ever since I was a kid, I have always felt the roofs of Russian buildings are very scary places because they're usually very high and full of antennas that look just like spiders. The Metro is also a mystical place in Moscow, perhaps because Stalin built it. We also used a particular Metro station in the movie that is named XXX and since school days, I've always felt this name looks like something evil."
Bekmambetov even set one of the film's early spectacular battle sequences between Anton and two vampires in an abandoned barbershop, simply because it seemed so odd and discomfiting. "There is something very personal, very subliminally frightening about the barbershop," he notes.
Finally, one of the most arresting sights in NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) is that of The Gloom, the eerie netherworld that only The Dark Ones and The Light One - known as The Others - can inhabit. "The Gloom is a kind of parallel world where The Others can meet each other and fight each other," explains Bekmambetov. "It's understood if you are in the Gloom, you must be an Other, because there are no human beings in The Gloom. This also meant we could venture far outside reality to come up with the look."
There is, however, one lingering touch of realism in The Gloom - the place is buzzing with mosquitoes. "There are a lot of mosquitoes in The Gloom because it's my personal phobia," Bekmambetov laughs. "I'm scared of mosquitoes."
DIGITISING THE NIGHT WATCH: ABOUT THE FILM'S VISUAL EFFECTS

No matter how ambitious and epic Timur Bekmambetov's vision for NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) might have been, there remained one hitch: how to produce the 400 visual effects shots needed for the film's large-scale battles and supernatural magic... in a country where an effects house on the scale of George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic is just a dream? Bekmambetov wanted to keep the production entirely inside Russia but knew there was no single Russian house capable of taking on all the work. With only modest demand for the most high-tech effects in the native film industry, Russian effects houses are almost all boutique in size and not used to handling hundreds of shots.
To solve the problem, the filmmakers took a radical approach: they banded together dozens of effects facilities across Russia to create one giant "virtual" effects house for the one-year post-production period. "It was very important for us to create all the film's CGI effects in Russian studios," says producer Konstantin Ernst, "so we organized a network of about 42 small studios that allowed us to create really high level CGI effects."
The effects houses spanned the country, from Moscow to St. Petersburg to Kiev and each had its own specialty. Perhaps one effects house had a good modeller but no animator, and another had a good animator, but no modeller - so the production would move projects around from house to house, completing each of the shots in this mix-master method. Each day, all of the work from the various designers and programmers was transmitted to a central server so that Bekmambetov could assess it and then send it on again for further development or completion at another studio.
Ultimately, many were surprised by the stunning nature of the effects that the Russian houses were able to come up with on such a small budget - effects that range from a medieval bridge that appears over Moscow to an airliner's bolt that plummets from the sky only to land miles below in a teacup. "I think the biggest contribution to our success in this area turned out to be the quality of the artists, and not necessarily their equipment. If you have good artists, you can create amazing things," says Ernst.
The 42 Russian FX houses created some 28 total minutes of computer generated images for the film's magic-filled action, working to make them as seamless as possible. "The idea was to make the effects feel very real, even invisible, so that you cannot always tell they are there," says Bekmambetov. "It's a world that pulls you into believing in it."
Bekmambetov has pushed this "cooperative" style of effects design even further for the sequel to NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR), using the same team. "We have created a special around-the-clock structure for the second movie where one studio will specialize in modelling and they will model something from noon to six in the evening and then another studio in another city will take up the project and make an animation and work on it until three o'clock in the morning and then another studio in Kiev will take this animation with the model and make the textures and then by the next morning, the first studio in Moscow will composite it into the movie."
This thinking-outside-the-box mentality and new ways of working are at the very core of NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) and its Russian success, according to the filmmakers.
"I think we are at the very beginning of modern Russian movie making and NIGHT WATCH is the first on this path," says Konstantin Ernst. "This film is the start of a new Russian cinema culture because it's so remarkably different from Soviet movies, but it's not a copy of American or international films. It's a continuation of something like SOLYARIS or Tarkovsky, but it is very much its own contribution to a new Russian culture, as well as a thrill to watch."
BEYOND THE NIGHT WATCH: HOW THE FILM HAS INSPIRED A NEW ERA OF RUSSIAN CINEMA

In Russia, NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) became not only an entertainment phenomenon but a sign that a new, revitalized, post-Soviet Russian cinema had finally arrived to save the crumbling film business. Previously, in the days of the Soviet Bloc, Russian cinema was a strictly controlled, government-run industry turning out around 200 films each year for its captive audience. Though the Soviet Union produced a number of legendary directors in the modern era - including Andrei Tarkovsky, an influence on Timur Bekmambetov, and director of such films as SOLYARIS, ANDREY RUBLYOV and THE MIRROR - the system largely curtailed freedom of expression.
After the fall of the Communist regime, and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russian cinema suffered further. Instead of experiencing a rebirth, it went into a severe decline for more than a decade - with movie screens around the country being cut in number from around 10,000 to a scarce 70. "The theatrical system was absolutely destroyed," says producer Konstantin Ernst of that era, "and meanwhile, there was a huge growth of piracy which further decimated the industry."
Only in the last three or four years has the situation begun to improve, helped by the advent of new, high-tech movie theatres and a much improved distribution system that has allowed cinemas to compete with the booming numbers of television stations. Now there are about 1,000 movie screens in Russia catering to a younger, more enthusiastic audience.
"Today Russia has 20 very good, modern TV channels and that has changed the market for entertainment," explains Ernst. "In the last three or four years young Russian people have started to understand there is a difference between seeing a movie on TV and seeing it in the theatre, and the theatrical audience is now growing."
Continues Ernst: "We have learned that this new Russian audience is not the same as 10 years ago. Instead, it's made up of young people, aged from 14 to 25, who didn't have the Soviet experience. This new generation of filmgoers are used to seeing big, thrilling Hollywood blockbusters. So we knew that to really reach them we would need to use the language of American movies - but reinvented in our own way."
It was this audience that NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) helped at last to capture. Yet Ernst stresses that NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) was never intended to simply be a Russian imitation of a Hollywood fantasy-adventure blockbuster. Rather, he sees it as a new type of Russian movie that takes off from Hollywood conventions to become its own unique kind of movie experience.
"Timur and I are of course great fans of American film, but for us it was very important that NIGHT WATCH be a Russian movie, and we believe that this was the key that led to the box office success we had with Russian audiences," Ernst says. "This film was seen as being like Tarkovsky meets the Wachowski brothers - a new image for Russian movies that excited people."
Konstantin Ernst believes that NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) proves that if you make a home-grown film with unbridled cinematic creativity, audiences will return to the movie theatre. He further hopes that the public response to NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) will spearhead a new wave of revitalized Russian filmmaking. Indeed, Russian film critic Mikhail Bershidsky was quoted in the international press as saying: "What matters about this film [NIGHT WATCH] is the precedent for our film industry - that's what's so important."
ABOUT THE CAST

KONSTANTIN KHABENSKY (Anton Gorodetsky)
Konstantin Khabensky stars as Anton Gorodetsky, a member of The Night Watch who patrols Moscow fighting those who wish to unsettle the balance between Dark and Light.
Khabensky is one of Russia's hardest working and most successful actors with more than 70 credits to his name. His many films include THE ADMIRER by Nikolay Lebedev, LADY'S PROPERTY and US by Dmitry Meskhiev, LINES OF DESTINY by Dmitry Meskhiev, STATE COUNCILOR by Filipp Yankovsky, and DEAD SOULS by Pavel Lungin.
His TV credits include "National Security Agent" and "Empire Under Attack" as well as five seasons as a policeman on the hit show "Impact Force."
A member of the State Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinema in Leningrad (LGITMiK) since 1990, Khabensky's major roles include Lomov in the vaudeville "Chekhov Jokes," several parts in "Vysotsky Times," Matto in Fellini's "La Strada," Chebutykin in Chekhov's "Three Sisters" and Estragon (Gogo) in "Waiting for Godot."
He will return as Anton in the sequel to NIGHT WATCH.

VLADIMIR MENSHOV (Boris Geser)
In the role of Boris Geser, the implacable head of The Moscow Night Watch, is Vladimir Menshov. A widely respected theatre and film actor, scriptwriter, director, producer and member of the People's Artist of the Russian Federation, Menshov's film acting credits include THE HAPPY KUKUSHKIN, A MAN IN THE RIGHT PLACE, HIS OWN OPINION, COURIER and THE RUSSIAN RAGTIME.
He directed MOSCOW DISTRUSTS TEARS, which won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar® in 1981. Additional directing credits include FOOL'S GAME, which won him the State Prize at the RSFSR; LOVE AND PIGEONS, which won the Golden Tower at the 1990 International Comedy Film Festival; SHIRLY-MYRLY, which was the biggest film at the Russian box office in 1995; and ENVY OF GODS.
A graduate of the Moscow Artistic Academic Theatre (MkhAT) Studio School and post-graduate student of direction at the All-Union Cinematography Institute, since 1970 Menshov has been an actor and director at the Mosfilm Studio, and, since 1977, president and art director of the Genre Studio Mosfilm Concern.

VALERY ZOLOTUKHIN (Kostya's Father)
Valery Zolotukhin has appeared in more than 40 feature films including: BLOCK HEAD, DEAD SOULS, TREASURE ISLAND and LITTLE TRAGEDIES.
Zolotukhin graduated from the State Theatrical Art Institute (GITIS) department of musical comedy. A People's Artist of the Russian Federation, he has acted in the Mossoviet Academic Theatre, the Taganka Drama and Comedy Theatre and the Fireplace Theatre.

MARIA POROSHINA (Svetlana)
Maria Poroshina plays Svetlana, the legendary Virgin who brings misfortune wherever she goes.
A graduate of the Moscow Art Theatre School and the Shchukin Theatrical School, Poroshina has worked extensively in film, theatre and television. Her feature film credits include BRIGADE, FOURTH WISH, ALWAYS SAY ALWAYS, DISTRICT, DEATH OF EMPIRE, FULL MOON and CHERUB.
Poroshina is a member of the Sergey Vinogradov Theatrical Company. Her mother was a director of the Bolshoi Theatre,

GALINA TUNINA (Olga)
Galina Tunina plays Olga, a shape-shifting member of The Night Watch who helps Anton on his quest.
Tunina's feature credits include PROGULKA and DNEVNIK YEGO ZHENY. A native of Moscow, she is a graduate of the Saratov Theatrical School and an alum of the Saratov Karl Marx Drama Theatre. In 1988 she entered the direction department of the State Theatrical Art Institute (GITIS) master class by Peter Fomenko and began acting in the Peter Fomenko Studio Theatre (Moscow). In 2000, Tunina won the incentive youth grant Triumph Prize.

VICTOR VERZHBITSKY (Zavulon)

NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) marks the third feature Victor Verzhbitsky, who plays Zavulon, the leader of the Day Watch, has done with Timur Bekmambetov following THE PESHAVAR WALTZ and GLADIATRIX aka THE ARENA.
Verzhbitsky graduated from the Tashkent Theatrical Art Institute in 1983. Until 1995 he acted in the Tashkent M Gorky State Academic Drama Theatre and in 1997 he joined the New Moscow Drama Theatre headed by BA Lvov-Anokhin. Since 1998, Verzhbitsky has been a member of the Et Cetera Theatre headed by Alexander Kalyagin where his roles have included the Lecturer in "The Guide for those Who Wish to Get Married" by AP Chekhov and Victor Pukhov in "The Contest" by A Galin.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV (Director/Co-screenwriter)
NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) marks the third feature film for director/co-screenwriter Timur Bekmambetov who is widely considered to be Russia's leading advertising and pop video director.
Following his graduation from the AN Ostrovsky Institute of Theatrical Arts in Tashkent, Bekmambetov worked as a set designer for the Ilkhom Theatre and the Uzbekfilm Studio. He directed his first commercial in 1989 and has since helmed more than 500 for brands ranging from Pepsi to Golden Barrel beer to Daewoo cars. His work has received many international advertising awards, including the Grand Prix at the Moscow International Festival (1994), the New Europe Festival in Slovenia (1994) and the Best Image Advertising Award at the Houston Festival (1995).
Bekmambetov's directorial and screenwriting debut was 1994's THE PESHAVAR WALTZ, for which he received Best Director and the film received Best Ensemble at the Karlovy Vary International Festival. In 1999, he produced and directed the eight-part TV miniseries "Our 90s." The following year he helmed his second feature, GLADIATRIX aka THE ARENA, which was executive produced by Roger Corman.
Bekmambetov will also helm the sequel to NIGHT WATCH, which has recently completed principal photography.
He is founder and General Director of the Imperial Film Closed Stock Company and TABBAK Film Studio.

SERGEI LUKYANENKO (Co-screenwriter/Novelist)
Sergei Lukyanenko is one of Russia's foremost fantasy novelists. The best-selling author of the "Night Watch," "Day Watch" and "Dusk Watch" trilogy, as well as "Labyrinth of Reflections," "Stars as Cold Toys," "Star Shadow," "A Lord From The Planet Earth" and "False Mirrors," Lukyanenko first achieved popularity with his novel "Knights Of The Forty Islands" and in 1999 became the youngest winner of the Aelita Prize, the oldest national award conferred for the great contribution to fantasy.
In 2001, Sergei Lukyanenko became the first Russian Fantasy Prize-winner and in 2003 his novel "Spectrum" won the Golden Roscon Prize. A native of Kazakhstan, Lukyanenko graduated from the Alma-Ata State Medical Institute, as a qualified psychiatrist.

KONSTANTIN ERNST (Producer)
General Director of Channel One Russia since 2000, Konstantin Ernst is one of Russia's most successful film and television producers.
Ernst graduated from Leningrad State University where he studied biology. In 1988, he began work in TV both in front of the camera and behind as a producer and director. In 1995, he was appointed General Producer of ORT where he won a number of Russian Television Academy awards as Best Producer for his TV shows, including "Old Songs about the Eternal" and "Impact Force."
In addition to NIGHT WATCH and its sequel, Ernst's credits include CHECKPOINT, WAITING HALL, REMEMBERING SHERLOCK HOLMES, EMPIRE UNDER STRIKE, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WOLVES, RUSSIANS IN THE CITY OF ANGELS, DIVERSIONIST and THE NARROW BRIDGE.

 ANATOLY MAXIMOV (Producer)
Anatoly Maximov is Deputy General Director, Cinema Programming and Production for Channel One Russia, and has been in partnership with Konstantin Ernst for 12 years. In addition to NIGHT WATCH and its sequel, the two have produced some of the most successful Russian television and films of the post-Soviet era. Their joint credits include "Waiting Hall," "Remembering Sherlock Holmes," "Empire Under Strike," "The Other Side Of The Wolves," "Russians In The City of Angels," "Diversionist" and "The Narrow Bridge."
Maximov graduated from Moscow State University in 1983 where he majored in philology. He then worked as a research associate in the Museum of Cinema and All-Russia Institute of Art History before teaching cinema history at the All-Russia Cinematography Institute (VGIK) and Higher School of Scriptwriters and Directors in Moscow and lecturing at New York University. He has published numerous articles on cinema history for various trade publications.

SERGEI TROFIMOV (Director of Photography)
Sergei Trofimov is a long-time collaborator of director/writer Timur Bekmambetov. In addition to shooting more than 300 commercials and videos with him, Trofimov made his debut as director of photography on Bekmambetov's debut feature, THE PESHAVAR WALTZ.
Trofimov graduated from the Moscow Management Institute in 1983 before studying filmmaking at the All-Russia Cinematography Institute (VGIK).

VALERY VICTOROV (Art Director)
NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) marks Art Director Valery Victorov's second feature film credit. The first was for his collaboration with Timur Bekmambetov on GLADIATRIX aka THE ARENA.

DMITRI KISELEV (Editor)
NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) marks Dmitri Kiselev's second film with Timur Bekmambetov. Previously he was both editor and sound editor on GLADIATRIX aka THE ARENA. Kiselev also edited Dmitri Fiks' Russian/German/English co-production THE SECOND FRONT.

YURI POTEYENKO (Music By)
Yuri Poteyenko has composed the music for 12 films including: DESTINY LINE, directed by V Konovalov; THE UNDRESSED, directed by K Serebrennikov; and SEX FAIRY-TALE, directed by E Nikolayeva, which won several international film festival awards.
Poteyenko graduated from the Moscow Conservatory of Music in 1986. From 1987 to 1991 he worked for the Melody All-Union Gramophone Recording Studio as the head editor for pop music and in 1988 he joined the USSR Composer Union. Since 1997, Poteyenko has been a professor at the Moscow Conservatory.

Credits
Line Producers    ALEXEI KUBLITSKY
    VARYA AVDYUSHKO
Edited by    DMITRI KISELEV
Music by    YURI POTEYENKO
Art Directors    VALERY VICTOROV
    MUKHTAR MIRZAKEYEV
Director of Photography    SERGEI TROFIMOV
    KONSTANTIN KHABENSKY
    VLADIMIR MENSHOV
    VALERY ZOLOTUKHIN
    MARIA POROSHINA
    GALINA TUNINA
    VICTOR VERZHBITSKY
    RIMMA MARKOVA
    ALEXEI MAKLAKOV
    ALEXANDER SAMOILENKO
    ZHANNA FRISKE
    ILIA LAGUTENKO
    ALEXEI CHADOV
    DIMA MARTYNOV
    ANNA SLIU
    ANNA DUBROVSKAYA

STARRING
Anton Gorodetsky    Konstantin KHABENSKY
Geser    Vladimir MENSHOV
Kostya's father    Valery ZOLOTUKHIN
Svetlana    Maria POROSHINA
Olga    Galina TUNINA
Kostya    Alexei CHADOV
Alice    Zhanna FRISKE
Andrei    Ilia LAGUTENKO
Zavulon    Victor VERZHBITSKY
Daria    Rimma MARKOVA
Irina    Maria MIRONOVA
Simeon    Alexei MAKLAKOV
Bear    Alexander SAMOILENKO
Yegor    Dima MARTYNOV
Tiger Cub    Anna SLIU
Larissa    Anna DUBROVSKAYA
Peter    Sergei PRIKHODKO
Maxim Ivanovich    Igor SAVOCHKIN
Tolik    Yegor DRONOV
Inquisitor    Nikolai OLYALIN

SUPPORTING
Dmitry KLOKOV    Dmitry OSETROV
Konstantin MURZENKO    Anatoly GORIN
Liudmila ARONOVA    Alexander SHCHUROK
Nikolai KISELEV    Marina IVANOVA
Vitia IVANOV    Polina SHCHUROK
Tatiana SHCHANKINA    Alexander KOZLOV
Igor PISMENNY    Victoria SMIRNOVA
Sergei KALASHNIKOV    Ekaterina MALIKOVA
Vladik ANUFRIYEV    Yura YAKOVLEV
Vania POPOV    Liesha KUROCHKIN
Yarik ROMASHENKO    and others

First Assistant Director    Alexander GOROKHOV
Casting Director    Tamara ODINTSOVA
Style & Costumes    Varya AVDYUSHKO
Makeup Artists    Irina MOROZOVA
    Natalia BOGDANOVA
    Galina USTIMENKO
Barbershop Art Director    Maxim FESIUN
Cinematographers    Roman BOIKO
    Rouslan GERASIMENKOV
    Maxim SHINKARENKO
    Levan KAPANADZE
    Valentin FIDOROUK
    Vladimir PUSHKARIEV
Camera Assistants    Nikolai SHISHKOV
    Andrey BELKANOV
    Elena IVANOVA
    Alexander GARIBIAN
Key Grip    Igor KIRILLOV
Grips    Andrei POPOV
    Vladislav KOROLEV
Dolly Grips    Vladimir ZHARKIKH
    Dmitry DUBROVIN
Camera Mechanics    Maxim TIMOSHENKO
    Dmitry GRIGORIEV
Steadicam Operators    Alik TAGIROV
    Nikolai LITVINOV
Lighting    Sergei KIRILLOV
    Maxim KALMYKOV
Electricians    Konstantin MISTAKIDI
    Alexei ILYIN
    Alexander SINITSYN
    Alexei SMIRNOV
    Vladislav SOLDATKIN
    Alexei CHUGREYEV
    Sergei SELIVERSTOV
    Georgiy BABAEV
Second unit
Directors    Eldar SALAVATOV
    Alexander GOROKHOV
    Felix ZELENSKIY
Cinematographers    Andrei ABDURAKIPOV
    Elena IVANOVA
    Maxim SHINKARENKO
    Ruslan GERASIMENKOV
    Levan KAPANADZE
Cinematographer's Assistant    Sergei KULISHENKO
    Mikhail ONIPENKO
Casting Assistants    Olga SIZOVA
    Nadezhda SHCHUROK
    Natalia EMELIANOVA
Director's Crew    Konstantin ANTONOV
    Natalia SMOLINA
    Olga NOVIKOVA
    Tatiana MAKAROVA
    Pavel ALEXASHIN
    Dmitry MAKEYEV
    Maxim MALININ
    Gennady PERES
    Elena SHKARUBSKAYA
    Alexander GAIDIN
Director's Assistants    Irina KOUZMINA
    Ekaterina VASILIEVA
    Irina DUBROVINA
Cinematographer's Assistants    Yury GRIGORIANTS
    Nikolai BRUSOV
Assistant Production Designers    Damir MUNZHUKOV
    Denis LISHCHENKO
    Danila DUKHAVIN
Architect    IL KEZBER
Scenic Designers    Vladimir ROGOV
    Alexander MIRONOV
    Oleg KAZARINOV
    Eleonora BURDO

Stage managers    Alexei GRANKOV
    Andrei KOROLKOV
    Gleb YEGOROV
    Alexander ALKHIMOV
    Dmitry GOGACHIOV
    Igor ALKHIMOV
    Alexei MOROZOV
    Vitaly TSVETKOV
    Dmitry KONONOV
Assistant Costume Designer    Maria SHVACHKINA
    Maria YURESKO
Prop Designer    Nikolai PRONIN
Prop Assistants    Andrei SUMIN
    Ivan SKORYNIN
    Igor KORNEYEV
    Natalia DUDINA
    Igor ROGOV
Layout Artist    Vladimir SVIRGOTSKY
Wardrobe Mistress    Irina KASIANOVA
    Adelia EXANOVA
Photographers    Denis ZYBIN
    Vitaly YERSHOV
    G ZYRIANOV
SOUND DEPARTMENT
Sound Technician    Sergei KARPENKO
Sound Director    Alexander ABRAMOV
Sound Effects    Pavel DOREULI
Music Recordist    Gennady PAPIN
Foley Artist    Sergei FIGNER
Sound Director's Assistants    Sergei TSYGANKOV
    Artur AGADZANIAN

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects Designer    Petr GORSHENIN
Assistant Special Effects Designers    Mikhail ABRAMOV
    Roman DARENSKY
Technical Effects Designer    Valery GRANKOV
Weather Effects    Dmitry KORICHNEV
    Alexander KOMARKOV
    Victor MATSAL
    Evgeny KOLOMIN
    Alexander VASILCHUK

STUNTS
Stunt Director    Sergei VOROBIEV
Fight Director    Dmitry TARASENKO
Stunt performers    Konstantin DEMAKHIN
    Sergei GUSHCHIN
    Yury BARINOV
    Alexei SEFIN
    Eduard BOUGAICHUK
    Boris KARELIN
    Ilia KARELIN
    Andrei SHURDAKOV
    Alexei VOROBIEV
    Igor BESOV
    Alexei BUINOV
    Sergei ZOTKIN
    Alexander RAKOV
    Sergei GOLUBEV
    Vitaly SEREGIN
    Ruslan KLEMENOV
    Prokhor ZIKORA
    Andrei NIKOLAYEV
    Oleg BORISENKO
    Eduard FEDASHKO
    Andrei GRIGORIEV
    Vladimir YELIN
    Vladimir MALIUGIN
    Alexei POTAPOV
    Mikhail SLADKO
    Alexei PASHIN
    Alexander ANSHIUTU
    Alexander KULIAMIN
    Dmitry TARASENKO
    Sergei SHOLOKHOV
    Andrei LEPILIN
Fireworkers    Evgeny POKROVSKY
    Ilia CHURINOV
    Igor TITOV
    Alexander KOMARKOV
    Andrei PAKHOLKOV
    Yury UDALTSOV
    Andrei KOROVIN
Drivers    Sergei GOLOVANOV
    Sergei VISHVIKOV
    Vladimir BUDANOV
    Igor SVIREPOV
    Nikolai OVSIANNIKOV
    Yaroslav STEPANOV
    Boris MASLOV
    Ivan URISHEV
    Anatoliy KRASHENINNIKOV
    Victor ZOLOTAREV
    Valery EREMIN
    Alexander STATOUYEV
    Sergei GRISHKIN
    Mikhail GEVORKIAN
    Alexander SHMAKOV
    Alexander GREBENKIN
    Gennady KONKOV
Craft Services    Svetlana GRACHIOVA
Workers    Alexander ALKHIMOV
    Vitaly TSVETKOV
    Yuri LEZHNEV
    Dmitry KLOCHKOV

ANIMALS
«Animal Film»    Alia SOMOVA
«Kinologiya-Т»    Victor ZUIKOV

MANAGEMENT CREW
Managers    Olga KHARICHKINA
    Liudmila EVTUSHENKO
    Alexander PODOLSKY
Location Managers    Ekaterina ZALETAYEVA
    Elena SAPRYKINA
Deputy Managers    Yury YEVDOKIMOV
    Mikhail LINKOV
    Dmitry KATROMIN
    Yana SUKHOVA
Administrators    Anatoly NIKONOV
    Olga ALEXEYEVA
    Liudmila DATA
    Natalia EVDOKIMOVA
    Alexander KARCHEVSKY
    Nikita DMITRIYEV
    Alexander PARTOSH
    Olga VYSOTSKAYA
    Denis MIROSHNICHENKO
    Irina ZAKHAROVA
    Vladimir ZAKHAROV
Accountants    Elena KUZMINA
    Ekaterina AGALTSOVA
Cashier-Accountant    Natalia YEFREMOVA
Producer    Igor BONDARENKO
Assistant Producers    Ekaterina VASILIEVA
    Irina BYSTROVA

ST PETERSBURG FILM CREW
Casting    Anastasia SAMSONOVA
Cinematographer    Andrei VAKORIN
Lighting    Konstantin KANKAVA
Assistant Cinematographer    Sergei SHULTS
Dolly Grip    Sergei SERGEYEV
Administrators    Vlad YERSHOV
    Vlad MOROZOV
Manager    Daniil MOROZOV

SECTION DIVINE STUDIO
Manager    Irina KROMBI
Producer    Elena BOLSHUN

Supporting Group for shooting "Great Battle" scene
Casting by    Nastia SAMSONOVA
    Sasha KOLONISTOVA
Costume Designer    Natasha DZIUBENKO
Costumers    Irina SHUMEEVA
    Maria KRIUCHKOVA
Make-up Artist    Natasha KRYMSKAYA
Make-up Assistants    Ksenia MALKINA
    Alla RUDOVA KHLESTUN
    Olga PANOVA
    Albina BATURINA
    Nadezhda SIROTKINA
Props Designer    Maria ATAMANENKO
Administration    Vladislav LEBEDEV
    Alexei KHARCHENKO
    Vladislav YERSHOV
    Ksenia KISELEVA
    Vladimir MELIKHOV
    Dmitry TSAREV
Drivers    Nikolai FROLOV
    Vladimir REDKIN
    Igor LANEYEV
Electricians    Konstantin KANKAVA
    Mikhail PANOV
    Leonid PETROV
    Alexei ZHURAVSKY
    Konstantin KARPOVICH
    Mikhail LUKASHIN
    Sergei IVANOV
    Nikita VINOGRADOV
Lights    Evgeny PEREKHOD
Grip Truck    Peter ZEMLYANSKY
Generator    Oleg KURGUZOV
    Viktor TKACHUK
Production Manager    Daniil MOROZOV
Producer    Evgenia ARONOVA

KNIGHTS AND COSTUMES
"IRON WOLVES" Club (Republic of Belarus), Fiedor MIKHEYEV "KNIAZHIY GOUF" Military History Club (Moscow), Sergei MIKULSKY, Igor PANIN "MASTER" (Moscow), Selection of Costumes and Weaponry in Czech Republic
"K-INTERNATIONAL", Kate ULRIKOVA
"BARRANDOV"
"MERLET"

MOSCOW POST-PRODUCTION
Managers    Tatiana SAMOILOVA
    Evgenia ARONOVA
    Alexei BORISOV
Assistants    Ksenia KISELEVA
    Pavel GORIN
Editor Assistants    Andri DZHUNKOVSKY
    Nikolai BULYGIN
    Alexander SHAROV
    Dmitry OREL
Text Editor    Alexandra VINOGRADOVA

ANIMATION
Design    Rezo GABRIADZE
Animation Artist    Ekaterina SOKOLOVA

VISUAL EFFECTS
Visual Effects Supervisor    Vladimir LEZHCHINSKY
Visual Effects Producer    Alexander GOROKHOV
Visual Effects Art Director    Pavel PEREPELKIN
Effects Editing    Alexander SHAROV
    Maria SERGIYENKOVA
Co-ordinators    Konstantin ANTONOV
    Ekaterina BELOVA
    Irina LUZGINA
Supervisor Assistants    Tatiana TARAKANOVA
    Andrei SAFONOV
 Producer Assistants    Yulia ZABARA NESTEROVA
Administrators    Anatoly NIKONOV
    Viacheslav KUCHERKO

BAZELEVS PRODUCTION
Supervisor    Pavel KHANIUTIN
Producer    Alexander GOROKHOV
Modelling, Animation and Compositing    Pavel PEREPELKIN
    Vadim KIRILLIN
    Stas ANISIMOV
    Slava DIACHENKO
    Slava ZBOROVSKY
    Grigoriy CHALENKO
    Alexei PETROV
    Anatoliy KOSHIK
    Igor NOVIKOV
    Igor ZOLOTARIEV
    Alexander SERKOV
    Vlad ABDULIN
    Gennadiy CHISTYAKOV
    Dmitriy VASILIEV

DR PICTURE STUDIO
Supervisors    Victor LAKISOV
    Sergei DENISOV
Producers    Andrei NIKITIN
    Vladimir LEZHINSKY
Art Director    Andrei NIKITIN
Modelling & Animation    Victor LAKISOV
    Maxim EVGRAFOV
    Kirill SKALETSKY
    Andrei KONKIN
    Maxim GUREYEV
Compositing    Igor NIKITIN
    Dmitry LISOVSKY
Rendering    Alexei SALENKOV
    Dmitry PROKAZOV
Colourist    Andrei NIKITIN
    ORT-DESIGN

Special Effects Studio of CHANNEL ONE RUSSIA
Art Director    Anton NENASHEV
Supervisor    Maxim BEKETOV
Technical Director    Maxim KIRIYENKO
Design    Dmitry FROLOV
Modelling    Dmitry GRIGORIEV
Animation    Vladimir KLEVTSOV
    Alexander FEDUKOVICH
Compositing    Igor KRAINOV

POSTPRODUCTION.RU
Supervisor    Andrei MESNIANKIN
Art Director    Viacheslav SMIRNOV
Modelling & Animation    Timofei PINKOV
Compositing    Oleg BELIAYEV

ULITKA STUDIO
Producer    Angela PETROSIAN
Art Director    Evgeny BARULIN
Modelling    Viacheslav BOGDANOV
Animation & Compositing    Mikhail BAZHUTKIN

REACTION
Supervisor    Vladimir KOMISSAROV
Art Director    Andrei SAMORIADOV
Animation    Denis KHATIN
Compositing    Yury SUVOROV

BABICH DESIGN
Supervisor    Ruslan OGORODNIK
Art Director    Valery BABICH
Modelling    Andrei KRAVCHENKO
    Roman BAZUCHENKO
    Roman YEVSIUKOV
    Oleg BOIKO
Animation    Andrei KRAVCHENKO
    Alexander BABICH
Compositing    Konstantin RUKOVITSIN
    Ruslan OGORODNIK

MENTALDRIVE STUDIO
Supervisor    Alexei MOSKALENKO
Producer    Evgeniy CHMIL
Co-ordinator    Natalia KULIGINA
Modelling    Vitaly KIRILIOUK
Animation    Alexander KUCHEROV
Compositing    Victor FILIPCHAK

MOSFILM - ART
Supervisor    Arkady DUBININ
Producer    Boris DANILIOUK
Art Director    Sergei ANTONOV
Compositing    Alexander TROITSKY
    Igor ZOLOTARIOV
    Vladislav AKHTYRSKY
Animation    Dmitry BOICHENKO KHALIAVIN
Rotoscoping    Larisa MISIOUKOVA
    Tatiana KISILEVA
    Alexander SKIDMAN
    Vladimir SOLODOVNIKOV
Animation Processing    Andrei SITSIN

PRODUCTION STUDIO "WE"
Supervisor    Alexander PETROV
Producer    Konstantin SEREBRIAKOV
Art Director    Larisa UVAROVA
Co-ordinator    Tatiana LIFANOVA
Modelling & Animation    Maxim SYCHEV
Rendering    Alexander PETROV
    Maxim SYCHEV
Compositing    Yury CHUKANTSEV
    Alexander PETROV
    Mikhail MAXIMOV
    Maxim SYCHEV
Colorist    Alexander PETROV
    Yury CHUKANTSEV

KEYART STUDIO
Modelling, Animation & Compositing    Evgeny SHEMSHURIN
    Andrei KOSOGOV

LESTA STUDIO
Supervisor    Denis DAVYDOV
Producer    Sergei KRASOV
Art Director    Elena ZAKOVRIASHINA
Co-ordinator    Anna SAMOFALOVA
Modelling    Denis DAVYDOV
    Ilia BOSSOV
    Pavel BELOV
    Elena ALEXEYEVA
Animation    Denis DAVYDOV
    Elena ALEXEYEVA
Texturing    Valeria ZELENSKAYA
    Elena USPENSKAYA
Freelancers
Design and Animation    Andrei GOLIKOV
    Yury TSILIN
    Dmitry KOZHIN
Modelling, Animation & Compositing    Alexei MELNIKOV
    Mikhail YEDELKIN
    Valentin KUDRIAVTSEV

MUSIC
Russian National Symphony Orchestra
Conductor    Alexander VEDERNIKOV
Chorus Director    Alexei RUDNEVSKY
Piano solo    Nadezhda CHIBISOVA
Duduk solo    Norik BASEGIAN
Vocal    Yulia KORPACHEVA

Songs used in picture by    Viacheslav DOBRYNIN
    Tikhon KHRENNIKOV
    VD AKULSHIN
    Vladimir KRESTOVSKY
    Sergei SHNUROV
    Andrei GROZNY
    Sergei SHUBIN
Lyrics by    ML MATOUSOVSKY
    MI MEYEROVICH
    Sergei LUKYANENKO (in remake of Vladimir KRESTOVSKY)
    Sergei SHNUROV
    Ksenia NOVIKOVA

"SPARTAK" ballet (Bolshoi Theatre, 1953)
Librettist    N VOLKOV
Composer    A KHACHATURIAN
Choreographer    Y GRIGOROVICH
Artist    SVERSALADZE

Original music of "DRUM ECSTASY" group    Filipp CHMYR
    Alexander KRAVTSOV
    Alexander GOROKH
    Stepan BITUS

"EMPIRE"
(Music by Drum Ecstasy) © 2003 DRUM ECSTASY © 2003 TABBAK

"SPAIN"
(Music by Drum Ecstasy) © 2003 DRUM ECSTASY © 2003 TABBAK

"FIGHT"
(Music by Drum Ecstasy) © 2003 DRUM ECSTASY © 2003 TABBAK

"COLLAR"
(Music by Drum Ecstasy) © 2003 DRUM ECSTASY © 2003 TABBAK

"STAIRS"
(Music by Drum Ecstasy) © 2003 DRUM ECSTASY © 2003 TABBAK
Recorded on "TON-STUDIO MOSFILM" by Dmitry TARAVKOV, 2003
TT-34

"JACK"
(music by TT-34, lyrics by S.Y.MARSHAK, translated from English)
© POLIARNIKI

"FEARLESS"
Written by Samuel ENDICOTT
Performed by THE BRAVERY
Courtesy of the Island Def Jam Music Group
Under License from Universal Music Enterprises

Music consultant    Peter Volkov (POLIARNIKI)
Law consultant    Ekaterina POGORELOVA
PRINT PROCESSING "Creative Laboratory "Salamandra"
Colourist    Gennady Averianov

FINNLAB BY
Negative cutting    Tuija KOTAMAKI

DIGITAL FILM FINLAND BY
Producer    Petri SIITONEN
Colourists    Greg FISHER
    Robert LANG
    Chris WALLACE
2K Data scanning    Severi GLANVILLE
    Mika KONGAS
    Tomi NIEMINEN

LOS ANGELES POST-PRODUCTION
Post-Production Supervisor    Larry EWING
Supervising Sound Editors    Anna MACKENIZE
    Jon METE
Re-recording Mixers    Andrew C D'ADDARIO
    Lisle ENGLE
    Marc FISHMAN
    Tony LAMBERTI
Telecine Colorist    Arnold RAMM
Telecine Assistant    George MAGALLON
Fire Editors    Dan AGUILAR
    Rob WILLIAMS
Compositing Artists    John P SHIRLEY IV
    Greg TSADILAS
    Rob WILLIAMS
    Jason FOTTER
    Jaison WILSON
Assistant Operator    Daniel PISTOLE
Data Management    Jason STEVENS
    Justin SANCHEZ
Visual Effects Producer    Barbara MARSHALL
Sound Editors    Karen VASSAR
    Jon Title MPSE
Assistant Sound Editor    Bob BOWMAN
Recordist Matt Foley Artists    Zane BRUCE
    Joe SABELLA
    Jeff GUNN
    Shane BRUCE
Sound Editoral Technical Support    Jeffrey M GLEUCK
Assistant Editor    Alex SEYMOUR
Editorial PA    Brad MINNICH
Dailies Colorist    Mark SACHEN
Dailies Assistant    Ryan GREENBERG
Executive Post-Production Producer    Arthur GORSON
Post-Production Project Co-ordinator    Andrea ALLEN
Shooting equipment "AST"
"KINOTEKHNIKA"
Lighter equipment "MOSFILM"
"BOGDAN & BRIGADA"
Operators equipment "IMT"
"TMT"
Wireless communication "Country-Telekom"
FILMED WITH "MOSFILM" ASSISTANCE
ON "KODAK" PRINT
CHANNEL ONE RUSSIA
Cinema Production Department
Director    Dzhanik FAIZIEV
Deputy Director    Nikolai POPOV
Chief Editor    Lena GANEVSKAYA
Editor    Victoria DEMIDOVA
Executive Producers    Andrei KUCHINSKY
    Konstantin YEVGIYENKO
    Margo ZOSIMENKO
Production Co-ordinator    Irina AVSTREICH
Cinema Programming Department Director    Sergei TITINKOV

BAZELEVS PRODUCTION LLC
General Director    Anna POLYANOK
General Producer    Natela ABULADZE

SPECIAL THANKS TO:
MOSVODOKANAL
St Petersburg METROPOLITEN
Choreographer of "Profi" ballet    Ilona ZINUROVA
"LENENERGO" JS
David Brenner
"Nokia" Company
"Mobile Telesystems" Company
"Nestle Food" LLC
"RAMBLER" Company
"Talosto" CС
"ProPlacement" Company
"Helen Ermark" salon
"Econika' Shoe corporation
Second-hand goods market at "Mark" platform and all secondhand shops in Moscow
Hotel "Chaika" administration St Petersburg
"TMT" collaborator Alexei VOLKOV
Bakhyt KILIBAYEV
Leo GABRIADZE
Alexei SLAPOVSKY
Raisa PAVLENKO
Vladimir PEREPELKIN
Maxim PEREPELKIN
Valery GOLUBEV
Alexander DELPHINOFF
Georgy "Satir" KIOSOV
Stepan PONOMARIOV
Creative union "THE CRYPT"
Footage from "BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER" Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Television. All rights reserved.
 Digital Film Services by FotoKem
 Dolby in selected Theaters
 MPAA (logo) #41425
 Copyright 2004 Joint Stock Company "Channel One Russia"
 The events, characters and firms depicted in this photoplay are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or firms is purely coincidental.
 Ownership of this motion picture is protected by copyright and other applicable laws, and any unauthorized duplication, distribution or exhibition of this motion picture could result in criminal prosecution as well as civil liability.
RELEASED BY TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX
©2005 Twentieth Century Fox. All rights reserved. Property of Fox. Permission is granted to newspapers and periodicals to reproduce this text in articles publicizing the distribution of the Motion Picture. All other use is strictly prohibited, including sale, duplication, or other transfer of this material. This press kit, in whole or in part, must not be leased, sold, or given away.
© 2000-2005 20th Century Fox. All rights reserved

http://www.btlnews.com/commentary/director-series/director-series-timor-bakmembetov-night-watch-nochnoi-dozor/

Director Series-Timor Bakmembetov, Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor)

February 6, 2006 | By Henry Turner

The Russian smash hit Night Watch is not an imitation Hollywood action film. Yes, the story has witches, vampires and shape-shifters awaiting a prophetic entity who will bring on Armageddon. But Night Watch also depicts such post-Soviet realities as homelessness, organized crime, arena rock, the Russian ballet, and nuclear catastrophe à la Chernobyl. The script is chock full of Chekhovian monologues and the cinematography recalls the arty compositions of Sven Nyquist from his days with Ingmar Bergman.Made on $4 million, Night Watch has grossed eight times that much at the Russian box office—the highest grossing Russian film of all time. On its home turf it outperformed all the imported Hollywood summer blockbusters. “We made the movie in Russia specifically for a Russian audience,” says director Timur Bekmambetov, whose depiction of post-Soviet Russia offers the bleakest urban vistas since the futurist world of Blade Runner. Bekmambetov, a longtime director of music videos and commercials, brings to Night Watch the sort of flashy style associated with Hollywood action, but it is his desire to be true to his home terrain that is ultimately his greatest innovation.Below the Line: The cinematography is very stylized when the vampires appear, but in much of the film the look is completely realistic. How did you decide on the DP Sergei Trofimov?Timur Bekmambetov: We’ve been friends for over 30 years, from when I was 17. We grew up together, made our first commercials together, and our first movie together in 1991. We’ve done many music videos and commercials. In 80 percent of everything I’ve done I’ve worked with him. We feel the same, we think the same, and sometimes that’s good and sometimes it’s a problem! Because it gets difficult for us to surprise each other.BTL: Despite the horror subject matter, there were all these touches from everyday life. Little things like the shabby apartments and the pictures hanging on the walls—the film really conveys a sense of contemporary Russia. The lighting is especially effective in setting the mood. It’s kind of half-horror movie, and then at times it’s drab like in an art film. Were you looking to achieve a sense of realism?Bekmambetov: It was all part of the concept, to present contemporary Russian, with all the cultural references. We decided we had to use Russian reality, our background and culture, as a fantasy world. Every detail in the movie comes from some part of lives, our memories. The cars and props and locations, the sets. For example, there’s the witch’s kitchen—it is actually based on a real kitchen—the kitchen of a palm reader that Sergei visited once.BTL: Everything looks completely authentic. Were the sets built or were they practical?Bekmambetov: We built everything. We had a very good art director, Mukhtar Mirzakeyev. He’s excellent with details. Even the nuclear reactor control room was a set. We actually changed a lot of things. It all looks real, but a bit more than real. It’s cinematically real. I know the art director even better than my DP. I’ve known him for 35 years. He was my teacher. Originally I was an art director and a stage designer, and since I was 10 he taught me how to think in terms of art direction and how to bring it off. He was an artist and stage designer, and my sister’s husband. He’s the person who continues the ideas and concepts of Russian avant-garde artists of the past—that’s who he studied with. That tradition comes from the beginning of the 20th century and filters through him. It’s an important tradition but it’s generally invisible to critics because they don’t see the visual elements and think only of the literary ideas, not what’s happening behind them. But the film presents a very specific world with compositions and visual ideas that have their origin in the history of Russian modern art.BTL: You put a lot of emphasis on how the film creates a mythology.Bekmambetov: The thing is to feel it. It’s a very unusual mix for a Russian audience because nobody ever did it before—rearranged reality and created a mythology of our life. During the Soviet era we had a great and solid mythology, but it was totalitarian. Yet it was a huge mythology that informed every aspect of life right down to how to drink, how to smoke, eat, have children, how to dress, everything. It was solid. For the people it was comfortable. Perhaps there weren’t many choices but it was comfortable and a solid world, even when it was fake like in The Matrix. But then over 15 or 20 years, during Perestroika and Yeltsin’s time, we destroyed everything and we didn’t have any mythology. It became a free world where everybody must create whatever he needs, wants, wishes, and there was no longer a binding social idea. And everybody was ashamed of what they had materially—they had bad furniture, bad food, cars, and so it went on, from year to year. Now we’ve had to stop that and tell people that what they have is great—or if not great, that what they have is what they have, and they have to love it for what it is, because it’s our life, our unique way to live. And the idea of the movie, the aesthetic idea, was to rearrange everything and show people that this world is very intense, and that it’s an adventure to live in Moscow.BTL: How has film production in general changed from the Soviet era to now?Bekmambetov: The techniques are new and everything is much faster.BTL: I know everything used to be state-financed. Do you think it’s a fair comparison to say that what has happened in Russia was like the change in Hollywood from the studio era to the independents?Bekmambetov: Absolutely. But also we had the big political change. And unfortunately the old generation just disappeared. We use the old studio buildings as factories to rent—the stages and props for commercials and music videos. But the new generation has come in. We use new technology to produce music videos and commercials faster, cheaper and smarter, and it carries over into the films. Producers now have their own production companies—we have our own production company for Night Watch. We established it about 10 years ago and have made about 1,000 commercials. It was the only way to make this movie.BTL: For the big battle scenes I noticed that armor was acquired by the production from various museums.Bekmambetov: We have a lot of clubs in Russia, collectors of old armor and military equipment from ages ago and they put on dramatic recreations of battles. From Minsk we got about 100 people dressed in their stuff and they were extras when we were shooting.BTL: How much digital work was done?Bekmambetov: A lot of the city. The nuclear reactor. We generated most of the crowd of warriors, aside from the 100 extras. In Russia there are no big effects companies, so what happened is we combined into a community, for a year, all the Russian CG companies. We had 700 VFX shots in the movie and all together there were three hundred people doing the effects, animating, and creating software.BTL: I understand this is the first installment of a trilogy.Bekmambetov: The next film is done. It was released last month and has made $34 million so far. The one we’re preparing now will be shot in English.BTL: Will it also be shot in Russia?Bekmambetov: Nobody knows yet.
Written by Henry Turner

Interview with Bek

http://www.close-upfilm.com/features/Interviews/Timur_Bekmambetov.html

TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV Talks About DAY WATCH

Former commercial director Timur Bekmambetov, 46, first made his impact on Russia’s growing film world with 1994’s Peshawar Waltz, a micro-budgeted drama made for less than $60,000 and described by Variety as “a gritty, violent account of Russian soldiers taken prisoner during the Soviet-Afghanistan war of the 80s”. But after a US-financed, Roger Corman-produced female gladiator movie The Arena in 2001, Bekmambetov really made his presence felt with Night Watch, the first modern Russian blockbuster, which became a huge cult hit in his native land, outgrossing even The Lord Of The Rings despite a budget of less than $5 million. Adapted from the first of a cycle of cult novels by Kazakh writer Sergey Lukyanenkov, published in 1998, Night Watch starred local superstar Konstantin Khabensky as Anton, an apparently normal Muscovite who finds he has paranormal abilities and is recruited by the forces of Light (the Night Watch of the title) to police the forces of Darkness. In Bekmambetov’s new film Day Watch, the sequel, Anton is charged with tracking down his own son, also an ‘Other’, as they are known, and preventing him from siding with the Dark and by doing so bringing on the apocalypse… How would you describe the difference between Night Watch and Day Watch? The first film was very provocative. People said, ‘Wow, there are vampires in Moscow!’ But the second one is more about the story, and what was happening with the characters. The first movie was for men, and so perhaps the second one is for women. Was it harder to make after the success of the first film? If anything, it was a little bit easier, because we’d already shot something like 30 per cent of the second movie before the first – we just had to adjust it for release. Would you say it was a fantasy film? No. I think it’s a very realistic film – it’s just that something unreal is happening. I don’t like the term fantasy. Well, it’s not that I don’t like it, I just don’t understand it. It’s not that interesting to me. What’s interesting about these films is what’s happening with the main character, Anton, who’s played by Konstantin Khabensky, because he is a real human being. Everybody has two parts, light and dark, and when you have a problem like Anton does in the first movie, with his son, then it becomes a big problem because your whole world, everything breaks apart and all your fears are unleashed. This happens in real life, to real people, and these are Anton’s demons. It’s not a metaphor for human suffering – it is human suffering! At the beginning of the first film Anton’s world explodes, this nightmare happens, and so he’s trying to survive. His only hope is to go back to the beginning with the Chalk Of Fate and rewrite his destiny. What is the main theme of these films? Is it a comment on the age-old struggle between good and evil? I think that the main message from the movie is that there is no good and bad in this world, there is only dark and light. There’s a big difference - light represents responsibility and dark represents freedom. This conflict is more real nowadays. We are very smart now. We understand that ‘good’ means what’s good for you, but for another person it can mean the opposite. It’s a really very childish way to see things – it’s very black and white and it doesn’t work. But look at it another way: freedom or responsibility? That’s a very important decision, and we have to make it every day. It’s a decision that’s made by the individual, by the family, by every city, every country of the world. If you have enough energy and you have a childish spirit, you will choose Dark. If you’re more grown up, like a hero, responsibility becomes a culture. It’s something that comes with experience. So would you say that these are political films? I think they’re philosophical, which means political, ethical and, I don’t know, sociological. I think it’s a very important question. There’s no discussion of it in the film - it’s just a story, it’s entertaining, and that’s all. I know that the way to deliver a message is to put it in a dramatic context, create conflict, and people will feel this. (Laughs) I’m not a teacher! There’s a great deal of humour in Day Watch… Yes. We are healthy enough to be ironic about ourselves! Particularly in the party scene, where Anton’s son starts to become a man. What can you tell us about that? It was a real party, and we invited a lot of famous Russian pop-cultural icons. For example, if it had been in London we’d have invited someone like, I don’t know, maybe Madonna! (Laughs) Celebrities. People like them, masses like them, and they are sucking energy from them. They live because they’re sucking energy out of their fans. It happens with politicians too. There was a communist politician there, a big bald guy, and Konstantin, during the party, went up to him and starting singing a communist song. He didn’t know the words! So it’s sort of a fake world, and we decided that that world would be good for the party scene. Celebrities and politicians are really dark. It’s in their nature. Dark means freedom. And they’re really free. How did you film that scene? We shot 15 scenes for the movie, but we spread it all out, in a four-hour party. We’d shoot a three-minute scene then spend five minutes reloading the camera. Then we’d shoot a three-minute scene and spend ten minutes preparing. Everything was planned from the beginning. We had the exact timing for every cue. And I invited a TV director to come and control the cameras, because there were 15 of them. It was very interesting behind the scenes. There were ten people: the DoP, me, this guy from TV, the first AD… everyone was in front of the monitors and during the moments when the cameras were all shooting, everyone was like, ‘CAMERA FIVE: LEFT!!! CAMERA EIGHT: RIGHT! AAAAAAHHHH!!!’ Was that difficult to direct? Energy-wise, it was great, because when you’re shooting normally it’s just the director sitting in front of the monitor, the camera rolls, and then you call, ‘Cut!’ The process is very logistical. Sometimes it’s different, like when you’re going to shoot an explosion, but normally it’s a very boring process. But this was a real adrenaline rush . Every actor had a microphone and every cameraman had a microphone, and there were microphones by the monitors too. Were you happy with what you filmed? Yes. But I was lucky. I wouldn’t say I was necessarily happy, I was just lucky to have everything done, because it was a very risky project and a very risky idea to do. The idea was that we would have to recreate the real ritual, the traditional ritual, of a Russian birthday party, and it’s a birthday party where the guests are Dark Ones. And since the Dark Ones represents freedom, we invited famous Russian faces and personalities, because they represent freedom. But it’s difficult to manipulate those kinds of people because they are such personalities: I can’t say, ‘Go over there,’ or ‘Stand here.’ I simply had to entertain them to get the right reactions. What is the idea behind ‘the gloom’ that the characters constantly step in and out of? That was in the books, by Sergei Lukyanenko. The idea was that the gloom was some parallel world that only the Others can enter and survive. We had a problem with this when we came to shoot it, because although it’s easy to understand the concept, it’s hard to actually show it. And then there was a problem deciding why these people had to go into the gloom in the first place – is it just to show that they’re different? So in order to create drama, we had to make it really important for the characters to go there. Your approach to effects is very low-key in that respect… It’s connected with reality. It’s grounded and it’s dramatised. The secret is that you have to dramatise CG. You want people to think about, for example, who will survive and who will not. You don’t want them to think about how good the Chroma Key is. Do you think Night Watch and Day Watch both show a particularly Russian approach to filmmaking? I don’t think it’s a Russian approach, I think it’s just contemporary. I’m using genre tools; it’s cinema. It’s like your computer – in your computer you have a lot of programmes, loads of elements, and you pick the one you want. As a filmmaker, your ideas can come from Andrei Tarkovsky or the Wachowski brothers or a Coca Cola commercial or a computer game… I can take whatever I want to tell my story, to create my own unique world. I’m not starting from scratch! Are you working within a tradition of Russian cinema? It’s not my goal. I don’t have any ambitions to represent this country, I represent myself. Russian directors like Eisenstein and Tarkovsky are the same to me as James Cameron and Roman Polanski – I feel their influence because it’s in my background. But what I feel now is that the world has to understand Russia, somehow, and my films offer a very interesting way for them to understand Russia. It’s a good legend, a good myth. OK, Russia is a scared country, with vampires and witches and a lot of fantasy stuff. And if folks will help us distribute this film around the world, I think a lot of young people will like the look of Russia. They’ll think it’s cool. It’s the place. So you have an eye on the international market? Sure. We made it for Russian people, but the world is global now, and a young boy from Minnesota and a young boy from Russia live in the same world. They know how to chat, they know how to explore, and they have the same background now. Or similar. Of course, they have different backgrounds in terms of nationality. For example, in Russia we have Russian people, Armenian, Georgian, Kazakh, but they all live the same way. Do you see yourself as part of a new wave of Russian directors? No. I don’t like them. They don’t like their audience, I don’t like them. I think any movie is good when the creator likes his audience. But when the creator likes himself, I don’t care. Are you looking forward to working outside Russia? Of course! It’ll be a new experience for me, because this is my home. I know where everything is! But for me it will be very interesting to discover other territories. Be more imperialistic! (Laughs) In a way, it’s my nature. Because I come from a very small town in Kazakhstan, the name of the town’s Guryev, and it’s a small city with, like, 100,000 people, but then I came here, to Moscow. Do you have an outsider’s perspective? I think it’s more the fact that a provincial background gives you the energy to go forward. When you grow up in a big city you don’t have this drive. And to grow up in a small city is very interesting because the world is easily understood. You know where your world ends, because my city was, like, three kilometres! You know everybody. You have one madman, one prostitute… everything’s very personal. But it’s in my nature to find new places. My family, my tribe, has a slogan: ‘Live where the grass is green.’ I feel now that the grass is green somewhere else. You had a brush with Hollywood in 2001, when you directed The Arena for legendary B-movie producer Roger Corman. How did you meet him? I had a friend in Los Angeles who sold him on the idea of me. I had made 17 short commercials for the Russian bank, it was a huge, six-year campaign, about different kings, queens, stars and lords around the world, and I had a very good showreel of historical material. A friend of mine showed Roger these commercials and he said, ‘There’s a guy in Russia who can do this kind of thing for nothing.’ (Laughs) And so of course Roger said, ‘Yes!’ Was The Arena a success in Russia? No, but it was very successful on a B-movie level. I heard good things from Quentin Tarantino – he was a big fan. What did you learn from Roger Corman? He blew my mind totally. He’s a real character in this landscape. He’s always been there in the background for everybody, I think he affects everything. Tarantino, Cameron… These people feel him because he’s like a child. His way of filmmaking is very childish and very playful, because his idea is to entertain the audience, maybe with not a lot of money but who cares? He’s like the Lumiere brothers, right back at the beginning of moving pictures: what was interesting for them was filming the train arriving at the station, and that would be interesting for him too! I got that from him. Filmmaking is interesting in itself. The movie is interesting in itself, even without the individual input of the director or the actor – if the train comes, wow! And if there are vampires trying to kill somebody that’s interesting too. (Laughs) It’s just a movie. So after that, was it a big step up, budget-wise, to making Night Watch? Not really. Night Watch wasn’t so expensive, although we had to enlarge the budget for Day Watch because of expectations. But I had almost finished the second film by then, and then we decided to produce a third film with Fox. Maybe that will happen in a few years time, who knows? We don’t know what will happen in the third yet, because we decided to squeeze two stories – the second and the third – into Day Watch and finish the Russian story. After that, we’ll tell the new story with Fox. So there will be a third Day Watch? Yes, there will be a third part but it will be different, a different instalment. There’s no script yet, just ideas. I think we will keep Anton, but I don’t know what will happen to him in the United States. (Laughs) We’ll see!