Egor Dolgikh
He is the filmmaker of Under the Weather Dollar Baby film.
SKSM: Could you start with telling me a little bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do?
Egor Dolgikh: My name is Egor Dolgikh. I was born and raised in Bryansk, Russia. I am 26 years old, and I am the founder and director of the movie studio Art Script Films Production.
SKSM: When did you know you wanted to become a filmmaker?
Egor Dolgikh: That happened in my early childhood, after I saw such films as “Pulp Fiction”, “From Dusk Till Dawn” and “Gangs of New York”. I was very much impressed and obsessed by the idea of making my own movie. The first time I tried to make my short film was at the age of 17, but at that time I had no experience, and the movie was a flop.
SKSM: When did you make Under the Weather? Can you tell me a little about the production? How much did it cost? How long did it take to film it?
Egor Dolgikh: We finished producing our film “Under the Weather” in September 2019. After that we started the post-production. Montage and color-correction took three months. Then, we started the revoicing.
With our sound director Oleg Snegirev, we re-recorded half of the original sounds and the rest we took from free libraries. We were lucky to gather all the actors before the COVID pandemic.
As for preparation, it took us half a year, including scriptwriting, casting and rehearsing. The making took three months and 76 dollars that went to buy the props.
SKSM: How come you picked Under the Weather to develop into a movie? What is it in the story that you like so much?
Egor Dolgikh: In winter 2019 my friend and scriptwriter Aleksei Firsoff offered me to screen one short story by Stephen King, called “Under the Weather”. At that time, we we not making any projects, and we found the idea rather interesting. Moreover, exactly that story could be adapted with our humble financial opportunities. However, the main point is that we very much liked the dramatic and psychological part of the story. It really suited the direction that we had chosen before.
SKSM: How did you find out that King sold the movie rights to some of his stories for just $1? Was it just a wild guess or did you know it before you sent him the check?
Egor Dolgikh: Before we started making “Under the Weather”, we did not know anything about Dollar Baby. Aleksei just decided to contact the King website administration. They redirected us to Dollar Baby where there was a list of stories available for adaptation – for just a dollar. However, there was no “Under the Weather” there. So, we again contacted the administration to ask for permission. They agreed. We signed the contact and sent them a dollar. That is how we happened to know about that Baby Dollar Project.
SKSM: Was there any funny or special moment when you made the movie that you would like to tell me about?
Egor Dolgikh: While shooting in the office, one actress brought her babygirl. While we were shooting, her husband was looking after the baby. Sometimes, while being out there in the hall, the baby started crying. Maybe, that’s a sign – we were making a Dollar Baby film, and a baby was crying meanwhile 🙂
SKSM: How does it feel that all the King fans out there can’t see your movie? Do you think that will change in the future? Maybe a internet/dvd release would be possible?
Egor Dolgikh: We were not very much disappointed, as there are many festivals where King fans can see our short movie. I can only guess that there will be a special website under King’s auspices, on which one will be able to watch a Dollar Baby movie for a dollar that will go to ill children.
SKSM: What “good or bad” reviews have you received on your film?
Egor Dolgikh: In general, comments were positive.
SKSM: Do you plan to screen the movie at a particular festival?
Egor Dolgikh: By now, we have sent our movie to three Russian film festivals. After finishing the subtitles, we are going to send it to foreign festivals.
SKSM: Are you a Stephen King fan? If so, which are your favorite works and adaptations?
Egor Dolgikh: As for me, I am not a true Stephen King fan. But I like his “Night Shift”, and “Popsy”, and the 1990 “IT” adaptation. And I also like both “Shining” 1980 adaptations.
SKSM: Did you have any personal contact with King during the making of the movie? Has he seen it (and if so, what did he think about it)?
Egor Dolgikh: Unfortunately, I did not contact King. According to the contract, we sent him a DVD copy. I have no clue if he has seen it.
SKSM: Do you have any plans for making more movies based on Stephen King’s stories? If you could pick -at least- one story to shoot, which one would it be and why?
Egor Dolgikh: For now, it is not on our schedule. However… time will show!
SKSM: What are you working on nowadays?
Egor Dolgikh: Now, we are working on a full-length movie called “Uporoy”. Since autumn 2018, we have been writing and re-writing the script, collecting money – and shooting the movie! We give it much effort and time as we want to please the lovers of quality movies. “Uporoy” is a grim story inspired by little-known legends of Russian backwaters, ghoul novellas by A.K. Tolstoy and movies by David Lynch.
Here horror, art-house, surrealism, mystery and crime have mixed all together!
SKSM: Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. Is there anything you want to say to the fans that read this interview?
Egor Dolgikh: I verily appreciate your interest towards our movie. I would really like to share it with your readers, and I hope someday that will be possible. If you wanna talk about acting, or share you ideas, or take part in our future projects – just call us!
