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NAME:
Robert Max Kuhar
TITLE / ROLE:
Co-Producer, Story Consultant, “Lana’s Rain”
COMPANY:
MDS
PRODUCTION CREDITS:
"Lana’s Rain"
LIVES:
Chicago
NUMBER OF YEARS IN FILM:
26
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What was your role during the production of "Lana's Rain"?
I was introduced to Michael Ojeda in 1994 by a family friend. Michael was in peculiar situation. He finished the second draft of the script, but wasn’t sure if the characters were portrayed properly. He asked me to give him some advice about the culture and mentality of Bosnians and Croatians.
We were also discussing the culture shock people were experiencing when coming to America. It was a lucky coincidence because I just arrived to US two months before I met Michael. Later on, when he finished the fourth draft, we started discussing the possibilities of hiring Croatian or Bosnian actors. That was the difficult part.
In spite of having Romano Bogdan (Croatian Line Producer) combing the Croatian and Bosnian theatrical scene, we couldn't find anybody that would fit the characters, so we were forced to look for talent elsewhere. We were lucky to find Oksana Orlenko and Nickolai Stoilov.
I developed a very intensive crash course of the Croatian language and in less than three months they were both able to speak properly. I must say, for such a time crunch, they did a great job.
I also translated all the Croatian lines from English to Croatian and back to English, because Michael wanted to avoid any potential misunderstandings and "nail" the authenticity. Michael and Joel were pleased with my approach to the project and offered me to be a co-producer which I accepted.
There was one more thing that I had to take care of. Since we had a very tight budget, and I had a "hands-on" experience in carpentry, it fell onto me to build the set, the interior of the trailer. Needless to say, the last two months of pre-production were very intense. After the movie was done, I also designed the title sequence and developed the official web site.
As "story consultant," how much influence did you have on the writing in the film?
Basically, my job was to make sure that the interplay between the characters and the environment was convincing. A lot of time we had a situation where Michael wanted the characters to do certain things and I would be like 'That won't work, we'll have to do it the other way'.
The biggest problem was cultural differences, so when I understood what he meant I would suggest a different approach. So we were going back and forth until both of us were pleased. It was a tedious process but it was the only way to do it right.
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003: Robert Max Kuhar
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