A nice man recently reached out to me and told me how he was the most awarded filmmaker in all of Turkey. At first, I thought this would be great, but I also wondered if any of his accomplishments and films made it all the way to Canada? Well, they did, and in this interview, he explained it all. I’d like to introduce you to Serkan Aktash. While his IMDB may consist of 6-7 productions, he’s made it big worldwide already having had his films been to nearly every single film festival and win a plethora of awards. As we talked, he not only told me how much he loved Canada, even if he had never been there. He talked about his filmmaking tactics, and his interesting methods. Serkan also went on to explain his skills in science and math. This was due to his university education, and it helped him get so many talents in mathematics and advanced mathematics to help him solve problems in real life and he implements the mathematics into his stories as well. Especially sci-fi. Not to mention these skills in mathematics helped him with his abilities as writer, director, and producer.
But why should I jam-pack this intro with details? Let’s let the interview go on, because Serkan is a man who’s all about details and therefore knows how to answer questions. To quote my former writer Darren, Roll the tape!
HNMAG: So you have won the most awards out of all filmmakers in Turkey, how is that possible?
Serkan Aktash: For three years after I’ve made my movies, it is interesting for me. I got more than 200 awards in the world. 1 of them is in my country and most of them are international, especially United States. I sent my movies to so many film festivals, and then so many film festivals selected my movies. As far as I remember, my movies were selected more than 750 film festivals in the world. Most of my movies were screened at the festivals, Canada as well. My movies were selected in more than 35 States in United States, and 5 provinces in Canada!
HNMAG: So you have gotten your films to festivals in Canada. Have they won any awards out here?
Serkan Aktash: As far as I remember, I got 1 award in Canada. But my movies were selected by so many festivals in Canada, most of them were selected as finalist, semi-finalist, and content finalist. But importantly, my movies were screened at the event. A few festivals at Vancouver, and I remember one actor sent me a message from Canada, he wanted to participate in my next project. I kept his name in my cast list.
HNMAG: Aside from these accomplishments, what else have you achieved with your films in Canada?
Serkan Aktash: Canada is very important to me. I believe the cinema in Canada has potential because Vancouver looks like Hollywood, and as far as your magazine, I think North Hollywood and Vancouver are directing me to make movies in Canada. I want to make a movie in Canada, and I think the industry is well developed because I researched Vancouver. Three countries in the world that are the most dominating and mean the world, United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. There’s so many opportunities for the writer, and producer to grow in these countries and the movie industries are very developed in these countries.
It sounds like aside from screening accomplishments, Serkan has also gained a sense of traveling adventure to go to Vancouver. If he does, I hope to either tour or partake onset of one of his productions.
HNMAG: If you get the chance to travel to Canada, will you definitely take it?
Serkan Aktash: Yes, I love Vancouver because I know the movie scene in Canada, and Hollywood and North Hollywood are like brothers. The movie industry is the most important in the world, especially Los Angeles in United States. But we know that so many American producers prefer to make movies in Canada, especially Vancouver. This is a magnificent opportunity for producers, and so I want to make sci-fi movies in United States and Canada because of this reason.
HNMAG: As a filmmaker/director/producer, where do you get ideas from?
Serkan Aktash: I have 4 rules in my mind and this is my discipline: First, read everyday. Second, watch everyday. Third, write everyday and Fourth, make your movie. So every single day, I read novels, I read stories and books which I am interested in and everyday I watch movies and also TV shows. Then of course, I write everyday and I have 2 college friends in the United States, and we have been discussing everyday for hours about the stories, and we will complete the stories, screenplay, and we’ll make this project in the United States. This is for a sci-fi AI/robot story, and so I keep writing everyday. The more input, the more out. If you watch movies everyday, the more you read everyday, and write everyday, the more you can write original stories as you please, then make magnificent movies.
Serkan went on to explain his 4 favourite directors, due to their essential methods of working and their movies. First, there’s Alfred Hitchcock, then David Lean, Sergio Leone, and Steven Spielberg. After all, Alfred and all the other great directors say the best part of cinema is writing, so if somebody writes, they can become a movie director with lots and lots of it. But Serkan doesn’t just write and direct, he also produces. I had to talk to him about that next.
HNMAG: Why do you take all the jobs together? Do you find it makes filmmaking easier or harder?
Serkan Aktash: A very important part to the filmmaker and producer is money. You have to find enough money to make movies, and because if you don’t have any money, you can’t make any movie. This is not invented for the short movies, but for the feature project, and so the money is so essential for the movies as producer and also writer. But you don’t need any money to write as a writer because you just survive in the world. But as a writer and director, you have to eat, cast, producer, design. You need to have everything for a production, and so you need a producer and producers always need money. This is fact and we can’t deny it but sometimes less budget sometimes with talented writers and directors can make magnificent movies. This comes from amateur soil or spirit of amateurs.
HNMAG: And besides your own work in filmmaking, have you worked with other teams before?
Serkan Aktash: I am also an editor, sometimes I was costume designer in my movies because of less budget.
HNMAG: Can we expect any features from you in the future?
Serkan Aktash: I haven’t made my feature project yet, but I am trying to make my feature project for 1 year, and I believe I will make it next summer in August. This is my estimate, maybe September, beginning after Fall. I believe because I can find a producer who can fund the project. We discussed the project, and I will make my feature project this summer and I believe it will be released end of December or beginning of next year.
HNMAG: And how did you start as a filmmaker?
Serkan Aktash: It comes from my childhood, and my interest is sci-fi since I was a kid. I watched movies over and over again, and especially sci-fi, fantasy, also cartoons and Japanese anime. But mostly movies, and I used to buy DVD’s from the movie stores. I love watching movies but the first impact was when I was 16, this is so essential because this was the first time I watched a movie in the theatre. It of course was a Turkish movie, and it was magnificent. After the movie, I put my head on the pillow and said, “I will become writer and director!” and this is the first time I made the decision in my life.
HNMAG: What do you like best about the Canadian film industry?
Serkan Aktash: I like James Cameron, and he affected me with the Terminator movie series, and Aliens. Also Rambo II, after watching it, I made a project that was an action and war story. Denis Villeneuve who directed Dune, he got magnificent movies made. Incendies is magnificent, I’d watch it over and over again. He’s not only a magnificent writer and director but he also loves his talent as a writer. Now he’s just a director, but I believe he can write magnificent stories and he’s good as a Canadian. Another director is Xavier Dolan, and he has a talent, I love his work. I remember Continuum, I think it is a magnificent tv series, Canada has magnificent opportunities for writer, and director and also producer to grow. Canada, I think, has cinema that is so essential in the world.
Serkan also believes Canada has their own voice in the world with cinema, and he explained by bringing up his history being a science student and brought up an old scientific term we all have heard: H2O. Despite Hydrogen being flammable and Oxygen feeding flame, the two make water when coming together. Serkan said how water is different from the elements despite coming from it. He then concluded with, “Canada has their own voice in the world, because of the chemistry.”
Serkan loves Canadian writers and directors and I can’t wait to see what he makes in Canada should he ever swing by. As long as the States remain interested in us and continue coming up to make content, we’ll have lots of fantastic stories coming out of this little big town of ours.