Daniel Young: Pinprick

The shooting of Pinprick started on 10th March in Erzsébettelek, in a villa in Buda. A girl gets the swindler Ervin Nagy hidden here in a wardrobe, until he sets his eye on the girl’s freshly divorced, and still very pretty mother.

Daniel Young was born in Switzerland and came to Hungary coincidentally: he had lived in the United States, London and Moscow, before he came here. As he has many friends in Hungary (for example Roland Vranik and Nimród Antal), it was no question he would make his first feature here. Moreover he shot his first work entitled Roarsch in Hungary with Nimród Antal in the leading role, who portrayed an IFOR soldier. The film was photographed by Imre Juhász, the cinematographer of Panic, who lives in Los Angeles and for whom it was also the first short film. 

Laura Greenwood and Rachael Blake

Daniel Young studied history and psychology in Austin, Texas.”I wanted to be a director, and I got into NYU, but it would have cost a lot of money, so I went to state college instead. The film department was very good that time, Richard Linklater and Robert Rodriguez also conducted lectures in filmmaking, but I did not study from them, as I wanted to learn something I thought I really liked.” – said the director to film.hu.

While we were driving towards the villa in Erzsébettelek, producer Ágnes Havas told us that this time a storyboard had also been made, which is rather unusual in Hungary. The director insisted on this rather expensive, and unusual procedure in case of low budget films, but now Ágnes Havas also understands it was worth it, as it helped their work to a large extent. The storyboard is so interesting and looks so marvellous that Prinpick will probably be published as a comic book.

Ervin Nagy

The cameraman is Martin Szecsanov, who also photographed Lora and whose first short film entitled Lopott ritmus, Hipi-hopi(Stolen Rhythm) was presented at the 39th Hungarian Film Week. Pinprick is shot on 16 mm film and in 1:2,35 or as it is called CinemaScope aspect ratio, which is quite rare in Hungary. Post-production will take place in Colorfront, while the offline editing process will be supervised by Daniel in Switzerland.

Daniel Young’s film has been being made for nearly six years: first the Swiss partner joined the project, then the Hungarian Future Films showed much interest, but in the end Skyfilm Studioundertook producing. ”Making of a film never ends. I chose Ervin for this role two years ago. I did not know his films at all, but since then I have seen This I Wish and Nothing More and Szezon. ”Pinprick is a thriller or rather, as the director says a ’social drama-thriller’. ”A film must be personal and the story should be on intimate terms with me. As a matter of fact I wanted to make it obvious that we should be more responsible for our relationships (whether we talk about our partner, our marriage, or parent-child relations). Every second marriage ends in divorce in the United States and in England, and the rates are more or less the same in Hungary. Most relationships could be saved if we lived in a more responsible way, were more thoughtful and less selfish. Probably less families would break up. I wanted to make a film, in which the story, the characters and the scenes stir the audience and make them think.

 
Two women are in the leading roles, which is very unusual of a male writer-director. ”Why do I  want to make a film about women? I have no idea.” – says the director in the lunch break. ”I don’t know why I have always preferred films with female leads. I feel I understand women better, though if you asked my friends, they would probably say the opposite. For me heroines are much more fascinating, and find it easier to identify myself with them. But there are also some strong male characters in this film, as Ervin is a mysterious guy, who fascinates these two women actually.”Pinprick is the first English speaking film made in Hungarian production. It will be released dubbed in Hungarian cinemas. The producers would of course like to distribute the film to theatres abroad. Pinprick will be displayed in Switzerland and negotiations are carried on with English partners and distributors.
 
Anita Libor