By Dmytro Kniazhechenko
Dmytro Kniazhechenko
When I was growing up in Donetsk, Ukraine, I fell in love with music — that was the first step toward my future in sound design. From my first years of university, I worked at concerts and music venues, and after some time, I got a job at Foley Walkers.
Fast forward to today, and I run an audio post studio in Kyiv called Mad Friends Sound House. We provide post production as well as Foley work. For recording we use the stage at Foley Art, which is our partner studio. I’m writing this piece because I want to share the rich history of film production in Ukraine, what it’s been like working through a war and how you can help bring work to my country.
The Forgotten Foley History
There’s a misconception that Ukrainian cinematography and film production is a recent phenomenon. In truth, it has redeveloped foreign art itself, enriching the global culture and the beauty of its visual language. After all, Ukraine’s earliest sound movie, Symphony of Donbas (1930), came out only three years after the first sound movie ever, the American film The Jazz Singer.
The USSR viewed sound as one of the most important qualities in films, which means that quite a big focus was placed on assuring adequate conditions for it. A sound studio was usually a place of about 1,300 square feet with a massive top-to-bottom screen located on one of the walls. There, sound engineers were able to shut the world down in quite a literal sense, playing with blackout curtains by closing and opening them up for desired acoustic authenticity. As legacies of our masters, we sound artists today not only value those traditions but work in the same buildings — closest to our hearts being the Dovzhenko Film Studio, which was built in 1925. When Ukraine gained its independence, we couldn’t shoot as many productions as before. Some of our studios were rented out, while others were used for an underground scene or for storage of some sort…or forgotten entirely.
Ukrainian Foley art can be traced to the late 2000s, and that is when the studios Foley Art and Foley Walkers were founded to serve the international market. Both studios work on 70 projects per year, and the quality is high. In fact, Bogdan Zavarzin from Foley Walkers, a dear colleague of mine, won a Golden Reel Award in 2021 for his movie The Ultimate Playlist of Noise. I think it’s safe to say that the Ukrainian Foley industry is an essential piece of the global film production workflow.
That History Shaped My Life
I owe my career to the rich history of my predecessors. It’s exactly why the practice of Foley outsourcing has gained so much popularity. Simply put, Foley studios can be a costly part of post, and oftentimes there is a lack of local resources and experienced and competent talent, which is where we come in.
Today, I am representing Foley Art and Mad Friends. Foley Art was founded in 2008 by two enthusiasts who wanted to uncover the secret of great filmmaking. One is my close friend Victor Shcheglov. Currently he is helping the army, so I’m taking care of his studio, which is located within the Dovzhenko Film Studio. It is here where a total of 120 films were made, including Unorthodox, 47 Meters Down 2, The Man Who Sold His Skin and many others. Mad Friends, in turn, is a fairly new studio that started in 2019. Its main focus is to help with on international post production workloads.
First Days of War
War came to us exactly six hours after “Shift’s over” echoed through our studio’s halls. In a day’s time, the Russian military nearly reached our facility’s gates. Our crew was forced to leave their work behind and flee Kyiv. They scattered across the country for the next month in hopes of finding a bit of peace. Time went on. Some joined their families in the planting season, some job hunted, and others volunteered in support of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
As soon as Kyiv became relatively safe, we came back home. A soon-to-be-finished film awaited us. We placed all our thoughts and final strengths in that film. Due to the full absence of public transportation, we lived directly on the Foley stage, and our daily routine consisted of waking up at 7am, having a basic breakfast and getting straight to work, attentively obeying each air raid’s signal for rapid evacuation. Soon our project was done, and we heard a bittersweet “Shift’s over” once more, hoping for a better tomorrow.
We notified our partners that our crew was back in the heart of our country again…safe and ready to create sound magic. It was discouraging, though understandable, to receive calls questioning whether we’d have to leave everything behind once more. “What if your capital is invaded again?” People were afraid to take a chance. In truth, none of us were sure what tomorrow would bring. Before this, we completed four feature-length films a month in addition to multiple library recordings for games and television series. Now, we were strapped for work.
We needed a solution, so we put our heads together and came up with a great plan. We called for the support and partnership of our international colleagues and friends. In case things got worse, they’d be able to pick up a project instantly so our customers wouldn’t have to worry about any potential project setback.
We Will Rejoice Once More
Through months of anxiety, fear and sorrow, we’ve found dear partners that have our backs in case we need them. We have a clear plan of action in case of Kyiv’s reinvasion. Our government has soothed our nerves too, with embassies reopening, allies helping in every corner of Ukraine, and our armed forces inspiring our pride.
Our nation is strong, and we can withstand this. Our army shields us, our people keep the economy up, and our cultural craft will not be demolished. With this strength, our studio can breathe freely again, ready for future projects.
Despite our enthusiasm about the future, what we need most right now are clients and partners that will help us not just survive, but thrive once again. The best thing the world’s filmmaking community can do right now is send projects and backup our way.
I hope that I have succeeded in bringing awareness of Ukraine’s beauty and power in international filmmaking. The biggest thing is to please reach out to me and my fellow Ukrainian Foley artists and make us an offer we can’t refuse.
We are stronger united.
Photos: The Foley artist is Danylo Horokhov and Foley mixer Illia Pope appears as well.
Dmytro Kniazhechenko is CEO/Foley mixer at Mad Friends Sound House in Kyiv, Ukraine. He has more than eight years of experience in sound production. He worked as a Foley editor on the limited Netflix series Unorthodox. You can contact him via their website or via hello@mad-friends.com.
