‘Vizontele’ remade by children pursuing filmmaking

ANKARA

The child filmmakers of the Cinema School for Children in Ankara have remade a famous Turkish film by Yılmaz Erdoğan, “Vizontele.”

The school is run by producer Esra Özge Aktürk, cartoonist and producer Varol Yaşaroğlu and actor Emre Turanlı.

Aktürk said that the Cinema School for Children was opened three years ago for children to receive education and training to meet their interests and teach them cinema and television, adding that the school provided education in eight branches in a period of six months.

She said that the educations are organized under the classes for scenario, camera, directing, acting, poster designing, dubbing, film music, costumes, decor and drone flying. After being trained on all these, at the end of the program, children shot a film and sold their own tickets.

Aktürk said that the cinema school made great contributions to children, with hyperactive children also having curbed their problems as they learned to stand still for long hours in order to prevent shaking the camera.

“The effect of cinema on children is unquestionable. It makes them very happy. It increases their interest in education that they become ready to shoot professional videos and show them through social media. Following a six-month cinema education, the students determine a film and shoot it in Istanbul and Ankara. Then this film is released in a movie theater and its tickets are sold,” she said.

Aktürk said that they recently finished the six-month cinema education for the students of the Ankara Göktürk Primary School. She said that they reached the director and actor Erdoğan and got his permission to remake his film “Vizontele.”

“We also got in touch with the owners of a 1957 model classical bus, which was used in the film. They sent the bus to Ankara for the film. The children shot the bus scenes with a drone,” she added.

Aktürk said that the film was set in Ümitköy district.

“A team of 33 children took part in ‘Vizontele.’ Twenty of the children acted and worked behind the camera. They worked as cameramen and also as directors, and the art director children designed costumes and decorations similar to those in the original film. They designed their own cinema tickets. They participated in the editing process with editing instructors. Watching the roles of the main actors in the film, the child filmmakers tried to carry similar performances to the screen. The filming took 10 days and the original script of ‘Vizontele’ was used in the film,” she added.

The film gala will be organized on June 10 in Ankara, she said, adding that Erdoğan and other famous figures of Turkish cinema were invited to the event.

[HH] Goal is feature film

Aktürk said that old Turkish films shot by the children were previously released, adding, “We worked on Yeşilçam films in the first two years because we wanted to show the cinema culture of our country to the new generation. Veteran actors told us that they would support us and come to the galas. This year, for the first time, we are out of Yeşilçam and shot a new film. The revenues of the film tickets will go to children in need as part of a campaign titled ‘One Ticket, One Wish’ that the school started.”

She said that their goal for the 2019-2020 education year is to give education to 1,000 children in Istanbul and Ankara.
“Our biggest dream is to make a feature film with a team of our children who finished their education. Now we are working on it,” she said.

Following the gala of “Vizontele,” the gala of the other film “Yumurcağın Tatlı Rüyaları” (Sweet Dreams of a Child) will be held on June 13 in Ankara, while “Hababam Sınıfı” (The Chaos Class) and “Akran Zorbalığı” (Peer Bullying) will be held in Istanbul on June 11 and 12 respectively.