DANYI

BALINT

01 STORY

As a kid, I was never bored. I could always come up with more stuff to create than I ever had time for. I was in a band, I was producing electronic music, I was doing English acting group (mind this is in Hungary), I was shooting videos, and I was editing Family Guy reels combined with Eminem and Linkin Park. When I saw all my friends handing in the application for medical school, I felt like I can’t give up creating and bury myself in the books.

So I started film school in Budapest in 2012. The course covered everything from scriptwriting, storyboarding, directing to lighting equipment, cinematography, editing, even motion graphics, and colour grading. To begin with, I was interested to try everything so I ended up taking part in more than 20 short films. For my diploma movie, ‘Run’, I have specialised in directing and cinematography. I loved it and I was really passionate but I didn’t quite know how to approach the industry. I wanted to have all the fun while being financially secure. I was certain that I needed more input so I decided to move to the UK and try myself at the University of Glasgow.

After a 2 months teaser of Curry’s PC World, I registered my own video-production brand and started working as a freelancer. Fortunately, the combination of being a hard worker and having a background in film really helped me to get ahead. While going to uni, I naturally found my way to the community of the Prince’s Trust, the Elevator UK, and the RBS Accelerator. The environment and my mentors taught me about business development, sales, marketing, branding, and client relations.

Through my version of the entrepreneurial journey, I became more and more comfortable with facing real challenges. I started to understand how goalsetting can put me into a powerful position. I realised that I want to spend my time in an enthusiastic high-energy team that shares my passion and ambition. Ideally, I am able to use every project to get one step closer to being a world-class filmmaker. If I am not the one who’s learning, I want to make sure that I can pass on my tools and strategies to help others grow.

The benefit of beginning my career as a freelancer is that I am confident in handling a project from start to finish. Even when I am managing a crew or outsourcing a specific task, I have an idea about what needs to be done. This includes all the parts of the production, but sales and client relationships too. Two years ago, I had the opportunity to start specialising when I joined the STV team and that’s the path I want to go down on. For the next few years, my primary focus is going to be conventional advert cinematography and directing but I’ll keep an eye out for what opportunities VR and augmented reality have to offer.

02 SKILLS