Thanks to Çelebi employees…
Çelebi employees, managers included, not only did their normal jobs but also worked with us after hours, sometimes until the middle of the night. The subject we were shooting was extraordinary and so too was the atmosphere at the airport; but in my opinion what was even more extraordinary was the support and performance of the Çelebi team.
A film about Çelebi Holding drew highly favorable reactions from viewers when it was shown at the company's 45th year banquet on July 5th. The film's director, Ömhur Kaynak, however says he was even more impressed by the process of creating the film because it gave him a chance to observe teamwork in action Çelebi-style. Çelebice's questions to Mr Kaynak and his replies are presented here.
Çelebice: Could you tell us about the preparations before the actual shooting got under way?
Ömhur Kaynak: I've been shooting corporate promotional films for seventeen years. I want to say first of all that in our working with Çelebi Holding, we encountered a degree of support unlike anything we've ever seen in any other company in Turkey. While we were still at the scenario development stage, we took part in an orientation in which the people we were working with answered each and every one of our questions despite their own very heavy workloads. They made an effort to understand exactly what we wanted to do. The preparatory stage went very well indeed, such that even they were surprised how much we were on top of the subject when the filming began. In their own words, we had come to understand what it was they did. That of course made our own work easier. Çelebi consists of a very warm and hardworking team. During the shooting we worked at both the Atatürk and the Antalya airports. The support we received at both stations was incredible. We completed all the shooting in twenty days and post-production took about a month. When the 2-3 week pre-production phase is factored in, we worked together intensively for about two and a half months.
Çelebice: What was the size of your production team?
Ömhur Kaynak: There were only twelve people in our film crew. That was because we were going to be shooting in a customs-free zone and getting permission for each crewmember was not only hard but took quite a bit of time as well. A crew that small actually made things a little difficult for us but we were asked to work with as small a crew as was feasibly possible. It was something of a daunting task for us but with the support of Çelebi management and personnel, we completed the shooting.
Çelebice: What impressed you most before, during, and after the filming?
Ömhur Kaynak: I have to say it was the ability of Çelebi employees to exercise initiative on every issue. No matter what we asked for, they did everything they could to provide it to the best of their abilities at that moment. I think the ability to assume responsibility and exercise initiative contributes greatly to Çelebi's success: its employees work very methodically.
The good relations that Çelebi employees have with the State Airport Agency and with other firms working at the airports was of great benefit in the filming we did on location there. We had not the slightest difficulty where obtaining permission was concerned: nobody ever said "no" to Çelebi and we encountered not a single hindrance.
Çelebice: Was there anything that you wanted during the filming but couldn't get?
Ömhur Kaynak: Yes there was. We wanted some shots of the runways in the rain and of wet tarmac. Would you believe that with rain falling all over İstanbul not a drop landed at the airport? Concurrent with this Antalya was suffering from severe flooding but by the time we were ready to shoot down there, it had stopped raining.
Çelebice: Not all of our employees have had a chance to see the film yet.
Ömhur Kaynak: The reason for that is that we wanted to complete a couple of shots at Çe-tur that we were unable to fit in at the time. We were under a commitment to have the film ready for the July 5th banquet and we did. Also the new warehouse had not yet commenced operation at that time and there were a couple of shots from there that we wanted to include as well. All of these revisions were completed after July 5th and when the film is ready, the final version will be shown to personnel.
Çelebice: What can you tell us about the film's story?
Ömhur Kaynak: Actually there are two films. The first is about the holding company and is concerned with its past and present and with its subsidiary companies.
In doing the second film, which is about Çelebi Ground Handling, we took a different approach because its target audience is people who actually work in the sector. For this reason, we didn't have to explain to them what the aviation industry was and could focus instead on the things that makes Çelebi different from others active in the sector. We kept the narration short and worked more with clips. But we did try and show every aspect of Çelebi's operations and, consequently, what the Çelebi difference is. I thought that the agreement between the background music and the images on screen was very impressive. The music was specifically composed for both films. When music and image come together so effectively they make the subject very appealing and there's really not much left for me to do. A DVD edition of the film is also being prepared for use in Turkey and abroad.
Çelebice: What can you tell us about the next stage?
Ömhur Kaynak: We working on the DVD editions of the films. The DVD will contain menus, sub-menus, supplementary information menus, special features, and language and subtitle support. These DVDs will be useful not only to Çelebi Holding but also to Çelebi Ground Handling and other companies. Production of the Çelebi DVD is to begin in September and will take about three months to complete.
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