Mitko PanovInterviewed in 2018

With a huge love for the arts, Mitko Panov uses his unique skills to create works of art from behind the lens. Whether it’s America, Poland, Paris, or anywhere around the globe, he is constantly using diversity to bring people together and to draw in people’s attention visually.

What inspired you to work in film as well as higher education?

I love painting and it’s still my favourite pastime. Film is a visual medium and it comes closest to painting, which is why I try to keep my focus on visual storytelling. In general, I prefer images to words and as a teacher I learned that for most of us pictures are more telling than words. After all, scientists say that over 80% of human communication is non-verbal, which is how I start my class sometimes: What are these remaining 80+% made out of?

You studied in Poland. What led you to Paris?

New York Film Academy (NYFA) or more precisely, its founder Jerry Sherlock, who loved Paris and the idea of opening a program there. As a young man he used to run a rent-a-bike business in Paris, along with his girlfriend, and those times remained in his fondest memories. Me in Paris…Well, Jerry called me one day, back in 1998, and asked me if I’d be willing to start up a summer program at Sorbonne.  The year after I came again, this time with Michael Young and we repeated the experience at the American University. The rest is history.

A year after I was asked if i could start a year round program in London, which I couldn’t as I was a full time faculty at UT Austin at the time.  So I stuck to Paris and kept coming back whenever I could.

Having your films aired on so many networks, what do you think is the most important aspect in filmmaking?

There are so many of them I’m not sure I dare to go into it.  Maybe diversity? What I mean is that each filmmaker’s professional trajectory is different, unique and highly individualized. There are no two paths alike, not even in the Hollywood Studio System as we used to know it. Even its founder, DW Griffith was spat out by the very industry he helped to create. If people like these knew the most important aspect in film making, they would have probably continued to make great films to their last.

What do you love most about your job?

Working on set with others. Painting and writing is a solitary job and staging a scene and shooting it is a joint effort of talent and crew coming together. On top of it, if you have experienced, or at least highly motivated individuals in your team, it’s a real treat. No matter how many people are there on the set, they still think and act like one, and that’s a unique phenomenon specific to film-making.

Once I showed the opening shot of Lala Land to my students and said that this is what won them the Oscar. Not individual performances or the story, but the fact that they choreographed the dance scenes in the good old, Fred Astair style, in a single continuous shot. A few hundred highly trained individuals acting as one body for as long as five or more minutes, is always fascinating. Imagine the degree of focus and concentration, and the pleasure when you see that no one made a mistake and was 100%  present. There aren’t many jobs where people experience such a degree of union. That connectedness, the togetherness, it’s a life-transforming experience recognized and admired by filmmakers and audiences alike.

What does a typical day look like for you?

Picasso said that inspiration plays a role and it does come, but it has to find you at your work place. So basically I get to work as early as I can and sit at my desk. When I write, I do it every day except for weekends, same time, same hours. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of paperwork I also have to deal with  on my level of producing, which is less fun so I compensate it with discipline and strong will.

Why do you think New York Film Academy (NYFA) is distinct from other study-abroad film program providers?

Because I participated in its creation. Just joking! I may not be a full time employee, but I’m still in a way personally connected to NYFA. I was its first employee or at least the first faculty member (Jerry hired a secretary before I joined).

Seeing a school come to life within a month or so, out of a corner-office with a mahogany desk and a few broken souvenir-cameras, then seeing campuses with thousands of students coming in and out each day within a couple of decades is a unique privilege which makes NYFA distinct to me. It is living proof that there’s something about the program that works well or maybe very well. The study abroad programs came later but they still pioneered something that was soon to become well seen and widespread. Other film programs followed, but NYFA was there from the beginning, breaking new grounds. Not even Jerry (the founder) believed that it would do so well.

What is the best thing students gain from studying abroad at New York Film Academy (NYFA)?

Film education. They learn a whole lot within very short period of time which doesn’t happen in traditional film school setting. Then, probably because of that the  “total immersion” approach ( another one of Jerry’s inventions ). They go through a bonding experience which they remember for the rest of their lives. It’s kind of an initiation into filmmaking which is memorable.

How do you constantly continue to improve your program and the experience you provide to students?

It’s a creative process itself which works spontaneously and intuitively. It was that way when I started and to me it is still the same. I get terribly bored when I have to repeat things, so I constantly keep myself open to new possibilities.

In the recent years I had to teach the same class twice in a row, in front of a different group of students. Adults and Teens. I found that terrifying so I turned things around. Even if the goal and the end result remain same, the classes and approach were pretty different. What changes things is also the students: each group perceives things differently and they deserve a different, customized approach. Each class of students is different and each individual student gets a different approach tailored to his own quality.

What advice would you give to prospective students wanting to work in the film industry?

Jerry Sherlock wanted the students to learn from making films rather than auditing lectures. He wanted a program which is hands-on and that is exactly what we did. Following the same logic, if you want to work in the industry you continue to make films within your abilities and as much as you can. Before you get hired you hire yourself and while you wait for your break through film you keep shooting.

What makes Paris a great place to study film?

Paris is a film capital of the world, a city with the largest number of movie theaters where you can see titles which you can’t see anywhere else. To a great extent that is because of the cultural politics of France which subsidies the exhibitors as well as filmmakers. In other words, they don’t have to worry so much about the commercial success of each film which results with lots of great and unique films which you can see theatrically there and nowhere else. On top of it is the great scenery, which adds immensely to production values. Wherever you turn the camera, you have an angle and it’s a great one. Next to NYC, it’s definitely one of the most photogenic urban environments in the world.

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