Projects ＞ Motion Picture ＞ Television
Television
Since Hungary is a small enough country for everyone in the film industry to know everyone -at least those who matter- in this way each producer calls in their favorite directors to where they are working at that time, and directors call in their own “proven” cinematographers, production designers, production managers, etc. and it works vice-versa. Thus, in Hungary, in the case of a creator, the “overlap” between the individual film areas is quite large. Once someone enters the film’s world, it will almost automatically bring them to work in other areas of the film industry, such as commercials and television productions.
It was no different in my case either. I received several job requests to make television productions as well. Here are some of them as a sneak peek.
Projects
Weekly Thunder
Late Night Show
Original title: Heti Dörgés*
Position: Production Designer
TV Channel: Comedy Central
(Viacom CBS Networks International Hungarian subsidiary)
Year: 2019
About the Show: An entertaining television show on the Hungarian Comedy Central channel. Hosted by Géza Villám**. The show is structured similarly to the “Weekend Update” block on Last Week Tonight With John Oliver and Saturday Night Live.
**The host's last name (“Villám”) means lightning in English.
*The word “dörgés” which means “thunder” in English, also has a double meaning in Hungarian. On the one hand, it generally means the loud sound we hear when there is lightning, but “Mi a dörgés?” (“What’s the thunder?”) is also an expression they use when they jokingly want to ask one another to see “What’s up?” “How is it going?”
Who’s Asking
Quiz Show
Original title: Kérdező
Position: Production Designer
TV Channel: Viasat 3
(Hungary's 3rd largest commercial channel)
Year: 2018
About the Show: Based on the format of the “Who's Asking?” show, which has found success in various countries around the world, it is a knowledge-based competition hosted by Gábor Gundel-Takács. In VIASAT3’s new generation show, all of Hungary can ask questions -the bike courier, the hairdresser or even the guy next door! This is a quiz show in which not only the question is important, but also who asked it, how and where they asked it; the first impression can determine everything.
Dorky Parents
TV Series
Original title: Bogaras Szülők
Position: Production Designer
TV Channel: TV2
(Hungary's largest commercial channel)
Year: 2018
About the Show: It was TV2's weekly self-produced television series that provided an insight into the everyday life of a school’s community. The show was based on the Dutch format De luizen moeder (Lice Mother).
Family Guy
TV Promotion
Position: Production Designer
TV Channel: Comedy Central Production
(Viacom CBS Networks International Hungarian outsourcing)
Year: 2017
About the Show: To announce the new season of Family Guy, Comedy Central unveiled a brilliant video clip in which the voice actors who dubbed the Hungarian voices of the characters of the cult cartoon series dressed up as their characters from the cartoon and sang the theme song of the series in Hungarian.
Coming Around
Sitcom
Original title: Eszméletlen*
Position: Production Designer
TV Channel: Paramount Channel
(Paramount Network is an American basic cable television channel owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks. The network's headquarters are located at the Paramount Pictures studio lot in Los Angeles.)
Year: 2017
About the Show: The Coming Around is a black-humor comedy series consisting of 3-4 minute segments. The story takes place in a hospital room where the protagonist, Géza, lies completely motionless, his entire body wrapped in bandages, in a coma. In reality though, he sees and hears everything that is happening around him, and he also has a sharp remark for everything.
The creators are Oscar-winning director Kristóf Deák, Oscar-winning editor Manó Csillag and Oscar-winning cinematographer Róbert Maly.
*The word “eszméletlen” (“unconscious” in English) has a double meaning in Hungarian. On the one hand, it means being in an unaware state of mind, but it can be used as slang as well, such as “Wow!” or also if one wants to greatly exaggerate something (e.g. “unconsciously expensive” = extremely expensive).
Before
Design Vision
After
The Cube
Quiz Show
Original title: A Kocka
Position: Construction Manager
TV Channel: TV2
(Hungary's largest commercial channel)
Year: 2017
About the Show: A game show based on a license agreement. The Hungarian version of the show followed the rules used in the original British show of the same name, “The Cube.” The host of the game-show was Nóra Ördög. In the Hungarian version, competitors received nine lives at the beginning of the game which they used to complete seven tasks for the top prize of ten million forint.
Freedom Square '89
TV Documentary Show
Original title: Szabadság Tér ‘89
Position: Assistant Art Director
TV Channel: MTV
(Hungarian National Television)
Year: 2013
About the Show: It is about what happened in 1989* and the road that led to the first free elections. Since 1989, a new generation has been born and grown up. Today’s 25-year-olds need to know the difference between “regime change” and “making a change of the regime.”
*At the end of World War II, Soviet troops pushing towards Berlin occupied many countries in Central and Eastern Europe, including Hungary, and “forgot” to go home for over 40 years.
During this time, Hungarian “puppet governments” who served the interests of the Soviet Union led the country, and although they held (occasional) parliamentary elections from time to time, of course people could only vote for one party, the Communist Party, and only for their candidates. If someone disagreed, they were retaliated against. With the weakening and subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union, the way was opened for the occupied countries to regain their independence. In Hungary, this happened in 1989. It was then that the form of government was transformed from a people’s “democracy” to a republic. This is the year of the regime change.
Herofinders
TV Film
Original title: Hőskeresők
Position: Art Director
TV Channel: MTV
(Hungarian National Television)
Year: 2013
About the Show: A satirical film about Hungarian society directed by Bence Miklauzic. The work’s intention was to show the ambivalent attitude of the people living in the Hungarian countryside towards the change of regime.
Hacktion
TV Show
Position: Art Director
TV Channel: MTV
(Hungarian National Television)
Year: 2011-2012
About the Show: Under great secrecy, the Infrastructure Protection Squad is set up in Hungary to prevent hacker attacks. The squad is fighting to get a super-secret gadget that could paralyze the entire computer banking system if it gets into the wrong hands.
Hacktion, a self-produced production of Hungarian Television, is a Hungarian television action-film series directed by Kristóf Deák (Oscar-winner), Dénes Orosz and Gergely Fonyó.
Season 1
Season 2
Season 2
Season 3
Season 3
Season 3