Bringing stories to life with Anna Boronea (BA Practical Filmmaking)

Now working as a freelance producer and director, Anna Boronea shares how studying at MetFilm School London helped her develop filmmaking skills and talks about her latest creative projects, The Oracle and The Time Between Us.

When did you know filmmaking was the career for you? And how did this lead you to MetFilm School for your BA Degree?

I first started making my own short films as a teenager together with my friends, and I quickly realised how much I enjoyed the process – working in a team to bring a story to life.

After graduating with a Business Administration degree in Bucharest, I decided I wanted to pursue filmmaking more seriously, which led me to discover MetFilm School and the BA Practical Filmmaking degree. It’s been a great environment to develop as a filmmaker, both in honing my skills and making long-lasting connections. I’m grateful to still collaborate with many of my former colleagues who have already achieved so much in their careers as artists!

How would you describe your style as a Producer/Director? (i.e. what projects or stories are you drawn to?)

I resonate a lot with stories that have an emotional heart, and that connect with the audience, which led me to direct and produce a lot of drama, psychological, and sci-fi projects.

I also love adding a surreal and magical realist edge to my films, and even playing with time, to create either a feeling of nostalgia or curiosity for the future; time is a big theme in a few of my films so far: Rewind, Repeat, The Time Between Us and For Better or Worse. I think time is so fascinating because we all have meaningful memories linked to different moments of our lives – and one of my goals as a filmmaker is to make the audience go on an emotional journey and tap into those personal memories, through the lives of the characters on screen.

Working with the Garden Studios team after graduating, you’ve recently helped to develop their VP for Producers Course. How did this come about?

After graduating from MetFilm School, I started working as a virtual production coordinator at Garden Studios, having worked on nearly 60 productions, ranging from adverts, music videos, documentaries, and narrative projects. After almost two lovely years full of invaluable experience, I’ve moved into freelancing as a producer and director.

However, I’ve been fortunate to still collaborate with the team at Garden Studios in developing and delivering their newest series of VP courses aimed at producers. Being the main decision-makers of any production, we felt it was essential to familiarise them with the technology and the advantages it can offer. It’s been very exciting teaching this alongside Mark Pilborough-Skinner, the Head of VP at Garden Studios, together with the rest of the team and industry guest speakers.

And from creating these courses, what’s one thing you wish every producer knew about Virtual Production?

I believe it would benefit a lot of producers to see Virtual Production as another tool they can reach out to and use when planning their productions.

For the right project, VP can lead to more efficient production schedules, reduced risk on set due to working in a fully controlled environment, less work for post VFX, and overall, a more sustainable production.

Your latest short, The Oracle, uses Unreal Engine/3D Modelling to bring the world to life – what are some of the challenges that come with this tech?

The Oracle, co-directed with Stefano Moscone, is my latest project: a sci-fi/experimental short on the topic of generative AI, from the stylised point of view of AI itself.

It felt right that a film about AI had to use the latest technology available, and perhaps the very future of filmmaking: virtual production. This tech enabled us to create surreal environments rendered in real time, in-camera and allowed our actor to visualise and interact with these environments, which would have been impossible on green screen.

VP requires a high level of technical expertise and experience, which is why one of the biggest challenges is finding a team with the right skills.  Working with the team of technical artists and VP technicians at Garden Studios has been fantastic and they’ve been an amazing help in bringing the world of the Oracle to life!

And how do these VP elements influence your writing process? Is it different from more ‘traditional’ script processes?

I’d say virtual production definitely offers so many creative possibilities and solutions for ideas that are often dismissed in the writing stage of a script, as being too ambitious. You can create amazing in-camera transitions (like the walls of a room dissolving, revealing a colourful galaxy behind) and set your scene in a location that either doesn’t exist, or is too difficult or dangerous to reach be it a rainforest, a desert, or the Moon.

There are certain limitations to what you can do with VP, but consulting with a virtual production specialist when writing your script can spark new ideas or even solve logistical challenges!

Can you share any ‘favourite memories’ from the process of making The Oracle?

One of the highlights of the project was working with Tedroy Newell (Dune 2, Bridgerton 2), the lead actor who plays the Oracle in the film. He’s an exceptional actor with great physicality, and it’s been exciting to craft together a character who doesn’t speak at all yet possesses the entire knowledge of the universe.

It was also my first experience co-directing and co-writing, and even though I have collaborated with Stefano on a few projects before, it was my first time directing together. It’s been amazing blending our filmmaking experience and ideas, and our shared love for magical realism shaped the vision for the whole story and made everything come together.

Finally, with The Oracle now on the festival circuit, where can our audience catch it next?

The Oracle has just screened at Kingston International Film Festival, before this, we’ve had the pleasure to screen at BIFA-qualifying Sunderand Shorts, Romford Film Festival, and Wild Indie Sci-Fi Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Micro Short.

We’re still halfway through the festival circuit so we hope it will be screened again soon in London and the rest of the UK. We’ll announce any updates on our Instagram pages, @annaboronea and @stefano.moscone!

• If, like MetFilm School BA Practical Filmmaking Graduate, Anna Boronea, you have a passion for making films, but you haven’t secured your university place, it’s not too late.
• You can still apply for one of the many creative, career-focussed Undergraduate Courses starting this year at MetFilm School London or MetFilm School Leeds. Both have Clearing hotlines and friendly, helpful admissions teams to guide you every step of the way.