Crafting Fantasies: Maria Shevtsova’s Journey from Ballroom to Big Screen

If, like MetFilm School BA (Hons) Practical Filmmaking graduate, Maria Shevtsova, you want to learn the skills to write, produce, direct and star in your own film, 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 on hand to guide you every step of the way.

About to start her new role as Lead Creative Producer and Head of Production at independent production company, Disauthority, Maria talks about how studying at MetFilm School London helped her network and collaborate on her graduation project, “Elegancia.”

Can you tell us about your graduation project, “Elegancia,” and what inspired you to create this film?

I initially envisioned “Elegancia” as a documentary about the exploitation of children in professional ballroom dancing. Choosing this topic for my grad project felt like a full circle moment as I felt ready to talk about my traumatic experience through a medium I actually enjoy. However, through the development process, I realised that I wanted to focus on the healing power of imagination and fantasy, which often got me through my days of dancing and have shaped my love for fantasy as a genre. This transformed the project into a semi-autobiographical meta fantasy fiction film.

I wanted “Elegancia” to feel like a toxic fairy tale that was my childhood, with its theatricality and poppy colours and a complete inversion of adult-child relationships.

The visuals in “Elegancia” are striking. How did you collaborate with your team to create the film’s aesthetic?

I am not a technically skilled director, so I was fortunate to be working with a DP and fellow student Tran Anh Zwee who I had collaborated with before both as a producer and director, as he could translate the stream of consciousness of my ideas into a clear and striking look.

We were heavily inspired by the theatricality, vibrancy and carefully-curated style of Old Hollywood musicals such as “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) and by the works of Powell and Pressburger, especially “The Red Shoes” (1948) and “The Tales of Hoffman” which focus on ballet and opera. We also found similar style and inspiration in Soviet fairytale films, such as “Cinderella” (1947), “Snow Queen” (1967) and “Vasilisa the Beautiful” (1940).

Our shooting style was a combination of long shots with careful staging and sensibilities of old-school filming, as well as employing the flexibility and immersive feel of extensive steadicam work.

Another crucial element of Old Hollywood we employed was a Technicolor-inspired look, as the boldness of the colours was crucial to the essence of the fantasy world of “Elegancia”. The DP and I worked with our colourist and MetFilm graduate Zain Haris as well as production, HMU and costume designers on ensuring what we capture on camera would serve us well in the grade.

As we wanted to shoot “Elegancia” at a studio with set builds, production design was a crucial part of the project’s visual look. This was my first studio shoot, which was both exciting and intimidating. I was keen on creating a believable, but highly theatrical world. I would like to thank MetFilm for putting us in touch with Garden Studios which allowed us to use their facilities at student rates.

My costume designer, Amada Piedra, and her team achieved a miracle of designing, making and hiring 35+ costumes for the film. The sheer theatricality and brightness of the costumes was the cherry on top of the equally vibrant production design.

I also collaborated closely with the hair and makeup designer, Grace Davis, to ensure the looks matched the costumes and also reflected the characters and their arcs.

You wrote, produced, cast, directed, and starred in “Elegancia”. How did you manage these multiple roles, and what were some of the challenges you faced?

Despite my disdain for the concept of “auteurs”, I embraced this approach with “Elegancia”. Due to the intimately personal nature of this project, I felt I could only trust myself in bringing it to life.

However, it was only achievable due to me having a strong support system comprising of my co-producer and another MetFilm graduate Marcus Hundsnes, my My MetFilm School project adviser Lara Zeidan, my development producer Sarah Fielding and my supervising producer Nick Hampson.

Screenwriting is not my strong suit and I knew this would be the mostchallenging aspect of the process for me. It was the feedback and support from the team that made this process more enjoyable than daunting. And for the final draft I was lucky to get a script consultancy session with a BAFTA-winning screenwriter Aleks Sykulak which allowed me to level up the script even further.

My choreographer Monica Nicolaides made the intimidating process of revisiting my dance background intuitive and meaningful. Monica was able to translate my inspirations and wish for a cathartic and liberating feel into impactful solo and group choreographies that enhanced each scene and character development.

I went into pre-production knowing that planning and preparation was of the essence if I were to perform the dual role of director and lead actor. The extensive rehearsals and effective communication with my development producer, choreographer, DP and 1st AD, Josie Connor, significantly helped the process on set. However, with my director and producer roles keeping me extremely busy I had to heavily rely on their opinion of the quality of the shots. Whilst I am happy with the footage we got, the process was too stressful for me to want to repeat for a while.

It is also important to note that I couldn’t fully switch off my producer brain on set and while it helped me stay on top of things like making sure we were getting enough publicity content and that urgent problems were being solved, it was incredibly mentally and physically challenging, and I feel that I occasionally resorted to micromanaging.

I believe that it was primarily my skills of stress-management and “performer mode” I learned during my years of dancing that allowed me to push through with relative grace, which is another silver lining to my childhood experience.

How important has networking and making connections been during your time at MetFilm School in assembling your team for “Elegancia?”

Networking and collaboration is the cornerstone of this industry and this project was no exception.

My team consisted of people from my course, recent MetFilm graduates and crew I have worked with on external projects who in turn recommended other crew. I also employed online networking and posted callouts on IG on such profiles as UK Film Work, Pro Film Gigs and Loving Your Work.

And while a bit overwhelming, it was an amazing experience to work with such a big crew consisting of students and seasoned professionals because the sheer amount of people was instrumental in us managing to cope with the demands of the shoot.

Looking back on the entire process, what was the most rewarding part of creating “Elegancia” and what did you learn about yourself as a filmmaker through this project?

Elegancia was my biggest and most ambitious project to date and I have learned a tremendous amount in the process of making the film. The creation of this film was an invaluable experience, however now I am very content to go back to solely producing until another irresistible and deeply personal project comes along. It was also a very cathartic experience to tell such a personal story on my own terms and to be able to rediscover joy in movement and also to briefly come back to my performing roots.

I am beyond grateful that despite the intensity of the process, both the performers and crew were satisfied with the experience, and I am already working with several of them on my upcoming projects, fostering long term collaborations.

What are your next steps after graduation? Any upcoming projects or goals you’d like to share?

After graduation, I am joining Marcus Hundsnes’s production company Disauthority in the official capacity as Lead Creative Producer and Head of Production. “Elegancia” was our third collaboration and we just wrapped production of our fourth project, “The Witch Trials”, a proof of concept for a historical mini series. We have a slate of long form genre projects in early funded development, with the first feature scheduled to go into production in 2025.

• Maria Shevtsova studied BA Practical Filmmaking. This degree is available at our London and Berlin campus.
• Find out more about our full range of BA Degrees at our upcoming Open Days.