Production
The film had a remarkably long and troubled development history. In a 1992 competition for funding by the Croatian Ministry of Culture, the film was accepted under the working title "Project Libertas". However, personal and political animosities towards the director kept the project in limbo for eight years. By 2000, Bulajić had recruited Ivo Brešan, Mirko Kovač and Feđa Šehović as screenwriters, as well as Vlado Ožbolt as a scenographer, but had not yet decided on the cast. At the time, the film's budget was estimated at HRK 12 million (US$ 1.4 million), and the start of the shooting was planned for late 2000.
The shooting started only in spring 2003, and almost immediately ran into delays and various other problems. Contrary to earlier agreement, the City of Dubrovnik refused to pay for extras' expenses. By May, the shooting was behind schedule due to director's illness and hospitalization, and there were reports - denied by Aleksandar Črček, the film's producer - that the cast and the crew were not being paid.
The financial difficulties ultimately stopped the filming, and the entire project was in serious jeopardy until the Government of Croatia intervened with a HRK 3.6 million financial guarantee that revived the production activities. The filming was finally completed on April 22, 2005, more than two years after the start, and was followed by post-production in Zagreb and Rome.
Read more about this topic: Libertas (film)
Famous quotes containing the word production:
“The growing of food and the growing of children are both vital to the family’s survival.... Who would dare make the judgment that holding your youngest baby on your lap is less important than weeding a few more yards in the maize field? Yet this is the judgment our society makes constantly. Production of autos, canned soup, advertising copy is important. Housework—cleaning, feeding, and caring—is unimportant.”
—Debbie Taylor (20th century)
“By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labor. By proletariat, the class of modern wage laborers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live.”
—Friedrich Engels (1820–1895)
“Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965)