Projects, Festivals and Awards: We Asked M. Çağatay Türkmen!

1. Hello Cagatay. Can you briefly talk about yourself and your previous projects?

Hello, I'm Mustafa Çağatay Turkmen. I am currently a senior student at the Department of Radio, Television and Cinema. I am a person who has been involved with cinema since childhood. I have been producing short films and projects since I came to school. Our horror movie called "The Outer Door", which we made when we started school, won the first prize and gave us great motivation. However, me and my teammates continued to produce projects. Then we shot our project called “Who Are You?” and sent it to festivals. The festival journey of our film, which won selections from the festival and is currently in the semi-finals at a festival, continues. Then we shot our next project, our experimental short film “Dasein”, and started it on the festival journey. I have two individual projects that I took after school returned to online education due to the earthquake we experienced. I am currently preparing my films "Artificial Man" and "Chalice" for festivals.

2. Can you tell us about your new project Dasein? What is its subject, where is it positioned for you in your filmography?

Dasein is an experimental short film that started with a spark of an idea and was written by me after reading many articles and researching on the philosophy of being. The film is about the direct journey of existence towards death from the moment it exists. The shooting process was completed successfully by overcoming many difficulties with my teammates. Due to the script of the movie, both our lead actor and the technical team have put forth a great effort by struggling with different difficulties in many ways. I would like to thank everyone who contributed. I can say that his filmography is in the first place for me right now because I can say that it is one of the most successful works we have done in terms of cinematography, sound design and technique.

3.Can you tell us about your future career planning and new projects, if any?

My future career planning is to undertake the scriptwriting and directing of projects whose scenarios are my own, with a high level of storytelling and cinematography. In addition, due to my interest in visual effects and animation, it is among my career plans to bring my own name to the credits of Hollywood films in the future by bringing myself to the highest level I can improve.
 
4. What do you think about the role of festivals in meeting the audience with the movies? What obstacles do you think there are in front of short films meeting the audience and how can these obstacles be overcome? 

First of all, I think that festivals should be reliable and impartial. It is meaningless for films to compete in festivals where the winner is determined. Some institutions and organizations inspecting festivals should increase their inspections on this issue, or if there are no such institutions, steps should be taken immediately in this regard. I think that regular screening days should be held in certain theaters in order to meet the films with the audience and to increase the interest of the audience.
 
5. What would you recommend to your friends who produce short films and are just at the beginning of the road, regarding the process of producing and distributing films? 

I would like to say the following to my friends who will just start producing short films. Don't be afraid of your imagination. They need to be self-confident and fearless in order for the project, which is still in the thinking stage, to emerge. They will form a good team and see how teamwork and challenging tasks can be overcome together. Do not be afraid to produce. Sometimes you have to run before you learn to walk. What I will say to my friends who produce short films is that we need to produce projects out of the ordinary so that we can break this cycle we are stuck in together.