Ram Zekirovski walked into Victoria University’s Professional Course in Executive Screen Production with an idea for a film and the life rights to the story, and walked out with a team which one year later is close to announcing a biopic movie deal.
Zekirovski admission knew hardly anything about producing when he walked into the course. “I really had very minimal production knowledge. I was more in music production,” he said.
A classical pianist and audio engineer, he had worked at Trackdown Studios (where he worked on Happy Feet and the ABC, but with producing “I had no idea of where to begin or what it entailed. It worked in my favour, it left me open to all aspects of producing a film, rather than just the industry norm.”
His first break came when he attended the 2010 Screen Producers Association of Australia Fringe Conference. “They referred me to Victoria University”.
He also met Shaun Miller, a lawyer and one of the lecturers on the Professional Course in Executive Screen Production.
“I met Shaun Miller at SPAA Fringe, and he recommended that I should get life rights [from the family at the centre of the film]. I did some research, I found out where the family lived in Sydney, had a cup of coffee, and they felt comfortable with me and they signed a life rights agreement with me. Then I did the course and that changed everything,” he said.
What happened was that a number of the industry professionals who present the course became interested in the project, including Jill Hewitt from Moneypenny, Shaun Miller, Stephan Wellink and Pamela Endrina.
“I’ve got no experience in the film industry, the course gave me the confidence to go out and not be afraid.”
To make the project happen, Zekirovski needed money. “I decided after the course to give it 100 percent. I sold every piece of musical gear to fund it, including 3-4 keyboards, 1 piano, I sold an upright piano. I miss it, but I love this producing so much more,” he said.
The project now has two writers “I got a US and an Australian writer. To get a US perspective on it, and an Australian writer to be eligible for the [40% Producer] Offset. The money for the writers is coming out of my own pocket – partly deferred, so I feel very blessed and grateful that they believe in the project.”
And the project is very, very close.
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