Meet Maryna Kovalevska of MKCinema in Burbank

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maryna Kovalevska.

Maryna, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was born in Kiev, Ukraine in 1995. Since childhood, I was a creative and active kid.

When I went to Kiev National Taras Shevchenko University, I studied Italian language translation as my major and thanks to that I spent a lot of time in Italy. While in Italy, I was exposed to the history of arts, photography, and film. It is at this point that I decided to dedicate myself to filmmaking.

In 2017, I moved to Los Angeles to pursue filmmaking. In 2018, I graduated with a Master’s Degree in Film and Media Production from New York Film Academy. In the last couple of years, I’ve directed ten short films and was cinematographer for ten. My last three films were award-winning submissions at numerous film festivals.

Now I’m a freelance Director and Cinematographer making my way in Hollywood.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Some of my struggles were with learning to lead large groups of people on set. It was an entirely new skill set for me, but it is absolutely essential. A director can have all the vision and brilliance in the world, but if they have trouble organizing a team behind that vision, then nothing can happen.

Also, language was a difficulty at first, it took a few months for the English that I learned in school to start keeping up with the English spoken here in Los Angeles. One great positive of these “struggles” is that a lot of the problem solving, organization, and communication you learn on set transfers directly to overall life skills.

Please tell us about MKCinema.
My primary business today is becoming part of an existing production as either the director or cinematographer. As a filmmaker, I really focus on the visual style of the film. So I have a strong emphasis on unusual color palettes and unique lighting techniques as inspired by Nicholas Winding Refn and Tim Burton. I generally like darker films — both visually and in content — like horror, supernatural, mystery, and thrillers.

My business brand is MKCinema, and one day I might grow that into a feature production company. I also think my style could be particularly suited towards creating visually-dazzling commercials and music videos, so those are avenues that I’m looking to explore.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
When I was seven years old, I spent the summer at my grandparents’ summer house near a river. There was a load of kids there that would run around and play along the river and in the forest. Somehow early that summer, I successfully convinced them that I was a werewolf and was able to scare the other kids into doing what I wanted.

I think even my parents helped back up my story — a long track record of support that continues to this day. It seems to me that childhood moment was an early indicator of my interest in creating make-believe and generating horror stories! The following summer I convinced the other children that there was a witch living in the forest. I’m horrible haha.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mk-cinema.com
• Phone: 747 216 7586
• Email: mkcinema.contact@gmail.com
• Instagram: m_kovalevska
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marina.kovalevska.9

Image Credit:
Sudeen Shrestha

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