Today we’d like to introduce you to Ana Reinhard.
Hi Ana, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was born in the beautiful city of Kyiv, Ukraine but soon moved to Germany. I spent my whole childhood going back and forth between Kyiv and the picturesque mountains and valleys of the German Black Forrest, which influenced my worldview greatly. I quickly realized I wanted to break out of that cycle and create my own story. Somehow, I ended up being the German girl in Ukraine and the foreigner in Germany. America seemed to be where I could write my own story and not be defined by a nationality or where I grew up.
But forever cautious, I initially came to the US as an exchange student to see what the fuss was about and if I liked it. It was quite a turbulent year, but a story for another time. Ultimately I decided that I liked the culture, and that’s where I initially discovered my passion for movies, particularly making them.
Years later, I returned to pursue my dream of studying film. After three exciting years of the New York film Academy, where I took every opportunity I could to work on any and every set and position I could find. In the end, I decided that my skills were best suited to being a producer. Not only am I good about organizing and breaking everything down into manageable steps, I also got a basic understanding of every position on set since I have been in their shoes for a little while.
For the next five years, I produced various music videos, short films, and feature films as a freelance producer. However, my desire for more stability and shorter hours ultimately led me to Fonco Studious. I’ve been their production manager for about a year now, and it’s been an absolute blast. Everything I’ve never known to dream about.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely had its ups and downs getting to where I am now. All along the way, I had people praising my skills but saying I would never succeed because the competition was too big. The one thing I heard most often was I’m too ambitious. But I would always say I would rather try and fail than never try and always wonder if I could’ve succeeded. So I listened to my own counsel and continued on. Because for me, there is no such thing as being too ambitious; it’s just a matter of finding a way to achieve it.
In that spirit, less than a year out of film school I produced in collaboration with Felix Ramos my first feature film, “In The Defense Against Tyranny”. It went on to win quite a few awards and just recently was picked up for distribution.
My biggest challenge happened right before I started at Fonco. I’ve been looking for various productions for over a year and only had small gigs here and there, but nothing that would cover rent. When I did sign up for a feature film, I had to drop out halfway through because production was abusing their powers, creating an unsafe and illegal work environment. I couldn’t and wouldn’t stand for that. Somehow, after all those years, I let that production rile my confidence in my skills. So once I broke ties with them, I was ready to give up filmmaking and look into a different career. My values shifted. I was ready to start my own family and felt like I couldn’t continue chasing a dream if it had only so few results, some of which weren’t even workable.
Fonco was my last-ditch effort, with lots of encouragement from my husband, to stay in this industry. They were in great need of a coordinator, and I needed a position that would last. More than anything, our world views aligned perfectly since Fonco’s big slogan is “That’s impossible! When do you want it?”.
However, it took a couple of months of the wonderful Fonco work environment and lots of positive support from Fon to build up confidence in my abilities again.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Fonco Studios?
Fonco has become my home and my work family. As the production manager, I coordinate all projects and help take them from concept to a finished product. We specialize in a wide variety of fabrications, so each project is exciting, new, and completely different.
The most exciting project I’ve done to this day was a trailer for the D&D Spelljammer book release. We were contracted to create one of the flagship spaceships and then roll a D20 on its deck in space. It was an exciting roller coaster from start to finish. We had to face challenges like how to create a light enough but also sturdy enough spaceship to send to space and having a die that will roll or spin in zero gravity. See the final results of that on YouTube.
The project I am most proud of, and am excited to see the final version off, is the new Stan Lee documentary to be released in 2023 by Disney. Fonco was hired for part of the fabrication, and I got to take our part from start to finish while also being nine months pregnant.
As our slogan says, we make the impossible happen. So if you have a crazy out-there idea that everybody else tells you is impossible, come to Fonco we’ll make it happen.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was born in Kyiv, Ukraine and most of my family is Ukrainian/Russian. My grandfather on my mother’s side has German roots. So when I was two years old, my mother decided to move us to Germany. With my father’s family remaining in Ukraine, I spent most of my summer vacations in Ukraine enjoying myself but also being confronted with the differences.
At home, I grew up with Russian traditions, and in school I learned about the German ones. Eventually we started to mix them. We dropped some Russian customs in exchange for some German traditions, or at least our version of them. So we ended up celebrating German Christmas on December 24 but also Russian Christmas on New Year’s. Which was great for me since I got double the presents.
This led to me growing up between two cultures never being fully part of either. Now that I’m older and wiser I think I got to experience the best of both cultures. As a child though I struggled to establish my roots in either culture and seemed to never be able to fully fit in.
That and my Ukrainian grandmother, who to this day remains in Kyiv, taught me to forge my own way. Because of this, even as a child I never believed impossibilities. Between my stubbornness and determination, I always found a way. This was reflected in the smallest things, like in third grade during art class I decided that I absolutely can create a real-looking bat. To big things, where I convinced my family to let me go on an exchange year to America when I was barely 16 years old. In the end, it is what gave me the determination to stick to my dreams.
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