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Meet Kenan Baysal

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Kenan Baysal.

Kenan, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was born in the city of Istanbul, the most populous city in Turkey and grew up in the heart of it until the age of 17 (2006). My dad had been applying for green card lottery since my childhood (1995). We finally won it in 2003. That was a turning point in my life. I moved to the States in 2006 (don’t ask me why it took me so long to move; well, it was hard to leave all of my friends and my whole life behind).

I spent two years in high school, trying to adjust to my new life and also learning English language. At the end of my first year, I took SAT. Eventually, I got accepted into Stony Brook University (Long Island, NY) for Math major. This may look weird as to why I started as a math major, let me explain. I was really good at Math in high school because the math education back home had been quite advanced compared to a regular American High School. So, Math was not an issue for me while English was a huge deal. All my friends were treating me as a genius and I guess I got the taste of it and thought that I would be successful studying Mathematics. Obviously, that was not the right decision. I realized it at the end of my second semester of the freshman year.

The next year, I transferred to City College of New York, without a major. That being said, I still had to figure out what I want to study. Quite frankly, that inner passion for filmmaking was kicking me from time to time. But I kept telling myself “Who am I to become a filmmaker? I am not good reader, and I am not an intellectual. Plus, I am an immigrant. Well, you should find a real major” etc. I ended up choosing Advertising/Public Relations major. Our department was at the same floor as the film department. Seeing the film students, I was being bothered by my inner passion, kicking me even harder in a way.

When I was a senior, I got a very good internship at one of the biggest Advertising agencies in the world. I was at a very boring department – account management. For some reason though, I kept pushing myself to stay in that area- maybe that was my comfort zone. And I never admitted the fact that I’m allured to creativity, in fact, I am one. By the time I was about to graduate, my internship at the global Y&R Ad agency almost came to an end. I thought that my 9-month period there will be an important factor helping me switch to a full-time position. However, it did not work that way.

I moved on, taking the next year as my gap-year. Then I got an offer to become an event coordinator at a culture and education-centered non-profit organization. I accepted the offer and worked there for the next couple of years. During my time, I got to travel to number of countries, supervising hundreds of American college students who go abroad and teach English language at private institutions while traveling and even doing internships in their related fields.

In the meantime, I started grad school at the New School University in New York City. At the time, I heard about Los Angeles Turkish Film Festival, which was organized by a few Turkish American film students. The event was such a success in the west coast and a reason to be proud for many Turkish people, including myself. I was hyped up about meeting the head of this festival, knowing that he is also an immigrant like myself. I was trying every possible connection to get to him but nothing worked. One day, one of my supervisors at the non-profit kindly asked me to drive him to the airport, because he was traveling to Turkey, I replied saying yes. Frankly, I did not feel like driving anybody anywhere, I was desperate about getting my feet into the door of filmmaking and I had no help.

While we were driving, he asked how I’m doing about filmmaking and if I’m making any progress. And I told him that I heard about this festival from my friends and got so excited about the idea of creating a similar one in NYC and possibly meeting with the guy who is the head of it. He asked me who he is, and I told him his name. Suddenly, he got surprised and made me say the name again. And I did. He said that he knows the head of the festival because they were roommates back in Istanbul when he was studying at college. I could not believe what was just happening. He called this guy in front of me and told him about me and my passion and everything. Eventually, I got his number and scheduled an appointment.

We finally met on December 13, 2013. I remember that like it was yesterday. We talked and talked and talked for hours. He said he loved how passionate I am about cinema. And I liked him a lot as my brother. Things got started from then on. He helped me work on many different film sets, all of which were NYU film schools’ because he was a grad student there at the time. I worked quite hard on these sets, trying to make as many connections as possible. I did everything I could within my capability. And one day, he called me and asked me directly if I want to produce his second-year short film. I was incredibly happy hearing that. It was the first time I would be taking on producer position. I immediately said yes. He said that all I had to do is to find out a small cinema in which we can shoot for 12 hours. All the equipments were rented from the school, the crew were made up of the NYU students; therefore, the location was the only issue ahead of us.

I made a list of all the cinemas around me–Soho district of NYC. There were ten cinemas on my list. I walked from one to another, asking each whether they can allow us to film at an affordable price (around $650-$700 for 12 hours). Apparently, it was not possible to find such a place at such a rate. I finished my list without a result and headed back. I decided to stop by my school on the way because I was walking near it. Another miracle happened there; I saw a small independent cinema called “Cinema Village” which is only a block away from my school. First, I hesitated to walk in. After taking a brief look at it, I decided to go in. It was a quite small independent cinema with only three theaters inside. I told the only person working there at the time about our situation. He said he could help out. He gave me the contact info of the property owner.

I immediately emailed the owner explaining the whole situation and our limited budget. He replied with an answer that basically said “yes.” I cannot explain how excited I became after witnessing what just happened. The owner was basically saying that we can shoot there from 11pm till 12pm the next day, which gives us 13 hours. One hour more than we aimed for. The place was a great shooting space for all of the crew. We spent the whole night there, finished everything on time. It was a great experience.

Our use of the space paved the way for many NYU students. I heard that there are a lot of them used that same location for their class projects after we used it.

I also edited the film with my friend and we got it into Antalya Film Festival.

After graduating from the New School, I headed to LA to do an internship at a small commercial production company, which was located in Westwood area. I met my producer partner at this very company. First, I assisted him on a few commercial shoots and a short film, which was directed by acclaimed independent director Alexandre Rockwell. It was a big-budget short film mainly funded by Turkish government at the time. The story revolved around an Armenian taxi driver and a Turkish homeless guy in LA and their interaction. It was made in an effort to strengthen Turkish-Armenian bond.

A few years passed… I have produced, worked in the production of a few more short films. In November 2017, I co-produced an NYU thesis project, Nhomlauu, which was directed by award-winning director Asantewaa Prempeh. The film was selected into the prestigious IFP (Independent Filmmaker Project) for further development. Unfortunately, we have not been able to secure enough funds to complete the project; however, my journey did not end there.

Six months after that, I was called to produce the next feature film of Alexandre Rockwell, who worked with many well-known actors before including Steve Buscemi, Sam Rockwell, and Peter Dinklage. Even though I had been the assistant producer on his short film, Home, a few years back, I had never met him in person. This time, I got to sit down with him and give him my opinion about his script. And officially, I got on board as his producer in May 2018. The whole production, including the pre-production, took us almost four months. I have to tell you that it was such a challenging production for me as a first time producer. But I appreciate every second of it as I learned great deal from him and the experience itself.

After the production, we have run out of money so we turned our direction to Kickstarter. Within two months, we have collected more than we expected (around 90K). We have been able to use that money towards post-production, color, music licensing, festival submission, and etc. The whole process was very educational for me as I was working with film director/producer who has 40 years of experience. I am so grateful to him for he always trusted me.

And finally, in November 2019, we have been accepted into Berlin Film Festival for our world premiere. What is more exciting than this, we have won the prestigious Crystal Bear Award for the Best Film in our category (Berlinale Generation). We also have been selected into Tribeca Film Festival; however, due to the spread of coronavirus, the festival has been postponed.

Currently, I am in the process of forming my own commercial production company while developing three feature projects to be filmed in 2021.

If someone told me ten years ago that I would be an award-winning producer, working with the head of directing at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, I would have simply said “Get outta here!.” But it happened… Just start believing in yourself and keep working…

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I think my biggest challenge is with my own self. What I mean is that it took me a while to START BELIEVING in myself. Therefore, that inner voice I mentioned earlier was the biggest obstacle for me, and I think for most people as well.

What else should our readers know?
Musk Pictures is a small commercial production company specialized in high quality branded content. Having a young and energetic team, we can work with a wide range of budgets.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I would define success as “finding the real purpose to reach out to your goal.”

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Image Credit:
Max Kullman, Talia Bornstein

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