With Love from Carpathian Mountains

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“Ivan’s Money” Online Show is Preparing to Hit the Ground

A recently launched Ukraine-based cartoon project with a
simple title “Ivan’s Money” is set to rock the online media as a boredom killer
worldwide. Quite ambitions, isn’t it?

One of the founders of this project has been talking to Real
Ukraine and revealing the secrets of a their strategy and in-built success
factors designed for Ivan’s Money. Who knows, what if they are right, and Ivan
is really going to bring in a lot of success and cash for the Ivan’s Money
founders.

Real Ukraine:

Vasyl, what makes your project so unique. What will possibly
give it a chance to get through the worldwide media. What makes your Ivan
competitive?

Vasyl:

Well, it is not difficult to see that we want to make a
fun-project. We want to enjoy what we do and, consequently, we want the
audience to enjoy just the same experience we had during the production. You
know, “Ivan’s Money” is a bit of a mix of South Park, Borat and some new
exciting and original ways to present our funny reality. No matter what you see
now on the demo, Ivan and the whole set of characters will have a very distinct
way of being. We sincerely hope that our fans will truly appreciate our
approach.

Real Ukraine:

So you think you will be original enough to grab the
attention of the ever-growing online public, switching from TV entertainment to
more mobile and get-it-everywhere internet?

Vasyl:

Internet is an interesting media. We want to distribute the
content only on internet via all possible means, however, only internet.  It
would be a bit like British music band Radio Head switching fully to internet
public. I guess that we want to target the same audience.  Probably, our
audience should not watch TV  so much, have a busy lifestyle and get to watch “Ivan’s
Money” online for relaxing and a laugh..  so that’s the strategy.

Real Ukraine:

What experience do you have in media projects to make sure
this one will not be a trial-and-error case?

Vasyl:

Exactly, this will be THE trial-and-error case. This has
started as a fun project between designer and myself.  Nothing to hide, we want
to make this all commercial at some point, but we are ok to make trial-and-error
as we like the whole process of production, as I said before.

Real Ukraine:

What is it all going to be about? All I can see now is a
flying sheep and Ivan….

Vasyl:

It is going to be a mix of everything but the main line of
the series will be Ivan’s desire to make money. He gets to meet this funky
alien-processed sheep who can fly and they, together with some help of magic,
travel around the world trying out different life-styles in making money and experiencing
different cultures. It is going to be about world issues, about funny issues
about celebrities etc. Most importantly, it is going to be voiced well. I guess
that’s 50% of success.

Real Ukraine:

What is Ukrainian about the project?

Vasyl :

Well, nothing very conscious at the moment. But it is our
aim to deliver, through the whole set of media and hidden messages an insight
into a Ukrainian identity, as comparing it to other cultures in a funny, sometime,
actually very bitter way.

Real Ukraine:

Well good luck! Looking forward to seeing more of the flying
sheep!  

We offer our readers some screen shots from the first
series!

More can be viewed at www.ivansmoney.com

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Natalia Dzenkiv aka Lama

It was a good year for Ukraine, pop-wise: the country got its own MTV channel, and participated in the MTV European Music Awards ceremony in Munich on 1 November. Natalia Dzenkiv, a diminutive young lady from Ivano-Frankivsk who goes by the stage name Lama, won the ‘Best Ukrainian Act’ prize.

The first thing Natalia said is that she learned a lesson early this month in Munich: there’s a huge difference between show business in the West and show business here. Everything is under control there. An artist is surrounded by technical and security personnel: there’s no panicking, no shouting or crying. Natalia also noticed that a positive attitude prevails over there. You don’t find a lot of downcast people, moping around in depression. It’s just the way it is. The most memorable people she met in Germany were Muse, the British band that recently played Kyiv’s Palace Sport, and the band Justice, from France. She also liked a Foo Fighters performance she saw in Munich before the ceremony, and was impressed how they managed to excite a sold-out house.

When talk turns to the Ukrainian music scene, Natalia says changes have to be driven by the bands themselves, and the music they put out. Production quality can get better, but in the end it all comes down to the musicians and the songs. Today a lot of good young Ukrainian bands are coming up, and Natalia has faith that the native music scene will be a rich one. Her favourite bands at the moment are Okean Elzy, Esthetic Education, and Dazzle Dreams. Natalia’s native western Ukraine has given us many arts figures of note. Ivano-Frankivsk is the capital of contemporary Ukrainian literature, one of the stars of which is Natalia’s acquaintance Irena Karpa, the writer and rock singer. In 1997 the two met in the same recording studio, where Irena was working on a project with her band Faktychno Sami and Natalia was singing in the duo Magia. Natalia likes Karpa as both a writer and singer, and they had a lot of fun when they met again this year through MTV, for which Karpa is a Ukrainian host. Natalia says her Munich experience led her to feel a lot more responsibility for her art, and that now she wants to try even harder to do her best and improve the quality of the things the does. She believes strongly in the power of her music, and realises that there are a lot of things to do in the future. Soon, for example, there will be a new video to launch, and a tour to complete.

Particularly interesting is Natalia’s view of the Ukrainian pop scene, where everything is based on public relations and marketing. She says she does her best to be minimally influenced by that sort of dirty business. Her team has its own strategy and makes its own mistakes, and Natalia says she’s immune to star fever, and that her image consists of being herself: what you see is what you get. The name Lama was Natalia’s idea, not some producer’s, and Natalia does her own styling, with the help only of one hairdresser, who colors and cuts her hair. She says that there’s a big problem in Ukraine when it comes to finding professional stylists and personal designers. Real specialists are always busy, and she doesn’t trust the young amateurs. “In Munich there were a lot of stylists, and I heard adequate recommendations for the first time in my life.” Munich also turned out to be a place where you can buy inexpensive clothes, and Natalia found shopping there to be a pleasure. Natalia moved to Kyiv from Ivano-Frankivsk seven years ago, and remembers that it was hard here at first. She was a popular singer in western Ukraine, but there was no room to grow there. In the capital, there were possibilities. “Now I feel like Kyiv is my city too,” she says. “I like to meet up with my friends at Antresol and walk in the Botanical Gardens.” Such a life might be far from the bright stages of Munich, but it suits this unpretentious star just fine.

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