Create!
A manifesto video about creativity and inspiration
Directed by Roman Duneshenko
Directed by Roman Duneshenko, Create! is a visually striking manifesto, merging the artistry of basketball with the emotion of overcoming a creative block. This experimental video follows an artist's journey to reignite his creative spark, inspired by the unexpected power of an old basketball marked with the word “Create!”—a symbolic key to unlocking his imagination.
Combining the aesthetics of basketball with mixed-media storytelling, Duneshenko brings his signature style of emotional resonance and visual experimentation to the screen, inviting viewers to reflect on the power of inspiration.
Dive into our interview with Duneshenko as he reveals the behind-the-scenes stories, creative struggles, and collective breakthroughs that shaped this amazing non-commercial project.
Create! serves as a manifesto about creativity and inspiration, but what inspired you to use basketball as the central theme to explore this? Can you tell us more about how this sport became a metaphor for creative breakthrough?
To be honest, I have never been a big fan of basketball. When I was choosing the central theme for the video, I based my decision on a rather pragmatic consideration - the availability of photos on the internet. Basketball was a perfect fit in this regard: it is indeed one of the most stylish and popular sports, and the number of available images is simply enormous.
I also considered skateboarding, but ultimately I settled on basketball because it is loved by more people.
The mixed-media aspect adds a fresh dimension to the film unlike many others, in particular, the stand-out newspaper and magazine aesthetics. Why was it important to capture this specific era of sports media and what was the reasoning behind this dynamic visual language?
About five or six years ago, I first saw the technique of photo cutting that was assembled into animation. It really stuck with me; at that time, it was something fresh and unusual. However, this technique later became very mainstream - you can find it everywhere, even in Instagram reels. I realised that if I did something similar, it would already be second-hand. And it’s important to surprise the audience with something new.
Then I thought, “What if I go further in visual form?” - instead of just photos, I would create animation from newspaper pages. I immediately liked this idea because I love design, typography, and all those magazine elements. The combination of two things I enjoy - photo animation and newspaper aesthetics - gave me the idea of how it should look.
With a team of 12 mixed-media artists, how did you ensure cohesion across the different artistic elements, while still allowing each artist’s style to be expressed?
That was indeed a challenge! We spent a lot of time first finding a common style for the entire video - it took us a month. During that month, every mixed-media artist could propose and try out solutions, and they turned out to be completely different pieces! I spent a long time considering what worked well and what didn’t, so the decisions in the video are a compilation of their ideas.
But, of course, during the process, we had to edit the guys’ fragments many times, rework them so that everything looked uniform: somewhere the paper texture was different, somewhere the color, and someone had a completely different outline for the players. We tried to bring everything to a unified style as much as possible.
You’ve mentioned that Create! is non-commercial and took a significant 17 months to complete. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced during this period, and how did the project evolve over time?
From the very beginning, I realised that a lot of work awaited me, and this was a marathon, not a sprint. So, I had to act like a robot: dedicate about 10 hours a week to the project and that’s it, without any intense emotional involvement. If I worked on it every day from morning till evening, I would quickly burn out.
Plus, I felt a responsibility towards the team. Imagine that the editor spends months assembling photos into animation, and I say to him: “Sorry, I’m tired.” No, I couldn’t allow myself that.
But perhaps this had the most impact on the team. Motivation for people on a non-commercial project lasts for a month or two, and then interest starts to fade. Therefore, sometimes we had to change the people helping with editing, replacing mixed-media artists and designers. This added complexity, but it was unavoidable.
“The fact that my video is called Create! says a lot about me. It may sound pretentious, but I truly believe that creation is the highest form of human activity.”
The blend of analog and digital techniques is far from standard, with 16mm film, hand-drawn elements, and AI-generated effects. How did you approach intertwining traditional and modern media?
The key word for this video was “analog.” Even when we were editing in Premiere or After Effects, designing pages in Photoshop, or generating with AI, we still aimed to translate everything into an analog form (or stylize it as such). So, digital technologies helped us create files, but the final result was analog. I really liked this symbiosis.
Having Create! written on the basketball feels very symbolic. What does that word represent to you as a filmmaker, and why was it chosen as the core message?
The fact that my video is called “Create!” says a lot about me. It may sound pretentious, but I truly believe that creation is the highest form of human activity. Destroying is easy, while building is hard and painful; that’s why I respect people who dedicate their lives to creating something in the broadest sense: creativity, business, community organizations.
I probably belong to such people myself. And perhaps, in this short three-minute video, my inner feelings about this also manifest.
What can we expect next from you?
Right now, I am working on several personal projects at different stages. One of them is a short film that I have been working on for about two years. It’s another long-term project that I will finally release.
After the release of “Create!”, many interesting people reached out to me, with whom I would like to collaborate, and I already have several ideas for future projects. For example, I’m currently developing an anime animation, doing tests for a short film shot with a thermal camera, and writing a script for a melodrama that I plan to shoot in Asia. Experimenting with genres brings me joy.
Directed by Roman Duneshenko
Produced by Metafora Film
Executive Producer | Sergey Kovylyaev
Producer | Sofia Bochinina
Actor | Danil Kashin
Director of Photography | Alexander Aleshkovsky
Production Designer | Ekaterina Potapova-Perfilyeva
Stylist | Irina Timofeeva
MUA | Polina Uyutnaya
1st AD | Sveta Prosvirnina
Editor | Slava Fasta
Color | Andrew Bushmin
VFX Artists | Timur Sayrov, Albert Shaufler
Editors | Slava Fasta, Yasya Klimenko, Albert Shaufler, Roman Duneshenko, Dmitry Neverov, Nikita Tarasov, Sergey Ivonin
Designers | Victor Legostev, Asya Orlova, Vladislav Mikhailov, Daniil Sashkin, Evgeny Chekhov, Nikita Marfin, Evgeniy Bain, Roman Duneshenko
Mix Media Artists | Garmash Nikita, Natalie Saprykina, Maria Khlebnikova, MAKSUSHHA, Nat Oskina, Egor Alexandrov, Daria Pavlova, Yana thepuhlya, Polina Antonova , Roman Duneshenko
2D Animation | Kristina Popkova
Color mixed media part | Dmitry Lustin, Evgeny Ten
Transition | Dorry Sorrow, Albert Shaufler
FLASHBACK
Cast | Lev Keyser, Assem Uledi, Barry Muktar, Sergey Arbuzov
DOP | Ivan Zhdanov
Stylist | Polina Baranova
Flashback Mixed Media Artist | Fio.Char
PHOTO & RETOUCH
Photographer | Maxim Konovalov
Retouchers | Ekaterina Astashova, Julia Gukova, Irina Pavlyukova
SOUND & MUSIC
Sound Producer | Evgeniy Teilor
Music | Ilya Krupenin
Sound Design | Daniel Dzhagaryan
Sound Mixing | Vitaly Krylov
PARTNERS
Postproduction Partner | Kave Studio
Sound & Music Partner | Teilor Music
Rental | YourRental
Design Support | Naau Studio
Shot on 16 mm