Attila: I always consider locations and topics that I know i can work with, identify with. More precisely, because I don't like very dangerous jobs, I won't go and make a film in an underwater cave, because I know I won't feel at home in a location like this. I came into nature documantary making as an underwater photographer, so I still prefer underwater topics. Like now, when I'm making a film about the life of the Wels Catfish. Besides, I don't believe in "having your own ideas". I tend to think that if you are open minded as you watch, listen and speak with other people, you will get a rough idea of what you want to work on more seriously. So I think the development of an idea is a kind of synthetic process, a kind of give-and-take between you and your surroundings. I also like to talk to research people and nature conservation people. Besides, for me it's another important factor if the person who is the expert of the given topic, the given species is a nice person to work with, this gives me extra impetus. The development of the idea is the cheapest stage of film making, that's another advantage. You sit down with a sheet of paper or your computer and just brainstorm.

Filmjungel: Is it possible to make a film if you go to the field without having a specific idea, with just a camcorder in hand?

Attila: This happened to me in the early 1990s, when we would dive in the Adriatic Sea and the Red Sea with our Underwater Research Team. I would film everything that got into the frame and only tried to figure out how to edit films from all this footage only back home, in the studio. But once when I was filming near Dahab, fifteen meters under the surface, I came across this box. There was this metal box under the sea and I simply couldn't resist it, I got stuck there and kept filming the life of all the animals that lived on it. This was the first time that I heard the narrator's voice inside my head, that is, I started to write the story of the box right on the spot. O.K., this happened during filming, not afterwards 8). Then as i gradually adopted a more professional attitude, I started to draft a plot before filming. Which, of course, still doesn't mean you don't have to improvise on the spot, no matter how professional script you've got. But that's more or less a general truth that if you take film making seriously, you do have to decide in advance what to film where.

Filmjungel: What's your suggestion to those who haven't got ideas of their own but still want to make films?

Attila: They should ask somebody for ideas. One of the most successful film ideas so far realised by our nature documentary workshop, Budapest Wild, was Gábor Stodulka's brainchild, who had previously read Róbert Winkler's Naturalist in the City. This is what gave him the idea. Even though it was not my idea, I considered it an honour when I was asked to write the script for the film, and my first version was rejected, the second was almost accepted and the third finally made it.

Filmjungel: What would you say to beginners, how should they get going?

Attila: They should watch great many nature documentaries, old and new alike. And other types of films as well, because these days genres are merging and the tools and tricks of feature films are making their way into nature documentaries while docus in general are getting more and more dramatised. Besides, it's an advantage if you can formulate your ideas in writing. I'm lucky, because I work as an editor at Spectrum Television, where I read a lot of film scripts day by day. Such a script is quite similar to a film screenplay, so I can just pick things up as I go along. So if you've never done any writing, you should also read screenplays and film scripts apart from just watching films. You can find a lot of them on the Internet. And if you can do that, it's a good idea to do some kind of course.

Filmjungel: How to give form to a new idea? Is there a recipe for that?

Attila: Well, if I have to give the stages of film making, it goes like this. You get an idea, with the core of a story. Then comes a title. Then I write a one-line summary and then the synopsis, then the brief content, then the script, then the storyboard. And this process told here in two lines will take minimum 3 or 4 months, sometimes 3 or 4 years. With the film I'm working on now, it's the latter. It has been bugging me for years and I even bought anglers' magazines to prepare for filming catfish, although angling is not my cup of tea at all. As for formal requirements, the title has to be short and eyecatching and easy to remember. The one-line summary must provoke interest. The synopsis is usually about 20-25 sentences in length and it gives the plot in more detail, but still more in the style of the descriptions on the DVD cover. Then the script contains the plot scene by scene. The storyboard, on the other hand, is a kind of comic, based on the script, to assist the film maker during the shooting.

Filmjungel: Tell us about a scene that is very close to your heart.

Attila: Well, once I've mentioned Budapest Wild, it has got the scene with the fly, that's one of my favourites. A fly lands on the laptop's touchpad, unwittingly making the computer do certain things. This scene was a pleasure to write, and when I hear the audience laugh, it truly makes my work worthwhile.

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