Why Talent Is Nothing Without Opportunities with Michael Nouri

After graduating at Filmakademie Baden-Würrtemberg as ‘creative producer’, Michael Nouri re-joined Radical Images Germany in 1997 to 2001 as managing director and executive producer. From 2001 – 2005 Michael worked as a freelance producer with several international production companies on global campaigns.

In 2006 Michael joined Stillking Films in Prague as executive producer for the next seven years. In 2013 Michael relocated to Spain, precisely in Mallorca to join Palma Pictures, and in 2015 opened and ran the PP Barcelona office till end of 2017.

After many years in working for other international prestigious production companies he thought the time was right to start his own company, so together with managing partner, Antonella Perillo in February 2018 Michael founded NOURI Films (Barcelona based) an independent production service company which operates on the entire Spanish Peninsula, Balearic and Canary Islands, Portugal and Italy.

NOURI Films is an independent full-service production company, It is dedicated to supporting directors, content creators, filmmakers, production companies, agencies and brands from around the world, with tailor-made productions at the highest standard, offering unique solutions through a wide range of projects. These include feature films, tv series, commercials, branded content and photo shoots delivered by different media channels, content platforms and innovative format solutions.

Michael recently sat down with LBB to reflect on learning the rules of life on a film set, the moment he knew he was meant to work in the production industry and how much it changed over the last few decades…

Talent is nothing without opportunities…

At the end of the '80s I was in my early twenties. I had worked as a bicycle messenger and worked at night in a bar. Once I got a delivery to a studio where a film shoot was happening and was impressed by the organised chaos all around me.

It seemed to me everyone knew their role, performed it effortlessly and with a high professional approach, while having fun.

I was inspired by this spirit and asked to stay and to come back the following day. The producer offered me a chance to volunteer for one week and gave me some contacts of other production companies in the area.

At that point I knew I wanted to work in this industry, I quit my old life as a messenger and focused on getting into the world of production. It was the beginning of something bigger I wasn’t aware of at that time.

Over the years I learned and understood that you need to create your own opportunities.

So I approached one of the top leading production companies in Germany in the beginning of the '90s and my first shoot as production trainee brought me to Pinewood studios where we shot an ice cream commercial.

While the EP and director were shooting aerial scenes with a Wescam in Morocco, they sent me to London with the order to get ‘the knowledge’, a former black book of contacts who worked in the film industry in the UK at that time and to look for a production manager to get a crew.

I was lucky to get in touch with a great PM who was recruiting the crew. We had been working from my hotel room at The Best Western in Slough, got meetings with top food stylists, production designers and best model makers.

By the end we got a stage with three sets to shoot motion control, high speed with photosonics and live action on an ARRI III.

While we were shooting the ice cream commercial, next door was the famous 007 Broccoli Stage where another commercial was shot. I was super stoked and made a conscious effort to take in all the information and technical experience I could get.

On set working as a VTR operator with one of the units gave me the insights close to the camera department and learning how to be structured and organised for editing a film… and that if you want a bacon egg roll, you’re gonna have to be on set early!

The next opportunity I took was when the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg launched in Ludwigsburg in 1992 and I applied for one of ten spots to study creative producing. At that time it was the first film school in Europe working closely with the markets.

It was kind of a micro cosmos where you needed to pitch for your projects, scripts and look for your director and team. I got a scholarship and was still working freelance in the industry, mainly as a grip assistant or spark and clapper loader or 1st AD to keep close to the technical and production world outside which I already noticed is constantly changing.

My aim was to work in most departments, especially all technical departments to evaluate how to approach budgets and learn to break down scripts into shoot days. I believe it makes a real difference if you have the experience of working in different departments. This is how I found myself in the lighting department and cleaning cables after a rainy shoot day in a muddy field getting a real idea how physically hard the crews work to help bring ideas on screen.

I also once took the opportunity to be a spark trainee for the movie ‘Jenseits der Stille’ with DP Gernot Roll. In the first week my role was to organise the lighting truck, clean cables and prepare a white sausage with a wheat beer for Gernot every morning at 10am. The second week I was allowed to be on set and noticed on the monitor a cable was visible in the background which I mentioned to Gernot. He just smiled at me and said to forget the cable as the actors will do the film, not the cable.

Focus on what’s really important. Don’t get distracted by technical gimmicks, impressive crane shots or super sterilised sets and hyper dynamic tracking shots if there’s no story and no good cast. Be smart about how to approach the scenes, especially when budgets are shrinking as nowadays.

I’ve been constantly progressing as a person and in my professional life and I always try to see the bigger picture, why are we doing this, why is the client spending this budget and what is his message. Keep the professional approach high, always deliver, speak the truth and be loyal to yourself.

The industry changed constantly over the last 30 years, the amount of great ads is not the same anymore and we’ve learnt to be more flexible and set priorities differently. We are content producers for the masses but still deliver the best quality work.

In uncertain times the challenge is to adapt to different circumstances, pivot and keep believing in best production value.