A talented playwright, a sought-after theater scriptwriter, a prominent figure in the film studio, Alexander Arkhipov fully meets the generally accepted criteria for success. He does what he likes, is good at it and brings in income. In response to the interviewers' question “how do you manage it,” he smiles slyly and jokes.
It would not have been difficult for Alexander Arkhipov to write a script about how a "simple Ural guy" (as he calls himself) moved from Yekaterinburg to Moscow and ended up among those who today determine the face of the film distribution and serial market in Russia and are successfully "put" in the modern theater. But he will not do this, and by no means out of modesty. The playwright, screenwriter, editor-in-chief of the STV film company has other plots swarming in his head. Combining his activities in the film industry with literary creativity, he sets himself numerous and diverse goals. Bearing in mind that "a whole life is not enough to achieve them," Alexander Sergeevich, without hiding a sly smile, says: "I have always dreamed of immortality."
Simple Ural guy
A. S. Arkhipov was born on 1977-21-09 in Sverdlovsk. Parents are doctors by profession, intelligent and hospitable people. The Arkhipovs' house was always full of guests, the boy grew up in an atmosphere of intense intellectual communication. A stocky, strong, smiling boy already at school demonstrated a humanitarian mindset. Of all the subjects he taught history and literature. In the class he was a mass entertainer. He came up with plots that the guys acted out in school amateur performances. Alexander wrote his first play at the age of 15. The composition was immature, but the young author showed an unchildish intuition, foreseeing the political events of 1993 in it. The second play (it was called "The Cage" and Arkhipov does not like to remember it) appeared when he was already 25.
After graduating from high school, Alexander went to study at the Faculty of Journalism of USU. After the second year he was expelled and, as they said in those days, "thundered" into the army. He served in the Navy, on the Baltic patrol ship Pylky. After demobilization, he did not recover at the university, but went to work. Not having a journalism diploma, I hardly got a job at the "Evening News". The publication of his scathing and ironic article about bribery in universities - "It's easier to pay than to take" - caused a huge resonance and caused the journalist to be fired. Soon he was invited to the weekly "Podrobnosti + TV" (in those years - one of the most daring and widely read newspapers). Arkhipov ran the popular humorous page "Hohmodrom". Later he wrote that he fell in love with newspaper work: “For me, a note of 1000 characters and a play on which I have been working for six months are equal. Because volume matters only when you receive a fee, and you can reach your heart in one phrase."
His editorial activity began in "Details". Then - editor of the department of culture of the Ural "Arguments and Facts", editor of feature films of the Sverdlovsk Film Studio. In 2003 he entered the Yekaterinburg Theater Institute. He studied at the course of literary creativity Nikolai Kolyada. During this period, plays were written that brought Arkhipov his first popularity: "Dembel Train", "Pavlov's Dog", "Underground God", "Peaceful Island", "Jack - Neon Light". He received another higher education at VGIK (workshop of Rustam Ibragimbekov). In recollecting his students, Alexander cites two absolutely diverse theses:
- He boasted and was proud that in the "hostel" he lived in the same room where Vasily Shukshin climbed the fire escape when he ran for vodka.
- He considers his only Teacher Nikolai Vladimirovich Kolyada, Honored Art Worker of the Russian Federation, laureate of the International Prize. K. S. Stanislavsky. The brilliant prose writer, playwright and screenwriter taught him the main thing - "to sit at his desk and compose his own world."
Since the early 2000s, Arkhipov's activities have been associated with cinema. He worked as the chief editor of a film studio in Yekaterinburg. Having received an offer from Sergei Selyanov to edit television projects in his film company, he moved with his family to Moscow. Currently he is the head of the STV editorial office. As a screenwriter, editor and organizer of the filmmaking process at the film company, Alexander Arkhipov has released about forty successful projects. He is known as the author of the script for the television series "Will of the Night", "Zhurov", "It Was in Gavrilovka", "Losers. NET "," Moscow. Three stations ". One of the screenwriters of the "Women's League" sketch on the TNT channel. Took part in the creation of full-length animated films "Sinbad: Pirates of the Seven Storms", "Sadko", "Buka".
Film industry "STV"
For almost a decade, Alexander Arkhipov has been working in the Moscow office of one of the most prominent and strong Russian major studios - the STV film company by Sergei Selyanov. During this time, he managed to take the position of one of the key figures in the Russian film industry.
As the head of development, Arkhipov develops the project taken for implementation from scratch, when there is only an idea, to launch into production. The film studio is engaged in the industry of large genre cinema and focuses on films that can attract at least a million viewers to cinemas, that is, bring about 250 million rubles in fees. The niche of non-commercial cinema is present, since this direction is responsible for the development of cinema as an art form. But any author's film is a loss, and the project is supported only if it is an unquestionably bright material: it is a talented work, even by an unknown author, or a proposal from an authoritative director who has already declared himself in the cinema.
The task of Arkhipov as the chief editor of the film company is, together with assistants (5-7 staff readers and editors), to find those who will offer an original plot, an unusual setting and an actual hero. Such a story will "shoot". Arkhipov assesses many of the scripts he has read as good, but not suitable "STV". There are several reasons:
- Not every story, by its very nature, carries with it the attraction and other elements necessary for a large genre cinema.
- The author's idea of the relevance of the chosen topic, the main idea does not coincide with the opinion of the mass audience.
- The script is not woven according to the rules of a rental cinema: it was originally chamber or in its design is close to a television series.
- The principles of the internal structure of the script are violated - the mechanics of the drama are exposed, the plot lines are incorrectly spelled out.
- The story taken as the basis of the film project should be simple, but not primitive, with a deep meaning embedded in it.
Among the tasks of the STV studio, Arkhipov singles out two:
- Make more films. It is impossible to predict that this or that tape will become "imperishable". But there is statistics and the law of physics "on the transition of quantity to quality." To get one or two good scenarios, you need to develop 10-15. This means that out of a hundred films made, ten can turn out to be good, and one will go down in history.
- Don't chase movie trends. Now is the time of the singularity. Everything is changing so rapidly that it is almost impossible to get into the "cinematic" trend. Therefore, you have to rely on your own taste and do what you like.
Alexander Sergeevich says that it is impossible to derive a certain averaged matrix that would guarantee the success of a film project. Intuition and inner confidence often come to the rescue. But there are three essential ingredients for success. The film must:
- firstly, to get into the market, to be in demand among the mass audience;
- secondly, to bring the profit necessary for the functioning and further promotion of the business;
- thirdly, to satisfy the intellectual demands of the public, and not to reduce the movie to the “popcorn on the couch” format.
It would seem that in order to achieve the result, it is necessary to combine the incongruous. But a talented screenwriter, an experienced editor and a skillful organizer of the filmmaking process manages to reconcile business with art.
Script workshop
A. Arkhipov, reading more than one opus from the hundreds of texts sent to the editor every month, followed a certain tendency. Those who know how to write often take on a hackneyed, exhausted topic. Or, not knowing what to talk about, they try to guess what is needed. While aspiring authors who do not have sufficient literary skills, often express fresh thoughts, offer interesting stories. The decision was obvious - to work with young talents who do not have enough school, to teach them to write scripts according to the laws of drama.
This is how the script workshop of Alexander Arkhipov appeared. It operates on the basis of the Higher School of Art Practices and Museum Technologies of the Faculty of Art History of the Russian State University for the Humanities. The topics of lectures, workshops and master classes are wide and diverse. Here are just a few of what the master offers to those who wish to improve their literary skills: "Development of the script - the editor's view", "Writing the correct synopsis", "Features of the drama of genre rental films", "Methods of sketch writing of the script", "Specificity of scenario pitching". The forms of interaction with listeners are also varied. The training takes place in person, in absentia, online, using interactive and multimedia technologies.
Despite the workload, Alexander Sergeevich devotes a lot of time to teaching. Since 2012 - teacher at the Faculty of Art History of the Russian State University for the Humanities. Arkhipov began teaching screenwriting in the Yekaterinburg period at the Strana Film Business Academy. In "STV" I launched a project with script workshops, which are held on the basis of regional film studios. Arkhipov is a master of the highest level course "Serial 2.0" of the script school "League of Kino". In addition: participates in the Marathon of Scriptwriters (competition and educational program for novice writers); Member of the Pitching Jury of the Turning Point genre full-length projects; is a member of the Expert Council of the competition within the framework of the All-Russian Pitching of Debutants and the International Film Festival "Premonition", a member of the jury of the festival "KenoVision".
When the famous playwright and screenwriter is asked to give advice to those who want to try their luck and send an application to them not to the studio, Arkhipov says: “I think that an attempt is not just an application and good intentions. Write full-fledged works, do not limit yourself to synopsis. " Alexander Sergeevich is firmly convinced that what comes out from under the pen of a screenwriter should be a "finished product", and not sent to the director for comprehension and "finishing". To do this, the author needs not only to know the mechanics of drama, but also to understand the internal structure of the script, and most importantly - to find himself in the text. Good writing is always based on intuition and craft.
The own creative practice of the playwright and screenwriter is as follows: work practically non-stop, but with low efficiency - no more than one play a year. Arkhipov explains this by a long way from the theme to its implementation. And he gives an example: "I made a documentary about Levitan in 2008, and the idea to create it arose when I was 10 years old." Arkhipov writes the script quickly, he does the work almost immediately to "clean copy", he edits the dialogues in his head, at the end he can only change the structure.
Literary critics note: “when you listen to the text of Arkhipov’s play, you don’t notice how time flies, there is something of Chekhov’s in it”. Among his contemporaries, the closest to Arkhipov's drama is the Ural poet Boris Ryzhiy, from the same circle of Nikolai Kolyada and "the most powerful cultural outburst of the 1980s-1990s."Improving his skills, Alexander Sergeevich turned to the experience of modern Western drama: he took the Teaching in Screenwriting course at the School of Cinematography, which the University of Southern California (USC) organized in 2012 specifically for Russian producers, editors and screenwriters.
Not a word about personal life
Alexander Sergeevich is open to the mass media: he willingly answers questions from correspondents, participates in television programs, speaks at creative meetings and presentations of his works. According to interviewers, he is one of the most interesting and friendly interlocutors. But at the same time it makes it clear that only that which concerns his work (cinema, theater, books) is subject to discussion. In one of the conversations, the playwright casually voiced his wife's opinion about moving to the capital and the cinematic turn in his fate. At the presentation of the animated film about Sinbad, he let slip that "he was doing a cartoon for his children." And then, not without pride, he added that when the two-year-old daughter first went to the cinema, it was his film.
And not a word, not a half word about his personal life. There is no gossip about marriage or divorce, an affair or an affair, etc. Meticulous photojournalists cannot even boast of pictures (neither official nor frivolous), in which Alexander is captured with women. On the pages of the tabloids, there are only duty photos with colleagues and partners, taken within the framework of business or informal, and, as can be seen from the publications, purely male meetings. In the gossip column we read about Arkhipov's communication “with two Sanychs”: how he drinks tea at Kalyagin's, why he drives around Moscow in Pantykin's car.
Aleksandr Sergeevich masterfully manages not to make information that is outside the sphere of his professional interests available to the media.
Strokes for the portrait
Alexander Arkhipov attracts attention not only with his work. He is as extraordinary as a person. He is simultaneously in several guises: head of development and editor-in-chief of STV, member of the Moscow Writers' Union, lecturer at the Russian State Humanitarian University. And in parallel he continues to write scripts. Among the many projects in which Alexander acts as an organizer, there are those that are far from literature, and from theater, and from cinema. One of them is the Club of Anonymous Players, created in Yekaterinburg, where they help those suffering from gambling addiction.
Arkhipov is a keen collector of what belongs to the historical period up to the 50s of the last century. Antique documents, photographs, military uniforms and awards, household items - everything that “sticks to your hands”. The collector's pride is Czech stamps until 1953. By the way, a lot of this came in handy on the set of films. And thanks to the cup holder (with the image of the Yekaterinburg Opera House) standing on the desk of Alexander Sergeyevich, he came up with an idea with a faceted glass, which became a quest treasure in the movie about Sinbad. This discovery helped not only the plot, but also the PR - branded cup holders were released for the premiere, they were played out among the audience.
Plans and dreams
Arkhipov does what he does, gives pleasure and brings income. A successful person can hardly ask for more. But Alexander Sergeevich does not stop there.
- The idea of putting the play on his own came to Arkhipova during her participation in the creative laboratory (artistic director M. Ugarov) in the TEATR. DOC project. This is a documentary theater "proceeding from the truth of life": when performances are created using the "verbatim" technique (based on real dictaphone recordings). The first directorial experience of a screenwriter in the Yekaterinburg branch of TEATR. DOC is A. Rodionov's play “The War of the Moldovans for a Cardboard Box”, which tells about the problems of migrants. Among the works of director Arkhipov in cinema there are two documentaries filmed in his homeland: "Sverdlovsk Speaks" (2008), "The Best Day of the 43rd Year" (2010) and the film of the Moscow period "Alexander Maslyakov.70 is not a joke, 50 is a joke "(2011).
- The playwright's bibliography is small. The story "Myth", written in 2003, and a collection of plays "Mirny Island". This is the first volume in the series "The Ural School of Drama", published together with the premiere of the play of the same name (2011). Arkhipov hopes to replenish his literary baggage by starting to write novels and children's fairy tales. He mentioned this in an interview with the Teatralnaya Gazeta correspondent. Dreams tend to come true. And it is quite possible that soon we will put on the bookshelf, next to the volumes of our favorite modern writers, a voluminous tome by the novelist Arkhipov. Or we will see a play for children at the theater festival, staged according to the tale of Alexander Sergeevich - but not Pushkin))).
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The scriptwriter's immediate plans are to return to the theater and devote more time not to cinema, but to creating plays. The theater, which is usually extremely inert with regard to contemporary literature, has adopted much of what Arkhipov wrote. Today he is called the "fashionable" screenwriter. The most famous are the performances that go to many theater venues in the country: "Dembel Train" (2003), "Mosin Rifle" (2008), "Mirny Island" (2011), "Nikodimov" (2013), "Rebels" (2015) … Colleagues joke that the student of Nikolai Kolyada inherited from the master the luck of being "put" all over Russia.
A. Arkhipov at work
