Originally from Moscow, Russia, film and commercial editor Vladimir Boboshin has taken the film and advertising industries by storm with his unparalleled ability to create captivating stories from raw footage.
“Editing film, regardless of the genre and form, is very much like assembling a jigsaw puzzle, with one major difference: you don’t have a reference picture. You find pieces that match together and then find their neighbors and so on,” explains Vladimir. “I like to see how the story shapes up out of the chaos.”
Vladimir Boboshim is supremely talented; anyone who can make an Ikea commercial touch audiences on an emotional level deserves some serious attention and praise, thankfully the numerous awards his productions have received speak for themselves. In an industry where behind the scenes contributors rarely get the attention they deserve, Vladimir Boboshin has managed to make a name for himself as one of the advertising industry’s most sought after editors.
Some of his editing work in the commercial world includes Coca-Cola’s “Olympics,” “Exam,” “Christmas,” “Open Up for Happiness” and “Rucheyok,” Canon’s “Stolen”, “Handover” and “Breach,” 20 commercials for Ikea, 11 commercials for Nestle, four commercials for Road Safety Russia, one of which entitled “Belt” received the Grand Prix Award at the Meribel Ad Festival and the Gold Award at the Road Safety Film Awards, and many more. Vladimir also worked as the editor of the Russian comedy series Univer, where he edited 99 episodes, and the show Nasha Russia, where he edited 74 episodes. He was also the editor for the promo-trailers for the films Silent Souls, High Security Vacation, and The Practice of Beauty.
While Vladimir has developed an effective style in editing commercials for advertisers whose main goal is to sell their products, he is not pigeonholed in his talents, something proven by the vast spectrum of his work. He has managed to create a portfolio of work that is both impressive and diverse, something he partially attributes to the fact that he is from another country.
“I’m bilingual and I‘ve worked with so many different people from all over the world, so over the course of my career I’ve learned to see and understand different visual styles and work ethics,” says Vladimir. “Many Hollywood editors haven’t been exposed to the same variety of international approaches as I have, because here in the US the work is more channeled. You get pigeonholed into a category – like car editor or comedy editor – and then most of your work only comes from those areas.”
As the post-production supervisor of the multi-award winning film Franz + Polina, Vladimir was in charge of overseeing the work of an entire team of editors, a feat he accomplished with ease. The film received three awards at the Avanca Film Festival, the Gold FIPA Award at Biarritz International Festival of Audiovisual Programming, the Golden Frog at Camerimage, the Magnolia Award at the Shanghai International TV Festival, among others.
The ability to successfully manage an entire team of professional editors comes down to more than just being technically astute in the field, it requires a certain type of personality. Being a talented editor by no means equates to being a people person with strong communication skills, but Vladimir is one editor who does happen to have these traits.
He explains, “The most definitive experience I got from large-scale projects was the importance of communication and soft control. With so many creative egos involved arguments are inevitable and my role oftentimes was to channel the argument into a positive flow so the parties involved come to an agreement and everyone is satisfied in the end.”
One aspect of Vladimir Boboshin’s journey as an editor that is incredibly unique is the fact that he didn’t undergo any formal education in order to break into the industry. However, that is not to say that he hasn’t spent years training himself in the tools of the trade, and when it comes to working as an editor in the film industry one must be a master of these tools.
“I never had any formal training or mentoring before I become an editor. All of my studies were on the job in the heat of the moment and there was no one to help,” admits Vladimir. “As for film language, one can learn as much as he is willing to, I think this sphere of knowledge depends on the person. I believe that the real way to hone one’s craft in the industry happens on the job, bit by bit.”
And that is just how Vladimir did it, bit by bit he managed to learn and master the same tools that took most other editors several years to figure out. Vladimir is proof that when a person’s passion is what fuels them to achieve their goals, obstacles begin to seem less daunting and instead become exciting challenges and a means to improve.
Tinsel Town News Now 