László Hargittai (“Pamacs”), the head of ORIGO studios’ post-production department, Origo Digital Film, received one of the most prestigious Hungarian film awards, the Béla Balázs Award.
The Béla Balázs Award is a state award given by the Minister of National Cultural Heritage in recognition of outstanding creative activity, artistic and scientific achievements in the field of cinematography. The award is open to four people a year and presented traditionally on March 15th.
László Hargittai (“Pamacs“) earned the award for outstanding creative activity in the field of motion picture by editing films such as “Wild Horses – A Tale of Hortobágy (2021) “A fehér szarvas” (The White Deer) (2019), “Apró mesék” (Tall Tales) (2019), “Örök tél” (Eternal Winter) (2018), “Tititá” (2015), “A berni követ” (The Ambassador to Bern) (2014), “Puskás Hungary” (2009) or “Márió, a varázsló” (Mario, the wizard) (2007) just mention few of his works.
International feature films also count on his expertise, like “Dune” (2021), “Blade Runner 2049” (2017) or “A Good Day to Die Hard” (2013).
You can find out more about László Hargittai on his IMDB page.
Hargittai said that there are many films he is proud of, and he worked with lot of different filmmakers with the studio. „Origo Studios consists of several divisions, one of which is for post-production. In the case of foreign films, post-production also starts in parallel with the shooting. My job as technical director is to serve the technical needs, to provide the tools, to solve the problems that arise. “Inferno”, “Hercules”, “47 Ronin”, the new “Terminator” were filmed here, the last film by Vilmos Zsigmond was made here, but cameraman Dean Semler, who received an Oscar for “Dancing with the Wolves”, also worked here in Angelina Jolie’s “Land of Blood and Honey”.”
„I get in close contact with the editors, whose trust we initially had to fight on several occasions. We had to prove that we understood our business. You don’t have to today, because for the past ten years, crews have given each other a doorknob and they know where and to whom they’re coming. The editors arrive a few days after the start of filming, and go away a few weeks after all is finished, by which time, the first cut, which is still far from final, will be completed.” -added to the Magyar Nemzet online.
„Most of them have serious knowledge of film history, they know the significant creators of European and even Hungarian cinema. Their cutting style is completely different from ours. I learned a lot from them. For example, from “Die Hard’s” editor, Dan Zimmerman, who cut all the action scenes to the same music – we’re crazy about him after a while – for AC/DC Thunderstruck. He used it as a ruler, so the tempo of the given scenes became the same. Then, of course, it was replaced by the music of the film. Great idea, I’ve tried it before. They record an action scene with nine cameras.” – initiated the reporter at Nemzet, how an editor’s life behind the scenes.
