laco korbel
audiovisual freelancer
Director & Cinematographer of branded content and documentary films.
True storytelling and focus on aesthetics is an important element in his work.
Born in Czechoslovakia, in the era of VHS and MC tapes where the only social network was an afternoon meeting with friends at the local junkyard.
“It all started when my dad brought home a black suitcase. Nobody knew what was in it, but when he opened it – it basically opened up a new world for me.”
In that black trunk was a VCR and a few VHS tapes of classic 80’s flicks. At this time, there was generally not much money to spare for people in neighbourhood of small mountain town, so the VCR was the property of the local Hi-Fi Club, where several people got together and the possibility of borrowing it was created – couple of days each. A days full of movies!
“I think it was that time that marked me the most in terms of what craft in life I ultimately chose.”
The first films Laco made were documentaries of events for the local scout organization. At that time, amateurs like him shot mainly with Hi-8 or miniDV cameras. His short films mainly attracted attention because of their creative editing and his innovative work with music – something that still defines his work today.
“For my first camera [Canon XL1s] I had to borrow a lot of money from my family. But they believed in me and supported me in my dreams. I promised to pay them back in full in a year and a day. And that’s what happened – I started a business in the video world. In the beginning, it was mostly events and weddings. There I trained my ability to be in the right place at the right time because the moments were unrepeatable.”
Laco would be a great videographer for wedding ceremonies and the interest in his services grew rapidly. But it wasn’t the way he wanted to go. After high school, where he studied television technology, he decided to attend a performing arts college in the capital. And so he left a small mountain town for the big city of lights and cinemas.
“I didn’t get admitted to the school on my first attempt and so I had a year off. I used that year to study film – I went to the cinema every day and I also had the opportunity to rent films from the National Film Institute. Basically, I put all my energy into my second attempt to get into the film academy. During this period I was shaped by the most classical directors, but probably most of all by Andrei Tarkovsky and his deep philosophical films.”
In 2002 he was admitted to the University of Performing Arts in Bratislava, where he successfully graduated. While studying at the school he earned mainly as a sound master in various documentary films and formats for television.
“I have to say that during this period I was not interested in my own work (I didn’t even have story to say) I wanted to be mainly in film and TV work where I needed to gain all the experience I could and I also wanted to meet exceptional people who would push me further.”
…to be continued [preparing text & media]