“In all the heroes there is a drop of me”: showrunner Alexei Lyapichev about the versatility of the profession and work in the TV series “Container”

— Alexey, you said that you came up with the idea of ​​a series about surrogacy while working on the TV series 257 Reasons to Live.

What inspired you?

- The series "257 Reasons to Live" is about a heroine who has gone into remission and is starting a new life.

Looking into the second, third and some other seasons, we understood that sooner or later we would have to raise the issue of the family, the child, but we came across the fact that many people in remission are not recommended to give birth.

Therefore, some of them resort to the services of surrogate mothers.

For myself, I noted that the topic is interesting if you find out what it is and how you live with it.

After filming the second season of 257 Reasons to Live, it's time to think about the topic, because it has a very interesting moral and ethical aspect.

Actually, having become interested, we came to the story, which later became the "Container".

How did you collect material?

Nowadays it is not difficult thanks to the Internet.

Communication with certain people was not required, we drew information from many interviews and programs, as well as articles and forums where people share their personal experiences.

We have come to the conclusion that there are some unshakable things about the “customer-executor” relationship and there are clinics specializing in surrogate motherhood.

Everything else about our heroine Sasha, performed by Oksana Akinshina, was invented by ourselves.

- Did they call the clinics while working on the series?

- There were such thoughts, we even called, but they all invited me to a meeting, since the conversation was delicate, not by telephone.

But at the meeting, I think, it is unlikely that we would have been told about the pitfalls of this story - like everyone else, we would have been drawn a rainbow picture, which interested us the least.

And we tried not to resort to specific moments. 

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- Actually, for this I exist as a creative producer and showrunner - a person who at any time can replace almost any component on the set and outside of it, since I am most of all in the material and details.

This practice is especially common in the West, when people grow from showrunners into directors.

I received a very unexpected and pleasant offer from START.

It was exciting to agree, but after I enlisted the support of the platform itself, the actors of our series and the crew, it became a little easier.

- What were the concerns?

— As a screenwriter, I enjoy the dialogue.

For me, despite the fact that I write a fairly detailed script and try to describe each action, there is still a visual component.

There are a lot of scenes in this series with long dialogues, where, in fact, the characters just talk to each other.

I have always left the part of the visual representation of the story to the director - he will figure out how to shoot beautifully.

I get pleasure directly from the description of the dialogue.

Therefore, doubts were caused by the visual design. 

• Alexey Lyapichev and Oksana Akinshina on the set of the series "Container"

• © Video service START

Is it necessary to receive special education or even several to cope with the tasks of a showrunner?

- I think it’s not possible to go to study as a showrunner: in order to know all aspects of all departments and work with them, you need to go some way, at least starting from authorship.

That's exactly how it all started for me.

I tried to write a series with the help of older comrades, then something else, gradually came to the point that I could already write it myself.

After that, I was entrusted to be the author on the site, who also oversees the process.

This is how slowly this growth happens.

One of the most important aspects of cinema is editing.

Are you involved in this process in your projects?

- Well, of course!

Have you ever thought of one thing and ended up with something else?

- Of course.

Installation is a whole science.

Sometimes it saves some moments, and sometimes it can worsen well-written and filmed material.

With the editing director Andrey, with whom we do all our projects, we have developed a very good understanding of each other.

He tries to advise somewhere, and we find a common language.

Therefore, editing is a very important part, which I also do.

— In the second season of The Container, did you try to keep the atmosphere of the first season as much as possible, the tone, the approach to the story, or do you offer some other, your own view of the story?

- Since we have updated the director's and camera department, naturally, there were additions from us, but it is simply pointless to destroy what was so painstakingly created.

We tried to preserve all this and even improve it somewhere, increase it, give it a different look.

The "Container" has its own face, and people liked it. 

What is the fundamental difference between the second season and the first?

- In the second season, there is a little more dynamics and less regularity, as it was in the first.

And this implies a slightly different transmission of visual content. 

- There are no clichéd characters in the "Container" - good and evil.

Everyone has their own truth and the circumstances that led to who they became.

What else, in your opinion, besides an unusual theme and interesting characters, determined the success of the series with the audience?

- To be honest, it is very difficult for me to talk about this topic.

I am never satisfied with the product I get.

Some kind of soul-searching, self-criticism, which I hope is characteristic of any more or less creative person, is always present, so I am glad and grateful to you for such kind words.

It turned out so, probably, because everything and everything turned out to be in its place.

A wonderful band, actors you can only dream of, and the atmosphere on the set, which only got better from season to season.

I'm not afraid of this word, but for many this project has become native.

Probably, all this was transferred to the viewer.

• Philip Yankovsky and Oksana Akinshina on the set of the series "Container"

• © Video service START

- In the series, can you see a hero endowed with your personal qualities?

— I find myself thinking that in all the characters there is something from me, or rather, not from me, but from my head, because, in my opinion, an explosive mess is always going on in the author’s head: he and the hero-lover, and a loser, and handsome, and ugly at the same time.

When you write about some character, you keep in mind, they say, yes, it’s not you, but somewhere a word slips, somewhere a model of behavior, somewhere a thought that you would like to express.

We have everything that our heroes have: both bad and good, and greed, and love, and betrayal.

I think that in all the heroes there is a drop of me, and I really hope that only a good drop.

- Alexey, you first appeared on television while still a schoolboy in the game “What?

Where?

When? ”, And later were an active participant in KVN.

Why didn't you follow the path of your comrades - to Comedy Club or Stand Up?

— I went down this path.

Comedy Club was born as part of the KVN team with our friends and comrades.

In the first Comedy Club parties, I was responsible for the selection of music, under which the artists came out.

It will be said loudly - I stood at the origins, although, of course, I do not pretend to be.

- You were also the editor of KVN ...

- Yes, then the editor of KVN.

I walked a path that helped me understand that I want more.

In any case, that KVN, that the beginning of Comedy is a good creative school in terms of communicating with people and writing scripts.

- How did you get into cinema?

- Many people who went through the global school of KVN left thanks to their older comrades for television.

Later, probably in the cinema.

One way or another, the elders pulled up the younger comrades.

Already in KVN and Comedy Club there were people who worked on television - let them write some kind of sketch-coms, but then it seemed something inaccessible and very interesting.

Slowly they pulled us up.

It all started with writing sketches, and not on a permanent basis.

Then they were already attracted to humorous serials when they came to our country.

This path is familiar to many.

What do you think is more important in the film industry: connections or experience and talent?

- Complex issue.

I understand what you are asking, but since I have never managed to do something that was not creative, it's hard for me to judge.

Despite the fact that I have known the producers of "Container" for a long time, this does not mean that I can come with a bad product and shove it out of friendship.

Probably, this is a mutual movement: I don’t come with bad things, and the guys don’t want to produce bad things.

My acquaintance with Eduard Iloyan somehow led us to create 257 Reasons to Live.

We were together at the right time, the idea was voiced, it aroused interest, and then - only work and work.

I did my job, they did theirs, in the end we made a project that people liked.

• Alexey Lyapichev on the set of the series "Container"

• © Video service START

- Now there is a very difficult situation in the Russian film business, especially in the cinema.

Do you make predictions about how it all might end?

- No, forecasts are a thankless task, especially in the current situation, especially with cinema.

I believe in good, despite all the difficulties that everyone faces.

I think that you need to write, invent, sooner or later it will be in demand. 

— And if most cinema halls are closed, will video services be able to replace them?

- Why not?

As a person who prefers to watch something at home, in a calm and private environment... But the cinema still remains for many people a place to spend time with family, with a girlfriend, so I would like to see this type of leisure.

Perhaps someone will switch to platforms where at any moment, on any gadget, you can watch the series you like.

I want to believe that the cinema will suffer less, and the platforms will be fine.

These are not interchangeable things.

If only there was a high-quality product, and he will find his audience both in the cinema and on platforms.

— The production of feature films is often allocated more money than the filming of series.

What do you think, if almost the entire audience goes online, will more expensive and high-quality series appear, or will the quality of full-length projects drop?

- If it is quality content, then everything will be fine.

And if everything gets really bad at cinemas, and video services will release pass-through products, then no one will watch them.

I know that now there is an experience of supporting each other when the series are shown in cinemas.

It seems to me that this is just the time of opportunity - you can try new formats, and who knows what will come of it.

- Alexey, you earned your first million as a schoolboy.

What did you spend it on?

- To guitar lessons, I remember that for sure.

Some part, I hope, I shared with my parents.

Nothing else special.

How would you manage a billion?

— Now I would invest in some project.

Perhaps already independent from start to finish, including producing.

This does not mean that I want to find freedom, in START they give me enough freedom, but I think it is the ambition of every person to do something on their own.

And I would spend most of the money on children, on their future.

What genre would this project be?

Do you already have an idea that you would like to work on?

- I have projects of different genres, which one way or another are either not fully formulated by me, or have already been formulated and not accepted by the management.

To varying degrees, they come back to your head, they warm you, you think: “Lord, how brilliant this is.

Why doesn't anyone understand this?

Why did everyone refuse?

It seems to me that the presence of a billion and the independence that I am talking about is an opportunity to test whether you are ready to risk your money and believe in an idea.

It is possible that when you look at a billion and at the idea, it will no longer seem so brilliant.

Or maybe you'll find that you're willing to risk your money because it's important.

There are ideas for both comedy and drama, but I think I'd go back to something more difficult than comedy.

- You initially wanted to make the “Container” lighter.

- I am such a person, I'm not interested in just laughing, walking or doing something.

I want to look for a different side, a different opinion, a different aspect in everything. 

What do you watch as a viewer?

- Basically, I watch a lot of the old, because I am one of the grumbling people about modern cinema.

All these blockbusters, Spider-Man, also have to be watched because of the children.

But not to say that this is one of my favorite genres.

Fortunately, the children themselves ask what I would recommend to them.

We watch a lot of old movies with Tom Hanks.

Of the series - "Office", absolutely stupid, in a good way, but very deep in terms of relationships.

In this project, it is very well considered just what kind of people are good and bad at the same time.

I also recommend Spielberg films.

I mostly absorbed films from the 1990s and 2000s.

They had more history, more of the man himself.

Now it's all about special effects.

I try to choose films about the fate of a person.

From the latter, I remembered "Work without authorship" about post-war Germany.