From a scientific institute to Hollywood: the success story of the Odessa winner of the green card

Odessa Leo Savitsky He was fond of photography since childhood, but decided to study stem cells. When he realized that he saw more happy photographers than scientists, he abandoned science. After winning the green card, he decided to move to America. Today, his posters adorn Times Square in New York, "covering half the world." This publication writes MC Today.

Фото: Depositphotos

Odessa Lev Savitsky studied stem cells in Sweden and Germany, worked as a photographer in Ukraine, and then went to Hollywood to retouch footage from a movie. One of Lev’s latest works is a poster for the new film Terminator. Dark Fates.

Born photographer

According to Savitsky, from school he was fond of Photoshop and photography.

However, when the time came to choose a profession, he decided to choose "something serious and went into genetics."

First, Leo graduated from Odessa National University. I. I. Mechnikov majoring in genetics and molecular biology. Then he went to Sweden, where he studied human stem nerve cells at Lund University for a year and a half.

After that, he returned to Ukraine, but very soon he left again - this time to Germany. “I was unlucky with the manager there - constant shouting and swearing did not contribute to the work at all. “I decided that I saw more happy photographers than scientists, and gave up science,” he said. “Besides, by then I had already won several cool photo competitions and been published in magazines.”

Savitsky said that he did not specifically study photography. He learned the basics from his own experience and studied with colleagues.

Фото: Depositphotos

“A couple of years later I was already a member of the Ukrainian Association of Photographers, the Union of Photographers and the Federation of European Photographers, where in 2015 I was among the top ten portrait photographers. But none of this helped me find a job in Ukraine,” he shares.

There was little work, and he was not taken anywhere. And if they did, they said that he was not good enough. At the same time, they paid little, or even offered to shoot for free.

“I made money from stock sites, but continued to shoot for the soul with full confidence that the time would come and all this would be useful to me,” he recalls.

Green Card Win

Фото: Depositphotos

Leo and his wife had long wanted to leave Ukraine, and America was one of the options.

“Once upon a time, I filled out the green card applications for both of us, and a year later we were suddenly informed that we had been chosen,” Savitsky shared.

He also explained that winning a green card alone does not mean anything. It just gives the right to talk with the consul in Kiev - and then not immediately. At the same time, no one guarantees that you will get a visa and everything will work out.

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After the family won the green card, they had to fill out a lot of documents: a detailed questionnaire about family, residence, education and work. After this, it was necessary to undergo a long and thorough medical examination. “The latter requires time and money, and a lot of it,” Lev noted.

He and his wife passed the medical examination successfully. After that, they faced the most important step - an interview with the consul.

“We were incredibly worried; by that time we had already spent a lot of money. But in the consulate itself we felt calm and even cheerful. Everything went very smoothly, much better than we imagined,” he noted.

According to him, the whole process of obtaining a visa took almost a year and a half.

Moving to America

Next came the flight and job search.

“A green card is one of the best legal ways to move; it gives many opportunities and solves some problems. But not all,” Lev said.

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For example, to rent a house in the United States, it is not enough to have a lot of money - you must have a good credit history. Often people in this situation resort to the help of intermediaries.

“My classmate and her husband helped us, and other local Americans turned out to be quite friendly and helpful,” Savitsky said. “We were able to solve all the problems, and by legal means.”

Moreover, the couple was ready for problems before the move, having learned a lot of things in advance.

“This was not the first time I went abroad, but my wife always dreamed of living in the USA and was ready. She is an artist, now she works for herself,” he said.

Work searches

Savitsky began to look for work eight more months before the move. It took another two months to find her already in place.

“In total, it’s almost a year, and many people say that I’m lucky,” he noted.

This is despite the fact that Leo was looking for work in every possible way: he sent out resumes to all the agencies that he just found, wrote and showed work to other retouchers, searched on LinkedIn, in Facebook groups, in local forums.

“About a year and a half before coming to the States (at that time I wasn’t even sure that I would come), I watched a master class by two retouchers Simon Rabel and Lisa Carney. It took place in the USA, but you could watch it online. They have been working in Hollywood for over 30 years and have created just a huge number of movie posters. I was impressed and wrote to them before the end of the seminar,” Lev shared.

He received an answer almost immediately.

“They wrote that they liked my work and they would love to meet you. After a few months, I already knew for sure that I would come, and again wrote to them. They helped me with the initial list of agencies to which you could send a resume, ”said Lev.

According to him, the Americans as a whole are ready to help you.

“They sent me links and gave me contacts. Every new freelancer I met asked me for my phone number so that he could recommend me to his clients if he couldn’t take the order himself. This didn’t happen in Ukraine, but here it’s in the order of things,” Lev noted.

What does a retoucher do?

Now Savitsky works as a full-time retoucher-finisher at the Trailer Park agency in Hollywood. Its task is to increase the size of the layout to the finished poster and make sure that the quality of all elements remains high.

“This is long and painstaking work - it took me about 20 hours of working time to process one poster for Terminator,” he said.

Materials for processing are usually sent to him from the set. It can be staged studio photos, or just backstage.

“Our task is to put the pictures in order,” he explained.

For example, it often happens that photos are not large enough for such huge formats. Or a person was shot at full height, and the poster should have a close-up face. It happens that the head can be of good quality, and the body from the photo can be low.

It happens that the stars ask for something to fix.

“Some people want to be licked and made younger than 20. Others, on the contrary, ask that they be left as they are, and limited only to color correction, ”said Lev.

He’s working day, like any office employee, at the computer. The only difference is that you have to work in the dark so that the light from the windows does not interfere with the color perception on the monitor. There are also breaks for lunch, holidays, birthdays.

“There are days when I have to work for 12 hours, but I hardly get tired, because everything is fun,” Savitsky shared.

According to him, he has already worked on dozens of films, promotional materials and photo shoots of actors. From the last and the famous - “Why do women kill”, “Star Track”, “Spy”, “X-Men”.

About life in America

According to Savitsky, America has its own nuances, but "the pleasure of life covers any difficulties."

“I am sure that in decades from now my family will live in a great house and we will have everything we need,” Lev said. — I get a salary that is enough for a good life. "

About how much he earns, Leo can not tell. But "this is more than I could get in Ukraine, doing the same."

“I work for a large company, we have a great team and overall work process - right in the center of Hollywood. Every day I walk and see how they prepare for the premieres, how the Jimmy Kimmel show goes on. It’s unrealistically cool to see how the poster you worked on was covered in Times Square in New York and half the world in general,” he concluded.

Leo also noted that the Americans are “completely different people.”

“People with talents are valued here. It’s captivating – I feel like I’m exactly where I was supposed to be,” he noted. — If someone is trying to deceive you, then these are immigrants from the former USSR, who are only happy to make money from recent emigrants. There are plenty of them here.”

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