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Suriname Marketing Solutions
Review by Bjorn Vaughn, Director Borneo Productions International
Short
Yuri Slijngard film production services through Suriname Marketing Solutions far surpassed our expectations. He and his film crew, which included one of Suriname’s best DOP’s, Kaleel Kohinor, produced some beautiful rushes for our short documentary sequence in Suriname. I am proud to know Yuri and would love to work with him again in the future.
Long
As the showrunner for a large film project with an international development bank, par tof my work was to remotely coordinate film crews in five countries. This required me to contract professional local film crews and instruct them to carry out a shoot following our shot list and specs. Most of these film crews were referred to me by a trusted colleague. For Suriname, however, I relied entirely on the internet to find a suitable collaborator.
I explored half a dozen options and finally settled on Yuri Slijngard from Suriname Marketing Solutions. Yuri was the fastest to communicate, showed the most understanding of our requirements and demonstrated the kind of flexibility we needed to get the job done under challenging conditions.
Yuri brought on Kaleel Kohinor as DOP and Damasio Bogiman for second camera. As I was cross-coordinating multiple shoots, I hadn’t yet had the chance to do my due diligence on his choice of collaborators, so I was tickled when, on our first conference call, Kaleel didn’t feel the need to remove his sunglasses, and Damasio for some reason happened to be shirtless in the middle of the jungle. Fortunately, I know not to judge people by the lack of their garments. When you’re good at what you do, you’ve got nothing to prove. You’ve earned the right to be yourself.
Kaleel is one of Suriname’s finest DOP’s (check his website). Damasio shoots beautifully (and rest assured wears professional attire on location). Yuri coordinated closely with the local stakeholders and remained in close communication with me throughout the shoot, always providing me with the assurance I needed. This makes Yuri and his team one of my most precious discoveries during my 15 years running a film company. If you’re looking for a reliable field producer in Suriname withaccess to great talent, Yuri Slijngard from Suriname Marketing Solutions surpassed my expectations. I am very satisfied with the film crew he put together and the results they delivered. I am proud to know him in Suriname, and I look forward to the day we get towork together again.
— Bjorn Vaughn, Director at film company Borneo Productions International (BPI)