PAVEL ŠTURM

film · music · theatre

Born in March 1988, I grew up around Třebenice and Lovosice immersed in scouting, the guitar and books, so there was nothing better than playing and singing on our trips full of adventure in the region and writing up a record in our Chronicle. I fell for film in my third decade of life, until then I consumed trashy genres, and cinemas definitely did not make money on me. Things changed with my coming to Prague, where I also graduated from Phonetics and English and American Studies at Charles University. That’s why I’m not a proper writer, since I can’t put in my bio “abandoned studies at the faculty”, as they always seem to do.

Zahloubán do knihy LITERATURE

I read and I write. As a reader I prefer novels, but I don’t disdain shorter pieces either (even poetry, which I didn’t like at high school). I won’t list favourite authors, there are many, usually British/Irish or American. As an author I focus on shorter pieces, that is, short stories and poetry. I’ve completed a few pieces, but have many more in progress. However, I’m not much keen on this anymore because I had a stab at screenwriting, which suits me better in terms of its scope and writing principles. Anyway, a story is a story, be it in writing or in a film medium.

Režisér a kameraman v jednom FILM AND THEATRE

Films and everything about them occupy the most prominent place among my hobbies. At the moment I manage to watch more than a hundred films a year, which is really the minimum for a director. Watching and analyzing films is a great school where you learn straight from the masters. It’s not necessary to attend a film school anymore as there are tons of materials on the web and in books, the rest can be acquired through practice and collaboration. I write screenplays, operate the camera, direct, edit and do image postproduction. Finally, I direct the theatre group Teatritis, you should definitely come and see a performance! (In Czech, though...)

Kytarové sólo na koncertě s Livebeats MUSIC

I’ve played the guitar since I was young, I started classic before switching it for electric. You can say “Fender” in front of me, but beware of “Gibson”. But I love to sing with an acoustic guitar at a campfire, a wine cellar or anywhere else. I was a member of several bands, lately Livebeats (more bluesy) and now Better Times (more rocky). Very sporadically we perform with our trio Fonohra, made up of two guitars and a solo clarinet (traditional Irish melodies in our arrangement). I composed a CD (probably pop), but I don’t have the stamina to finish recording, since my time for music was stolen by film. But I mean to release it within two years (end of 2018).

Kolik jazyků umíš, tolikrát jsi člověkem LANGUAGES

I grew up on English, which is the only language I can speak nativelike. But I speak German and Spanish as well, and a little bit of French (but I haven’t tried for a long time now; only occasionally I read a phonetics article from the pen of an English-rejecting Frenchman). I love Spanish very much. It’s music to my ears, and I can use it in Spain, an amazing and beautiful country to which I would emigrate if I ever had to.

PHONETICS

Phonetics is essential for everyone who is serious about languages – teachers, actors, public speakers. A phonetician can differentiate even such details of pronunciation that affect others in a subliminal way. I could read a French text so that most people wouldn’t know I can’t understand half of it. But phonetics has many more uses. It’s linked closely to the world of technology, namely the development of speech synthesis and automatic speech recognition. Our students do programming and they can apply inferential statistics methods in their research. Lately, I’ve become crazy about the programming language R, in which I do everything now.

Link to the website of the Institute of Phonetics, which is where I work (you can find my professional CV and a list of publications there):
http://fonetika.ff.cuni.cz

RUNNING

Běžecký závod ve Stromovce Running is splendid. You can run with a partner, in a group, alone. Wherever, whenever. I prefer longer distances, ideally around 10 km. The worst thing for me is to force myself to get out, but then it’s worth it – it’s the best rest for both the body and the mind. On top of that, I tend to think up new films during running so keep fingers crossed that I go running as often as possible!

HIKING

Malajsie, čajové plantáže Hiking in the mountains takes up much time so I don’t do this often; but I enjoy it all the more when I hit the trail. I love views, deserted landscapes and steep hills, which often comes together, of course. From time to time I also saddle up my bike and go cruising the Bohemian central range or other parts of the country (until I blow a tyre).