Dušan & Dušan. Šaponja and Čavić. Dva Dušan, better known for the Cyclotron projects and Marko Žvak.
The Cyclotron project was created in 2000. Since then, Cyclotron has built a reputation for high-quality productions that address a wide range of current, often controversial social issues in an authentic and effective way.
We can say that long ago, in 1993, at the Branko Krsmanović Amateur Theater, they acted together in Woodi Allen's play "Death" and Šaponja and Čavić met. The first baptized the second, and the second married the first. There are multiple interpretations of what it actually means Marko Žvak. Even one Dušan will tell you one story, and another another, about where the name Marki Žvaki comes from...
How did Marka Žvaka get its name?
Chapon: I came up with another version, which was created by the people we interviewed suggested it to us. Basically, in the underground passage on the Green Ring, chewing gum was sold and cost a mark, and just as it was popular for sellers to say in the market: "Women - bags", so it was: "Mark - gum". To us, it seemed like a good name for a short form, which can deal with various aspects of life. And that through it we can show all kinds of things, what is "dislocated" and civic activism and everything that we notice. What we live is: Marko Žvak.
Cavic: I don't know which of us actually came up with the idea for that name?
Chapon: We thought about various names for a long time, but we had no idea that this name would live so long and become a kind of brand. We started doing it when there was no more space to deal with Cyclotrons, which was a more demanding form, which we did for months at a time, just one episode. It was on the border between a TV show and some entertainment-documentary program, a movie. We got an offer to do short forms and we had to come up with a name and... the rest was Marko Žvak.
Cavic: Now it goes so far, that they call us: "Hey, Mare, Mare..." - they address us as Mare, even though we are both called Dušan! I guess Marko Žvak associates them with Mare?!
Chapon: We once asked people how they perceive the name Marko Žvak and we got an interesting answer: "Zvak - it means you have a good story, and it's branded...". So, branded gum = Brand of Gum... I really like that as an explanation!
It is evident that after leaving B92 you changed the "channel" of communication and that you publish all your content on Youtube. How do you plan to position yourself in that segment, given that there is a fairly established group of YouTubers, led by Danilo Dabić Zvoganj and Milan Inić Yasserstain?
Cavic: What we do is not seen by the masses. Secondly, we already have years and experience, we believe that the younger audience is more on the Internet than some of our generation and, especially, the older ones. Although it would probably bring more profit, through more views - we are not for that part of the market. If we are talking about YouTubers who are watched by a very young population, kids, and their clips: "5 things you didn't know about me", "Do you know I had red hair?". To me, personally, it's pointless. On the contrary, we always try to show something that is interesting to us, something that makes some sense, for example: that Belgrade's sewage and feces are poured directly into the rivers, untreated. We want to cover topics that concern the environment in which we live, work...
When we left television and started on the Internet, they told us: "It's different. Youtube is an internet form, different from TV." But I think there is no difference anymore. They also told us: "Don't make side dishes longer than 3 minutes...". Let's say, we make one clip of 3-4 minutes, and leave with it another 30 minutes of raw material - in the end, those 30 minutes of raw material are more watched than the edited 3-4 minutes! I don't think there are any rules...
Chapon: We look at the Internet more as a platform through which we market content. Competition always exists, as it existed on television, and it will be present on the Internet as well... In fact, we like to create and publish video content that would be interesting to us, and that's where we start from. The good thing is, the internet is taking over.
Cavic: This is expressed even more abroad, here it is still late. But it's coming. Our earnings from the Youtube form are growing progressively. It is still very little, but I believe that in a couple of years we will have salaries from that - average salaries in Serbia, both of us, from doing Marko Žvak's video content once a week. Marka Žvak is something we do because we love it, and that's the reason we get other jobs - corporate marketing content. More and more companies are directing their budgets to marketing activities on the Internet, so we also create various video content for such clients.
We cannot predict and know which of our content will be the most viewed. For our two most-viewed videos, we got a recommendation from people who follow what's going on on the Internet, that we shoot those two videos: "Go shoot that man and what he's doing and it will get 200.000 views." We go and shoot - and really , that clip had more than 200.000 views. But we would never go and record it ourselves.
Chapon: We can't predict, as they say today, what would be super "clickable"…
I agree, but with all that, you need a dose of luck…
Chapon: Yes, it is also very important whether you are the first to publish something, or not... If you are the first to publish something, it will be very striking. And here, if we are talking about your portal, let us also say that our clips related to food are quite watched.
That's exactly what I was going to ask you! What are your TOP 2 most viewed and your favorite clips, i.e. TOP 5 most viewed clips, in general?
Cavic: TOP 2 favourites, which we have ever done? Ugh, that's hard to say…
Chapon: They are like children to me...
Cavic: My favorite is one Cyclotron - it's not on the internet - the episode is called: Never (you won't watch) . It's a show that lasted 24 minutes and was cut into some 20 segments, where we invented, or didn't, various things, such as: going down the Topčiderka river...
Chapon: They were short shows that were not potent for a half-hour format, but they were good for short formats and then we combined them into one show.
Cavic: These are clips, which will not be seen anywhere else, like some trailers...
As for Marko Žvaka, which clip is your favorite?
Chapon: I really do not know…
Cavic: My favorite clip is with Nenad Racković, our first editor. But that, too, is not available on the Internet. Around Christmas, he was making garlic, so he took a used tube of toothpaste, opened it from the back, washed it, then took a banana and squeezed it onto the garlic like banana puree.
And the most viewed video was about that guy who said: "Sveeee...". It was for him that they told us: "Go and film him...".
The second one on the list of the most watched is, in fact, a clip from the Crevarijade in Ćuprija, last year, where we filmed some characters turning a pig. When they took the pig off the spit, one of them disemboweled it, with a "snarling" knife, which you can find in every kitchen. Then we made a video clip, 1:08 minutes long, called: How to cut a pig from a spit.
The third most watched is a video clip, for which they also told us to go and record it - it's Preletacevic Beli.
Chapon: For me, personally, that video clip is one of my favorites, and at the same time, it has a lot of views. It's a phenomenon, really, and White is really a strong character.
Cavic: The fourth most watched is when I was in the army, so I was filming a friend from the block, who was in Svilajnec in the quartermaster's brigade - how to make military beans. It was a recipe for army beans.
The fifth most viewed is: the best lamb Ex Yu. Here are the 5 most viewed.
As far as we can tell, out of the 5 mentioned most watched, 3 are about food?
Cavic: It is. All food clips are watched a lot. In addition, it must be a good title. You have to put: "the best burek", "the craziest burek", "the best this, the best that"...
Chapon: We also like to film pensioners, but, unfortunately, the clips with them are not watched as much. A lot was watched, for example, the clip about the opening of the aqua park in block 44. In general, clips related to people who are "strong" on the Internet are watched a lot, so they post it. It raises the rating of both.
Where did Nikola Žigić come from at the top of Marko Žvak?
Cavic: While working at B92, we shared an office with the sports newsroom. They often called our athletes and recorded them on the phone for the purposes of broadcasts, sports previews, etc... That was the time when Žigić was still playing. And then we told them to ask him to say: "I'm Nikola Žigić, and you're watching Marko Žvak's show." He probably didn't know what it was about...
Chapon: Colleagues told him that there was a show, so we used that recording...
Cavic: We often say that we want to change the rush hour and in the end we don't change it.
Chapon: Once we put some girls on the show, so it went on for a while. For a while, we also had a sponsor peak, but, somehow, Žigić is always present.
Cavic: That's what Ivan Ivanović called us and said, send me the credits of the show. And we told him: we have some girls and Nikola Žigić, and he answered us like out of the blue: "Nikola Žigić!" Well, that's how Žigić stayed on top.
If you were forced, or if you had to change what you were doing and do something related to food, what would it be?
Chapon: I would like two things: wine production - since I am originally from Dalmatia and we already make homemade wine - or something related to fishing. Maybe a fish restaurant: what was caught today? -Nothing. There's nothing for lunch... Well, something like that... Mostly, I'm interested in Mediterranean products.
Cavic: I would base myself on only one product - like Milan "Prava pljeskavica", which works at the bottom of Takovska. He doesn't have chicken meat, sausages - only burgers... Or I would only do baking... I don't think it's the best business model, but I would try to catch something and stick to it. Also, I would like to be a fisherman, but on the Adriatic.
We also have some acquaintances who started organic food production. But I think it requires absolute commitment.
What do you think about organic food production?
Cavic: I think it is impossible to avoid "inorganic" things and influences: there are skins and other bad parts of animals in hot dogs. Not that we eat them every day, but, my child loves hot dogs... How can I tell him that he can never eat hot dogs again, and he is only 4 years old. Biscuit, Smoky, it's all the same... Every great apple I've eaten in the last few years - it's all genetically modified. It is impossible to protect ourselves from it, just as the air is polluted. But it's great when you have and when you can eat organically. We have a friend at the market who tells us: "I don't spray only the pumpkin." And everything else he has to spray, or he won't be able to sell it... If he sprays, then the cadence is important and that it should be respected.
Chapon: But, realistically, few of us are ready to eat a wormy and small apple. Kudos to the people who eat them. But the buyer's eyes, we can't do anything about it - we buy with our eyes and that's not good for the healthy food system, but what can be done?
Finally, what is your favorite food - at home and in a restaurant? Are they the same dishes or are they different?
Cavic: At home and in the restaurant, I like shrimp on the buzara. Very often there is no shrimp here, there are many more prawns on offer. Likewise, I love roast lamb both at home and in restaurants. I prefer roasting under a pan, rather than on a spit. If we make roast at home, it should be salted and oiled. Then, in the tin into which you poured a finger thick layer of water, cover with foil. Put it on the highest setting to bake, how many kilograms of meat, for so many hours, towards the end remove the foil so that it browns... And that's it.
That's the real recipe for preparing lamb for roasting!
Chapon: My favorite dish at home is brodet, and it would be the same in a restaurant - but I can't find it. In a restaurant, I like to eat Asian cuisine – something spicy…
Your favorite sweets?
Chapon: I don't eat sweets. I only like pancakes with nutella and plasma + yogurt.
Cavic: Do you drink yogurt with pancakes?
Chapon: Yes! I love the combination of sour and sweet. The perfect combination... De gustibus non est disputandum (Tastes should not be debated). Many people don't understand that…
Cavic: I've loved it since childhood, but it's not really my favorite: fritters with jam. And of the sweets, my favorite is rigojanči (prim. aut. Rigó Jancsi, Hungarian), it is a Hungarian cake with chocolate. It's not a heavy cake, it's not a killer, because I don't like strong cakes, when you eat it, it's not good for you. I like light cakes, although I eat less and less cakes.
What new projects are you preparing?
Chapon: Nothing special…
Cavic: We need to finish a lot of started things, which we are not getting to.
Chapon: We can say that we are planning a new episode of Cyclotron. That would be the main news…
Belgrade, August 2016.
Interview led by: Miodrag Ilić
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