Ömer Faruk Bakırcı

We sat down to start an agency and stood up with a collective.

Ege and I sat down to start an agency. Before we could hang the sign we saw that everyone had AI in their hands and nobody had it in their work. So we built the thing backwards. Software, consulting and creative moved under one roof, and I became creative director. I brought one habit from the set. We do not present slide decks, we leave behind a system that runs. On the shelf today: tabak, mesken, rabbit, randevu, fısıltı, devral, boarder, FineDisplay, Kick and Syphon Viewer, plus sancak on the App Store. unorthodogs is the production arm of this roof.

Half reason, half instinct.

nous works · creative director & co-founder · nousworks.co

Off the leash. We called it unorthodogs.

Buğra, Arif and I had sweated through the same sets for years. One night in Levent we all said the same sentence. We were tired of the same recipes and the same "safe" choices. unorthodogs came out of that. We exist to shoot work that is raw, sharp and alive.

unorthodogs · co-founder · udogs.co

I took the second unit.

We went to North Macedonia for Naser, a series about the Bosnian War. I was the assistant director, and on some days I ran the second unit, so calling "action" fell to me. The same year, on the dark comedy Not Your Average Family, I sat at the writers' table as well as on set. I directed Bahçeşehir's 30th anniversary film under Danyal Temiztürk, the VFX master, as general director. In the gaps we launched Unique Ambiences, a 4K landscape and soundscape channel. We wanted to take people to the hidden corners of the world without leaving their couch.

Naser · Not Your Average Family · Bahçeşehir 30th · Unique Ambiences

Fifty-plus commercials, a Netflix series, an Emmy-winning set.

I went freelance. Public Film, Norr, Terra, Panda and Mental! took me to fifty-plus commercial sets. Lego, Beko, Hellmann's, İş Bankası, Yapı Kredi, Axess, Letgo and İKSV are a few of them. On a Magnum music video I was first AD and also stepped into frame as a guest. In 2021 I was third AD on Another Self, which became Netflix's most-watched Turkish series worldwide. The same year I travelled the world to shoot IronSource's Story. We wrote a crime series called Helix and took it into pre-production with Deimos Pictures, first for Netflix, then for BluTV. Five months later the project was suspended. In 2023 I was floor second AD on season two of Şahsiyet (Persona), the Emmy-winning series, Onur Saylak directing, Haluk Bilginer in the lead.

Side scene: in 2022 I designed t-shirts and posters with Midjourney and sold them on Redbubble. It closed, and it was fun while it lasted.

Another Self, Netflix 2021 · Şahsiyet S2, 2023 · Helix, 2021 · IronSource's Story, 2021

I became second AD.

I joined Hakan Yonat's crew at Kala Film as second AD. I was the one writing the call times, keeping the schedule, getting the actor into frame on time and calling "quiet on set, rolling". Vakıfbank's 65th year, Total, Torku, the Adidas marathon, Halkbank, Lay's and the Presidency's Doctors' Day film were shot in that stretch. You make the plan, the day goes elsewhere, the work still gets done. I learned that on set.

Kala Film · 2nd AD · dir. Hakan Yonat

I ran an agency for eight months.

I took over Kiwi Digital and ran it as agency president for eight months, with my freelance team from university beside me. We did social media, promo films and motion graphics for more than twelve clients. That is where I saw that a client wants something that works.

Kiwi Digital · agency president · social · production · motion

I studied engineering and told stories.

I studied Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Istanbul Bilgi University. Between lectures I ran a five-person freelance team like an agency, and we shipped brand identities, websites, apps and videos. We founded the Leadership Club, put on 150+ events, and I ran ten of them myself. For March 8th we made It Takes Eight: the stories of eight women who had fought hard with life, eight installations by the artist Gülsün Erbil, an exhibition, a dance show, a film night. The national press wrote about it. We shot my first short, Before I Go, in 2016. My graduation project, Bastion the Sentinel, was a semi-autonomous robot that collected litter and sorted it into paper, glass and plastic. I graduated in 2017.

Graduated 2017 · Leadership Club founder · It Takes Eight · Before I Go · Bastion the Sentinel

My first job was live broadcast.

The summer I finished high school I started at Lig TV. I was on the live broadcast crew at matches, as a statistics operator and for a while as a camera assistant. Live has no second take, miss the second and it is gone. Later I became crew leader. The same year I started university. Circuits by day, football by night.

Lig TV · live broadcast · statistics operator, camera assistant, crew leader · Okyanus Science High School 2013 · Bilgi University EEE

I found my first client in middle school.

In middle school I opened Photoshop and Dreamweaver and never really closed them. I made websites, logos and posters for neighbours, shopkeepers, anyone who asked. High school added editing, motion graphics, animation and 3D modelling. The real thing happened while I was building websites. I would lose my mind over a beautifully told story. It could be a good film or a story told over dinner, I was completely fascinated. I wrote, spoke, filmed and photographed. In the end all of it led me to filmmaking.

Web & graphic design · freelance · 2008