Two years before Eddie Nuvakhov and David Levy founded LNC Productions, they were college buddies about to spend spring break in Jamaica.
At the time, Levy had been given an open-ended film class assignment, so he decided to film a documentary about the trip—and Nuvakhov quickly fell into the producer role. Their smirks are audible over the phone as they recount the story.
“We were basically sophomores in college, but we started thinking back then, ‘Wow, this video worked out well,’” Nuvakhov says. “We realized that we could be a great team, with my extrovert and crazy character as a producer and he’s more of an artist, detail-oriented character. Our characters are so different, but together, it’s a great match.”
After they graduated three years ago, they got together with two other Yeshiva University classmates, Gena Zhuravskiy and Anatoly Yusufov, now Creative Director and CTO respectively, and decided to give it a real shot. They founded LNC Productions (“life needs creativity,” Nuvakhov explains) in January 2013.
Nuvakhov is the CEO of the company, handling the business and large-scale production side of things. Levy is “the artist” on the team, they both agree, handling the nitty-gritty creative side as the COO. It’s also where he gets to apply his long-held love for the film world—one of his first encounters with the industry, he recalls, was as an extra in The Bourne Ultimatum.
“I think the world through a lens can be beautiful,” Levy says, “and you can see things that you wouldn’t see otherwise.”
Since founding the company, the WeWork Fulton Center members have grown their team to consist of five full-time employees besides themselves, plus a few freelancers and interns. And they’ve worked on an impressive portfolio of projects, with clients ranging from tech startups to nonprofits.
They’re also official media partners with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, for which they recently produced an inspiring video chronicling a 16-year-old girl named Karissa’s dream-come-true fashion shoot with model Karlie Kloss.
“Having our business, we have the capability to help, to contribute,” Novakhov says. “The fact that we can film their experiences and share that story with the rest of the world…I feel like we’re able to contribute to society, and that’s a good feeling.”
Before the big-name clients came, one challenge they faced in their early days was communication, since neither of them are American nor native English speakers. Levy is from Spain and Nuvakhov is Russian-Israeli.
But they soon found that their clients appreciated the “fresh perspective” they brought, Levy says. Combine that with their business savvy—Levy studied economics and arts in school and Nuvakhov was a business student—and 2016 is shaping up to be the year they take the company to the next level. They’re launching a video distribution service alongside production and working on marketing their own original content, including TV and film scripts, too.
“Our goal for 2016 is to produce as many videos as we can and get as many clients as possible,” Nuvakhov says. “We don’t do specific goals of money,” he says, because rather than place limitations, it’s more about taking it as far as they can go.
Photos: Frank Mullaney