The Opportunity and Unpredictability of the Future of Production with Attila Horvath

Attila Horvath is a London-based service producer. He is the founder of Abroad Films, an award-winning service provider specialising in film and TV, commercial, and music video production in Central and Eastern Europe.

Attila sat down with LBB to discuss his unusual route into the world of production, and the key to long-term working partnerships.

LBB> Can you walk us through your journey in the production service industry?

Attila> I came into production service through an unusual route: two decades in the creative agency world. I started out producing commercials, ran my own agency, and eventually built our production arm, which slowly but surely evolved into a full service company.

That background still shapes everything I do. I understand how creatives think, how agencies operate, and what clients really need on the ground. And since I now live in London, I’m there in person: present, reachable, and part of the daily rhythm of the industry. It makes a difference when clients can meet you for coffee rather than on a screen.

Attila behind the scenes of the 2025 Deutsche Telekom Christmas campaign shoot

LBB> What are some of the most challenging productions you’ve worked on, and how did you overcome those challenges?

Attila> One of the most memorable challenges we’ve faced was filming wildlife for WWF and the Coca-Cola Foundation’s ‘Blue Danube’ project. The goal was to document the restoration of natural habitats along the Danube – beautiful, meaningful work. But the key location in Bulgaria, Persina Island, came with a twist: the pelicans we needed to film live on an island that also happens to house a functioning prison.

Persona Island, Bulgaria

To get there each morning, we had to cross a military pontoon bridge, pass through a full security checkpoint, and have every car and piece of equipment inspected. And because we were going back and forth throughout the day – for meals, batteries, logistics – we repeated that process multiple times. It was like stepping into a scene from a film, except this time we were the ones being searched.

LBB> What key qualities do you believe set your company apart from others in the industry?

Attila> Two things. First, my agency background: it gives me a 360° understanding of the creative process, from idea to execution. I speak “creative”, I speak ‘agency’, and I speak ‘production’. That combination helps us anticipate needs long before they’re verbalised.

Second, our physical presence. I live in London, I attend industry events across Europe, I build relationships continuously. Clients see a real, consistent person, not a name at the bottom of an email. That presence builds trust.

And yes, being Hungarian in the UK market adds a certain unexpectedness, in a good way. It makes people curious, and curiosity is the beginning of every collaboration.

LBB> Can you share the most extreme example of a major issue that arose during a shoot and how your team resolved it?

Attila> One night, while shooting an ad for Panasonic in rural Hungary, the director suddenly decided that the two actors fishing in a small boat needed a very specific little lantern. “In an hour,” he said. At midnight. On a lake near the village.

Luckily, our prop master remembered that Zsámbék has a lamp museum.

He jumped in the car, woke up the caretaker, borrowed a small vintage lantern that fit the scene perfectly, and we shot with it — and by the time the museum opened the next morning, the lamp was back in its place.

To me, that story sums up service production: resourcefulness, relationships, and a crew that simply refuses to say ‘no’.

LBB> What strategies do you employ to maintain calm during high-pressure situations?

Attila> Experience helps. Service production is inherently high-pressure: everything needs to align in one specific moment, in front of the camera, when someone says 'action'.

Years in the agency world (especially event production) trained me well. If you can’t handle pressure, you don’t stay in this industry long.

LBB> How do you approach location scouting, and what factors are most important to you in this process?

Attila> We work across three countries (Hungary, Bulgaria, and Croatia) because each offers very different visual strengths. Often, the location itself decides which country a production should go to.

Our biggest recurring challenge is recreating British architecture, which is incredibly specific. Budapest can offer surprisingly strong matches, and Sofia’s backlots are excellent for period or London-style environments.

​NYC backlot in Sofia, Bulgaria

Location scouting is essentially matching vision to reality, but with enough regional expertise to stretch what ‘reality’ can look like.

LBB> Are there any principles you always go back to manage budget constraints without compromising on production quality?

Attila> All budgets are tight now. That’s not the exception; it’s the operating system of modern service production.

Our company structure, workflows, and mentality were built for this world. We know how to protect production value even when the numbers look impossible.

LBB> What’s most important to ensure you’re working well with local crews and talent?

Attila> Local expertise is the heart of cost-effective production. The more high-quality crew you use locally, the more value you create.

We’re fortunate in that all three of our countries have exceptional departments: production designers, AD teams, DOPs, and wardrobe. On a recent project, an Australian director ended up choosing Ádám Fillenz, a fantastic local talent, as DOP purely based on his reel.

That kind of openness is becoming more common, and it shows how strong the regional talent base truly is.

LBB> How do you foster strong relationships with clients to encourage repeat partnerships?

Attila> This is the core of my job as executive producer. Relationships need time, presence, and consistency.

Being London-based helps enormously. I’m there, physically, for meetings, coffees, and those spontaneous chats that build trust far faster than emails ever can.

I wouldn’t call myself a ‘natural networker’ – even if others might – but I genuinely enjoy people. And clients feel that. Reliability and genuine connection create long-term partnerships.

LBB> There are, of course, fundamentals that remain, but all industries are changing rapidly these days. How do you see the production service industry evolving in the next five years?

Attila> There’s one certainty and one big uncertainty.

The certainty: budgets will continue to shrink. Which means more productions will move to cost-effective countries. As long as Central and Eastern Europe can maintain capacity and quality, this shift will benefit our region – although, of course, we also feel the pressure when everything is tight.

The uncertainty: AI. We simply don’t know yet how far it will go. Major actors already have AI avatars that can perform without the physical person present. Simple ads, stylised content, even some music videos may be the first to migrate into fully AI-driven pipelines.

But long-form storytelling (films, series) will need physical production for a long time. The emotional depth and complexity simply don’t translate into automation.

So the future is a mix of opportunity and unpredictability, and we’re preparing for both.

LBB> If you could give one piece of advice to clients looking for production services, what would it be?

Attila> Pick a partner you trust, someone whose instincts, experience, and honesty you can rely on when things get complicated.

And if you’re unsure where to start, call me. I’ll buy you a drink, and we’ll figure it out together.