I won “Best Video” award in Taiwan!

I won “Best Video” award in Taiwan!

This year’s film production for me started with a success, as two of my films have been awarded today. Great news came to me from Taiwan early in the morning, where my fantasy film “Answer” won the “Best Film” category in the G&G Your Greatest Glory competition organized by G&G Armament. The idea came to me spontaneously, I wanted to make a short film with elements of fantasy, so the whole concept was quite simple. The award is unexpected, as I decided to submit to the competition at the last minute announced at the end of 2022 and decided to make the film with an absolute minimum of resources. I didn’t involve my entire team or a truck full of film equipment. It was just me, the camera, and the actor (and the narrator). This was by far the most physically demanding project in my life – and that says something coming from the guy who directed a war film – not only because I had to personally run with the camera instead of standing aside and giving commands through a megaphone, but also because of the weather conditions.

Winter was a challenge. To showcase the beauty of Polish winter, I didn’t have to go far from home, as we filmed all outdoor scenes in the nearby Cygański Forest in Bielsko-Biała. We perfectly hit the weather, as it was the last day before the thaw and the first day after the heavy snowfall, which would have made it impossible to film the spectacular shots. Nevertheless, I do not recommend filming in such conditions. Despite the sun, the thermometer showed -9 degrees Celsius, and in addition, we were moving in places where the snow reached our knees. The equipment barely coped, and the drone had to be “revived” just to take off for a few moments! To make matters worse, Szymon, a member of the Bielsko airsoft group RQS, who played the main role, suffered a serious back injury the day before and was able to stand only thanks to painkillers, which he had to supplement during the shoot. Therefore, the shot where he did a handstand downwards was filmed last – just in case he couldn’t get up anymore 😉

The post-production was done during my holiday break, fine-tuning the narration with Libby Grant.

You can watch the film below, and the competition results page HERE – you will also see my second film “Make no mistakes,” which I also prepared under “guerrilla” conditions, and it received the “Nominated Masterpiece” award.

For those interested in details, here are a few interesting facts:

• the film was shot in 7 hours, including a 1.5 hour break
• the whole thing was shot on “bare glass”, meaning without filters (which I almost always use). This is because we have a lot of special effects shots in the film, and filters like ProMist could make it difficult or even impossible to apply them in post-production.
• I managed to implement all the effects with relatively simple methods in DaVinci Resolve, without relying on more advanced tools – that would require the help of a specialist the first editing draft was a minute longer – he simply spent too long walking around the forest – but after adding voiceover, we were able to trim everything nicely.

  

I invite anyone interested in cooperation in film production or photography to contact me!