First documentary film
As part of preparations for my next project, I produced my first documentary film. The subject: a woman in motorsport. Together with my crew, I spent a season with Mery Czepiel, the Polish national rally racing champion. The film was very well received, and thanks to it I expanded my production capabilities, which I'll put to use in the upcoming film.
Time for a big step
This chapter is currently being written…
Job for IPN
Making films about WWII opened another door for me. And it's 6 years after the premiere of "Oblitus." In May 2022 a representative of Institute of National Remembrance (PL: IPN) contacted me with a job proposition. They wanted me to produce a music video about Augustów Roundup. After discussing the details I refreshed contact with reenactors, put together a film crew and got to the work. We were shooting for 2 days in Warsaw and Pszczyna. Music video for Maciej Ciesielski's song "Testament" premiered on November 2nd on YouTube.
I've got an idea!
People always say "Read a lot of books!". I read. I read quite a lot. I read books, e-books, magazines from my industry and there are a lot of information, inspiration and ideas going through my head. One day, the 15th of August 2021 to be exact, an idea for a film was born. I have not been thinking about it at all, there was not a single moment when I thought to myself "Hey, you need to make a film!" or "Let's think about a script about this". Nothing like this. I was lying on a couch, reading a book and "Bang!" — idea for a script. Idea generated by my subconsciousness while I was doing something else. Idea on a subject I've been passionate about since childhood. Idea that no one has ever made a film about. Now it's time to get real.
Personal growth
I started the year 2021 with new resolutions which I still use. They are very important habits that help me grow in every area of life. I'm not going to throw around empty life-coach phrases about personal growth. Simply, I've learnt that I cannot make progress in only one area, I have to strive to be more complete, to eliminate the risk of the bottleneck effect. Example? So what that someone is a great actor if they easily get nervous? Our industry requires us to be in constant pursuit of new skills, both hard and soft ones. For me, the time had come to learn how to succeed in business.
YouTube struggle
At the beginning of 2020 I came up with an idea of creating an automotive channel on YouTube. For the last few years I've met a lot of people from that industry so it was pretty easy to find ideas for videos. I proposed a collab to my friend from the "Bielskie Drogi" office who helped me promote the channel via his vast reach in social media. Unfortunately, the world of YouTube is very particular and my way of making polished videos in professional conditions doesn't fit. It's a place where quantity and regularity matter more than quality. The algorithm was ruthless for us and the channel never grew big. However, I don't regret it, and still, as a hobby, I shoot some videos for Petrol Heat.
Clash with reality
For a few months I had to rearrange my services a bit and started, with a friend, a brand providing wedding photography and videography services. We used our experience from film sets and commercial work to stand out in the market, so getting clients became fairly simple. Weddings were easy and fast money, we had better gear and postproduction workflow than our competitors, and we added some tricks and techniques from big film productions into wedding films, which was warmly received by the couples. It was a bit of a trap. After a while I realised I was doing the same thing over and over again, that I was going backwards with my career, surrounded by drunk wedding guests, creating everything from the same template and in very limited conditions I had no influence over. That's not for me. We did that for three seasons, and getting out of that industry brought me huge relief.
Last short film?
My fourth short film "Wish" was supposed to be a sci-fi thriller set in the near, dystopian future where killing people within certain rules is legal and even profitable. I produced the movie with my own money and the shoot went well, despite the fact I'd written the script in English. Unfortunately, when postproduction started I lost my VFX artist and needed someone new. That coincided with some big changes in my life, so the project sat shelved for over three years. I got back to it in February 2022 and finished it within a month. I was pleased with the final result and submitted "Wish" to festivals.
Interesting collaboration
Collaboration via the news website "Bielskie Drogi". I had to direct a road safety campaign film about wearing reflective elements on clothing at night. I wrote the script under the supervision of the police and the editor-in-chief of "Bielskie Drogi". In the lead roles we cast kids, which was a completely new challenge for me. The campaign aired on the 1st of November 2017, and once again I had to face negative comments — this time from opponents of reflective clothing. It taught me that as an author, I have to take all the criticism on myself, regardless of whether it's justified. It was a valuable lesson in humility.
First commercial
With my crew we made a 5-minute commercial for G&G Armament from Taiwan, a producer of airsoft replicas. The lead role was played by actress Ilona Borkiewicz, with whom I've worked regularly ever since. In parallel, we produced a commercial for a device called ReDrive, made by a company called FSS from Bielsko-Biała — a deliberately controversial film. We got flooded with comments from outraged residents convinced the stunts in front of the camera were performed for real. A few days after the premiere, the police got interested…
First professional production
Time for something bigger. With reenactors we prepared the script for "Oblitus: Rise of the Forgotten", about Polish-origin soldiers in the US Army. I wanted professional tools — gear from Cinerental in Kraków, real pyrotechnics, historical vehicles. I built a crew with sound engineers, camera operators, a production manager and assistants. Money? A crowdfunding campaign and media promotion. "Oblitus" went on to play at Polish and international festivals, picking up a few awards — and opened more doors.
First serious setback
After "The War is not Lost" I immediately started on "Triumph of Death" — shorter (17 minutes), simpler, a single thread. Simple? Not necessarily. It was shot in an abandoned building; during one scene we used a smoke machine. Someone saw smoke through a broken window and called emergency services, reporting the whole building on fire. Eight fire crews and several patrol cars showed up, the road was closed, the crew evacuated. It ended in nerves and relocating the shoot — where we still had to lean on CGI.
First narrative film
I decided to involve the reenactors I'd met into a narrative project — a sci-fi film about time travel, in which modern-day soldiers fight the Wehrmacht. It was a real school: I wrote the script myself, directed, shot, edited, did the effects, sound and color grading. The hardest part was working with dozens of people. I organized the premiere of the 45-minute "The War is not Lost" at the Studio Filmów Rysunkowych in Bielsko-Biała.
First time directing
Musician Karol Koch reached out with an offer to direct music videos. We made three clips — the third, "Brestskaya Krepost", was meant to be an acted-out music video. For the first time I had to give acting direction while also operating the camera. It didn't reach a wide audience, but I gained my first directing experience — and met people involved in historical reenactment.
First adventure
After a difficult period, I reached a compromise with my mother: I went to law school, and she helped me financially pursue my passion. I bought a DSLR and started shooting short martial-arts clips. My first job was a wedding film, after which the groom invited me to Austria, to the MTB World Cup circuit in Leogang. A week in the Alps with four athletes gave me a ton of striking footage — that's how my first sports short, "Leogangsters", came to be.
First film
3rd year of high school, exam prep season. My homeroom teacher gave me an ultimatum: enter the school's promotional-film competition, or my conduct grade drops. I fired up YouTube, found a tutorial, downloaded free editing software, and shot everything I could on my phone. I won the competition, and the film served as the school's promo for years — but what mattered most is that I understood, right then, what I wanted to do with my life.
First mention of directing
In 2nd year of high school we were offered career-competency testing at a psychological clinic. I'd already decided, long before, that I'd become a lawyer. After three hours of testing, the psychologist confirmed law was a good fit — then added: "Have you ever thought about becoming a director?" I laughed, said goodbye, and left, forgetting all about that visit…