How can a young person employ a star?

Where does a young director look for an editor, a cinematographer, an actor? Does a school crew stay with the filmmaker for the rest of their life? We ask the students of film schools and independent creators of short films.

Kordian Kądziela (“Lockjaw”):

– In the very case of “Lockjaw”, I needed unfamiliar faces so that the viewer could be fooled and believe in what is going on on the screen. However, it often happens that well-known actors gladly agree to play in school short films when they like the script. As far as the crew is concerned, the camera operator and the production manager have to be from the school, and the remaining members can be selected by the director.

Joanna Satanowska (“Unfortune Teller”):

– The editor and the operator have to be from the school so that we all learn together. Whereas the actors can be freely selected by us. Although not everyone has the courage to call for celebrities, it is always worth trying. If they like the script, the experienced actors gladly take part in our productions.

Piotr Domalewski (“Bad Deeds”):

– The crew develops during the studies. It took me long to gather the people with whom I work, or perhaps the people who have the patience to work with me. But in fact those people, after a few years of our common film adventures, have become my friends and people without whom it would be hard for me to make a film. Especially that making a short-length film is always a difficult fight against the lack of time, money and equipment. That is why the support of the crew is very important to me.

Milena Dutkowska (“Come and Play with Me”):

– In the Katowice film school, we have to assemble a crew also from the external environment. Who you work with depends on your power of persuasion, budget and determination, for example to wait for the dream actor to agree, to have time for us. Of course, the idea for the film and the script are the most important because that is what decides on the interest of the crew in the project. A student short film certainly is not a place where the crew and actors’ remuneration rates are the driving force of work. Everyone’s willingness to make a good film is the motivation.

Michał Turlewicz (“Shells: a Film about Happiness”):

–We were lucky enough to have the film fully shot in Kraków and it was there that we gathered the whole crew from. That is why we were all friends or friends’ friends.

Mateusz Rakowicz (“Romantique”):

–The story with Robert Więckiewicz was that I assumed that he wouldn’t want to engage in such a story. The then boss of the Munk Studio, Darek Gajewski, convinced me. Robert read the script… Later, during the meeting, I felt that it wasn’t me checking on him; it was him checking on me. After an hour’s talk, however, he got convinced and said “OK, let’s do it!”.

Filip Hillesland (“Toast”):

– School exercises mean in 95% a budget amounting to zero, so most often, there is no possibility of hiring anyone. We are talking here about a large deal of favours and shakily survived friendships, but at the same time, there emerges some spirit of helping each other and sooner or later, this help gets back. The more films you make, locations you work at, serious productions you engage in, the more you get to know experienced people who can be hired with time, often at the so-called student rates. From my experience I can say that everyone wants to be part of interesting projects, no matter their size. Both the people in front of and behind the camera.

by: Martyna Kiedrowska, Marek Głuszczak
Fot.: Marek Głuszczak

from: Festival Newspaper