Bartosz Kowalski is the young Robert Rodriguez of horror in the making. He's an up and comer, but has loads of talent in all areas of production and is not afraid to take massive risks to get his movies made for virtually no money. After studying for 5 years at the International film school of Paris and completing an intensive summer course in Hollywood, Bartosz is bringing his game to the next level with his new low budget horror short : Jingle Bell Fever. Find out how Bartosz pushes his super low budget films to the max, using innovation and creativity to bypass special effects, crew shortages and much more!

Interview with Bartosz

Iain: Where do you get your inspiration from when writing your scripts?

Bartosz: Jingle Bell Fever was roughly based on a nightmare I had one night. Dreams is a great source of inspiration for horror geeks. Apart from that I try to keep my eyes open and observe everything that happens around me every single film school teacher will tell you this but it really is true. The most ridiculous situations can happen around you. Then at the end of the day, sometimes I sit down with a piece of paper, a pencil, a beer and I just start writing random things. Ideas float in as you exercise your brain.

Iain: What was the best experience you had working on a short?

Bartosz: The whole process of making a film is an amazing experience. I can't distinguish one certain event that would be for some reason better than others. At the end of the day though, the most pleasant feeling is to see your cast and crew satisfied about the final result of the film and the audience react in certain scenes the way you intended them to.

Bartosz Kowalski is the young Robert Rodriguez of horror in the making. He's an up and comer, but has loads of talent in all areas of production and is not afraid to take massive risks to get his movies made for virtually no money. After studying for 5 years at the International film school of Paris and completing an intensive summer course in Hollywood, Bartosz is bringing his game to the next level with his new low budget horror short : Jingle Bell Fever. Find out how Bartosz pushes his super low budget films to the max, using innovation and creativity to bypass special effects, crew shortages and much more!

Interview with Bartosz

Iain: Where do you get your inspiration from when writing your scripts?

Bartosz: Jingle Bell Fever was roughly based on a nightmare I had one night. Dreams is a great source of inspiration for horror geeks. Apart from that I try to keep my eyes open and observe everything that happens around me every single film school teacher will tell you this but it really is true. The most ridiculous situations can happen around you. Then at the end of the day, sometimes I sit down with a piece of paper, a pencil, a beer and I just start writing random things. Ideas float in as you exercise your brain.

Iain: What was the best experience you had working on a short?

Bartosz: The whole process of making a film is an amazing experience. I can't distinguish one certain event that would be for some reason better than others. At the end of the day though, the most pleasant feeling is to see your cast and crew satisfied about the final result of the film and the audience react in certain scenes the way you intended them to.

Iain: Can we get a little insight as to how you make your effects look so cool?

Bartosz: It's all camera tricks and acting that sells it. Tight shots, camera moves with speed and energy matching with what's within the shot, frame rate changes, good screams and a lot of splashing blood in short, that's my recipe.

Iain: What editing techniques do you use to enhance the production values of your movies?

Bartosz: I use very specific on set lighting that works with a certain color correction I do afterwards. It's a pretty long post-production process but it brings your footage to another level. It all comes down to creating very high contrasts, de-saturating and going through bleach bypass processing.

Iain: What was the hardest lesson you learned from working on low budget shoots?

Bartosz: Even with very little money, if you're well organized and clever about spending money on your effects, you can achieve amazing results. Prior preparation prevents poor performance 5P rule is the most important one and if you don't respect it you ll end up in a hurt locker.

Iain: Why horror, and is there any other genre film you would direct?

Bartosz: Horror is where my heart is but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in other genres. Contrarily, I am very open and willing to try absolutely everything. Horror doesn't exist in polish cinema so I have to be developing a comedy genre that is widely recognized in my country. That doesn t mean I m not excited about it. I am, very much. It's not my dream project but developing a horror movie in Poland is a waste of time since nobody gives money to those kinds of subjects. You have to be flexible and ready to direct anything if you want to make a living out of this job.

Iain: Do you have any future projects in development?

Bartosz: I am currently working for a film studio as an assistant director on three films and with their help I started developing my own feature film and two documentary projects. None of them are horror films, unfortunately.

To find out more check out Bartosz's showreel : Bartosz videos

Iain: Can we get a little insight as to how you make your effects look so cool?

Bartosz: It's all camera tricks and acting that sells it. Tight shots, camera moves with speed and energy matching with what's within the shot, frame rate changes, good screams and a lot of splashing blood in short, that's my recipe.

Iain: What editing techniques do you use to enhance the production values of your movies?

Bartosz: I use very specific on set lighting that works with a certain color correction I do afterwards. It's a pretty long post-production process but it brings your footage to another level. It all comes down to creating very high contrasts, de-saturating and going through bleach bypass processing.

Iain: What was the hardest lesson you learned from working on low budget shoots?

Bartosz: Even with very little money, if you're well organized and clever about spending money on your effects, you can achieve amazing results. Prior preparation prevents poor performance 5P rule is the most important one and if you don't respect it you ll end up in a hurt locker.

Iain: Why horror, and is there any other genre film you would direct?

Bartosz: Horror is where my heart is but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in other genres. Contrarily, I am very open and willing to try absolutely everything. Horror doesn't exist in polish cinema so I have to be developing a comedy genre that is widely recognized in my country. That doesn t mean I m not excited about it. I am, very much. It's not my dream project but developing a horror movie in Poland is a waste of time since nobody gives money to those kinds of subjects. You have to be flexible and ready to direct anything if you want to make a living out of this job.

Iain: Do you have any future projects in development?

Bartosz: I am currently working for a film studio as an assistant director on three films and with their help I started developing my own feature film and two documentary projects. None of them are horror films, unfortunately.

To find out more check out Bartosz's showreel : Bartosz videos