Interview with Bartek Kmita, Kamil Krynski, Wojtek Szwed – (Directors/Screenwriters PARADIGME)

PARADIGME was the winner of BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY at the December 2017 Sci-Fi Film Festival in Los Angeles. 

Matthew Toffolo: What motivated you to make this film?

Bartek: The main motivation to create this movie was actually pretty simple, to graduate the school. But instead of making an easy asset for the diploma, I began to think about creating something over the average. And then the idea of the movie came out, but it was almost impossible that day to make it alone. That’s how I decided to do this in cooperation with my friends.

Kami: At the beginning the main reason for creating this film was graduation project we had to make. However during the process of creation something has changed. We stopped care as much about graduation, and start thinking about this as an adventure and best possible way of learning. What is more, number of great ,kind people who helped us is really impressive. We couldn’t let them down.

Wojtek: I’ve heard about the project when it was just an idea, Kamil and Bartek wanted to do some short for graduation diploma. I’ve thought it was an interesting concept, and a way to level up my skills and trying to work as team with other creative people. So I’ve joined them.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this short?

B: From the first idea to the very end of the development process passed a bit over two years.

K: It took us over 2 years to make this from scratch to finished project. We spent one year on pre-production and another on post-production. It was only 3 days of shooting.

W: 2 Years. It was a lot of work for the three of us, but thanks to help of some amazing people We’ve encountered on the way We did it.

3. How would you describe your short film in two words!?

K: Save yourself

W: Save yourself

B: Worth creating

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

B: The biggest problem for us was definitely lack of the skill and experience. We had to learn and do almost everything from scratch. When we have been starting this project, we had almost no idea where to start, how to do certain effects, how to organize shooting and glue everything together. Despite the technical problems and lack of time, this was for sure the most difficult part.

K: The biggest obstacle was definitely time. It was pretty huge and time consuming project for us. Everyone of us had to quit the job just to finish a movie. We were already late 2 years with defense of thesis. It was a true race against time. W: Well, pretty much everything You can think of when creating project like this. Lack of time, lack of money and lack of skill/experience. It was pretty ambitious thing for a student graduation project, and sometimes We had really thought that We bit off more lettuce than We can chew.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

B: Amazed, to be honest. 🙂 We were arguing for hours just to clarify the true story hidden in this movie, and some of the people from the audience who were talking about “Paradigme” actually hit the point perfectly! We left a big part of the film to be interpreted by yourself. Despite the initial story and the idea for the film, there is no clear path to follow in understanding it. So everyone can have a different point of view.

We are glad that there was so many interpretations. The audience’s ideas for the main character and his story are fantastic.

K: I’ve never been in the situation like this before. I was really amazed and little bit excited that someone is discussing and more important – interpreting our work.

W: It really felt amazing. Our project caused a discussion and every person interpreted the movie differently. I think it was pretty much our goal to leave certain things as a mystery and give a each viewer a chance to come up with his own unique conclusion.

6. How did you come up with the idea for this short film?

W: It all started with a really simplified story – and after hours and hours of meetings and discussions We’ve developed a more complex one and decided to go with it. K: In the beginning we had only general idea, we wanted to create something intriguing, giving food for thought. Everyone of us put a little bit of himself into this. Then we started putting pieces together. When it comes to me, it was all about inside battle within me.

B: It is a difficult question and just like the story of this movie, there is no straight answer for this. It started as a very different and much simpler story and then it just developed over the hours of thinking and brainstorms. We were inspired by the Dante’s “Divine comedy” and the journey through the purgatory and hell, but also by movies like Alien, Matrix, etc. Mixing it all together created “Paradigme”.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?

B: I think that each one of us would point a different one, but I guess that for all of us Matrix will be in the tight top.

K: Probably Home Alone hahah

W: I think it’s definitely the first “Alien”. Not many movies made such an impression to me.

8. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway, what are you feelings of the new(ish) submission platform from a filmmaker’s perspective?

B: It is a great way to find an opportunity to show your work to broad audience. I think that in the near future, this will become the main way for the artists to share their work and submit to festivals.

9. What song have you listened to the most times in your life?

B: Probably “Last Christmas” by Wham, as it is being played every single year, multiple times, in every media stream, since 1986.

K: Bon Jovi – Living on a prayer

W: Probably “Tool – Schism”, but I’m not really sure.

10. What is next for you? A new film?

B: Something to amaze. For sure. I’m not done yet.

K: I think I’m not ready for another huge personal project yet. I need to learn a lot. Currently I’m focusing on improving my skills to become a better artist.

W: Perhaps, the time will show.

Watch the Audience FEEDBACK Video: