tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-218379942011-04-22T02:29:57.956+01:00A filmmaker keeps a close eye on WarsawWarsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.comBlogger401100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-89257103093432767432006-10-22T09:33:00.000+01:002006-10-22T17:07:37.674+01:00

Actresses? Look anywhere and there seems no shortage of talented female performers all ready to outshine the latest batch of dull vacuum-moulded male actors in films and TV dramas.Female characters? Tell me the last time you saw a really fascinatingly well drawn original female character? I don't mean an actress giving a great performance, I mean a really great female character. One you could

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1160412352932898552006-10-10T08:31:00.000+01:002006-10-10T00:25:04.570+01:00

Now I'm in England I watch one old film (1930s-70s) practically every two days. I find almost all of them fascinating and always wonder why 'We just can't make them like that anymore'. I'm quite convinced that traditional cinema really began to suffocate in the 1990s and died off almost completely around the year 2000. Today its trying to resuscitate itself with shock therapy - crueller violence,

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1160433801846582262006-10-09T21:04:00.000+01:002006-10-09T23:57:02.783+01:00

It might come as a surprise to some of you - but I've left Poland. I left it almost as soon as I'd made it back from Switzerland. 'What happened?' you might wonder. Well, I had actually planned to return to spend the majority of my time in the UK at the end of November. Life in Warsaw was already a psychological struggle but certain events during the trip to Switzerland tipped the balance, making

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1156142848995561362006-08-21T07:43:00.000+01:002006-08-21T07:47:29.006+01:00

I will be away without internet until next Monday - in Switzerland in fact. Wow!Catch you later.

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1155257965334848362006-08-11T01:57:00.000+01:002006-08-11T02:26:08.340+01:00

Today I performed lighting and grip duties for a friend's photosession.We'd spent several days setting it up - a two model studio shoot featuring several old mirrors moodily lit using only flashes. I'd taken well over 150 test shots to make sure the unpredictable combination of flash and mirror would lead to no surprises. We were now all ready for our two stars' arrival...But by 10am (the start

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1154654548864656412006-08-04T02:00:00.000+01:002006-10-12T15:50:31.698+01:00

I never I thought I'd ever find shots of Nazi soldiers on my Final Cut timeline [see previous post] - so with this brief sequence I've tried to make the most of it. Click below for the video. (If the highlights seem burnt out then Windows gamma is to blame.)About the shooting:Without a press pass (as usual) I was relegated to jostling for a position with the rest of the gormless folk behind the

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1154601055499658112006-08-03T10:56:00.000+01:002006-08-09T00:30:04.693+01:00

We strode at full speed through the streets of Warsaw's Old Town. Passing by the long feeding pens of Tyskie [Polish beer] sozzled tourists, my comrade and I poured over the hottest developments in the field of digital video cameras.(Its been about eight years since something significant happened in that field - now suddenly there's a lot to talk about. More on that later.)"So you're telling me

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1154158631882887582006-07-29T08:24:00.000+01:002006-08-11T02:34:23.510+01:00

On most days the city (and its roads) are a battleground of human destruction and survival but today men with guns will be spilling out onto the streets. OK, so that isn't unusual either but don't rush for your knuckledusters just yet - it isn't another 'Polski Hool' [hooligan] football deathmatch but rather a historical reconstruction of Warsaw's failed August uprising of 1944.My inside man

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1153853069776463652006-07-25T19:36:00.000+01:002006-08-03T18:28:47.430+01:00

Recently I sent a card to the UK. A few days later I sent the same type of card in the same type of envelope to the same address. The only difference between the two cards was the message I had written inside and the colours on the cover.On the first occasion I got that species of battle-hardened old shrew so often found lingering on in the safety of former Communist countries' postal and

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1153849748416585312006-07-25T18:29:00.000+01:002006-08-03T18:29:11.410+01:00

As anyone who has lived in Poland for some time knows, the Polish Post Office can provide anyone attempts to use its services with a diverse range of experiences. It can alternate from mind-crushing tedium to heart-pounding drama in a matter of a critical seconds or a non-underlined word.I remember one occasion when I had wrapped a box up with brown paper and criss-crossed it several times with

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1153162936460580792006-07-17T19:58:00.000+01:002006-07-25T19:56:56.980+01:00

There I was walking behind a group of teenagers in an upmarket area of Warsaw. A smart and shapely 16(?)year-old female challenged her three male companions:"Guys! Why do sperms have tails?!"The boys jumped around her offering a few of their own ideas, to which she replied with a complete assurance:"So you can pull them out of your teeth easily".Laughs all round.

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1153161044165665332006-07-17T19:26:00.000+01:002006-07-17T20:06:22.500+01:00

I know there hasn't been much activity here for a while.Here is what is going to happen:Instead of covering both 'the work of a lone filmmaker trying to finish his film' and humorous stories about life in Warsaw, this weblog will from now on cover only stories about everyday life in Warsaw.In the near future I hope to finish a dedicated website for my film that will feature its own weblog. Thus '

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1151230101806517612006-06-25T11:04:00.000+01:002006-06-25T11:08:21.816+01:00

Yes, this blog isn't dead yet. Neither I am it seems. The past few weeks have been difficult but I shall be posting an update here in a day or so.And perhaps even a preview clip from my film... Although at the moment I'm in two minds about it.

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1147563487792928372006-05-14T00:25:00.000+01:002006-08-03T18:41:57.123+01:00

Have you ever seen rain falling on the sea during a storm? Perhaps you have. Ever seen it from underneath the water? Well I needed about 8 seconds of this particular image for my film and to get it I built what I can only describe as a 'Water Box'. These are usually used for filming people's faces underwater while they are being drowned or tortured. (David Blaine's got his own ball-shaped one the

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1147489322813785802006-05-13T03:53:00.000+01:002006-05-13T04:02:02.826+01:00

How many weeks have I been in the UK now? Almost 3 I guess. Already a whole new routine and outlook on life have formed. Even though I miss its uniquely tenacious ambience, Warsaw feels like a distant crazy place. Sitting here in the sleepy English countryside and listening through Skype to the usual stories of Polish Reality - bread-level bureaucracy, rudeness, dire mismanagement etc. it just

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1147090712474033662006-05-08T13:02:00.000+01:002006-05-08T13:49:18.246+01:00

[People find this weblog for strangest of reasons. For the record / geeks is what I learnt trying to get a decent close-up of a syringe]1) For that 'technological' look use a glass syringe not a plastic one. In extreme close-up the plastic looks rough scratched and greasy even if its brand new. See how the one I used looks crude and cheap? :-( Also you can't really use plastic ones twice as you

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1146859750045789682006-05-05T20:47:00.000+01:002006-05-05T21:12:09.356+01:00

Thanks to all those who emailed in ideas for what I could have been making in the previous Mission Injectable post. The winner was only person who was brave enough to comment on site. So I can reveal that it wasn't macroscopic icebergs or The Wallace & Gromit Good Sex Guide (I had to pause to imagine those 'wrong trousers') but rather plain old 'human DNA manipulation fluid™' being loaded into a

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1146704489331167782006-05-04T01:42:00.000+01:002006-05-05T09:40:56.220+01:00

There's a fantastic mystery prize available for anyone who can guess just what on Earth I am trying to make in this picture...It has taken all day today and will probably take most of tomorrow too. And that's only half of it...So come on you suckers have a guess!

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1146409943774022372006-04-30T10:26:00.000+01:002006-05-05T09:38:54.600+01:00

It's Sunday morning deep in the English countryside and I'm sitting out on the veranda surrounded by all number of chattering avian buddies. The air is cool, the trees are blossoming and the sound of traffic wonderfully faint. The daily brutality of Warsaw life feels like a hangover that has slipped gracefully away...But not for long.I sit back with the newspaper - today its The Sunday Times. I

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1146096558181357002006-04-26T22:28:00.000+01:002006-04-27T01:33:21.810+01:00

By this time tomorrow I should hopefully have flown safely over to the hardly greenish but still very pleasant land of England - where I will be nesting for a whole 4 weeks before returning to Warsaw. For the first 48 hours I will blow my mind consuming information from the vast range of newspaper and magazine articles available for me to read and understand. I shall feel warm at the sight of

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1145839073791927092006-04-24T01:37:00.000+01:002006-04-24T02:36:49.806+01:00

There's a new scam in town. Wipers. No, not quite those deadly slavic snakes but the rather commonplace windscreen wipers found on vehicles everywhere. Got wipers? Sure you have! But here in Warsaw we've got better ones see. And we've got 'em for all vehicles - ever. These precision rain removal instruments are available at a knock-down rate and come with free fitting by highly trained

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1145319181961830632006-04-18T07:10:00.000+01:002006-10-12T15:47:49.592+01:00

[Looking for the real Uprising? - see end of post]A public holiday threatens! The food supply will be interrupted by a gut-wrenching 24 hours! Citizens of Poland leap into line to queue for bread! But today the line is different!Before the end of Communism the sight of Polish citizens queuing for food would have carried no certain amount of political dough. Filming queues or ration cards (

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1145295097377606932006-04-17T18:14:00.000+01:002006-04-18T01:33:35.013+01:00

It's that time of year again. The festival of Easter in Poland is easily as important, if not more important than that of Christmas. This is probably because of the resurrection aspect of Jesus' death. With a 98% Catholic population Poland's GDP of sins is one of the highest in the world. As such Jesus' salvation offers vast promise to the almost all the nation.And thus Easter in Poland (note the

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1144845313253219082006-04-12T13:25:00.000+01:002006-04-13T12:00:26.720+01:00

[Continued...]As the first shots of the film are seemingly unconnected memories I could basically choose any shots I liked from ones not already included in the film. However I knew there was a certain atmosphere and sensation that I wanted the audience to feel at the start of the film so as usual I went on instinct and assembled the shots in a way that felt right. This only took a few days.Then

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1144844517501981752006-04-12T13:00:00.000+01:002006-04-13T12:12:09.210+01:00

Last month marked 2 years (sob) since I first had the idea for my film and began working on it. And yet its only in the last 2 weeks that I have started work on writing the very first lines of the film. Allow me to confess:You see I never wrote a detailed script for the film before I started making it. I only wrote the story. This recipe for disaster happened because I wasn't even sure the

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1144316941405591332006-04-04T22:19:00.000+01:002006-04-13T12:24:04.480+01:00

A dream will always triumph over reality, once it is given the chance. Stanislaw LemThe popular Polish writer Stanislaw Lem was buried today in a Krakow cemetery. Having only read his novel Solaris, I can't say I'm at all familiar with his work. But from that one book it was clear just what an exceptionally imaginative chap he was.Solaris concerns a distant planet covered by a mysterious and

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1143727596867882552006-03-30T14:48:00.000+01:002006-03-30T15:06:36.946+01:00

The great thing about Apple's QuickTime video software is that (correct me if I'm wrong) it is the only mainstream video platform that allows you to easily 'scrub' through a video clip one frame at a time.These days, when most movie trailers are better than the films they promote I like to head over to Apple's Movie Trailers page and step through some of them slowly. I like try to piece together

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1143588713247207692006-03-29T00:30:00.000+01:002006-03-29T01:48:57.526+01:00

In the last few days the first undiffused rays of spring sunlight have finally cajoled temperatures in Warsaw to rise above 0C. Almost all of the great fields of exhaust-blackened snow have finally melted away to reveal nothing less exultant......than a city engulfed with carefully preserved dog dirt. An entire winter's worth to be exact. On my evening flight around the neighbourhood I was just

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1143116539708842982006-03-23T12:17:00.000Z2006-03-27T12:25:08.276+01:00

Ever wanted to see how joyful Polish citizens can look after they've been treated for a nightmarish depression? In the last week or so posters have appeared all over Warsaw that purport to show you exactly that.From the label:Deprim has the remarkable ability to preserve your natural feelings of world-weary suffering and pervading sense of dissatisfaction with life - while radically improving

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1141728845517884372006-03-07T09:47:00.000Z2006-03-07T10:54:05.540Z

I hoped to really focus again on my editing this week, but the 'boys' have returned to continue their Botticellian efforts to recreate the living room ceiling (that collapsed spectacularly last summer). I now imagine there won't be much of my idealised 'clean calm creative atmosphere' in the flat until perhaps after the weekend.As I write this I can hear the disconcerting wheezy panting sounds of

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1141078296736186982006-02-27T22:01:00.000Z2006-03-27T12:00:26.693+01:00

Although I've been back at my editing (and have made some progress) this past week has been one long headache - mainly because of the flu which is still persisting behind my eyes and at the back of my throat. I must be Poland's number one consumer of Solpadeine (a fantastically effective soluble pain-killer).Today I got up at 6am to accompany a friend of my mine to hospital for an operation. As

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1140546861190309982006-02-21T18:12:00.000Z2006-02-21T18:34:21.203Z

I've just spent the past three days out of action with flu. Before anyone comes to cull me I should add that it was just the usual kind of flu - temperature, fever, mucus etc and not the tail feathers poking out of the pond type. I'm not going to go into further detail as I think (and rather hope) that most people do not enjoy reading about illness.But one aspect worth recording though was a

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1140054270856597342006-02-16T01:33:00.001Z2006-05-05T21:21:38.393+01:00

Well the mission went better than I had expected. Snow fell for most of the day in large fat flakes - the kind that show up well on video. Despite the usual frustrating (late buses), painful (snow-stuffed shoes) and surreal (breaking through military funeral preparations in search of a loo) I was able to cover the birch war graves of the 'Zosta' battalion (the prime objective) plus some

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1139874302323534792006-02-13T22:37:00.000Z2006-03-27T11:05:50.816+01:00

A wise chap once said:"Making a film is like declaring war on reality"Light snow fell for much of Sunday afternoon and I was able to cover the tiny Tartar cemetery before the grumpy old man in charge of it decided to close it at a seemingly early 3:10pm. I imagine he wasn't able to veg out properly in front of his TV knowing that a certain little bird was recording some shots on his (

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1139449992032266002006-02-09T00:43:00.000Z2006-02-16T00:29:50.736Z

Yesterday I went filming. I started at 9am and finished at 5pm. The temperature was about -5C so not too bad (it was -20C not so long ago) and the snowfall was pretty constant as was predicted. I covered the Brodnowski cemetery and the old Jewish cemetery (the free one) and just managed a test shot at Targowek before night fell. I had hoped to do the Tartar cemetery as well but as usual doing any

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1139194875499235732006-02-06T00:45:00.000Z2006-02-06T09:17:01.566Z

Over the weekend I witnessed an interview on BBC News between the BBC's oldest and most ambivalent male presenter (David Something) and a young 'spokesmen for young British Muslims' who had been rushed in to discuss what can be described as the 'cartoon protests'.Here is my trimmed down and slightly extended transcript of their conversation.BBC: (scuffing the safe ground) I've had a look at the

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1138930510718441852006-02-03T01:11:00.000Z2006-02-16T00:28:57.743Z

Have I seen too much of the future today? I wrote the post below this one referring to Nostradamus at about 5pm. At 11pm I turn on the TV and on TVP2 find that the 1994 film 'Nostradamus' is on. Curious.The first image I see if of vast city draped in smoke and children drenched in what appeared to be oil. This film was made in 1994... And bizarrely enough includes a vision depicting Saddam

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1138925619972643202006-02-02T12:40:00.000Z2006-02-15T22:40:25.736Z

A remember a time many years ago - must have been about 1998 when I sat down in Warsaw with a friend of mine to watch a Polish documentary about the coming millennium and what Nostradamus had predicted might be happening at about this time. With zero knowledge of the Polish language at the time I sat through the programme as a purely visual experience. It was a cheaply made documentary - using

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1138844788101232482006-02-02T01:10:00.000Z2006-02-14T00:45:10.436Z

Yesterday I set out to visit a human friend of mine in hospital in Warsaw. I had to take the metro to get there (let's say I have a phobia about air ambulances) and so entered the little underground shop to purchase a ticket. Although they never seem to stock the cheaper '60 minutes' tickets I always ask for one - the strategy being that they might one day, given the choice, decide it might be

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21837994.post-1138841806864233292006-02-02T00:45:00.000Z2006-02-02T00:56:46.873Z

Yes, you have found the very the first post on this blog. What's that? You feel disappointed? Even with the charming picture of yours truly scavenging for inspiration? Well then why not try the one above.

Warsaw Crowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10053536111188107359noreply@blogger.com0