shots Awards 2016: New Director of the Year

It's not easy establishing yourself as a new director, but Papaya Films saw talent in Iwona Bielecka when she submitted her entry to the production company's Young Directors contest last year. Having since signed to Papaya, Bielecka chatted to shots about why she pursued directing, how she found working to a tight deadline and reveals how she's now gained the confidence to continue shooting.

shots Awards 2016: New Director of the Year

Gold winner: Iwona Bielecka 

Tell us a bit about your background and how you got into directing. 

I was always been interested in the visual side of the world, which is why I spent many years working as a photographer. Directing took me a little bit by surprise. One of my dear friends, who's a singer-songwriter was releasing her album, and asked me to help with the music video. Since I love challenges, I decided to give it a shot. It got nominated for a prestigious award in Poland and that's how I started to get recognition and land other directing jobs. I really liked the complexity of directing compared with photography and being able to work on a much bigger scale. 

What is the story behind how you came to make The Heart of the Internet? 

The Heart of the Internet was created for Papaya's Young Directors 2016 contest. The script beat over 1000 entries and made it to the final 16 shortlist, which each received budgets for production. I was nervous whether the judges would like the film, but it won the Grand Prix award so I was really happy.

Did you always have an idea of how you wanted to approach the film; what you wanted to put in and what you wanted to leave out? 

I had a rough script and I knew that the sound will be as important as the image. The whole idea plays on recreating the heartbeat using everyday sounds. When preparing for the shoot, I realised that the number of vignettes I had planned was too little so in the end, we had to shoot twice as much. It was a real challenge because of the limited resources and the set deadline. But it all worked out thanks to the help of many friends and great DOP, Mikolaj Syguda.

What was the most difficult aspect of putting the film together? 

We edited the film to an accelerating heartbeat sound that I downloaded online. It was really tricky as after we edited it, we had to work on the sound design without adjusting the edit. Sometimes it didn't match. More than 70 percent of the sounds were created in studio by Blazej Kafarski at Glosno, so it was a bit time-consuming. We were still making changes a few hours before the deadline, to ensure that it flowed naturally and could be easily understood that it was a heart beating.   

And how long did it take? 

It was about a month from the day that I found out I was in the final sixteen until the deadline date. It took roughly two weeks of preproduction, one week to shoot and one week of postproduction. 

Which other directors do you look to for inspiration? 

I really like the sense of humour of Vanya Heymann (New Director of the Year 2014 at shots Awards), I admire Gustav Johansson... Canada. There are a lot of great directors out there.

What does winning gold at the shots Awards mean to you? 

I'm the first Polish director to win a craft award in the advertisement industry, so I feel this is really something, especially being a female. Winning gold gives me confirmation that I'm on the right track. It also raises the bar for future projects and makes me want to do everything better; it's positive and encouraging motivation.

What are you working on next? 

My producers at Papaya Films work hard getting cool projects and promoting my work worldwide. At the moment I’m working on a very artistic project for a fashion designer. This time we will lock ourselves in a studio and work with liquids, fabrics and emotions. It should premiere in the beginning of February, so stay tuned.