PIOTR NAUMOWICZ

What inspires your work?

As probably many filmmakers would say. I dig inspiration from many things. Films, books, paintings, poems are obvious sources, but because I’m also a street photographer,  I like to believe that I'm a keen observer of the world, and this gives me an unique perspective.

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What films did you watch as a child?

I watched almost everything, but even in the early days of my existence, science fiction was something special to me. Then I didn’t catch the hidden messages under the visual layer of the film, but now I think this is the true power of science fiction. You can push subjects that we as humanity needs to deal with - but smooth it a bit with a unique history. 'Consent Is Customary’ is no different. We wrote it some years ago, before the AI revolution, but the theme of the movie is even more relevant now. AI is here to stay - the question is, will we still be humans if it takes all responsibility for the hard decisions we need to make every day?

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But lets’ back to the question:

 

- Alien

- No country for old man

- Enemy

- Sorcerer

- Nomadland

- Terminator 2

- Kill Bill

- Thin Red Line

- Bladerunner

- Gladiator

- Only God Forgives

- Drive

- The Shawshank Redemption

- Brother (Takeshi Kitano)

- Gost in The Shell - anime

- Princess Mononoke - anime

- Three Billoboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

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I can go on and on... The key is to watch different movies, big Hollywood productions and small indie films. There are great stories everywhere and you can learn filmmaking from all of them.

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What directors have influenced your work?

Denis Villenvue, James Cameron, Ridley Scott, Paul Thomas Anderson,  Coen Brothers, Terrence Malick, Nicolas Winding Refn, Takeshi Kitano, Quentin Tarantino and many more.

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What is one film that you think everyone should watch? And why?

Thin Red Line and Only God Forgives. Both of them break traditional film narration and provide an experience different from anything else.

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If you could adapt any book/play/piece of literature, which would it be?

No comments! Someone other filmmakers may be listening :-)

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Who are your favourite writers? (this could be from any format - script, books, poetry etc.)

Alistair Reynolds, Arthur C. Clarke, Kapuściński, Yates,

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Name a film score that makes you feel something.

Interstellar, Gladiator, Ghost In The Shell - anime, Princess Mononoke and many more

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Who is an actor that you would love to work with?

Sir Michael Cane, Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Jake Gyllenhaal, Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sigourney Weaver, Frances McDormand, Uma Thurman,​

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What is next for you?

Next year I would like to shoot another short film - this time a bit longer - about 35-40 minutes. In fact, I start preproduction for it next month.  And after that? Well, hopefully it will be my feature film director’s debut.

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​Tell us about your film Consent is Customary?  What`s it all about?

’Consent is Customary’ explores AI revolution through the prism of delivering the law and its consequences for human behaviours and responsibilities. Will it make us detached from reality and dehumanised? Will it make us indifferent to the fate of other people? If the machines will make all heavy-lifting decisions, will we allow ourselves to be blind to the results of those decisions? All of those are valid questions that we, as humanity, must answer soon, if we want to adopt AI into our world and save all the things that make us ‘humans’

 

Can you tell us about the creative process in making your film? What drew you to this project?

We wrote Consent long before AI was even a thing.  It was sitting in the drawer for more than 10 years for 10 different reasons. Then, one day, I figured out, I need to do something for myself. Not a commercial project, but something for fun. It’s hard to tell how the process looks, but I like to control as much of the details as possible to create a realistic and consistent vision. I prepare very hard. But then on set, I let myself explore the film once again  (to some degree of course) and I went with the flow.

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How long does a film like Consent is Customary take to make? 

We shot for two days, but the postproduction took me about 3 months. Because it was a passion project - I needed to take breaks for commercial work though. So taking that into account about 6 months.

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What challenges did you encounter?

Usual ones, I believe. Tight budget, not enough time on set… The biggest challenge in the preproduction phase was - how to create the world from scratch with the limited resources?

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Do you have a favourite moment when filming/creating Consent is Customary?

I love two moments. First of them is the part where Ian Akimov tells the main character to put her personal belongings on the table, and that she will collect them later. I also like the moment when the script breaks the rules and jumps into the conclusion much too fast. This is exactly what it would look like with the AI. It will be over before we will know it.

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How was working with your cast and crew? Do you have any stand out moments?

On preproduction - on first reading when two main actors read their lines. That was the moment I knew we had it. I was happy like a child.

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Can you tell us more about the sound/production/costume design of your film? 

Costume design was mostly custom made. I have a friend who is a fashion designer and he designed all the outfits except the main male character. Here we used on the shelf products, but we modified them strongly to fit our vision.

We carefully curated all the props and in many cases we designed them from scratch and 3d print them. We also put in a huge amount of work to find the proper locations - simply because I knew this will be the main thing to ’sell' the viewer the world we would like to show. The sound design  and sound mix was made by studiocompanypro.​

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What have you learnt from making Consent is Customary? Would you do anything differently next time?

There is always that I can make better in every film I make. That's part of the process. Make, learn, repeat.