Thompson Punke by Jan Kwiecinski

A beautiful sunset crowns a red-letter day for humanity. A post-apocalyptic city smoulders on the horizon. Through the woods traipse a group of survivors. Are they the last people on earth? This band of rebels, renegades and drop-outs who have lucked-out, party for what could be the last time. There is no tomorrow for these last scraps of human remnants as they toast their last hurrah with beers, bongs... and bats. What better way to say goodbye to it all than with a nice spot of ping pong?

We're extremely proud to present new signing to Nice Shirt Films, Jan Kwiecinski, and his latest work for Thompson Punke.

A breakout star from the Wajda's Master School of Directing in Warsaw, Jan directs the film with a verve and passion that bleeds from the screen. His eye for arresting colour is one of the stand-out elements of the spot.

Jan left his native Poland with a selection of award-winning, self-written short films under his belt, most notably his taut, gripping "The Incident". After graduating from the London Film School, the next step in his fast rise was his personal selection by Harmony Korine & Vice magazine's film arm to make one segment in the three-part, visually evocative, "The Fourth Dimension". The film premiered at the San Francisco Film Festival and generated industry buzz for its twisted play on space, time and audience expectations. Shortly after the film's debut, Jan was selected for the Sundance Institute for Directors and Screenwriters Programme, where at the infamous breeding ground for the next generation of filmmaking talent, he is adapting "The Incident" into a full feature.  At only 27, Jan is a tour de force to be reckoned with.

Highly inventive and infectiously enthusiastic, Jan makes his first foray into commercials with this spot for Thompson Punke.

Soundtracked by poetry from Milton and punk rock from "Tiger" by the Brooklyn band Cheeseburger, Jan leaves us with something memorable.

The Brooklyn-based outfit of Thompson Punke, self-described as a bad-ass ping pong clothing brand, is one of the originators of the ping pong revival that started in NYC, crossed the pond and is now taking over the world one pong at a time. The connection between creativity and ping pong isn't a familiar one but is a logical one - what self-respecting agency, design studio or trendy bar is without a ping pong table? Thompson Punke capitalises on this with a bright and hyperactive collection that captures the spirit and fun of the game everyone loves to play.

To see Jan's work, have a peek at his showreel here.

Jan.GIF

Jan week continues here on the NS blog where with each day we're getting a rider from the 2012 Tour de France stating why they think Jan is great has come to an end, but the GIF we had on the front page lives on, ticking through each image from films on his reel, hopefully until the end of time:

Jan Kwiecinski: "Incident"

We could celebrate Jan Kwiecinski's addition to the Nice Shirt Directors' Roster with a tattoo or maybe a ceremonial wicker man statue burning. Instead we're taking a closer look at  the work currently on his reel.

Up next is the trailer for "Incident"

Jan says of his film he wrote, directed and produced in his native Poland:

"I shot this movie in 4 days, for £4000, with a lot of my friends and their goodwill. I tried to create a movie based on the simplest possible idea and stay close to the idea that the main character was a character from my generation."

It's a tense film that is very well executed by our Jan. We love the way he's captured a beautiful muted autumnal tone through the film, not to mention the psychological repercussions of committing murder. It's definitely one of those stories where you ask yourself "what would I do in his situation?". 

The film in full can be watched here on Jan's website- it's only twenty minutes long and is well worth it. 

Jan's entire reel is up on the Nice Shirt website. 

Jan Kwiecinski: Youtube Picks

Jan Week continues across Nice Shirt as we welcome him to our director's roster. We've already taken a look at some of his work but now we're going to fill in the canvas a bit more on who this Jan person really is. We asked him to pick a few music videos that he enjoys & is inspired by- so here is a selection for you now to enjoy & also be inspired by:

Jan Kwiecinski: Cigarette Break

We have very recently welcomed Jan onto our roster and so we're taking the time right here on the blog to get a better look at his work.

Next up is "Cigarette Break"

Jan says:

"The idea for the movie came to me just before I quit smoking. Preparing it I tried to follow Kieslowski's documentaries rule, based on approaching the characters of the movie a week before shooting and making them familiar with the questions they're going to be asked."

It's a bit of a cliché to say often the best ideas are the most simple, but "Cigarette Break' is great example of the best of ideas being the most simple. With one question ("what do you think about when you're having a cigarette?") and Jan manages to solicit an amazing (bizarre?) set of answers from a diverse number of people, that hint at much more then smoking as we delve into little pockets of people's lives. The pick of the bunch are the cabbie at 0.15 followed by the woman with the whole heap of drama at 0.20.

Jan's entire Nice Shirt reel can be seen here, and we'll be featuring more from him throughout the week!

Jan Kwiecinski: "Fawns"

We have recently welcomed Jan into our stable of directors and so this week we shall be taking a look at some of his really quite exciting work (if we say so ourselves), right here on the blog.

First up is "Fawns":



Here's what Jan himself has to say about it:

"It's my chapter of a film called "The Fourth Dimension". The other 2 chapters were directed by Harmony Korine & Alexey Fedorchenko. We all had to follow the specific rules while we were writing our scripts, among which were: "There needs to be someone wearing tap shoes."; "A stuffed animal needs to make an appearance" etc."

The above clip (taken from his reel) is just a teaser to the segment in the film that Jan directed in "The Fourth Dimension". We maybe biased, but it's definitely the best one of the three parts- although Harmony Korine's chapter does feature a pretty whacked-out Val Kilmer. 

The film and in particular Jan's chapter has been getting some great press: Variety's review called "Fawns" the most memorable of the three parts, with a conclusion that "...carries enough uncertainty and poignancy that the viewer is left a bit dizzy and in awe of Kwiecinski's emotional virtuosity." Screendaily and Indiewire also have some nice things to say about it "Fawns". 


Jan's reel can be viewed here, and we'll be featuring more from him all through the week.

Introducing Jan Kwiecinski

We are pleased to introduce Jan as the latest addition to Nice Shirt's roster. 

His reel is live on the website now, so check it out! We'll be featuring his work and lots more over the coming week, so stick around. 

Wave "Hello!" to our new director

Nice Shirt is proud to introduce a new addition to our directors' roster, Jan Kwiecinski. We'll be telling you much more about Jan all through next week so stay tuned!