01 Burning Sun and the Man on the Roof

The second half of June was suddenly struck by a heat wave completely alien to the temperate climate zone in which Damian Radosz was located. Well, maybe not completely, because in summer the temperature could reach up to 40 degrees in the shade, but this was usually the case at the turn of July and August, not mid-June. After an endless winter, which lasted over eight months and a short spring that lasted a month, summer attacked definitely prematurely pouring real heat from the sky and sweeping through this part of Europe violent weather phenomena such as sudden, strong storms and even almost completely alien in this climate tornadoes.

The sudden unpredictability of the weather must have spoiled the plans of the filming team for the historical series The Fifth Capital. Although the series belonged to the historical genre and told about the relocation of the court of Sigismund III Vasa to Warsaw in 1596, it was rather an exciting and adventure story with a strongly developed love theme, the main character of which was a young Krakow nobleman in love with a certain Warsaw lady. The action was supposed to be full of adventures and even acrobatic feats. So Damian Radosz wanted to personally check whether the weather had influenced the progress of the project too much and decided to visit the filming set.

As soon as Damian left his air-conditioned car, the hot sun hit him. He felt as if he had entered a heated furnace, where the air was not air but living fire. Damian felt that even Hell was less hot. What a nightmare!

Immediately a man in a cap with a visor and an assistant director's badge draped over his neck ran up to him. The man bowed and said.

“Good morning, Mr. Radosz. I am Jarek Kurek, assistant director. The director is shooting an important scene and invites you to the set. Here's your ID...”

Damian picked up a plaque with the words "VIP Guest" intended for him and hung it around his neck. The sun was shining so brightly that it hurt his blue eyes, so he put on the dark glasses of a reputable Asian company that he had bought during his last visit to Seoul and looked at the chaos around him. He smiled with satisfaction. I guess only when shooting a movie (or TV series) in chaos can there be so much order.

The shooting was done on a specially built set. It was difficult to shoot a production set four hundred years earlier and find houses that would be considered new, so for the purposes of this production, several buildings and streets were deliberately built to pretend to be Warsaw at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. This small estate was surrounded by green curtains that will be replaced by computer-made effects during post-production. At this point, a whole group of specialists in computer special effects was preparing the landscape of Warsaw from that era, taking care of the smallest details.

It was neither an easy undertaking, nor a cheap one, but Damian Radosz was a man of great ambitions - he wanted to create a historical series that - following the industry in Asia - would appeal to young people. After all, history was not the domain of old people, and if historical drama was sold in Japan, Korea or China, why not do it in Poland?

There were several reasons, but one was absolutely dominant - Polish historical series did not exist, and when they tried to exist, they were bloody boring.

A hero to love, an intriguing storyline, fast-paced action and good CGI was all that the viewer wanted - and all that he hadn't received before. All he was offered was a nationally liberating, martyrdom pathos. In a word - boredom.

“What exactly are you shooting now?” Damian asked moving towards the film set.

“Scene forty-eight. Wroński on the roofs of buildings.”

Damian Radosz smiled with satisfaction. It was a really interesting, spectacular scene that will surely appeal to viewers. It may not have been very realistic, but definitely spectacular and will go to the first teaser.

Damian looked up at the heated sky. It was not yet noon, but hot for the climate, more than twenty degrees Celsius nights made him so hot in one white shirt that all he wanted was to hide in some air-conditioned room. The people on the set were working too hard.

“I would like to see this scene from the perspective of cameraman” Radosz informed. “Is it possible?”

"Of course," the assistant director assured him. “This way please.”

It seemed that the preparations for shooting were still in progress. Most of the crew on the ground were either under the protection of umbrellas or caps or hats. Damian looked up at the roof of one of the buildings, where, in a dark jacket, strapped to belts and ropes, stood a thin young man against a green background. Damian narrowed his eyes, opened his glasses to see him better. Then he looked at the monitor that showed pictures from camera number three. The camera selected the best angle and tested its focus.

“He's… an actor?” Radosz asked surprised.

“The director wants this scene to be as realistic as possible. Mr. Rafał trained very intensively under the watchful eye of our stuntmen and he is really good.”

Damian nodded. There were so many different types of actors in the movie world. One of them was the type who gives his best to every role. Rafał Brylski was one of them. Although he was only twenty-five and not a professional actor, he was extremely ambitious and eager to grow. He wanted to learn and take on new challenges. He was perfect as a new type of actor, for a new type of production that Radosz wanted to introduce to this country.

Rafał Brylski unexpectedly became a star when the mini-series he made with his friends turned out to be a real hit on the Internet. One of Brylski's friends studied directing at the Łódź film school, the other learned to be a cameraman. Together with a few other college friends, they came up with the idea of making a humorous sci-fi series. Someone persuaded Rafał from the architecture department to take part in a project.

Rafał Brylski was very popular with girls and had a certain ‘pressure on glass’, as it is said about people who like to appear on the screen. The project, which was a parody of at least five famous American sci-fi series, two British and one Australian, became a hit and ten episodes turned to forty and the amateur filmmakers become famous and popular.

Rafał Brylski was particularly popular, whose natural acting captivated audiences all over the world. The series was recorded in Polish, but students provided it with subtitles in several languages, allowing viewers from Japan to Hawaii (taking the longer route, of course) to laugh at their jokes and start trending the amateur production and the amateur actor playing in it. The series was simply a global hit.

If Brylski knew English better, with the current popularity he would probably have already played in American productions. For now, however, he was condemned to domestic cinema and television, which was not so bad for Radosz.

From the moment he became famous, Rafał Brylski has played two smaller roles in films and made guest appearances in several episodes of the popular soap opera. The film community, however, was not ready to take over a man from nowhere. It was also not open to such changes as making an adventure historical series. But Damian was. To achieve great success, you had to make bold decisions.

Brylski was a bold decision. He himself was bold, so now, in a period costume, he was standing on the roof, preparing for the moment when the director would say "action!"

The director, however, did discuss something with the crew on the ground. One of the cameras seemed to have a bad angle and had to be moved. Someone accidentally tripped one of the lamps. The actress who was to be captured in the shot from the ground, the braid detached. Lots of tiny little things meant that shooting had not yet started. Meanwhile, on the roof, the actor waited for the moment when he would finally be able to start his work.

More and more heat was pouring down from the sky.

“Brylski has been at the top for a long time?” Damian Radosz asked.

"No," the assistant director replied. “He just got in there.”

Radosz looked at his watch.

“Just? I've been here for over twenty minutes.”

Damian looked again at the actor standing on the roof, who suddenly became somewhat sluggish. The heat took its toll on everyone, but standing in full sun, wearing a dark, thick jacket, Brylski was the most exposed to the heat.

“You have to take him down” Radosz decided. “The sun will make him lose all of his makeup.”

“But…”

"He won't be able to act if the heat finishes him. Tell Różycki... No, I’ll do it myself.”

Radosz was about to move towards the director when he noticed something disturbing on the roof. He looked at the screen, where he could see Rafał Brylski's face more clearly, and suddenly Damian's back was drenched with cold sweat.

“Secure the ropes!” Radosz shouted breaking through the crowd and running towards the building on which the actor was standing. “He's about to fall!”

The technicians reacted immediately, but it was too late. Rafał Brylski, rendered unconscious, was flying downwards like a rag doll...