Kamila Tarabura: A Creative Bond24.07.2020

A versatile director specializing in short forms, commercials, and music videos. Meet Kamila Tarabura, another filmmaker from the Papaya Films roster. 

She feels right at home on the film set. Her advertising experience was built on collaborations with clients such as mBank, Orange, Winiary, and the fashion powerhouse MISBHV. She is also very fond of longer film forms—one of her recent efforts was the short film Into the Night was, produced for Studio Munk’s 30 Minutes program. 

A versatile filmmaker, open to unorthodox projects, she commands considerable experience directing commercials, as well as feature films and music videos. Kamila likes commercials for the discipline they require, as well as the dynamics of the relatively short creative process. “The experience you get working commercials pays off when you transition to feature films. The former teach you to communicate in a clear, concise manner, to embrace prep work and quick decision-making, as these decisions bear fruit almost immediately,” Kamila says. She also says that working in advertising teaches meticulousness in prepping the set. “When you step foot on the set, everything already has to be ready to go, because there’s no room for improvising in these productions,” she adds. 

Kamila is a keen observer of human nature, which helps her pick the best actors for given roles. In directing feature films she likes the bond between director and actor that emerges over the course of their collaboration on set. “I love how you go through these different stages and basically in every single one there’s someone bringing a breath of fresh air into the process. Their novel perspectives and solutions often prove so good and so pivotal to the project, that I’m ready to backpedal a few steps just to implement them,” Tarabura adds. 

When it comes to directing music videos, Kamila believes that the biggest challenge lies in coming up with visuals to match already existing music, which ultimately serves as the foundation. Additional challenges include planning everything with the editing process in mind and focusing on storytelling rhythms. 

Kamila considers rehearsals essential to the production process. Although she likes to improvise a little when working on feature films, she believes that good prep is absolutely fundamental and helps both react quickly to any unanticipated changes emerging on set and separate the good ideas from the bad. Another aspect she considers essential is the process of creating the visual language together with the DP, comprising dozens of meetings prior to principal photography, collaborative analyses of character psychologies, and creating a moodbook. The third aspect Kamila believes necessary is precise scheduling for individual scenes, which requires constant communication with the production manager and assistant director, as well as careful planning that considers both the limitations of the production itself and the needs of everyone involved.  

See more of Kamila’s work here.