Local Filmmaker Chases Dream With Upcoming Movie

Matty Krylowicz, an independent filmmaker from New Lenox, didn’t know he wanted to make movies, but his dreams began to form organically one day while watching the Channel 6 Community Television.

Krylowicz, 21, didn’t join any related clubs in high school or make plans to go to college to learn the trade. Instead, he worked at Jewel-Osco after high school to help his family pay the bills. He lost his job and found more free time, looking for something to do, and he ended up volunteering with Channel 6.

“I was watching the station one day and was like, ‘This could be so much cooler. There could be so many different things,’” Krylowicz said. “It was all for the older crowd, and I thought if they had somebody younger on the screen they could get a younger crowd to watch it.”

That gig eventually led him to making his full-length directorial debut this summer, and he’s looking for any help, most notably through funding, to get his dream off the ground.

Starting at Channel 6, Krylowicz taped a few episodes of a late-night show, The Anything Show, that featured random skits and live performances by local high school bands. He still volunteers to work the camera for various meetings and events in the community.

“I was having a really good time and always posted stuff on Facebook about working in the studio,” he said. “Then one friend from high school saw that and said he knew someone who was looking for an editor.”

That’s how Krylowicz met fellow filmmaker Kevin Greene, of Mokena, and the two have been making movies together ever since. But Greene is moving to California soon, and he’s taking the video camera with him. That puts Krylowicz in a hole he could use some help out of if he’s going to direct his first movie this summer.

“I won’t be able to do it without any of the funding,” he said.

While he searches for money, actors and crew members for his film, he continues working on the script. He said it’s based on a true story about his cousin who lived in a haunted house. At least that’s what she was told, but she never believed it until her husband died there and other supernatural things started happening.

Previously, he’s worked on a couple of films with Greene: a drama called Autumn that follows 13 people through one day as they deal with the pain of losing the same person. They’re also filming a raunchy comedy called The Management of Love & Lust, which is about nine actors/directors on a movie set where everyone is love with somebody, but no two people are in love.

“I don’t even want to show my parents that one,” Krylowicz said. “If they go to this and they laugh at these and know some of the jokes, I’m going to be grossed out.”

The range of emotions shown in his movies is what he wants his latest project to capture. Despite not having any traditional schooling on filmmaking, he’s learned a lot with his hands-on experience. He said he’s always had an eye for what kind of shot looks good, ever since grandpa substituted the 1931 Frankenstein or Terminator 2 as the babysitter when Krylowicz was a child.

“I’ve self-taught myself everything I know now,” he said. “I’m not going to spend $60,000 to be in the same position, which is making movies. Trying to do it without schooling is super hard, but I think I can do it with determination and passion.”

He realizes he misses out on some of the professional connections, but he’s found a good base of actors and crew members who have also become great friends.

“It’s very hard to make a movie, but most of a time it’s hanging out and having fun,” he said. “It doesn’t feel like work, which is what I want it to be.”

Still, there’s a ton of work to be done. Besides writing a script and finding actors and a crew, Krylowicz must find locations to shoot, schedule actors, edit the film, market it, book a premiere (likely at ) and find funding. His longest day was 17 hours of shooting. He’s applied for various jobs and hasn’t had any luck yet, in part because he remains so dedicated to his work with the movies (“I wouldn’t hire me either if I couldn’t work weekends.”).

But that’s what chasing a dream is about, and whether Krylowicz’s story has a Hollywood ending remains to be seen.

“I’m just happy to be involved with films,” he said. “But I’m trying to get people in New Lenox out there to know who I am, because they might support someone from the community who is pursuing his dreams.”

Interested in helping out with the film? Email Krylowicz at mattynicegy00@aim.com.