Cro & Kow video + photo production studio
There’s a seemingly endless supply of coffee and chocolate biscuits in our well equipped studio at The Shore in Leith, Edinburgh. While the studio is our base and very handy for filming/photographing products or interviews, we’re equally happy filming or photographing out on location, whether it’s a documentary, promo film, event, training video or anything else!
Meet the team
One thing that really distinguishes us is that each of us is driven by our own personal projects & creative vision. We each have our own artistic practice, and that spans between filmmaking and photography, so that we may be shooting stills for a leading magazine one day & supporting one another creating an artistic film or documentary for ourselves - or for a client - the next. A creatively fulfilled crew makes for a distinctive and collaborative approach.
Sylwia is our co-founder and creative force behind Cro & Kow. She’s a photographer & also increasingly a filmmaker. Her background with a Masters in graphic design & photography from Krakow Academy of Fine Arts helps bring that clean modern aesthetic and an eye for the final layout. She also studied for an MFA in photography at Edinburgh College of Art.
Sylwia has a practise as an artist, where she uses a mix of collage, photography, paper sculpture and projection to create artworks that have been shown in galleries around the world.
Simon is our co-founder and DoP when it comes to filming, and is also an established photographer. He studied at Oxford University and worked for many years in Russia and Poland. He has a strong connection with Ukraine, which he published a book about with German publisher Kehrer Verlag and exhibited in some nice places, notably Rotterdam’s Kunsthal. He regularly works on editorial commissions for some of the world's leading magazines, and is currently working on a documentary film connected to Ukraine.
Alicja is a filmmaker who focuses on scripted work, and is well used to a role as producer and also an expert in post production. She studied studied Film at Napier University, and has written and directed her own shorts.
Alicja’s latest scripted short film is currently in production, watch this space!
Kat is a filmmaker and photographer with a bachelor degree in Photography from Edinburgh Napier University and Masters degree in Communication for Social Change from Malmo University in Sweden. She’s interested in participatory film and photography. Her photography work, inspired mostly by social and political issues, was published and exhibited in the UK and abroad. Her video experience spans across culture, third sector, academia and corporate.
Polina is a director and film editor. She graduated from the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy with an MA in Culture Studies and an MA in Film Directing from Edinburgh College of Art, The University of Edinburgh. She worked in different positions within the film industry in Ukraine and Europe. Her short documentaries were screened at the various international festivals worldwide.
Patricia is a talented stills photographer and has an amazing creative eye. She is also handy on a film set. Patricia studied cinematography at the Centro de Estudios Ciudad de la Luz and has worked in the video/filmmaking industry on commercial shoots for several years in Spain. She now has a flourishing photography practice in Scotland, and is also an experienced hand on a film set.
Why the name - Cro & Kow?
Just because both Simon’s surname and Sylwia’s surname (“Kowalczyk”) presented a bit of a spelling challenge for some people Googling our surnames, so to make life simpler we founded “Cro & Kow”. To make the spelling even easier, maybe one day we’ll change it to Crow and Cow.
Our studio
