Heroes Of Low Budget Filmmaking #3 - 2/9/2005Anyone who is planning to make their own feature film - STOP - whatever you were doing on Sunday 4th September - CANCEL IT. You need to be in Finchley...
This Sunday Shooting People is teaming up with the Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley (north London) to bring you two ultra-low budgetfeature films made by Shooters, both of which just happen to be pretty damn good. Anyone who is thinking of making their own filmwith some cash they found down the back of someone else's sofa reallycould do themselves a huge favour by coming down to see the films andtalk with the teams behind them.
We start at 2pm. Tickets cost UKP5.00 and can be bought from the Phoenix Cinema on 020 8444 6789.
We're screening "The Plague" written and directed by Greg Hall and "Diary Of A Bad Lad" written by Jon Williams and Directed by Michael Booth.
Michael and Jon are a great team. I was lucky enough to bump into them both at Cannes this year and the way they bounce off each otheris a joy to watch. So, having already heard Jon's side of the story it only seems to fair that we end the week with Michael's take on "Diary Of A Bad Lad".
Heroes Of Low Budget Film-making #3...MICHAEL BOOTH
- What made you want to make films?
Coming from a small town in Lancashire, it wasn't something I aspired to do. Films came from a different planet. The street that I grew upon had a video rental shop. Being an only child, if I wasn't playing with my Star Wars figures I'd be watching the latest video nasty. At 13 years old my Mum and
Dad borrowed a full-size video camera from friends. I recorded anything and everything, making funky little pop videos with my kid sister, backyard wrestling with my mates, and even trying to do little adventure movies. At 17 I enrolled on the BTEC National diploma course at Blackburn college and
met Jonathan Williams who was a tutor. He was a cockney, and I'd never seen a cockney in real life before so I was enlightened by his lack of small town mentality. One day Jon stopped me in the corridor to tell me about a film he'd seen the night before. Kevin Smith had just made Clerks for USD 25,000 with a bunch of friends in New Jersey. He went onto say that he thought I could and should do that. And eventually, we did.
An alternative to this is that when I was about four years old, my Granddad took me to the cinema for the first time to see Herbie Goes Bananas. I'd already got a Herbie remote control car in my Christmas stocking that year, so I was hyped up to see the real Herbie in action. We got to the front of the queue and my Granddad had forgotten his wallet. I cried all the way home. Perhaps subconsciously this is the reason why I'm so obsessive about movies.I just need to get in that cinema, one way or another.
- What made you want to make this film?
I'd written a script called Day Tripping, which I'd always intended to be my first feature. We sent the script to all of the main film financiers, and it gained quite a lot of admiration. We also sent it to actors, and most notably Ewen Bremner from Trainspotting was interested in playing quite a
major role. Unfortunately it got rejected by most of the film funders, saying it's either 'too commercial' or 'not commercial enough'. It was at this point that we knew if we were going to make something, it'd have to be on our own terms and with a tailor-made script. I'd just written four drafts
of Day Tripping, and was burned out by the process so suggested Jon take on role of writer. He went off and started writing, then it turns out he'd written a novel! A good novel granted, but I needed a screenplay. Jon then went and converted it into a great 159 page screenplay. Even as a young
tyro, I knew I was being handed an immense gift.
So you could say that the problem of not having any money was solvedby developing something that didn't need any. And that's why I wanted to make this film - it didn't require money, it was a good script and we could.
- Roughly what's your background? Did you study, what influenced you, what else have you done... stuff like that...
In 1993 I did the course at Blackburn College, I was 17 years old. I came out of that course with 15 distinctions, and whilst there made a 40 minute video movie called Come With Me on high-band U-Matic. In 96' it got shown at the 31st Karlovy Vary Film Festival and received a special mention. I then went to Sheffield Hallam Uni to do a BA in Film Studies. It was rubbish and after 8 months I left. In 1998-99 I made two shorts, one of which didn't get finished, one of which came runner up in Manchester's Exposures festival. In 2000 I went back toUni doing Media Production. There I learned how to edit Avid, and whilst there I sold my car to buy a pc to edit with, and a 3 chip digital camera. I also started to get corporate work, which helped buy a microphone. We started on Diary of a Bad Lad around this time, but we'd been developing it since late 1997.
- What inspired/drove you to make this film yourself rather than hanging around waiting to be picked up by someone else?
I instinctively knew that the film industry isn't geared up to accept newcomers. You were supposed to work your way up the industry and if you were lucky, get a directing gig sometime in your forties. I didn't want to wait another twenty years for, when all my ideas might be stale. Also I was reading a lot of Faber & Faber books, especially Rebel with a Crew by Robert Rodriguez. I started following the American independent film scene, Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino, Tod Solondz, Tom DiCillo, John
Pierson, Spike Lee, etc. It made me realise that it could be done rather than hanging around waiting. I didn't want to be one of those people who tells everyone that one day they are going to make a film, then never does.
They're the really important questions... less important but still interesting...
- How much did it cost?
After we removed all the Ridley Scott style aerial-vistas, and Jon convinced me that the exploding a monkey on a mountain scene was completely gratuitous, the budget eventually came to somewhere between UKP3000- UKP3500.
Of course if we hadn't have done it with everyone on deferrals it would have probably been way over UKP 100,000.
- How long did it take?
About 3 to 4 weeks... Only thing is, that was on and off over a four year period. We started shooting Diary of a Bad Lad when I was 24. I feel so old now, and I originally wanted to be the British Robert Rodriguez. Then again, I was never tall enough, he's a big lad.
- Who helped you?
My parents, kid sister, and gran were exceptionally supportive. Margo Grimshaw, a local entrepreneur allowed us the use of two of her night-clubs. John Sturgess, another local rich person allowed us to use his home, vehicles and business. He even gave us some money so that we could have two people shot, which was nice. Chris Bernard, who directed Letter to Brezhnev in the 80's was an amazing critic. He watched the first cut and told us exactly what needed to be chopped.Without him it might be a different movie. He's a genuine professional and one of the nicest people in the industry. Also Andrew Patrick was assigned to us by the business link as an approved advisor. Andrew has been in the industry for years and without him we wouldn't have gotten the film into the hands of people like
Chris Bernard and Alex Cox. I can't forget Bruno Coppola who decide to introduce the film at the Kino Festival in Manchester. He liked it that much that he wanted to tell everyone how good it was. What a great introduction. He's a top filmmaker too!
- Who didn't help you?
Muhahahahahaha... That's for another time. They know who they are. Let's just say the list gets ever longer.
- What's the nicest thing anyone has ever said about your film?
It's amazing how many people react positively to it, but I think 'Fucking Superb' from Chris Bernard can't be topped. However mypersonal favorite is what Bruno Coppola said to the audience at the Kino Film Festival.
"It's one of the best things I've seen in this or any other festival.It's a superb film completely regardless of how much money was spent on it. The performances are outstanding, and it's made with a director's style which is completely gripping from beginning to end" I was blown away. I wanted to watch it again, and that's why I'm here now.
So just to single out a few things: the way it was shot did not feelin any
way like a small picture. It didn=92t have anything to beembarrassed about
when you put it up against something like =91LayerCake=92 which is in
cinemas now and cost 150 times as much money. And Iwould go on to say that
the performances are potentially even better..."
There's an MP3 of this here:
http://www.pleasedsheep.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=3D4
- What's the dumbest thing anyone has ever said about your film?
"We've got to stop this from being shown. They shouldn't be showingthis
footage. This is the BBC!"
I kid you not. This was said by a fellow at a Northern Film Networkevening
at BBC North, where we were asked to show footage. He wastrying to enroll
me on a crusade to stop the footage being shown, ashe believed that the
people accompanying the film were realgangsters, and that what was being
shown was real drug abuse and hard-core pornography. What he didn't know
was that I was the director.This guy must have spoken to quite a lot of
people, because rumoursspread about the movie like Keyser Soze. We gained
quite a lot ofnotoriety from this, and got a full page devoted to us in
CityLifemagazine (the Manchester equivalent of Time Out). Then years on,
afew people lobbied for us to get kicked out of the NWPD (North
WestProducers & Directors -
www.nwpd.org.uk) and apparently ChrisBernard,
Colin McKeown and Alex Cox fought fiercely to keep us in,even though at
this point we hadn't met any of them. Though ChrisBernard made sure to
check out that we weren't real gangsters beforewe met!
- What are you doing now?
In Cannes this year I was approached by prolific producer Harry Alan Towers to direct his next movie. He's in Toronto at the moment, and because of the recent problems in London, it's kept him from coming back to his office. So things have stalled a little on that front.I've been getting a fair amount
of corporate work too, which has kept me tied up. Sumners in Manchester liked the film so much that they're doing all the grading and HD mastering, on a Davinci2k, for free. Sowe should have a HDTV master soon, and we're trying to get a 35mm print, as that's what all the distributors still
require (if anyone can help with this, let us know!) I'm also working on a revised version of my script Day Tripping. Quite a few British producer have become interested in what I'd like to do next, so I guess time will tell.
For more of this sort of thing visit
www.pleasedsheep.com, to see Michael and Jon's film and ask them questions come to Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley on Sunday at 2pm...
bB