Blue borsalino - Director
"As expected the main difficulties beyond trying to tell an interesting story succinctly in the confines of a short, mostly came down to finance. In this instance this meant crowd-funding. What ended up as a thankfully successful campaign began with weeks of research, and page building. Running the campaign itself was a full-time job, which was certainly a stressful time for me. Had it failed I wouldn’t have been able to make the film, and that would have been public knowledge."
"It is an ambitious project on many levels, from what it asks of production design, the number and variety of specific locations, not to mention the need for a strong cast to carry the story. Somehow the response was great and we raised what we needed to make the film as we really intended to. Ideally an extra day or two would have allowed us to take even more care with shots and take numbers but we’re happy with what we achieved. Following our technical recce it was clear we needed a little more time on one day which meant re-jigging a location elsewhere. So what was going to be a bigger and sparse office became a small, confined office space that we created from a section of a school library."
"It was clear from the start that as a story that covers decades, perspectives and painful memories, that the whole narrative would be united with a slightly dream-like quality. An ever-so-slightly heightened reality. Beyond that I sought out images for the past, present day and dreamscapes. Shots from films, photography, any images that grabbed me and informed me a little about the film’s mood and tone as I saw it. The film references were never concrete, but I remember mentioning ‘Amour’ for its look on honesty and the weight of a life on an ageing character, and also looked to films like ‘Mulholland Drive’ on their noir qualities of a journey that was at times blurred in its reality."
"I then brought my reference images to Eben Bolter my cinematographer and we talked through it on a creative level, how the visuals could work in tune with the narrative, before we even spoke about the practical lighting choices. We both agreed that we wanted to embrace the blacks in places, and work with natural/practical light where possible."
"We liked the idea of being elegant but fairly still when in present day to mirror the characters inability to move on, and then to have a graceful whimsy to the movement in the past for a heightened sense of energy. The palette emerged as being one both anchored in the rusty reds and browns and more vibrant blue-greens that nodded to the work of Edward Hopper."
"To capture our night funfair scene in the best way, meant an even natural-feeling light to add a lift or edge to our man crossing this strange environment otherwise lit by construction lights that pierced through the darkness. So we decided on using a helium balloon light that was hoisted up and positioned way above creating a strong moonlight for that night shoot. This meant being powered by a huge HGV-mounted generator. A big ask, but visually it paid off. Not necessarily an unusual technique, but another big ask went to our art department and Daniel Vincent Production Designer who had to source, bring together and design within the space all the objects to fill a pawnbrokers shop. This took some doing, from markets, online pickups, prop houses, everywhere to bring a feeling of objects of all sorts and bring a reality to the context of our lead. Again they did a fantastic job, but it meant a couple people working literally through the night to get it ready in time to turn over."
"We were so fortunate that Eben Bolter our cinematographer with his team, was just coming off a feature film. What that meant is we were able to procure an otherwise infeasible deal for the majority of the same kit used on that previous film. So we had a wealth of lights, the grip equipment we wanted as well as the use of an Arri Alexa with some beautiful vintage C-Series anamorphic lenses. We had agreed on anamorphic well in advance but to have access to this amount was a real treat, albeit pushing up our insurance quote!"
"Dave Silver edited the film, Lee Clappison graded it at Goldcrest, David M. Saunders composed the score, Sebastian Dale sound designed it and Elliot Goodman tackled the VFX shots."
"As a writer/director very much at the start of my career, every opportunity to create my own content is crucial to becoming better and hopefully moving towards more substantial work. This is the most ambitious project I’ve directed, and the feeling of bringing it together has been incredible. I’ve loved each part of the process, and have learned a great deal along the way. It’s amazing how comfortable you can feel if you know your story well enough, and are surrounded by such talented people whilst at the same time carry that desire to make it the best it can be and serve the material as intended. It was thoroughly enjoyable, and I’m grateful that the team are proud of their work and keen to share the film with others. I’d love to be able to move forward with them to work on a feature film around a story I care about and with resources that match their abilities."
