A man Running from his pain, his life, his God.
It was September 2009, I was a little stuck on locations for a film idea I came up with during the summer. It was my last year of university and I really wanted to prove to myself that I could tell a compelling, emotive and challenging story. It was the most ambitious film I had planned to that date.
In short the film touched on several fairly deep subjects, death during pregnancy, the psychological toll that it would take on the widowed and struggling with one's belief. Like I said, very deep subjects, and in all honesty it is impossible to devote the time these subjects deserve in an 8 and half minute film.
The most important part of the film was the windy path that our protagonist was running down, it had to really emphasize the "windy valley of road of life, constantly unpredictable I had a vision for a windy path in a valley, but my search was coming up short. Whilst at work experience at a production company, I brought up the film idea in a conversation with the MD.
He told me, a place in the lake district called Wrynose Pass. I google'd the location and my film life was never the same again.
Not two weeks later, me and a few of my crew members (and fellow classmates) found ourselves in the middle of nowhere, lost, and pretty sure that the postcode that we saw on google was wrong. Why did we come to that conclusion you ask, well we at the gate of a farm, no valley or road in sight.
We chugged on.
Two hours later we found this
(All rights are retained by the photographer of this photo, I DID NOT TAKE THIS PHOTO)
Finally, the film was coming to life. A fun-tastic recce ensued.
It was a great day, but the most important part was that the film was finally coming to life, after months of writing, I could finally see my film going somewhere.
Fast forward two months and we were filming here on a gloomy(ish) day in November. It was a "pregnant sky" (As my friend Lee Deaville likes to call it), and we had a short, but full on shoot day. The threat of rain was constant, and with two scenes left to film, the heavens opened on us.
As you can see the above, it was a really small Crew. Me, Mark Kuczewski, Jack Tew, Andy Parker (Taking the picture) and the talent, Louis Murral.
Personally I love a small guerilla crew where everyone knows their job roles, but at the same time aren't afraid to get stuck in something else, just to get it all done.
This film was the first time I truly felt like a film maker and not a student that had to do assignments. We may not have done everything properly but what matters is what goes on in front of the camera, and if the audience loves what's going on in the film, they don't give a hoot how experience the crew or cast are.
Spielberg and Soderbergh had to start out somewhere.
Anyways I hope you enjoyed this insight to how this part of the film was done.
I have started a video log series, and the first is about this very film. I don't want to call it a director's commentary as that's too formal. Have a listen/watch and I look forward to giving more insights in the future.
