WILL HEXTALL

What is it with British people’s obsession with crime? Whether it’s watching documentaries about serial killers or reading an Agatha Christie novel, many of us have a hunger for dark, macabre content, myself included. Amused by this observation, I wrote a script back in December for a short film “Evil EYEdeology”, a dark comedy that takes a look at this strange obsession, through its two characters: Clara a true crime enthusiast attends an eye test appointment and meets Killian, an wannabe detective optician, fixated on solving the all important question: “Why do so many serial killers wear pairs of glasses?”…

Anyway, in the past couple of weeks I’ve had a fun yet challenging time, directing the script and turning it into a film with a fantastic production team consisting of Michael Mayanya (Producer), Alessio Novak (D.O.P), Vesta Skaraitye (Camera Operator), Christian Chilo (Sound) and Elbert De Souza (Tech Assistant).

Here, i’m going to document my experience of directing (the good, the bad and the ugly) and summarise what i’ve taken away from the process.

Pre-production:

In early February, myself and the crew went into pre production, which is in my opinion one of the most important parts of the process. If you are prepared and well-planned things tend to run more smoothly. To begin with, casting advertisements were put up online and the producer and I, began to scout locations so a date for production could be secured and we could communicate this to the cast, crew and equipment hire shop.

Finding a location that would let us come in and film during closing hours for free was a nightmare to begin with, but we were fortunate to secure a shoot on two days with two opticians we are very grateful to- Eyes on Soho & Gavzey Opticians. With two different locations we decided to shoot the reception scenes in one and the consultation room scenes in the other so that we could blend them both together seamlessly in the cut.

I chaired a production meeting with the team in which jobs were delegated to the appropriate crew member. I discussed shot ideas and the action I had in mind with the D.O.P who began drafting a shot list, in addition to deciding the equipment we were going to use. In a conversation with the producer, we our strategy to tackle the bureaucracy side of things: completing risk assessments, sourcing props and planning dates/deadlines/schedules, etc.

Early on I discovered that one big challenge in this process was working on such a low budget. In the script were many fantastical props we had to source such as eyeball shaped sweets, a stethoscope and glasses that looked like they belonged to Harold Shipman- not the easiest task and again proving the importance of A) Money and B) Time- if we had more of either of these in the pre production process it would have been a breeze but with deadlines looming we cracked on with casting, met the cast online for a read through and completed the final shot list/storyboard within a 2 week turnaround ready to shoot on Sunday 27th February to allow two weeks for post production.

Shoot Day 1:

5:30 AM, my alarm goes off and I get myself ready for the day’s shoot, anxious about it all going to plan as we had our longest scenes to film within the 8 hours we had access to the location. Then I check my What’s App messages to find out that overnight one of the actors was unable to make it. It was a painful message to read… but there’s no time for crying over spilt milk in this industry. As much as I was desperate to stay behind the camera, I knew that sometimes ‘you’ve gotta do what you gotta do’ so I took it on the chin and decided that I would play the part. This experience taught me a lot about the unexpected things that can go wrong on the day and also taught me how to juggle the different aspects of production that are buzzing around a director’s brain all at once.

When we arrived, the camera crew set up the lights and cameras and marked camera positions on the floor, while I dressed the set and finalised decisions about blocking and actor’s interaction with the space/props. Michael, the producer was responsible for welcoming the actors, getting them to sign a release form and ensuring the smooth running of the day- he was incredibly helpful and allowed me to stay razor sharp focussed on the performances and what we were capturing on screen.

It was a pleasure working with actors Robert Norville as Killian and Emma Bryant as Clara, who had kindly given up their day for free to be in the film. I worked closely with them to make scenes visually interesting through their movement and to develop the characters relationships from tense to relaxed, as they discover their common interest and the chemistry forms between them. In each take, I informed them of the type of shot we were going to get and offered suggestions on what to have in mind when saying particular lines of dialogue.

For the camera department, much of my inspiration on the shot list came from the films of Edgar Wright and comedy television programmes, such as Peep show. I realised the power of the single shot, with the actor facing the camera… there’s something just so in your face about it that makes you laugh. It’s a trick i’ll be keeping up my sleeve in future films I make.

I also wanted to show the characters as two separate people coming together by mostly framing them separately at the beginning, with more two shots, as we go further through the film and the characters get to know each other.

Overall the day went well, although I feel that it was rushed towards the end of the shoot and would have been better to have a day per scene, rather than squeezing two in the same day. As a director going forward, I will give more consideration to the lighting design as some lighting issues were in cured on set and it’s astonishing the difference, having good lighting for a film can make.

Shoot Day 2:

On our second shoot day I woke up to another WhatsApp message- Emma, our lead character due to circumstances beyond her control couldn’t make it for the shoot and I discovered that Genevieve Leeney (playing Aggie) was not available on another day for filming. So, after speaking with Michael and trying to come up with a solution to this Rubix cube of a problem. We very nearly cancelled the shoot but decided to persevere with Genevieve… who, by the way is a fabulous actor and someone I’d gladly work with again.

Thinking on our feet, we employed a pandemic style filming strategy and filmed everything we needed with Genevieve’s character Aggie and decided we’d come back on another Sunday with Emma, to film some single shots from Aggie’s POV, so that we could slot them together in the edit and make them look like the characters were in the same place at the same time… genius, right? Well- needs must!

The second day of shooting went fairly well and we got some great footage to use. I hope things go well on our third and final shoot with Emma on this coming Sunday (20th March).

We’re now well underway with the edit and are looking forward to sharing this film with you as we’ve worked very hard to put it together. Stay tuned for a blog on how post production went, which will be coming your way very soon but for now “That’s a wrap!”