At a Genesis Cinema bedecked with early Halloween decorations, we showed the not-at-all scary “Physics”, ably supported by Amanda’s Boyle’s wordless short “Skirt”.
Here’s a brief article about the making of “Skirt”, but our Q&A with “Physics” writer/director Claire Oakley, producer Emily Morgan and DP Rob Hardy taught us the following eleven things…
- The film’s genesis was a number of different sources. Claire’s personal situation, at a time when her own mother was ill, gave the film its emotional core. The setting of her story was inspired by two different locations. On a day trip to the town of Jaywick, notable as Britain’s most deprived town, Claire finally overcame her fear of getting out the car. Once there, she say a ten year old girl sitting, bored, on the steps of her house. This became her lead character, the melancholy, pensive Rona.
- On a similar trip, whilst walking through a Suffolk nature reserve, she stumbled on the incongruous sight of the UK’s only hydroelectric nuclear power station in Sizewell. This impactful location gave Rob a great framing device when planning the film’s shots. The thematic thread of faith and science was there from the start, inspired by Brian Cox‘s accessible science, giving Claire her Maguffin of ‘the God Particle’ and combining it with the power station for an “energy” theme running throughout…
- Their recce taught all a valuable lesson when Claire, enacting the film’s opening shot of Rona’s beating the power station’s fence with a metal rod, found herself surrounded by ten carloads of security guards dubbed “the nuclear police”. For their shoot, they kept their distance, and having studied the security patrols’ route, timed their shots between them.
- The script was developed over the course of a year, through 25 drafts which saw a number of changes & only the two key locations remain the same. A number of cuts were budgetary; all seemed sad that their ice cream van man was lost when the price tag of the van proved prohibitive!!
- Emily raised the £12,000 budget with a combination of crowdfunding, plus contributions from Film London, Working Title and Tomboy Films. Film London assigned Claire a mentor, experienced development producer Cynthia De Souza, who supervised the project at script stage.
- Casting director Olivia Scott-Webb saw 60 child actors when looking for their two leads to play Rona and Sandi. Wanting to avoid a “stage school” energy, Jodie Bastow and Maisie Hopkins were chosen for their resemblance of their characters on the page & their easy energy with each other.
- Their four day shoot in April 2012 saw Jaywick play host for two days, in which bored local kids pelted the crew with eggs and Ribena cartons & agree to turn off their loud music in exchange for cold hard cash. Their shot list allowed them to find an alternative part of the town, and quickly!
- Rob embraced the singular qualities of the RED camera’s “sludgy brown look”, one that is normally graded out of films & one that they embraced. This, along with a set of 1980s anamorphic lenses, allowed the filmmakers to embrace an off-kilter energy to their visual look that mirrored the film’s narrative world.
- The ramshackle house in which Rona’s uncle Les lives was a found location, the rural home of an eccentric artist. It was used as is, and the crew actually had to remove some of his clutter (example: a life-size Barbie doll) to allow for the crew as well as to maintain the avuncular energy of Matt King’s Les becoming anything more “creepy”.
- The film showcases a visual effects shot that is key to the storytelling. This shot comped a still of the Sizewell power station into the background of Jaywick, which in reality it is a three hour drive away. This one image serves to cement the idea that the power station looms large over the town.
- Emily savvily put some money from their budget to one side, reserved for distribution. Working towards Film London’s premiere screening at the London Film Festival, winning the “Best of Boroughs” aware there, since then the film has played at the London Short Film Festival and the East End Film Festival, plus in Toronto, Bermuda and Nashville.
The next S4 screening is November 26th; join the Facebook event here. Click to follow at www.facebook.com/s4london and www.twitter.com/s4london to stay in the loop of our monthly screenings and Q&As…
S4 Film Club 