VIDEO: On The Set Of Soft CONTENT ADVICE: contains strong language

The UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund and FilmFour teamed up in 2002 to create Cinema Extreme, a scheme to "encourage and develop filmmakers with a distinctive directorial voice and cinematic flair". Five films are being made in 2006 that hope to emulate the success of previous shorts such as Andrea Arnold's Wasp and Duane Hopkins' Love Me Or Leave Me Alone. In the first of our Cinema Extreme 2006 reports, director Simon Ellis writes about working on Soft...

I wrote the Soft screenplay a few years ago and originally pitched it for the UK Film Council's Digital Shorts scheme. It's a masculinity crisis about a father's pride being peeled away when, mentally speaking, he is drop-kicked back into the playground and forced into the kind of physical conflict he has long since needed to deal with. His predicament is compounded by the presence of his 13-year-old son, who needs the kind of help that dad can't find the reserve to provide. Being my first non-comedy drama, it is something of a tonal departure and thus required a flexible running time, which had previously been compromised by the ten-minute limit for Digital Shorts.

In my opinion, most short films are almost always too long but I felt this one needed room to breathe. Keeping things concise is always a primary concern for me and until this film, even after 15 shorts, I had yet to break the ten-minute mark. More obviously, there is a big difference in terms of budget between Digital Shorts and Cinema Extreme. This enabled me to shoot in 35mm as opposed to digital, which has been an undeniably valuable experience as I approach my first feature and the inevitable shooting-format debates that come attached.

The main difference between this shoot and any of my other shoots is massive - shooting digitally means that one hour of footage costs a few quid, whereas on 35mm this cost about £500 per ten minutes. It's also a much slower process because it requires much more thorough lighting and set-up. This meant I had the luxury of an extremely efficient camera crew, headed by the ever-enthusiastic Director of Photography Chris Ross, who made my job so much easier. When you are operating the camera and directing at the same time it's very easy to forget small but important details.

It was bizarre to actually have time on my hands in between set-ups and it took a while to adapt, but it ultimately meant I had more headspace for the job at hand. As ever, my producer [Jane Hooks] watched my back beyond the call of duty, ensuring a painless, mutual migration to this level of production.

Initially I was extremely wary of the Cinema Extreme submission process, which involves lots of filmmakers workshopping together to share thoughts on each other's projects, despite the fact that the vast majority of the filmmakers won't be commissioned, for this round at least. I was also concerned that others might have similar ideas, and that then hearing their take on things might compromise my own. I almost always abandon an idea if I find out it's already being done, or that somebody else's pitch is better, or has more support or whatever. Fortunately, none of this happened and the process became a genuine delight. If anything it fully reignited my burn to make the film. I knew exactly what I wanted to make and I can only assume that my enthusiasm was communicated with appropriate fervour to the commissioners. I had this idea and along came this scheme, rather than the other way around.

The budget for Soft was £50k, which is five times my biggest budget so far for a drama. At first you think "Nice one!" and you set about relocating the film to the Bronx to shoot in one continuous take from a burning helicopter. However, you soon realise that shooting on 35mm spends all the money for you and the reality is that you actually have the same house of cards to deal with as on a budget ten times smaller.

Soft was shot entirely on location (always wanted to say that) in Nottingham, over five days. The fifth day was originally for contingency but as weather issues choked the progression of certain scenes it became clear that every minute of the fifth day was essential. The film was actually shot in a suburb called Sherwood - I wanted pleasant, unthreatening leafy suburbia, rather than the council estates that ALWAYS feature in British 'social realism' films.

The biggest challenges on the shoot were: trying not to resort to drinking Red Bull (and failing); having to get out of bed at four in the morning, after an elfin measure of sleep, for a sunrise that might not even happen (it did); and trying to stay focused in the last hour of the last day (no comment).

Jonny Phillips, who played the lead character, was an inspiration and a pleasure. I learned a lot from working with him and I won't get my nose too brown here just in case he's reading, but his focus was second to none. On one occassion he uttered that I was easily pleased and, after scoffing at what my ears must have only thought they heard, I wondered if he had any idea how good a job he was doing. The two main young characters (Matt O'Shea and Michael Socha) came from Ian Smith's junior acting workshop here in Nottingham. Again, both got stuck right in and impressed the hell out of me - just raw and relaxed talent, you can't beat it. The gang were brought in from anywhere and everywhere, and I picked a handful who already looked the part without any need for intervention from myself or wardrobe. The auditioning was a crack and I think I got lucky finding a group who made a great whole. Their overall dynamic was great from the start and I hope they push themselves to get involved in other stuff because their enthusiasm was a real buzz and I never had to worry that they couldn't deliver.

My favourite part of the filmmaking process is during production, on set. I can't stand pre-production, and five years ago I would have said that post was my favourite bit, but there's something about the consistent challenge of the shoot itself that I've grown to like best.

There's something about the consistent challenge of the shoot itself that I've grown to like best.

After that I think I enjoy exhibition, where you get to feel the film's pulse in full again after becoming blindfolded through too much editing, re-editing, compositing, sound mixing, etc. It's where you feel the last of your mistakes. I always say that film festivals have been my film school, and as far as I'm concerned, if I can sit through a film's first public screening unharried by doubts (within reason), then - and only then - can I pass go, collect £200, hit the festivals and so on.

I'm set to make my first feature film later this year but I already have a couple of shorts lined up just as soon as there's a moment (one gem in particular that I'm all set to make with Rupert Procter playing a clown), plus one that's been in a constant state of limbo since summer last year, not to mention another which I have long believed to be my best comedy script but has still yet to roll anywhere. The idea that shorts are a means-to-an-end - a feature - is preposterous to me. If I couldn't muck around with ideas beyond shoe-horning them into a feature, which would be equally preposterous, then I would surely go mental. I have to discharge the excess somehow and shorts have become too significant a part of my strategy, which is basically to make whatever I want to make, the way I want to make it, until the right doors open without me having to hammer them down.

Soft will receive its UK premiere towards the end of 2006. Next week find out more about Miranda Bowen's Honeymoon.

Simon Ellis | Published 06 July 06

send to a friend 

start a new discussion