Case Study: Ringan Ledwidge

Sweeping roads, gutting animal carcasses and filling shampoo bottles aren't jobs you'd expect to see on the CV of a young British director. Yet these odd jobs paid for Ringan Ledwidge to go on and enjoy an award-winning career directing commercials. Here, he explains how he made that transition as well as revealing the harsh realities of making his big screen debut in 2007 with Aussie-based thriller Gone.

First interest in filmmaking...

"I did a visual design course at Ravensbourne College, a type of graphic design course, and whilst I was there I found that my interests lay more in photography. When I left I didn't have much of an idea of what I wanted to do, apart from it being something visual, and I had a hankering to travel - which is why I did so many awful but strangely fun jobs like being a dustman and a road sweeper and working in a meat factory and a shampoo factory. I saved money and went travelling to the Middle East where I took lots of pictures. Then I went on a road trip across America and documented that so I had this portfolio of photographs, but I wasn't sure what to do with it.

"I began to go around to advertising agencies with this portfolio and while I was doing that two of my college friends - one was working as an editor and the other was a designer... we used to get into an edit suite and cut stuff together, put music on it and graphics on it. I always had a Super 8mm camera so I used to shoot stuff, just imagery - it was just visual noise, really. But going around with my photography portfolio I got to know creatives at various agencies. One place where I got on with the guys that worked there, I just said, 'I've been working on this stuff with my mates. Can I show you it?' They were really into it and about a week later called and said, 'We've got this commercial... we can't pay you, but do you fancy having a go?' I said yes, of course. I turned up on set and it was the first time I'd seen a 35mm camera.

"Whatever commercial I do I tend to choose them for the idea and whether, creatively, it feels right. I did [pop] promos very early on as well which is a really good way of experimenting and just trying out different things, different techniques. That's what I love about commercials in comparison to making films and the fact that you can turn it around so quickly. If you're working on an idea that you're really into, it's great and you work with really good people - great cameramen, great production designers - so you garner a lot of experience through that, and also it enables you to try out new equipment. That's why I can never imagine just doing features, because I would actually miss the practical side of doing commercials too much."

Moving into features...

"I must say I found the development side really frustrating. I don't mean this in an arrogant way, but I believe that if you're a film director you have to have a vision - to start out saying 'This is where I want to go,' and not be knocked off course with all the other stuff that goes on during production. It could be financial problems, or the weather, or someone in your cast, or rewriting till three in the morning. One of the hardest things is to stick to your guns through all that. It's not that people are being nasty and trying to put you off, but there can be a lot of doubts flying around a film set...

"The development side is really hard because everyone has an opinion. You're trying to make one film, and everyone else is thinking, 'Yeah, but if I was going to make that film, I'd make it like this...' It's a really tricky thing. You will get some notes that are really great and really valuable, but it's hard sometimes not to get overwhelmed. And sometimes it's hard to know whether you're right and they're wrong. In the end though I don't think there is a right and a wrong. Everyone obviously has a different way of looking at a story; the danger is that you take on too many opinions and end up with a film that doesn't really say anything. That's why you have to believe in yourself.

"On the script for Gone I think there were compromises. There's certain stuff in there, where if it had been my project from the word go, probably they wouldn't be in there. I'm not saying it doesn't work, but it's just different tastes, I guess. Being a first-time film director you have to think that these guys around you are good at what they do and you have to respect them. And it's a script they already had so you're already slightly compromised by that - by the fact that they already have an idea of what they want it to be.

"I think the biggest lesson I learnt is that, whatever I do next, there will be a lot of upfront conversations about what kind of film it's going to be. The other way of getting around that is to write a script yourself, which is what I'm in the process of doing at the moment."

Favourite part of the process...

"There are two things I enjoy most. One is just being on set and doing it. I absolutely love being on set when the actors are in the moment. I really, really don't like the first stages of the edit because it takes such a long time to see the film. But then I love the stage when you do finally see it. I'm always really grumpy and moody at the beginning of the edit, then it's really great. Once you've found it, it's fantastic - so much fun. It's a similar sort of thing with development - I love writing, I hate development.

On-set directing style...

"I enjoy rehearsals before I shoot something, because I think a lot can come out of that in terms of the dynamics between the actors. I didn't storyboard Gone, except for the action sequences, because you need to know exactly what coverage you need to get for those. That's not to say I wouldn't use storyboards for my next film, but I felt that with Gone, because of the way we were shooting it - which was pretty much chronologically - we didn't need storyboards.

"I do very thorough shot lists for each day and I know exactly what I want the camera to do and how to do it and so on, but I like allowing for things to happen on the day. I was open to going down a different route and seeing how things might gather a different kind of energy and momentum, but I think partly that's because we were shooting the scenes chronologically. Normally I'm madly 'locked down' in pre-production and very thorough and detailed and meticulous about what I want, then when I come to shoot I find that it gives me more freedom."

Obsessive on-set about...

"I think for me, it's all about the details. That may be because of my experience in commercials, but I get caught up in details like 'What pair of shoes is the actor wearing?', or 'What is that picture on his wall, and does it have to mean something?' It's these very small, tiny things that I tend to obsess about. I don't know why, but I think it's one of those things where even if you don't see this tiny detail, it has an affect on the way you shoot a scene and how the actor reacts. I think all these small things add up and bring a lot more to the film in terms of depth and allowing your cast to play within a space."

The UK film industry...

"In general - I hate to say it - but I still think the English film industry is very staid. It's an industry where people are quite reluctant to take risks and the filmmakers who are breaking through are already somehow within it - or they might have links through family, or this or that. I could really be dropping myself in the s***, but I think it's still quite closed to new talent.

"I think there probably are a lot of people out there who are really talented and that aren't getting a chance to break through. You have got really interesting companies around - FilmFour are great and Warp, a new place called Left Bank and DNA are very good - so we are getting companies that are geared for a slightly more modern type of British filmmaking, but I think generally we have to be more imaginative with what we do."

Advice for budding filmmakers...

"It's so hard with the whole funding thing. The people who have the money generally want a film that fits within a genre because it's easier for them to sell. Sometimes for a director that can be quite frustrating. A lot of things I do are mixtures of different genres, but I think you have to be quite smart about what it is you choose to do. If you look at something like The Last King Of Scotland, essentially it's a drama, but there is a thriller bent to it. It has that edge which made it easier for the producers to push out there, and obviously it's done very well. I think - without compromising yourself - it's about getting a draft of the script that you're happy with and then being calm enough to step away from it a bit, go back and read it and say, 'OK, if I made some changes, can I keep the essence of what it's about and be better placed to sell it?' But you have to be madly passionate about the story. I think if you're passionate enough and pig-headed enough, you'll get it made. You just have to keep battering people's doors down."

Stella Papamichael | Published 02 August 07