Echo – Behind The Film

Echo

The People Behind The Film

We were delighted to feature Echo. It’s short films like this that motivate us to do what we do. Echo was written by James Walker and directed by Lewis Arnold, with Alfie Biddle as cinematographer. They met whilst studying at the National Film and Television School in London. The story was loosely based on James witnessing a real life event. He had seen a girl in Covent Garden receiving a similar distressing call. He watched as people were drawn to help her, putting her into a cab and giving her money to head off to the hospital, which clearly related to the news she had received. A few months later he saw the same girl performing the same call again, and it was revealed as a con.

However, when director Lewis Arnold and James started talking about the film, they were both drawn to the fact that her performance was so good it pulled people in. They started thinking about where it came from. Was it born from a real call or trauma, or was she simply a very good actress and now con artist?

They used this as a starting point and then started talking about their own experiences of grief and the trauma associated with loss, in order to build up this picture of Caroline (who would become the fictional version of the girl James saw).

“I think the most important thing you have to do is cast the right person”

Lewis and James held an extensive search using casting director Amy Hubbard to find Lauren Carse. They knew immediately she was their lead, as she drew them into the call (even just during the audition) and made Caroline accessible through a natural vulnerability. It turned out she had received a call similar to the one in the script, so had drawn on that experience too. 

“After you’ve cast the right person it’s really about supporting them and trying to give them the freedom and a safe space to find the performance you both feel is right for the character and the story” remarked Lewis. With this particular film, they spent a few days talking about the character and the real phone call the character would have received. James even wrote a separate script for Lauren, which included all the lines the doctor would have said on the other end of the phone. Lauren therefore knew what was being said and could build her performance up from there.

Lewis tried to be as communicative as possible. He walked her through all the places she was going to perform the scenes in advance. They didn’t have the money to officially close off streets, meaning it was very much done with real people around them. He wanted her to focus only on the performance. She was so good in fact that whenever they did wide shots, she would naturally pull real people into her performance to help her and the other actors would have to navigate around them. Cinematographer Alfie Biddle, being very actor conscious, always tried to make sure the actors felt comfortable, giving proper breaks between takes to allow them to find the energy and headspace to go again.

“I hope it connected with one or two people who may have experienced grief and are possibly still dealing with that loss”

Lewis sees film as a powerful medium, especially the short film format, as shorts have the ability to go viral via social media. They can get a message out there to a massive audience and connect people who might be going through the same experience.

Lewis recalls the actor Joe Tracini doing comedy viral videos on Twitter that highlighted his own struggles with mental illness. “These videos bring together people who are having similar battles and start a conversation. This is when social media and filmmaking are working well and should be celebrated”. Making the film, and discussing his own experiences with James certainly helped Lewis.

“When I left the NFTS I immediately went and saw my agent and said: I need to work and I’d love to do TV”

And oh did he. Lewis ended up working on ‘Misfits’, ‘Banana’, ‘Prey’, ‘Humans’, ‘Cleaning Up’ and ‘Dark Money’. He secured an agent right after graduation, who was able to put him forward for all sorts of jobs. Luckily a block directing on the E4 show ‘Misfits’ had opened up. Part of that quick jump to TV was because he had been a first assistant director for a few years on music videos and commercials in London before going to film school. He had experience running floors, being in charge of crews and making sure they completed days. Without this experience there would have been a nervousness in giving him the job, in terms whether he could handle the schedule, which is the big concern for new filmmakers going into TV from short films.

Lewis remarks: “TV has changed so much… Now we’re in this great period of filmmaking where the story can dictate the format, whether its TV or film. TV is no longer seen as a lesser format to film, but just a different way to tell stories. I remember when I first started directing TV there was still a snobbery towards TV from certain peers, but I think that’s not the case anymore.”

Lewis recently signed to an American agent for representation and is hoping to do some American TV in the next year or so, whilst continuing to develop his own slate of projects in both TV and Film. The latest of which is a three-parter with New Pictures, created with his friend Luke Neal, and will start shooting in November 2019. This will give him the opportunity to be in the room building and shaping the story alongside the writer and development team, which is such a thrilling part of the process. 

“There are so many short films out there nowadays I think the key is to really make sure that the short film your making really reflects your voice as a filmmaker”

Just because Lewis went into TV doesn’t mean he forgot about the short film format. He did a short film a few years back called ‘Sunday Sunday’, available to view here. He wanted it to be a departure from ‘Echo’ and ‘Charlie’, which he did years before. He took a poem by an artist called Dennis Just Dennis, who was this incredibly cool Liverpudlian, about Sunday league football. It ended up taking him three years to finally get around to do it.

It was one of the most difficult and rewarding jobs he ever did, as they needed to rely on a massive cast and had zero money to do it. During the three years he was planning it he ended up pitching it to various crews and cast members on the TV shows he was working on, so by 2017 he had built up a list of names of people he knew would be up for it. Actors Dan Jilings and Andrew Knott both went as far as calling in other actors from their own football teams in Manchester and London, to help pull together a cast and crew of football enthusiasts. It even ended up being a real family affair, with Lewis’ Dad playing the referee and poet Dennis getting involved to play one of the goalkeepers (the one in green). Lewis is still overwhelmed by how many people gave up their free time to stand in the freezing cold and support the film. “It was such a great group of lads, all of which have become quite good friends through the job, which was great to see.”

They ended up shooting over two days, as the winter light meant they only got 7 hours to film within, with a crew of about 13. He also managed to get some of the Echo team back together including DoP Alfie Biddle and 1st A.D Ben Burton.

Lewis has a piece of advice for short filmmakers: “There are so many short films out there nowadays I think the key is to really make sure that the short film your making really reflects your voice as a filmmaker. When people see it, you want it to clearly show what you’re about as a filmmaker and what you want to say as an artist. It should reflect the kind of films you want to make moving forward too. Really think about why you and no one else can tell this story and then go for it.

Once you’ve got an idea you really care about, then make sure you spend the right amount of time getting a strong script together and don’t rush to shoot it until you’ve really integrated and explored the story as much as possible.”

We couldn’t agree more. With kit so readily available, you see so many people shooting scripts that aren’t quite ready, and then having to address story issues in the edit or ending up with a film that could have been better. 

“I’m desperate to get her in more of a lead role but the parts available so far haven’t worked for her playing age”

Lead actress Lauren has been cast in pretty much every job Lewis did since Echo. She was cast in ‘Banana’, ‘Prey’, ‘Humans’, ‘Cleaning Up’ and ‘Dark Money’. She has also worked on other shows and has just finished a degree in English Lit and Creative writing.

Oliver Woollford (the little brother), went on to be cast in Dennis Kelly’s series Utopia after they finished on ‘Echo’. Both actors went to Television Workshop Nottingham, so it’s not surprising to see them both do so well, as the workshop has a track record for shaping great talents like Jack O’Connell, Vicky McClure and Samantha Morton.

We’re excited to see the cast and crew doing so well, and recommend you keep an eye on all their projects using the links above.

Photo credits:

Gareth Gatrell
Ben Blackall
Colin Hutton

The Getaway Kid – Behind The Film

The Getaway Kid

The People Behind The Film

Jordan Lavery always found himself being interested in the psychology behind trauma and memories, and how that affects a person’s behaviors and mannerisms going forward.

With ‘The Getaway Kid’, the process became more enriching, as he explored more of himself and uncovered the uncanny reflections of the characters actions mimicking his own. He also noticed how the characters would project an image of themselves differently depending on who they would interact with.

With Montreal as a backdrop for the events that would precede this film, it would allow for flexibility in scenery and mood, one that permits the audience to follow Riley into a constantly changing environment evoking a sense of unfamiliarity; almost in constant perspective to Riley’s myopic view of reality.

The films eidetic depictions of the world around Riley speak for him, as he is often found to be a quiet and introverted character, with melodramatic views, however the actions of the more grounded characters find that the world Riley envisions is closer to reality than previously depicted.

We constantly change perspectives from character to character, and there is reconciliation in this. Not to prove which is more correct, but to understand that perspective is the only universal truth.

Follow Jordan on Instagram to see more of his projects.

Connor – Behind The Film

Connor

The People Behind The Film

Jessica Brain is a 22 year old independent film maker from Wales, currently completing a degree in film production at university. She aspires to work in the roles of director and producer on professional projects, as well as in the camera and writing departments.

‘Connor’ is part of a bigger project called ‘Fantasy Reality’, which is currently in post-production. ‘Fantasy Reality’ tells the story of the Casey family; a family of 3 sons who deal with Autism and overcome the limitations they are faced with because of the disability.

Jessica is also developing and in pre-production stages of numerous other projects, including short films and music videos scheduled to go into production later in 2019. She is the co-founder of the newly established film production company ‘Dynamic’, founded with course mate Ben Roberts. They self-fund all projects they work on and any donations would greatly be appreciated.

Follow Jessica on my social media for more information and to keep up to date on future projects!

Instagram
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
Official Website

Family Tale – Behind The Film

Family Tale

The People Behind The Film

Patricia Beckmann Wells is a filmmaker in the Los Angeles area. Family Tale toured with Lunafest, an organisation dedicated to supporting Women in Film.

Sponsored by Luna bars, Family Tale toured over 200 festivals across the United States, raising money for Breast cancer.

I admire all women who are in the occupation of storytelling as an artist. Emerging as an individual takes persistence.

Patricia admires women animation directors in control of their own stories. She is currently creating episodes for the environmental apocalypse series ‘Propolis”, which premiered at Slamdance in Park City, UT. Follow the project on Facebook

P I R A N H A – Behind…

P I R A N H A

The People Behind The Film

Elcid Asaei is a visually driven writer, director and producer, specialising in environmental, socially-conscious and often thought-provoking productions. He holds an MA in Film Theory from University College London (UCL), and has worked across film, television and journalism.

Elcid’s background in reportage led the way towards his filmmaking début with the award-winning short documentary, ‘Revolutionary Roads’, which enjoyed festival successes and went on to win the Current TV Short Cuts prize.

Our ethos is based on delivering quality, originality and distinction from concept to completion

Since then, Elcid set up his independent production label Crimson Black Ltd, and has gone on to write, direct, and produce a number of visually striking and successively ambitious short films like ‘PIRANHA’ and ‘UNSKIN’, as a prelude to his feature film debut as producer on an edgy neo-horror conspiracy thriller, titled ‘Second Coming’, which is currently in early pre-production, seeking sales agent representation.

For more info behind the making of PIRANHA, visit the film’s website

No Goodbye – Behind The Film

No Goodbye

The People Behind The Film

Ludo Vici is an actor, a political comedian, an author and a producer. He’s been active in Munich’s and Berlin’s independent theater scene for over 20 years. He wrote, produced and acted in various productions and co-ran several theater venues. Since 2010, his focus has shifted more and more towards filmmaking. As a freelance producer he’s been cooperating with the HFF-the Munich Film School and produced his first feature film “Into the Suite” with Detlef Bothe. It premiered at the international Film Festival in Hof. 2015 he started his production company Weird Tiny Films (WTF). “No Goodbye” was his first short, and won the main prize at the Landshut Short Film Festival.

Check out the website of his production company, Weird Tiny Films. You can also check out his personal website or reach out to him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

The lead actress, Sandra Steffl, can be found on IMDb. Her co-actor, Thomas Peters, can be found on IMDb as well.

Fin – Behind The Film

Fin

The People Behind The Film

We caught up with the writer/director and the two the lead actors of Fin during our visit to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in Canada. We ended up having a great chat! The writer/director Dan Slater and lead actor Adam Booth produced the short together, and cast actress Camille Hollet-French shortly after kicking off the project. Dan had written the story years ago, and when discussing the idea with Adam, they decided to turn it into a short film.

Battling mental illness is a constantly changing experience. We wanted to make something different and interesting around that, so people would talk about it more.

The film was well received because it investigates the issue of mental illness. This is something so many people are struggling with, yet still has a level of ‘stigma’ attached to it, which may make it difficult for people to talk about.

Dan mentions having experienced issues around mental illness fairly close to home, with his mother and brother having worked with patients directly. It’s always about communication, and people suffering from mental illness can change fairly suddenly. The film drew from this experience a lot, Dan ended up playing a lot with the element of “time” in the film, showing how Fin’s perspective on his environment was constantly in flux.

Fin was originally meant to be a 6 minute short

The film you just saw actually took quite a number of years from its first conception. It was originally meant as a 6 minute short, written by Dan in his high school days. Adam and Dan had worked together on some other shorts before, and decided to go back to that script. They wanted to take more than 6 minutes to fully investigate the issues and problems around mental illness, so Dan added some more material to the script before they produced it.

Most of the scenes were shot late nights to early mornings, which really created a strong atmosphere that matched the script quite well. Everyone was tired, and the environment felt more eerie and delusional, with the cast and crew being the only people up at that time in an abandoned office space.

We wanted something that would instill a little bit of fear and terror in everybody

The team spent a little over $8,000 to create the film, which had to date been the highest budget film they worked on. It still ended up not being enough, but due to pulling favors and people supporting the project for free, they were able to create a great film.

The team created a character they called “The Dark Shadow”, which was basically a part of Fin’s psyche. Getting this character ‘right’ proved challenging, getting the right costume and make up together, and using minimal post-effects. Initially, Adam was also supposed to play that character, but due to time constraints, they ended up using their producing partner Matt. This actually worked out pretty well.

We’ve been featured in about half a dozen festivals, both in Canada and abroad

Fin ended up being very well received across the board. The film was screened in California, London and Toronto. It even won an award in Toronto, called the Irving Avrich Award.

The team does believe that shorts do need a separate place to ‘live’ outside of film festivals, so they were very excited to be featured on Snoovies app. We’re humbled to be the platform of the first ‘global release’ of Fin.

Dan and Adam would love for you to reach out to them directly and tell them what you thought of the film. Do not hesitate! Check out their production company Multiname Production, they’re also active on Twitter.

Keep an eye on Actress Camille Hollet-French via IMDb, Instagram, or her Twitter or her website.

My Special Day – Behind The Film

My Special Day

The People Behind The Film

This film is a great example of the realist approach to filming that seems to be pushing Sweden (and Denmark) to the forefront of TV drama at the moment. How this is achieved varies from film to film, and we believe that the answers given here by the directors and writers give such an insight to a collaborative approach to film making, that we have decided to edit the responses as little as possible. We want to make sure that we don’t misrepresent what the creative team wanted to say. But first of all, let’s let the directors introduce themselves. Anders: “I’m a twenty-one year old nihilist who’s currently studying video game sound. I was around the age of seventeen when I decided to get involved with film, though I can’t pinpoint an exact moment. I’d been set on becoming an architect since I was little, as I used to draw the whole time back then, and suddenly my mind just switched over to filmmaking. It makes sense in retrospect, as practically everything that I drew as a kid was cartoons. My interest lies in storytelling. The medium doesn’t matter, hence my reason to get involved in videogames. It’s a shame that I don’t draw anymore, though.”

Timmy: “I’m twenty-four years old and I am currently working as a cinema administrator. I was born with Cerebral Palsy. I think at a young age, this made me reflect on not only myself, but on other people’s differences and realities. I used satire as a way for people to better understand who I was, which developed into an interest in poking fun at society as a whole. I realized film and theatre were perfect mediums for it. At the age of thirteen – while theatre remained a hobby – I had made my mind up to become a filmmaker.”

They’re being themselves and it’s as personal as it can get.

We wanted to know where the idea for ‘My Special Day’ originated from. When the writer, Ludwig Thelin, had just finished a short film at film school he stumbled across an online forum where people shared sad stories about no one coming to their birthday parties when they were kids. “I got the idea of making a trilogy on the subject of ‘failed birthdays’, as that had been the theme of our school film. This is the second instalment of that trilogy. The scenario was based on other people’s real experiences, though not people we know personally. The characters, simply put, were based on the actors. A more accurate way of putting it is that there are no characters; we really don’t like the concept of ‘fictitious people’ that ‘borrow’ the actors’ bodies, so we never use that term. What we have is a scenario in which human beings interact with one another, so there’s absolutely no point in telling the humans involved to ‘be someone else’. They’re being themselves and it’s as personal as it can get”. They met William (the boy) and Bengt (the clown) through other productions and thought that the two were so awesome that they just had to work with them. Sara (the mother) was recommended to them by another actress. All that matters to the team was personality; “if you’re a nice person then you can expect us to want to work with you”. William was a natural, and since the entire concept revolved around him and the others just being themselves, the job was simply to trust him to respond to the situation as any child would. “It only gets difficult when you try to control and force children (or anyone else) to act the way you’ve seen it. We simply stayed out of their way.”

Every word and action is improvised apart from the last line; that one’s from the script

Ludwig’s script served as a basis for the scenario and from there on it was all up to the actors. They didn’t get to read the script; they only knew the premise of the scenario as a whole. The film was shot in a chronological order with the scenes simply being presented to the actors on the spot (‘okay, now it’s time for cake’). Every word and action is improvised apart from the last line; that one’s from the script. The scenes were each shot in one long take, and then edited in the best way possible (hence the jump cutting). Anders/Timmy: “As said, what interests us about filmmaking is the chemical reaction that occurs when people simply interact in a certain scenario. Control only serves to make it boring. We call it scenario directing, or scenario design.” So, we wanted to ask, why do you make short films? What are your thoughts about the format vs the feature film? Anders/Timmy: “The simple answer is that it’s the safest bet right now. We’re still rookies and developing our own way of working takes time. Making short films is a way of practicing our directing on a small scale and on different scenarios without it taking too much time. Besides, the scenarios that we want to explore at this time have no reason to be presented in a feature film format. Like Ludwig told me, let a movie be as long as the material allows it to be. Don’t push it just for the sake of the format!”

The focus is on trying out a new narrative technique that we personally have yet to hear of in the world of cinema.

These guys, while aware that they are still to find their voice, have definite opinions about what that voice might sound like when they do. ‘My Special Day’ is part of a trilogy, along with Må Han Leva (Sweet Eighteen) and Uti Hundrade År (Make A Wish), which are also being sent out to the festival circuit. The team form part of a multimedia collective called CosyTent (its logo is at the start of the film), and is currently working on a project with another member called Ben. It will be a longer film project, both in the time it will take to shoot and the length of the final product. While filming they hope to try out “a new narrative technique that we personally have yet to hear of in the world of cinema,” and develop their set design and cinematography skills. Anders’ film influences include Paul Thomas Anderson, M. Night Shyamalan and Terrence Mallick for style, and the humans beings he sees around him every day for ideas. Timmy Sundin, while generally disliking Swedish cinema does, however, make an exception for Ruben Östlund and Roy Andersson both of whom depict “the human mind in the rawest of form” and in their own unique fashion. They helped him realise “why as a filmmaker it’s important never to put make-up on reality, regardless of how gruesome reality may be – because that’s how we learn.” What wisdom would Anders and Timmy like to share? Anders: “Don’t let your personal vision get the better of you. Or by all means do it, just remember what you’re losing by controlling every aspect in order to have it “your way”. Oh and goddammit, stop slapping the term “a film by [director’s name]” on your work! You didn’t make the film by yourself.” Timmy: “The most important thing on set is not to make a good movie – it’s to create a positive experience for everyone involved. Even if the quality of the film should suffer from it. Because even if you manage to create a good fictional story using negative methods, the only story the people involved will remember, is the story of your collaboration in real life. Ask yourself – would it be worth it?

White – Behind The Film

White

The People Behind The Film

White is the kind of film that shouldn’t work. It involves us following the uneventful day in the life of a drug dealer in a car. Sounds boring right? But the moments of very natural human interaction, the gentle notching up of tension and suspense and the daily struggles that all these characters off-load onto the dealer all keep us enthralled. It’s a neat twist that the Great Satan of western culture – the Drug Dealer – is the only ‘normal’ person and that her clients have come to depend on her so much, not just for their daily fix but for her patient listening and calm smiles of understanding. She’s almost like an agony aunt who gives them something extra to ease the pain of life and helps them escape their troubled lives.

The given restraint is what I loved about shooting it.

Dean is a man of mystery who simply enjoys working behind the camera, not in front. And anyway, he’s very busy. So instead of interviewing him in person, we emailed him some questions. He was kind enough to take a break from filming and editing his latest work to answer them.

The film has a Paul Auster feel to it. It reminds us of Smoke, a film with almost nothing occurring and yet it leaves us haunted by the characters long after the film is finished. We wondered if Dean was inspired by Smoke?

“No.”

Oh… Erm…. You see. That’s the thing. You watch something convinced you’ve seen inside the mind of the creator, but really you’re completely wrong and that’s a whole brilliant analysis on a sheet of A4 in the bin.

Dean explains that there was no particular inspiration for White. For him it just seemed a very manageable way to shoot a film by constraining it to a car, in which he could use the back or front seat and the immediate exterior.

We shot each set up three times and on to the next one.

So we wondered how he managed to get such great performances from his actors with limited location space and the added challenge of shooting the film in one day. Dean gave us a condensed run down of the filming process. They started shooting at 6pm and had around one and a half hour for each customer, with a bit at the beginning and end for the dealer by herself, driving as the sun goes down and comes up.

They continued until 6am using two DSLR cameras, which the DOP (Director of Photography) set. He held one of them and Dean held the other.

The actors had prepared their scenarios with Tamzin (The Dealer) beforehand and Dean made minor adjustments.

They didn’t know me. I am sure they gave up their time because Tamzin is so lovely.

Because of the time limit there were no getting-to-know-you’s or rehearsals. Dean hadn’t even met the actors until the shoot day.

The actors came prepared with their character backgrounds and situations, which they discussed with Tamzin.

“She told me what was discussed and was able to pass my feedback back to them. It was very collaborative.” The professionalism that the actors brought with them meant that “on set they really listened to what I was after and adjusted accordingly.”

It was a spontaneous thing.

What we also loved about this film was the location. Films that involve drugs in LA are usually focused on the seedy, dark and murderous side. It was refreshing to see a mundane, routine and repetitive take on this life. We wanted to know if the choice to film in LA was calculated or spontaneous? It was mostly the latter. Dean was in LA after another of his films, Metro 7 Bis, was accepted by Palm Springs. On the plane there, he and the lead actress and co-producer of Metro 7 Bis decided to use the opportunity wisely and make three more shorts while in LA.

White and Metro 7 Bis were my favourite projects.

We asked Dean why.

“White was in L.A and Metro 7 Bis was in Paris. Both felt like a creative holiday of some kind. The people on both projects were extremely supportive and kind and I will always keep in touch with them.”

He loves the two camera set-up used on White. For him, one camera is frustrating and hinders spontaneity and connection between actors, “but I keep being told that this is the way films are made, so I better get used to it.”

I find drugs and the reasons why people take them extremely interesting.

Most of Dean’s films involve use and transactions of drugs. We wondered what the fascination was. He explained, “I find drugs and the reasons why people take them, and the situations people take them in and the people who sell them, that whole world extremely interesting. Maybe its making sense of my own relationship (very much in the past) with them.”

This makes White all the more exciting for us as it exposes a world that is very normal to some, just not for us. And that’s the truth, officer.

With Dean’s busy schedule, he must have a ritual that he performs on set.

“A ritual..hmm I keep thinking I would like one, like a meditation..or a group dance to the gods of creativity but [that’s] far too pretentious. Haha.. Need to keep it real. A coffee, lots of coffee!!” On that pearl of wisdom, I vote that we get a coffee machine in the office! Now!

Jet – Behind The Film

Jet

The People Behind The Film

‘Jet’ has a simple, yet compelling opening. We see a young man sitting in his pick-up truck looking at the picket-fence-suburban idyll of Middle America. We hear the omnipresent but almost sub-sonic rush, hum and hiss of a large town. Birds are tweeting. It’s bright and lovely. But there is something on this man’s mind. He seems completely oblivious to the world outside. Then he pulls out the gun and puts it to his head. The stakes couldn’t be higher, or at least that’s what you’d think. Then while he’s psyching himself up to pull the trigger, a young girl skips round the corner and our hero decently postpones his demise for a moment. The director, Jordan Daniel Chesney, seems to know his Chekov, who said, “If you have a rifle hanging on the wall in act I, it must absolutely be fired by act II or III.” He didn’t exactly say it like that, of course (because he was Russian), but you get my drift. Jordan’s clever bit is that we think the whole point of that pistol and this story is the suicide. Then the girl gets kidnapped in front of our eyes. The single high-tension note kicks in on the soundtrack and we are pulled into a completely different story. Genius. Hang on a second… I just need to sit here and contemplate the wonder of humanity…. ok, done that. There were actually exclamations of surprise, which I can’t repeat, at that moment.

I’m trying to concentrate on my own films these days.

Jordan was born in California, grew up in the UK and is now back in LA. It is that other Anglo-American, Hitchcock, who he most admires and whose power he has emulated with this film – making us witness an extraordinary event in very ordinary surroundings. While he was still at high school he started writing screen plays, and, after ‘Being John Malkovich’ came out, decided that he had a connection to Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze. That’s when he decided that he needed to make films of his own. Starting out with a Hi8 camcorder from his parents and a computer built by his friends, he started making shorts. There then followed a nomadic existence as he followed productions jobs around the country – from Rhode Island to Florida and Kentucky to LA, where he finally settled in 2008. In the last four years he’s produced, directed or shot thirteen films. He doesn’t have a lot of holidays.

No one was working with screenplays or storyboards.

Now, this is where it might get a little confusing, so pay attention. There are two versions of this film. Version one was shot for $200 as a test bed for the higher production version. Version one is known as ‘Jet: The Screenplay’. The second, main version cost $10,000 and is the one you’ve just seen, which was released as ‘Jet’. There was no script for ‘Jet’, as it was developed on camera with the actors and DP, Kip Kubin. Jordan feels that cinematography and editing are his forte so he “wanted to collaborate with camera in hand, and behind a computer with footage to consider.” So, working with just a treatment, Jordan would talk everyone through the scenes and film them, discovering things along the way. “The unintended result was that ‘Jet: The Screenplay’ turned out to be a solid film in and of it’s own.” So he decided to release both versions and see what would happen. You can view “Jet: The Screenplay” here. Both films have been far better received by the public (thanks to online video streaming) than curators and their festivals. He submitted this film to over thirty film festivals and was rejected by every one. Even online he was only accepted by two of the twenty sites he submitted to. We can’t understand why. This is so obviously a well produced film that packs a punch.

I would also say filmmaking is a delicate agreement between preparation and the moment itself.

Both Jets have now been seen by over 20,000 viewers and the comments were extremely positive. People are blown away by it. It’s mystifying how some films get through to film festivals and others don’t. Interestingly, a significant minority of his fans prefer the $200 version. Obviously there was a more immediate feel to the piece as much of what happened with the story occurred for the first time as they were shooting – it’s almost impossible to perfectly recreate a moment discovered “in the now”, as we thespians say. Having said that, we preferred the far higher production values and the amazing minimalist soundtrack (by Neil DeGraide), which ramped up the tension from the outset. The endings are very different in effect although visually almost exactly the same. ‘Jet: The Screenplay’ makes use of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro to counterpoint the violence so that we are more emotionally pained by the tragedy of the moment. ‘Jet’ however keeps that tension there with the single chord, suspended like a guillotine above the action, and increases the ambiguity of the film. I can’t decide which I prefer. Jordan doesn’t like to be spoon-fed information to resolve a plot, and, once he realised that there were going to be two iterations of the film, he “wanted to differentiate the experiences.”

I can’t say enough good things about him as an actor. He’s so receptive, talented, kind, and has a great work ethic.

‘Jet’ was half funded out of Jordan’s own pocket, with the rest of the cash put up by a close friend, Topher Grant. Jordan has never considered the film a success in the way films are usually measured. Not being accepted by festivals was a bit of a blow but Jordan was able to use this film to “exemplify my style of storytelling to other artists.” He also feels that he now better understands the relationship between pre-production and the time on set, and how to work with actors as individuals. Mark Scarboro (playing Jet), was an excellent choice and, perhaps thanks to the unusual approach to the shoot, he is able to convey a truthfulness to the moment. You can almost feel his shock, fear and compulsion to intervene.

Jordan had been considering making another short called ‘Cop Killer’ and actually started some shooting work using a camera we’ve never heard of, the Super 16mm Digital Bolex. This is what he thought of it: “In my opinion, it’s the best digital camera on the market. It’s all I shoot with now.” He has shot two new shorts with it – ‘Cahoots’, which will be released in April 2015, and ‘Fighting For Lucy’.

Both ‘Cop Killer’ and ‘Jet’ carry themes of irresponsible gun use, so considering the events in Ferguson, New York and Florida, we wondered why Jordan thinks American police seem to like killing people (especially if they’re black). While insisting that he’s not anti-gun in the slightest, he thinks “that American cops are trigger happy for many reasons. I think they are held to a much lower legal standard than citizens and enforce many unjust laws, primarily of which are the drug laws. I think they are being militarized by the federal government, with arms and training. I think they are motivated by bad laws and policies to commit violence upon people, innocent or not. They are judges, not cops. They are above the law. It’s systemic in my opinion.” But, rather than blame individuals, he thinks that people should be rallying “against the legislators who write the laws, and oppose the scope of authority the government holds. Soldiers don’t wage war, leaders do.”