Wrong House

The People Behind The Film

There’s a certain type of Englishman. He’s extremely polite and affable and has a tendency to apologise unnecessarily as if his very existence needed excusing. This particular type of Englishman will do everything in his power to avoid a confrontation. Some, who have never encountered such an almost old fashioned form of behavior, mistake this for weakness. However, he has a seemingly innocuous red rag that you wave at your peril. When they see this rag reason, logic or torture will not sway them. When you meet this man NEVER… EVER… put the tea in the cup BEFORE the milk! Charles Prince is this Englishman. Luckily for us his passion is film making. Evidenced in Wrong House is his steely determination to put his ideas onto film, even though all around him were crying “Disaster!”

You hit a woman in your script!? what are you doing? – No! It’s meant to be funny!

Charles met Ben Pumffrey (who plays Brian) at a Met School film acting course. Later on Charles decided to return to the Met to learn the art of film production. Wrong House was written with Ben in mind and it needed Ben’s touch to make it work. A disastrous test shoot didn’t augur well.

Thankfully Charles didn’t let that stop him. He took lessons from it. Realised what didn’t work and shot the film anyway. With only a couple of months of acting, film school and some semi-professional experience Charles kept an eye on his end-goal and damned be those who doubted. And the end result is pretty good. Of course there may be flaws but how many films don’t have those?

Meisner is the one that made most sense to me

There are no glaring moments where an audience member is drawn to a particular lighting, acting or camera moment. And that’s as it should be. Let the story flow. The film displays a refreshingly spare dialogue. As Charles says, he’s telling a story with pictures. Like a lot of shorts, there was no rehearsal time with the actors and they had never met before the shoot. Perhaps there’s something to be said for Meisner after all.

I had a situation which I would love to see a criminal try to solve

This film would not have worked without the wonderfully underplayed characters going about their robbery as if they were viewing a house they had already decided they didn’t want to rent. Crooks are a valued source of cinematic material. What is it about criminals? Bunch of thieving bastards if you ask me, but scriptwriters love them. Perhaps because, with their anti-social behaviour, they are a great device for revealing the underlying darkness in “normal” society.

And what comes next? Surprisingly, Snoovies has been an inspiration for Charles who is considering turning Wrong House in to a web series to be launched exclusively on a platform like ours. This is what we like to hear. We have a feeling that when Charles gets an idea in his head results aren’t far behind. Ben is seriously considering his options – life as an all-in wrestler ain’t what it used to be and the pension is rubbish. Hopefully they’ll be able to pull off the Wrong House series together.