four collaborators – four weeks – no budget – no crew
In July I heard about a remote mass theatre-making project on Twitter. They were looking for writers, directors and performers all over the UK to split off into little units who could make something, anything. The project, Virtual Collaborations, is Arts Council-funded and supported with a range of masterclasses by a collection of theatres (Soho Theatre, The Space) and production companies (Little Door, Balloon), they’re showcasing all of the work as a digital festival run from 17th to 31st Aug 2020.
I filled in my form, answered some questions about my interests, and they got back to me a week later with the good news.
from left to right
Director – Tom, Liverpool
Writer – Ben, Essex
Performer – Lizzie, Manchester
Performer – Theo, Dorset
Here’s my team of collaborators. As you can see, we were somewhat spread out around the country and I went into this project with no idea how filming it would work, just a sort of useful blind optimism. Let’s see how that pans out.
INTRODUCTIONS
We quickly decided we didn’t want to do ‘Another Zoom Drama’. Ben had written monologues already during lockdown, the actors wanted something a little different, and I was visually interested in the various exterior locations we had at our disposal. After a session hashing out our previous work and interests, some themes began to emerge:
classism
LGTBQ+
mental health
It was honestly a little spooky how much we all had in common, and how passionate we were about the above issues to the point where they featured prominently in our individual previous work. After this very swift introduction Ben went away to write the script.
GETTING STARTED
The turnaround was tight and as soon as the script was delivered I broke it down, storyboarded a little and worked out when everyone was free. Ben had included almost all our available locations, we were using the graffitied canals and railway arches of Manchester, as well as the white cliffs of Dorset and Theo’s bloody swimming pool.
I had Lizzie and Theo virtually walk me around their homes so I could get an idea of lighting, luckily they both had DSLR cameras even if they weren’t super confident in how to use them. I had them hold the phone camera up to the LCD screen while I said thing like “Press menu button, press down, press down, select 1080p”. I did rather enjoy remote cinematography, but it was around this point that we all sort of freaked out at how much there was to do. Maybe doing just ‘Another Zoom Drama’ wasn’t such a bad idea after all?
it’s organised clutter, okay?
DIRECTING A SHORT FILM FROM MY COUCH
The filming schedule looked like this:
Thursday pm – Dorset interior
Friday am – Dorset exterior
Friday pm – Manchester interior
Saturday all-day – Manchester exterior
Thursday all-day – A filmed Zoom call (yes we still did one after all that)
This was my favourite bit. I can’t think of any other time I could be on set in Dorset and then literally moments later shooting in Manchester. I existed mostly in voice only, talking through speaker phone to our actor’s partners about camera positions and chatting to Theo and Lizzie about their scenes. The rushes are quite funny to watch with this disembodied and distorted voice directing the room. When we were out shooting in nature, I would have to give directions, hang up and wait 10 minutes for a take to be sent through, as the signal was too bad to stay on the line for the whole thing.
I think directing like this was a really good experience, it forced me to be efficient with language and to focus on the most salient aspects of the performance. You can’t afford to have bad communication if you’re being relayed with the delay of a Whatsapp video call. It also created a closer relationship with the actors. There was no dividing line between them and crew: they were the crew. And while I had to make sure they were supported and comfortable with the technical asks I was making, I think it only created a greater sense of collaboration and trust which allowed us to try more bold choices when it came to performance.
I got to do the whole thing with a steady supply of tea and with my laptop open in front of me should I need to google anything or scroll through a pdf of the script. It was so CONVENIENT. I wish all filmmaking was like this.
THANK GOD FOR EVERYONE’S OTHER HALVES
Ben’s partner, a doctor, provided clinical insight and intellectual weight to the backbone of the script’s concept. Without him I would have been very anxious about misinformation.
Lizzie’s partner, also an actor, played a brief role in the film and was a godsend on set with the tripod.
Theo’s partner, a teacher with a background in photography, had bundles of enthusiasm and created some stellar images.
Finally my partner, who has helped me on no end of artistic projects, was there to bounce ideas off and had my back (literally) on one filming day.
A CONFESSION
Okay, so the whole thing wasn’t directed from my sofa. I actually drove, with my partner Sarah, to Manchester on the Saturday to shoot the exterior scenes with Lizzie and her partner, John. It just made sense as we had quite a complicated long take, and I wanted to get some shots with my new drone too. We socially distanced the whole time and I didn’t go to into their flat or even use the loo. I can’t recommend this as much as being on my sofa.
For the long take, we started outside their front door and walked out and under these railway arches, where Lizzie’s character would be bumped into by John’s character. I had to walk backwards quite quickly while concentrating on the shot, so Sarah was on hand to hold me from behind and steer me over cobbles and other obstacles. It was a beautiful thing.
THE END FOR NOW
I’m writing this blog post just after wrapping shooting, so I’m currently in the middle of the edit. The festival has just begun and our premiere date is the final day, 31st August 2020.
But I have managed to wrangle out a few shots and hastily colour corrected them, so you can get a feel of the film. I really am impressed with what we’ve managed together. With no crew. With just a DSLR and a iPhone used as the microphone. All I can do is thank Ben, Lizzie and Theo once again for all the work they did. Oh, and our partners.
Go here to learn more about the Virtual Collaborations festival.