Skip to main content

Forming the CHAIN: How My Short Film Came to Be.

 


Hello, reader, it's Jay again. This time talking about something a lot more personal and quite a bit more local - my short film, CHAIN

The first thing I want to say is that if you haven't seen it already, I'd greatly appreciate the support and that this article is going to be a massive collection of spoilers right from the get-go! So, here is the link, just in case! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtixlNDl7Bg&list=PLWevLridBdghP7iSeOgA6cePvNsldHgaV

With that being said, from here on out, I am going to be spoiling everything (that doesn't ruin the mystery!)

Conception


I'll start right at the very beginning, which has often proved to be the very best place to start (ironically not in CHAIN!) I actually found the seed that grew into this film around this time last year, just as the weather was getting cold and people start to walk the streets with their heads down and hands in their pockets. As someone who always has stories forming in their head, situations like this would always intrigue me. I love to imagine where someone may be going when I see them walking. I often spend time just watching people walking around town from a bench, just imagining who they are, where they have come from, what has lead them here. CHAIN started life thinking about this and about how I could have seen someone who is walking to or walking away from what has been or will be the most traumatic event in their life. This combined with a memory I have of seeing a video of a performative art piece in which two people willingly ate a piece of their own flesh which had been cut off and cooked for them in front of a live audience. Cheerful stuff - I know. This made me want to tell a story about someone who has to eat a hand (don't ask me why, I just know that I do love the macabre). 

Nearly all of the stories I want to tell start off as a very specific scene within that narrative, CHAIN included. After I decided that I wanted to tell a story about a man travelling somewhere to eat a hand, I left the idea and let it mature (which I find is the absolute best way to tell whether a story is worth telling or not, as the bad ones tend to rot away and the good ones don't stop growing) By the time it came to the new year, I had a clear idea of what I wanted out of the story. I knew at this point that the story would be a loop of sorts, inspired greatly by Bill Murray's painfully hilarious struggle in Groundhog Day, because that film wasn't hellish enough already! You may or may not know that I study film at college, something I enjoy greatly. Our course involves a practical module, which is examined either by a screenplay or by a short film that you make. When I learnt of this, I was super excited, as it was my excuse to finally create my first serious effort at a short film, plus, I already had a story! I remember telling my teachers about my idea and being absolutely terrified that I was going to leave the classroom and they were going to have me sectioned for babbling about heaven and hell and loops with severed hands that have to be eaten! Luckily, they embraced my madness and set us on our first task - writing the screenplay. Having previously written some screenplays, this wasn't too hard and I managed to produce a first draft pretty quickly, so I started planning a shoot to put this short film together! 

This was March. March 2020. 

Just as I was planning on organising a shoot and a cast, a small virus that you probably haven't heard of decided to pay the country a visit and suddenly college was closed and seeing anyone who didn't live in your house seemed like a distant memory. Despite the awful circumstances, this actually did CHAIN a whole lot of good. During lockdown, I decided to try to watch at least one film a day, just because I would have time! I had done this previously in summer holidays and Christmas breaks, but never consistently for this many days! This meant that very quickly my physical watchlist (a huge pile of DVDs I had stockpiled from charity shops in the weeks leading up to lockdown) deteriorated very quickly and I had to replenish it by hooking out some films from our family film cupboard. Luckily for me, my dad is a big fan of cinema too and had some real classics in here. One of these was Mulholland Drive. The Elephant Man  and What Did Jack Do? were my only experiences with David Lynch's work before Mulholland Drive and I had heard so much about him. I knew that he was a surrealist and I knew that he had made some films that people often say are so confusing. I also knew that people tend to list him as one of the all time great directors. Knowing this, one fateful morning I put on the Mulholland Drive DVD and sat back and let it pass. By the time it had finished, I felt like I had had an epiphany. I was enlightened. Move over Stephen King! Just like that, I had a new hero, a new inspiration. I had never seen anything like it, the fact that someone could tell a complete story without telling the audience what happened or making complete sense was an idea that made my heart beat faster and a smile to start forming on my face. That same week I sought out all of the Lynch I could, I could not get enough of it. I watched Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart and found the box set for the first season of Twin Peaks. I also bought all of his other films soon after, very quickly becoming obsessed with the poor man. After my discovery, CHAIN's story started to twist and morph and become something new. Suddenly, the unnamed man had a backstory, a massive one, and thanks to the utter genius of Lynch, I realised I didn't have to tell it, I could just subtly suggest it. I went back into my screenplay and changed so much, rewriting every line to hint at something else and adding lots of little props and set design details that would be integral to understanding who the man really is. 

It was Lynch's feature debut, Eraserhead, in combination with Robert Eggers's horrific 2019 film, The Lighthouse which now started to find their way into my own film. Having had lessons about the importance of sound within film, I started to pay a lot more attention to other films' sound designs. I also started to really consider how I wanted CHAIN to sound. I knew that I wanted to have a certain sound that would play throughout the whole film and suddenly cut off, as I knew that I wanted to represent fear and panic implicitly. I had been thinking of a couple of notes playing on a piano over and over and slowly getting faster, or the howling wind, but then I thought of the ocean. I remember watching The Lighthouse and feeling a constant feeling of terror and dread, which, upon thinking back on, was all to do with the sea. I am one of those people who is always wary of the sea and its horrible murky deepness and I know that many people are the same, so using the sound of waves, which can be extremely violent, seemed like a good option. The scene in which the man looked out of the sliding door and saw the ocean was one of the first scenes I had thought of in the original screenplay and I wanted to keep that, so it only seemed obvious that waves would be a great way to represent panic! It also gave me the opportunity to do something with the speech. Many people I've spoken to were quite shocked when the first line is spoken roughly two minutes into the film, when the unnamed stranger, who I lovingly refer to as 'Chef', tells the man to "come in." A very early idea I had was to keep the dialogue absolutely silent, with subtitles being the only way to understand what was being said, but when I thought about the ocean and the sound of the film, I started to think about how I could involve the audience. The man is distressed throughout the film, so I thought it would be a good idea to try to make the audience feel that same stress. I decided to make it hard to hear the characters clearly, forcing people to read subtitles because I know the feeling when you get water in your ear is horrible; you can hear, but not very well. It's so uncomfortable, like drinking a glass of horribly weak squash or trying to see something through frosted glass. It was good fun trying to make my audience uncomfortable. For once it was happening on purpose. 

After I had sorted everything else, it was time to actually start shooting (which was all done in the weird not-quite-lockdown situation in August) I had written the two parts for two people I knew very well, both of whom I knew had taken part in many amateur dramatics productions before. Derrick Taylor, my uncle, played the man and Duncan Taylor-Jones, my dad, played the Chef. 

Materialisation




After finishing my screenplay, I spent a long and laborious couple of days creating a storyboard. I still want to direct films as a career, but goodness, storyboarding will put so many people off. I planned out about one-hundred and sixteen shots and hated every moment of it. I think, because I am an extremely visual thinker, after writing the final version of the screenplay, I knew exactly how I wanted everything to be said, I knew where I wanted the camera and I knew how long each shot should last, but I knew it would be so helpful to have a guide, just so I could tick things off as I went. I will say, it was worth it. 

The first frames that were captured for the film were not actually video, but the photos that sit on top of the cabinet in on the landing. We went to Derrick's house, where I took photos of him and my Auntie Kate (who was so excited to briefly appear!) posing together, as well as taking a few around the streets where he lives. Here, we also planned our shoot, which would take place over three consecutive weekends, starting the weekend after that. The first shoot took place at my nan, Jo's, house, which doubled as the house that Man wakes up in. We got there bright and early, around 8:30am, I think it was! We tidied up the kitchen, which is usually covered in funny little trinkets and newspapers and I had never seen it looking so clean. It felt so odd being there and saying 'action' for the first time. It only occurred to me when we took a break to drink tea and eat biscuits that I was actually directing a film and that this could be the beginning of something so much bigger. Nothing like optimism, hey! We were shooting there until about midday, when it got so unbearably hot and Derrick could rub the number on his hand (which was sharpie) with one soft motion. I got home and had a look at the footage and edited together a short trailer, which was finished the day after and released to the public. I received so much kind feedback from this and it just gave me so much more drive and vigour in wanting to complete the next sessions of shooting. Now I had an audience. I could even say I had fans! This meant and still means the world to me. Since I first answered the question 'what do you want to be when you're older?' I've pretty much always given an answer based on making art, whether that be painting, writing, or filming, all professions that rely so heavily on consumers, to now be making that art, which is being consumed is one of the best feelings in the world. 

The second day of shooting was the bulk of the film, which was shot in my own house. My dad and I woke up early and asked Derrick to get to us for 8:30am. My mum and sister were still at home at this point and I had asked whether they would vacate the house for the day to allow for absolute silence when necessary, which very kindly, they did. Considering Amelie, my sister, will usually wake up on a Saturday closer to dinner than breakfast, I felt honoured that she woke up when she did! They went on a shopping trip that day and returned at about 16:00, to find us still shooting! We actually ended up finishing at 17:00. One reason for this was we didn't have a costume department who kept all of our clothing safe and it turned out that we had actually left the coat which Derrick wears at Jo's, so my dad drove all the way to Plumpton from Lewes to collect it. I learned that keeping track of props was very important... Whilst waiting for my dad to return, I spoke to Derrick about the film's content and possible meanings. I asked him what he thought was happening and he told me he had no idea - to this day, I still haven't told my actors exactly what happened! It was also in this time that I first told anyone that the story of CHAIN had ballooned in my head. As I mentioned earlier, I think good ideas constantly grow, and this one is certainly no exception. After finishing the screenplay and getting into storyboarding and planning, CHAIN was all that was on my mind, naturally. I had so much to plan and coordinate, so this story stuck in my mind and started branching out and both of the characters started doing things that even I didn't expect. The story almost wrote itself in my head intuitively and is continuing to do so now. There are two new characters in it, who I have nicknamed Janet and Janice, who come from a new and extremely different setting and swap between the setting they are in and the setting that the man and Chef are in. I hope one day to be able to turn this version into a feature film - that is the big dream. One day, you could be sat in the cinema watching an hour and a half version of this madness! 

Anyway, back to the point, when we finally got the coat back, filming commenced again and it was easily one the best days of my life. It was that day that I knew I was going to do whatever it took to make films. Everything went really smoothly after that too, we did a few takes for every shot, but everyone was happy, it was all such good fun. All of the muck ups and slip ups just added to it. One of my favourite parts of the day was figuring out how to make the tracking shots of the man walking to the end of the road where Chef's house is. I had shot a few test shots just walking along, but I hated how shaky these all turned out. It was then that my dad came up with the genius idea of securing the camera tripod to his bike. We managed to do this by wrapping loads and loads of packing film around the legs, which sat around the seat. We took that out for a test and it looked really quite good for what it was! After finishing up with that, we went back inside and sat in our empty kitchen (which is normally covered with red and white polka-dotted tablecloths, mugs and pots and our fridge is normally covered in magnets) and were watched over by a menacing photograph of Derrick whilst eating BLT sandwiches. A once in a lifetime experience, I tell you. 

In the week, my dad and I drove out twice to Tide Mills beach in Newhaven to film the sea. In the screenplay, the sea that man sees out of the sliding doors is described as 'roaring' we got there and the sea was as calm as a swimming pool with a couple of pensioners in it. We looked at each other and just laughed a little bit. To rub salt on the wound, the traffic on the way there was horrendous, due to the heat. The beach was full of people and it was hard to find a spot that wouldn't have captured a swimmer in shot. We returned a couple of days later and luckily the sea was actually behaving like the sea, but it still wasn't roaring. It sufficed though! 

Our final shoot was a tiny scene, it was just the scene in which the man walks to the house. The only footage we used from that shoot was the man walking across the bridge, which we also used the incredible dolly-bike for. We tried shooting Derrick walking in some more places, like down an empty street, just to extend the scene a little bit, but I really don't think the film needed it. It formed roughly a minute of the film and we started shooting at 7:00am. We got up horrifically early for a minute of film. So worth it though. I never did shout 'and that's a wrap', but we did all realise that we were finished when walking back to base.   

Now I was tasked with the big edit. I had edited a rough cut of the first scene already and just extended that. Going into the film, I hated editing and knew it, I dreaded the fact that I would have to edit all of this footage together, but I knew it was integral. Thankfully, as I went on, I got better. I'm still not the best editor ever and definitely know I have lots to learn, I'd love to see an edit by an editor with skill. I would say that I now quite enjoy editing! A lot of good came from the film! It was during this process that I also tried to find someone to create a score for me. I didn't want much, but I had a clear idea of what I did want - just a solo piano. Very quickly I thought of the wonderful Ruby Lewis, who was previously part of a small group of people I brought together in attempt to make a short film in 2018, though nothing came of this unfortunately. I didn't give Ruby much to work with, I just sent her an early cut of the film and told her the times I was looking to put music over. As if by magic, she seemed to pluck a brainwave straight from my head and gave me something so similar to what I was thinking (but a hundred percent better!) I heard the music and instantly fell in love with it, it was perfect. If I ever get to make CHAIN into a feature film, Ruby should know I will try my hardest to get her to write the score! 

The dolly-bike.

The Release and Aftermath

By far the best part about making this film was releasing it. Without a doubt. I had wanted to release it at the end of September, but I'm so happy I gave myself more time. Halloween also felt like a very good day to release it. I sat down with my family (who hadn't even seen a rough cut!) when it was premiered on YouTube and we all watched it once, my parents showing the pride that they are obliged to show and my sister just looked at me, looking so worried and said "What happened?" I couldn't do anything but laugh. Partly because I loved that that was the first thing she said, but also because I know what happened and she didn't! I also got so many messages of support and congratulations and it was just pure magic, even if just one person who watched it had liked it, I would have been happy, but so many people actually really enjoyed it and that was special. I also got so many people asking what was going on, which made me very happy too, as it really shows that people were invested in it, even if it wasn't the genre that they would normally choose to watch. 

Though I would have done anyway, the personal success really made me want to get started on my next project straight away, so I did! Whilst finishing CHAIN I had an idea for something I hope to be able to start shooting over Christmas, as well as another idea which I have just started writing, another one set in a strange dystopian no-man's land. I've also started to work out another short film that I will hopefully be working on with a friend and I have two more ideas for after that! They're coming out of my ears now! So, this is not the end, this is only the beginning!

Understanding CHAIN. 

After having so many people express genuine interest in the story, I have decided to try to give some clues to people who have kindly read this blog post. Inspired once again by David Lynch and Mulholland Drive, I've decided to give eight keys to breaking CHAIN (or maybe make it even more confusing!) 

1. Some things in the film move backwards. What does this tell you?

2. You have seen what is owed to the chef.

3. The waves represent panic. What is the man looking at when the waves are first heard?

4. What causes the waves to start appearing to the man?

5. Pay very close attention to the man and the woman in the pictures.

6. The picture in the kitchen has been taken in the style of another type of photograph. This is for a very specific reason. 

7. The chef seems to know a lot about the man. Why?

8. The chef says the man can't be trusted with certain things. What are those things?



Once more, thank you so much for your support and thank you so much for reading this hefty post. I hope you have enjoyed it and I hope you've liked hearing about how CHAIN came to be. 

Thanks for coming back and I hope to see you here again soon!

- Jay. 




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Being Different: Edward Scissorhands and Asperger's

  Hello, reader, it's Jay again. It's been quite a while since I last wrote here, I've been surprisingly busy, considering lockdown is still in place! One of the things I have been doing is trying to organise our new YouTube show, Kino Introducing, the first episode of which comes out today, so go and take a look at that on our YouTube channel! This subject is very close to my heart, so I thought putting it on our blog was almost of paramount importance! You may have seen the advertising for our last open conversation, which was about Tim Burton's 1990 classic, Edward Scissorhands . The conversation was about the film in general, but we focussed on its link to Asperger's for a section of the event in celebration of international Asperger's day, which is today (February 18th)! I wanted to share some of the things we talked about and my interpretation, as I feel it is something that people might have an interest in and, really, it is a way of seeing this film that

Mind Over Chatter: The Wonder of Experimental Films (and why you should watch them)

  Hello, reader! It's Jay. Today, I come with the great news that we hadn't forgotten about this quaint little blog, we had just been prioritising some event planning (more news to come...) and our exams! Not only this though, as today, I am also going to be attempting what some may call the impossible; I'm going to be attempting to sell to you the wondrous world of experimental film. Yes - I know, I've probably lost some of you already, but, for those who have an open mind (or are already fans of the category), I hope you'll stay with me through what will hopefully be a smooth and straightforward post about the least smooth and least straightforward category of cinema that has ever and probably will ever exist, a category that you'll probably know is my absolute favourite. If you've paid attention to any of the content we publish anywhere, you'll probably have seen my incredibly unsubtle promotion of experimentalism. I've forced Chloe to watch Mulho

Music for Life: A Strangely Philosophical Discussion About Film Scores

Hello, reader! Firstly, happy new year, may this one be kinder to us all! Secondly, welcome back to Kino's Collective Thoughts. Today, I am going to talk to you about film soundtracks, specifically scores, those pieces of music that compliment everything that's going on on-screen (unless you're watching a crazy arthouse film). Essentially, I'll be having a passionate conversation with myself about why I love film music and what it does to me (and probably to you) in and outside of films.  So, let's turn this up to eleven and get a move on! The Emotional Amplifier: Music in Films I'm going to make the bold assumption that everyone reading this has seen E.T. (or at least seen this scene). If you haven't, let me explain this picture's context here and then I'll give some substitutes for those who haven't yet had the privilege of crying over an alien that looks like an overcooked sausage.  Music in film is used for very specific reasons. The main on