Phil’s take

“This was an experiment really. I had finished “Box Office Smash” and I wanted to make something else while I waited to produce my next narrative short, “About”. I have always written poetry and since there are so many similarities between poetry and filmmaking, it occurred to me that I could potentially use each poem as a ‘script’ for a short film, each telling a story in its own way.

This poem was one that I had written a couple of years before and is about my own experience growing up, so for it to become a short film and for that to then be selected and win an award at a film festival on the other side of the world is kind of unbelievable.

When I tried to visualise this poem, I kept seeing a corner of my loft for some reason, so I thought why not try and film up there? It was pretty dusty, and quite a few boxes needed moving, but Andy Smith did a great job of lighting the space to give it the mood I was looking for. Then my great friend Ellie stepped in and just totally brought it to life. She applied all her expertise in poetry, and her time on stage in main roles at Shakespeare’s Globe, and took the piece to a new level. It felt as though she embodied some lost part of the boy’s soul that had been relegated to this corner of his life, and yet had a vital part of his story to tell. Andy then captured her performance in one flowing take, carefully moving the camera on a slider through the confined space.

When it came to post production I really wanted to colour it in a particular way, so I spoke with Stef Colosi who had done such a great job with “Box Office Smash”. He kindly sat with me in an East London studio and just transformed it once again into looking even better than I had envisaged.

The last touch was the soundtrack, which I attempted on myself on piano since I was looking for something simple (thankfully Thomas Bell and Rich Vossgatter were on hand to spruce up my efforts!). So altogether it was a very ‘homegrown’ production!”