Although I've been writing fiction for many many years, my thoughts have only occasionally turned to filmmaking, usually deciding that it's too complex a business to get into, and being wary of relinquishing editorial control. There was a period a couple of years ago, however, where it was more to the forefront of my mind, and I was trying to think of ways to bring a short film together with the minimum involvement of others. Not because that input wouldn't be valuable, simply because I wanted to attempt something that I wouldn't find too daunting. This came to a head when my partner, Sophie, bought a Mantelly brand kids instant print camera. This cute device thermal prints black and white images similar to receipts. I realised that if I took some pics and strung them together - similar to a montage - I could create a film not dissimilar in style to Chris Marker's "La Jetée" (1962), in which a voiceover narrates the story against a set of images. Using that as the central conceit, I began shooting images locally, mostly of brutalist buildings, interspersed with photographs of myself in a latex full head armadillo mask which I knew would come in useful someday (doesn't everyone have one of these at home?)
"Armadillotown" began life as a novel shortly after my partner bought me that mask one Christmas, however I never progressed beyond the first thousand words. I had an idea of an unlikely billionnaire wanting to create a utopia, a city where there is full employment, little crime, where everything is catered for - with one proviso: that the citizens have to wear an armadillo mask at all times except when completely alone. I would then have a detective from outside the town called to investigate a missing persons case, with the tagline being "The job was a missing persons case. But how do you find someone in a city where everyone looks the same." I can't recall why I never progressed with that novel, but those first thousand words subsequently formed the basis of the screenplay. As it turns out, having since made the film I've returned to the novel idea and written a thirty thousand word novella-isation, expanding the premise, but that's another story.
Taking photos with this child's camera brought the concept to life. The images are naturally grainy black and white, perfectly suited to a noir sensibility. Realising that it might be difficult writing a script and then shooting images to match it, I adopted a hybrid approach, capturing images that I thought would work in a film, writing the scenario around them, and having fleshed out the story then taking photos to order. This ensured I could remain within my capabilities. Armed with over three hundred photos and the script, I edited them in Photoshop where they became even more low-res as a result, and then I downloaded some editing software (Movavi Video Editor) which was free and would enable me to add effects, music and the voiceover, and for which I would only need to pay the minimum of one month's subscription once the film was completed and could then be downloaded into a viewable format. This method allowed me to keep any costs very low. The entire film comes in at less than £50. The film itself is just over fourteen minutes long.
Whilst editing, I recorded myself reading the script for pacing and collaging the images, but it was clear I needed someone professional in this role and so I approached Paul Robinson, an actor friend of mine who works under the name Sam Heydon. The addition of his voice greatly improved the rough draft I had. Another friend, Tom Jarvis, whose current band are The Widows, offered me some film music he'd been tinkering with, plus one song from the band which was mostly an instrumental. That song, "Crossfire", plays at the opening and end of the film. In both cases, these additions were incorporated by myself without either Paul or Tom seeing the film until it was completed. I was cautious of letting anyone see the film at all until I was happy with it, but through serendipity both their contributions fit perfectly.
"Armadillotown" falls into the category of an experimental art film, which was my intention, with a strong story pulling the viewer through to an existential ending. My PI doesn't resolve the case, but simply acknowledges that it would be redundant to do so. As commented by someone who has viewed the film, my PI goes into Armadillotown with the intention of finding someone, but ends up losing himself.
Once the film was completed and I received good feedback from a select audience I had to decide what to do with it. I could have simply thrown it up onto YouTube, but I wanted to do things properly and so began approaching film festivals via FilmFreeway. It soon became clear to me that submitting a film to a festival was no different than trying to place a short story or a novel. No matter how good (or bad) something is, the competition is fierce. However, persistence is everything and I've recently been notified that "Armadillotown" is a finalist in the Best Short film awards run by the Sykehouse Film Festival. There will be a screening as part of the festival - on Sunday 17th May - which I'm looking forward to attending.
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Not being a filmmaker, as such, I sometimes have the feeling that showing my film to film folk is akin to proudly displaying a model made out of sticklebricks to a group of builders and architects, but as all feedback has been positive it does seem that "Armadillotown" has merit. What would be ideal would be for the project to gain traction, and perhaps for the novella-isation to be optioned for a larger picture. I can see a lot of potential in this idea, and hope to push it forwards. Either way, I've enjoyed applying my mind to something different, and hope once the festival circuit is exhausted that I can then release the film in some way to a larger audience.
For the moment, here's a very brief trailer.
