Interview with Roxanne McKee - December 13th, 2010

Promoting: F

Venue: My house

Interview type: One-on-one (phone)

ViewLondon (VL): What attracted you to F and how did you get involved?

Roxanne McKee (RM): Well, I like horror films – I always have done. I've been keen on them since I was little – I actually used to love, like, all the Freddie films. I don't know – there's something about them, sitting on the edge of your seat and having a shock and feeling the adrenaline rush that's exciting, so to be a part of something like that, I thought would be fun. And it was, it was really interesting to get involved and have all the prosthetics applied. And yeah, it was just nice and it was just a small cameo role so I wasn't ... what's the word? It wasn't going to impinge on my time or anything like that. And it was just – yeah, it was lovely to be a part of it. And I thought it was a good script and that was it. And there were great actors involved as well, like David Scofield and Ruth Gemmell, you know – it's a privilege to be a part of anything like that.

VL: Had you been looking for something like that?

RM: No, I hadn't specifically been looking for horror. I had made a concerted effort to try and look for stuff that was just different when I came out of Hollyoaks, just because that was my reason for leaving Hollyoaks. Because I had a fantastic time there but I wanted to try new things and open up the path a bit for me and see what else was out there and play different sorts of characters. So when this came along it was just something interesting and different.

VL: How did the experience of working on F compare to working on Hollyoaks and other stuff you've worked on?

RM: It's - I mean it's totally different, because when you work on a soap you can do up to like twelve scenes a day, whereas when you work on a film you do like one scene. People don't realise how hard soap work is, so you've really got to give credit where credit's due – soap actors are learning twelve, thirteen, fourteen scenes of an evening and then going in the next day and doing them and then that carries on each day. Whereas with a film you work, say, over a two week period and you might be in three days. You know and obviously for me, with this, I wasn't – you know, it's a cameo role so I'm only in it a small amount, so the filming schedule's a lot lighter. But the nice thing and the thing that's similar is the meeting different crews and making friends with different people and, yeah, establishing friendships. The other thing is, with a soap you establish friendships and then you keep your friendships because you're there a couple of years. But when you're doing jobs sporadically, it's not quite the same – you establish these friendships and then you kind of don't necessarily see people so much again. You maybe see the actors but not always the crew or maybe you go on another job and they're there, which has happened with me recently, which was nice. But obviously you don't have that long-term friendship in quite the same way.

VL: You play the character in the gym, is that right? That prosthetic that you had to wear was pretty hideous. What was that like?

RM: Yeah, it was crazy. It was amazing. That was so enjoyable, because it was so different to anything I've ever had – I mean, I've had bruises applied (laughs) and arm bandages and things like that but never a full-on ripped-off jaw. So I had a whole head-cast applied and that was weird, sitting underneath that and not being able to breathe properly. It was amazing – it was an exciting, really exciting experience and I still have the jaw. But the bloody annoying thing was that when we were all finished up for the night after we'd filmed that scene, it took them a good few hours to remove everything off of me, because I had cuts all over my body, you know, this fake skin that had been applied. I mean it looked amazing – even for me to look at it, I was like, “Jesus!”

VL: It looked really nasty in the film, I agree.

RM: Yeah, well, you know that scene where I die at the end? I couldn't breathe. So I'm crying – because you have to keep your mouth closed, because otherwise you'd see my mouth. And then obviously that wouldn't work, for the fact that the bottom half of the jaw is hanging right down. So I had to keep my mouth closed and then cry and so I couldn't breathe! So I'm not breathing in that last scene. I don't think I've told anyone that yet. I'm not actually breathing. (laughs) So if everyone could really feel for me, that would be great!

VL: I was going to ask what was the hardest scene to film, but I assume that was?

RM: Yeah, the not breathing. And then also when I was crawling along the floor it was really bloody painful, because that was a – you know one of those sticky floors that you can polish? I call it a sticky floor – you know what I mean though. Sort of that shiny floor that you can polish. And I'm crawling along with obviously shorts on – so I've got bare legs and the blood is sticky and sweet, as well, actually – not that I was eating it, but it was obviously in my mouth. So when you're crawling along, you're sticking to the floor and your skin is almost ripping along the floor. So as I'm moving along, that genuinely is painful.

VL: Obviously, the scenes you did are one thing but do you have a favourite scene in the film otherwise?

RM: I do love Finlay Robertson – I just think he's hilarious. I think they all are – they were such a nice bunch of people. I was quite excited when I saw David Scofield and Ruth Gemmell as well, I knew. Let me think. I like the scene where Finlay is on the front desk and he won't let Eliza use the phone – or he lets her use the phone and then he's a bit weird and pervy with her. I find that really funny. I just find all his facial expressions really funny. So any scene with him. NOT the scene where the guy is in the wheelie bin and on fire – that's horrific! That's absolutely horrendous. What else do I like? There's another one with David Scofield that I thought was really good. Oh and I liked the one – you know the other one, the Scottish actor? I worked with him on Lip Service – I didn't actually work directly with him but he was on something else that I did. And I liked the scene with him walking through and shouting. Again, that comic element appeals to me.

VL: I thought it was really interesting that none of the deaths actually happen onscreen.

RM: It was an important part of the film as well. I think that was Johannes's intention. I don't know, actually – I think at the beginning, maybe he wanted that to happen and then he kind of realised, maybe when he was editing it, that it didn't need to happen.

VL: So did they film more of a death scene with you that didn't get used?

RM: No, they didn't. I think there was more – no, I remember Johannes saying that there was more – he didn't want to show the deaths but there was more violence. But certainly not with mine – I mean, with the jaw thing, I don't think you needed any violence. You could see the result. But I think there were more gratuitous moments than were shown, originally, but he chose to keep them out when he edited it because he felt it wasn't necessary and I don't think it was necessary. I mean it was good the way it was – he did a really good job.

VL: How long were you on the film for?

RM: Not very long. It was filmed over night shoots so – I don't know – you film over – you're booked for a certain period of time, say a couple of weeks and then you go in the odd couple of days over those weeks but I don't strictly know how many times I went. A few times, you know, whatever it takes to film a couple of scenes – it's not a huge amount of time.

VL: You don't really interact with anyone else in the cast, do you?

RM: No, I don't. No. Just Ruth and David. Ruth, to me, is one of those faces – she's a jobbing actress and she's somebody that pops up in lots of things and I think she's great. She was really, really nice as well – they all were. A lovely, lovely bunch of actors.

VL: What are you working on at the moment?

RM: I'm working on an HBO drama called Game of Thrones. I'm Doria, the kind of ex-courtesan hand-maiden – actually still kind of working as a courtesan, but you know.

VL: There's a lot of excitement around that. Is that the George R. R. Martin thing?

RM: Yes, it is and I've met him and he's lovely. And it's so exciting. It's so exciting to be a part of such a huge project. And the sets – oh my God, you've got to watch it. It's incredible. It's out of this world. It's amazing, so watch it.

VL: Have you got anything else coming up?

RM: So...no, because that's what I've been contracted to so I will hopefully have other things coming up. Maybe it would be nice to film something in hotter climates next year - that would be good. So I'll keep my fingers crossed and if you could say a little prayer for me, that would be great.

VL: Well, we'll put it in the interview and see if anyone has any Sahara Desert-based projects or something.

RM: Maybe the desert would be a bit too warm, but Morocco, maybe?

END

Interview with Jamie J Johnson (director of Sounds Like Teen Spirit) - April 23rd, 2009

Promoting: Sounds Like Teen Spirit
Venue: Home
Interview type: One-on-one (phone)


ViewLondon (VL): How did the film come about?

Jamie Johnson (JJ): Basically, I was watching the adult contest the year that Finnish latex monster band Lordi won and when they won I thought, 'Wow, this is beyond pantomime and would make a brilliant subject for a feature doc', so I pitched it to BBC Films and they liked it but they already had four Eurovision projects in development. So then I said, 'Well how about the Junior one?' and they said 'Hmmm...' so I started researching it and then I was just kind of like, 'Why has nobody made this film yet?' So that's kind of how it started.

VL: So how did you find the different kids after that?

JJ: Basically I flew round with a camera and a sound recordist and we went to all the countries that we could – I think I went to about seventeen – all the countries that were having the heats, as it were. And then we'd sort of film with the kids before the national final and then interview the winner and then try and sort of go to the house of the winner to see what their home situation was like the following day. So that was the sort of casting process to see who we might then follow to the Rotterdam final.

VL: So how did you narrow it down from seventeen to four?

JJ: Well, I know this probably isn't the most stringent method of selecting them, but I just basically chose my favourites out of all seventeen countries. I just chose the ones I sort of wanted to hang out with, so that was basically how they were selected. We didn't pick them based on who we thought might win or anything like that.

VL: I was curious as to whether you'd seen [US Spelling Bee documentary] Spellbound?

JJ: Yes, I have very much seen Spellbound.

VL: Did you talk to the directors at all?

JJ: No, I didn't, actually and I would have liked to. I think it would have been probably helpful if I had. There was another film called Taxidermy: Stuff the World, by a British director, about the World Taxidermy Championships. And I'd sort of seen both of those and I watched both of them quite carefully. Because I was just shitting my pants, basically -excuse my language- before I went out to each country of the kids that we'd chosen, because I was like, 'Oh my God, I don't have much time with them and what if we don't get anything that's any good?' And you know, in Spellbound, what would they have needed to do? So I kind of broke it down and did almost like a shopping list based on, you know, they went to this kid's house and they did an interview in their bedroom and they did them at school and blah blah blah. So I tried to work it out and just cover bases like that. And then I sort of threw all of that stuff away slightly, when I got out there and just realised you can't really control anything, actually.

VL: So was there much that was cut out of the film or did you pick the kids you wanted and trust that you'd get everything from them?

JJ: Yeah. Even saying it now, it does seem mental, but that's kind of what we did. We didn't follow any additional characters and then drop them or anything like that. Because I know in Spellbound they did that – the DVD has three extra spellers on it that didn't make it into the final film.

VL: How difficult was it to get permission to film backstage at Eurovision?

JJ: We had to fly to Holland. I'd managed to wangle filming at the previous year's contest, which I shot as a sort of trailer. I did a little three minute trailer and a sort of 27 minute taster from that, so we took that as a 'This is how we're going to treat the subject' and it had the war stuff in it and it had the humour and the tone, so we had to present it to all of the Eurovision Steering Committee, which is 36 heads of each country's TV and they all sat down and ummed and ahhed and then said, 'Yeah, alright then'. So we did have Access All Areas but at the same time, the Dutch crew in Rotterdam had spent probably millions on the show, at the end of it and they didn't want us getting in the way, so they were quite tight in terms of us getting on stage and where we could put cameras and so on. So it was quite difficult and there were a couple of hairy moments where we thought we weren't going to be able to film on stage during the votes. And I knew that that was a key thing, that was our key scene that it all builds up towards in some ways. But luckily, our producer, Liz Carlson just got super-charming on them and managed to turn things around.

VL: Did you know that Bab was going to be presenting the Belgian points or was that a happy surprise?

JJ: We only heard about a week before and at that point we didn't really know what our edit was going to be, but I had a rough outline that had her as the character we'd start with, so when we heard she was going to be presenting it was like, 'Oh, actually, this might all tie in quite nicely now...' But it was great to see her face like pop up, forty foot high.

VL: Are you still in touch with the kids?

JJ: Yeah, I'm in touch with all of them apart from Mariam, just because she doesn't speak English and doesn't write English well enough to email either. But I hear about her through a couple of Georgian friends that we met while we were making the film. But yeah, all the others, we email and Facebook each other and so on. We have the odd Skype conversation. And Bab's doing well – I email her dad and he lets me know when she's got a new release coming out or whatever.

VL: So what are they all up to?

JJ: They're all mainly just being kids still. I think Bab has some kind of mini record deal, Trust are recording an album on their own, just using Mirek's computer in his loft, which is pretty cool. Marina is still doing Bon-Bon but she's just being a teenager, she's just kind of buying booze to go to parties and causing trouble and probably driving her mum mad. She's alright though – her mum's got a new boyfriend and Marina likes him, so that's good. And Mariam's doing well – there was an opportunity for her to move to [Georgia's capital] Tblisi and for some reason they didn't take it, but I'm not entirely clear on what happened.

VL: Have they all seen the film?

JJ: They've all seen it apart from Mariam, which is kind of disappointing. Opportunities kept coming up that didn't quite happen, like, for Toronto, they wanted to fly her over for the premiere and she couldn't come because it was straight after the conflict. So we're still hoping we can get her over for something but if it doesn't happen soon we're just going to send her a copy. But I know she's seen the trailer and clips and has heard all about it. I feel bad now, I'll have to send her a copy.

Interview with Nanette Burstein (director of American Teen) - March 4th, 2009

Promoting: American Teen
Venue: Premier PR offices
Interview type: One-on-one (phone)


ViewLondon (VL): Could you explain how the project came about?

Nanette Burstein (NB): It was a film I'd actually wanted to make for several years, dating back to before reality TV existed in America and there were all these reality shows about high school (e.g. The Hills). For me, high school was a really formative time in my life and I wanted to go back and explore it and all the pressures that you're under at that age and, you know, through various attempts, I was finally able to get financing for the movie, so that's how it came together.

VL: And how did you set about finding the different students?

NB: Well, I chose middle America because it does have an innocence and it's a very isolated part of the country and I wanted that kind of fishbowl environment of high school. And I wanted it to be in a small town that only had one high school so again, back to the whole fishbowl idea, you have even more social pressure than you would perhaps in an urban environment. And I wanted it to be a town that was economically mixed. I was hoping for it to be racially mixed but it proved to be difficult to find in small towns in the mid-west. And then I needed a high school that would give me the access that I was looking for, so I called hundreds of high schools and found ten that would give me the access and went to each of them and interviewed all the incoming high school seniors that were interested. And this high school in Warsaw, Indiana had the most compelling stories and compelling kids.

VL: Am I right in thinking that there were originally several characters and you had to get rid of some of them in the editing room?

NB: Well, there were several who starred in the first couple of months of shooting, but after a few months I narrowed it down to the five. There was one other kid that I followed throughout the whole year that I did not include in the film in the edit room. He was an African-American kid and I – he had a great story on paper and I really wanted some racial diversity to the film, so I really held on to it, but he wasn't that comfortable on camera and he was kind of a shy guy and so it was really hard to understand what was going on in his head and it didn't really work when I tried to edit it together.

VL: I was thinking of Hannah's best friend, Clark. He's kind of in it and then he isn't in it. Was he in love with her or something like that?

NB: He was. He was in love with her. They actually ended up having a little fling at the end of the year and I did originally have that in the movie and I cut it out because her story already had so many twists and turns. The film could have been five hours long and I, for time reasons, had to cut certain things out of the movie. But yes, he was in love with her and they're still very close friends and he's a great kid.

VL: I wondered about that, because I've seen several reviews that have labelled Clark as Hannah's gay best friend. Did you realise that would be the upshot of cutting his love story?

NB: I know! I am aware of it now. Of course, I never thought of that when I was editing the movie. I realised after the fact. I know.

VL: Obviously, there's been a lot of speculation about how much of the film was staged. How did you go about doing the email scene and the two sides of the phone conversation scenes?

NB: You mean when the photo gets sent around? Well, basically every kid in high school saw that photo, so basically I just filmed as much as I could for a week and I got maybe four or five people, but edited together it looks like 'Oh my God, the camera's there the whole time'. And I had to reshoot people actually writing emails anyway, because it's illegal to show someone's actual email address. But I wrote exactly what the emails said. Also, it was not the first photo that she sent to him, there had been a few others. And I think he knew he had an email from her and he told me to come over. But I didn't want to put it in the film that she sent all those pictures, because I think it's, you know, maybe a little damaging to her.

VL: What about the phone conversations?

NB: That's an editing thing. You never actually see two people talking on the phone. I recorded both sides using a phone tap thing you can put on the cell phone but I only filmed one side of the conversation. In the edit room I just cut to who they were talking to, a cutaway of them listening on the phone so you would know who they were speaking to. But you don't actually see people talking on both sides.

VL: What about when Hannah's been dumped by her first boyfriend and she calls Clark? Doesn't he react as if he's getting the news then?

NB: Oh, you only see his side. I was actually filming them that night and she was supposed to be with them and I had no idea that her boyfriend had broken up with her or what had happened. And they were calling her and she wasn't answering her phone. And nothing was really happening and I was about to leave and then he gets this phone call from her. And she was videotaping herself on the other side, so I have her audio. I don't know why she was doing that, but she was. So I didn't use the picture but I used the audio from her videotape.

VL: The other thing that stuck out for me was Jake's sort-of-girlfriend who cheats on him with the midnight rendezvous at the swimming pool. Surely, if you're cheating on the star of a documentary, you don't invite the documentary crew along?

NB: No, I know! You know what happened? It was at the beginning of the year, in the first couple of months and I was filming about 20 different people. And one of them was the guy that she was cheating with, this guy Mike Hall, who at the time, I wasn't sure if he was going to be one of the main subjects of the film. She didn't make the call going 'Hey, come over, I'm cheating on Jake', it's that I was filming the guy just as often that she ended up cheating with.

VL: But how did you know they were going to the swimming pool?

NB: Well, we were filming them for a few days. They were hanging out non-stop for a few days, though that was the only time they ended up kissing. So she knew what she was doing and she doesn't mind that it's in the movie, because I think she thinks it's high school drama.

VL: That's pretty cold, if you ask me.

NB: Well, people at 14 can be pretty cold. And then I was shocked, because he finds out from a friend and she knows that I filmed her and she still lies! I was totally shocked by that. I was like, why is she – I mean, I guess she just doesn't want to confront him about it yet, but she knows that I filmed the other side of it, so it was...yeah.

VL: Did you not feel compelled to tell Jake yourself?

NB: I was actually very torn, but I don't know. It was hard. But within a day she ended up telling him the truth anyway. Not when I was filming, but she did end up telling him and broke up with him. But if it had gone on for a long time, I guess I would have had to tell him.

VL: I'm surprised he wasn't resentful towards you afterwards for knowing and not telling him.

NB: He wasn't, actually. We had a long talk about it, but he was more upset that she'd broken up with him, period.

VL: Could you give us a quick update on where all the kids are now?

NB: Yes. Hannah's in film school, outside New York. It's a state school, so it's affordable for her. And she's making short films and really enjoying herself and getting so much out of it. Megan's at Notre Dame, she just took her MCAPS, so she's going to be a doctor and is applying to medical school. Same with Mitch, Hannah's very good-looking boyfriend. Jake is actually not in school right now, he switched colleges twice and then he didn't go back the following year. I don't know, I think he still has a lot of insecurities and doesn't feel comfortable in that environment, so he's just working and trying to figure out what he's going to do with his life. And Colin is still playing basketball, although he switched schools, because he wasn't happy at the place that gave him the scholarship. But he got some financial aid at a different school. But he's still playing basketball and studying.

VL: How have they reacted to their unexpected fame?

NB: I think they've reacted very well. They all really like the movie, they're very supportive of it, they worked a lot on the promotion of the film, they got to go to Los Angeles and the studio paid for them to stay in LA for the summer and so on. It was a cool experience for them. But they really have good heads on their shoulders, in terms of not letting it blow up their heads or derail their lives in any way. And we had a lot of conversations prior to that about it.

VL: What's your next project?

NB: I'm actually developing a couple of television non-fiction series. Just doing the promo tapes for them for the networks. One is on the legal process, filming it from the side of the prosecutors and the other is on salmon fishing in Alaska. This one town just fills up with fishermen who have three weeks to make their entire income for the year. And I'm also developing a fiction film that I'm attached to direct for New Line, here in the States. It's a comedy, actually. So, keeping busy!