SCRIPT TO SCREEN - SCRIPTWITER RESEARCH - INTERVIEW WITH SIMON ELLIS.

                                                           15:37 - 03 October 2018

Interview with Simon Ellis.

Carla: Fab, I'm just going to warn you that I am not going to be posh and all that cause I am not posh.

Simon: (laughs) me neither

Carla: So, the first question is what was you writing process for 'soft' and how did you develop that story?

Simon: Okay mmm. I wrote it in 2002 which was years before I actually made it, so I wrote it for the digital short scheme which used to be run by the UK Film council.

Carla: Okay

Simon: They used to find like, regional shorts, you used to get like £10,000 to do a 10 min film, anyway I didn't realise that is had to be 10 mins, it was the first time that they had put this 10 mins, so I withdrew the script from that scheme, then I developed that idea into a feature film, then in 2005 the UK film council were doing a scheme called Cinema Extreme, which was made especially for short film makers who were intending to make feature films, to do something slightly higher slandered, Which meant I could get a couple of crew and all the rest of it, so I submitted it to that scheme and I got the budget to make it but funnily enough, I didn’t make the feature, but that’s another story.

Carla: Okay (Chuckles)

Simon: yep, but in terms of the short script like I did the original one, the story was pretty much the same, but it didn’t have, umm. for example mobile phones footage in it, that was quiet a late addition and once I got the actors on board, specifically the actor Johnny Phillips who plays the father, he just sent me a post card cause he heard from a friend of a friend that I was doing this film and he liked the idea and wanted to get involved, so he did and we did what they call workshopping together, talking about it, rehearsing it. There is a difference between rehearsing something and workshopping because rehearsing is when you are practising something that is on the page and workshopping is working toward what can be on the page.

Carla: yeah

Simon: So, we do a lot of that and just developed it from there.

Carla: Okay fantastic, I am still trying to write notes as well as record, just in case I miss something.

So, were you still re-writing whilst you were filming? obviously you said about the mobile phones and things like that, was there anything you changed within the script were you though "Well that’s not working"

Simon: No not at all, the script was pretty tight, I mean the stuff with the gang we kept that quiet loose, Just because they were non- actors and I wanted them to be natural, so if for example they was all  messing about outside the shops, they could do it in their own way, the one thing that changed was in three original script, they were playing with fireworks with bangers

Carla: Okay

Simon: So the idea is that the banger would explode and that what made dad jump and then the fireworks came back into it later on where is what currently were he sticks his penis the letter box, that was him sticking a fire work through in the original script, so I think there was various reasons for health and safety and all the rest of it, whilst shooting that the fireworks were a no no.

Carla: would that have cost more money as well if you used the fireworks, for permits etc.

Simon: Umm no it was more for health and safety and I was also filming in the producer’s house and I didn't want to ruin the house so (laughs) so the fireworks where off. So I took it out in the later scene and replaced it with him sticking his together in the letter box and the stuff at the shop, just because we could have got into trouble with the locals we changed it to a balloon, it just needed to be something that went 'bang' so we just had them pissing around with a balloon, the footage of the gangs themselves I just needed them to be natural, there was actually a deleted scene which I never have in my films, it was a scene where the gang leader was trying to convince the 2 girls to kiss each other properly, the problem was, he was so charismatic about it, so charming, it made him charming but it humanised him and I didn’t want that so that went but other than that the only sort of change, well it wasn’t a change it was more of a compromise was the stuff at the end were the boy comes out with the bat, originally when he comes out swinging the bat around, it was a lot longer and a lot messier and the kid was just in tears, it was really important to see he is not doing it out of courage he was doing it out of desperation ...

Carla: Yeah

Simon: ... in the script, he was constantly missing him, he was hitting the ground, hitting himself in the legs, just messy and scrappy and real, but on the day that we had the cherry picker, (the thing we filmed the high shot) that was parked there and was waiting to use it but he had to go, so it got to the point in the day where I had to sacrifice them moments because I needed to capture the suburbia area, when the neighbours come out when it was safe and everyone had gone, so I made the fight a lot shorter.

Carla: I get that, I like that another lady was walking up the road with her shopping trolley, it made me feel like everyday life was back to normal

Simon: She's real, she's real! she was genuine

Simon: Yeah so, the one that comes down from the top left?

Carla: Yeah

Simon: Yeah, she was really funny because we had people in place on side stopping members of the public coming through but she weren't having none of it (laughs) she just walked through, she walks down through the shot, she had no idea there was filming going on and the two actor that came out in the street, one of them was the producer, they stayed in character and they just starting talking to her about what had happened and she was like "oh my god" and put her hand on her head, so it was all genuine, we just had to ask her to sign the release form, she was the real deal.

Carla: So that does come to my next question, did any of the actors improvise?

Simon: The youths really.

Carla: Did you have to do different takes or work on any dialogue with them?

Simon: Not really we left it free willing, if there was anything that got to much, like too much bad language then I would reigned it in, the guy who played the leader of the gang, I mean he is quite a big actor now, he was an actor and all the others was street cast, so for example when we cast it I bought him along and he would function as the gang leader so what I did was get small groups of kids together and I said to them "I’m walking across the road and you have to give me as much verbal abuse as you can" and the ones that give me the most shit and who was more intimidating got the part and because Michael was there as the leader, he would start it off and raise the bar so that they could all join in, so he just had his lead and they had no problem just getting into it.

Carla: For Michael the gang leader, costume wise, you put him in all white, was that your decision or the costume department? was that intentional?

Simon: It goes back to my favourite film with Bruce Lee in 'fists of fury' he was dressed in all white and it made him stand out.

I HAVE MORE OF THE INTERVIEW ON TAPE HOWEVER THE QUESTIONS THAT I ASKED ARE RELATED TO WHAT I NEEDED TO LEARN ABOUT SCREEN WRITTEN, PLUS THE INTERVIEW WAS OVER AN HOUR LONG.

I do admire Simon Ellis as a writer because he believes in what he write, he has a vision and what he sees on his scripts is what he wants to film and I can say that’s exactly how I think and film and have done so far during the process of the Script to screen unit.


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HOW DOES SIMON ELLIS INFLUENCE MY WORK? (updated on the 10/12/18)

I have been writing for over 8 years now but after speaking to Simon Ellis I really understood why it takes so long, I have learned that being a writer can be a struggle yet his vision of the screenplay came to light in the end, just like myself with my script to screen script 'Y4', I had an idea I worked on it but it.
Like Simon i also had to do some on the spot changes as one of my artist never made it to set so my actor had to change up some words, meaning she had to improvise a little.
I have grown as a writer (in my own opinion) but I have a long way to go as I have done 6 drafts of my screenplay to try and get my story out there in an order that the audience can understand.