Directed by Ed Willey
Written by Rossella Di Pietro and Ed Willey
Tony and Archie, best friends and sci-fi fanatics rent out a funky apartment for a weekend on the town, but their host has other plans.
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH ED
Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background.
I still consider myself quite new to the filmmaking game. At the start of 2020 I tried writing short stories but found myself getting annoyed that I could visualise them so well but couldn’t convey everything I was seeing in my head. A weird epiphany later filmmaking felt like a natural next step. I made my first short later that year on my phone and enrolled in a part-time course at MetFilm to learn how to do things properly. Since then I finished the course with another short, and have done the 48hour competition twice now. Being very new to the industry I enjoy working on other shorts as 1st AD (I love to be organised!) which has been a really great way to meet people. I met both Will and Macaulay (DoP and 1st AC on this film), working on shorts with other directors. Given my day job as a web developer, I’ve found filmmaking very naturally fits into a very technical and creative hole that I get a lot of enjoyment from being involved in all aspects of.
So this isn't your first time making a film in 48 hours. What makes you gravitate to such a challenge?
Foremost, you will end up with a finished film. It felt pretty weird on the Sat after wrapping the shoot saying “I’ll send you the finished film tomorrow” but also really exciting just knowing it will be done. The challenge and the restrictions the competition places on you (random genres, given character, prop and line of dialogue) can be really rewarding. Having to come up with something in such a short timeframe, leaves very little time to second guess yourself, you just have to get on and do it!
What is the most challenging and/or exciting aspect of creating a film in 48 hours?
Time is obviously the biggest challenge. You have to be pretty strict especially on shoot day, setting a hard finish time so you know you have a target to hit. Aside from that, trying to plan for anything and everything. Getting a cast and crew together and finding a location with absolutely no idea what your might be making can be quite daunting. Finding the location this year was one of my biggest stresses, we didn’t find the warehouse appt til I think the week before, definitely not something I want to repeat next year!
Did any pre-existing creative ideas happen to fit the brief for A Real Pair, or did you make the film 100% from scratch?
100% from scratch. We drew the genres of Comedy Horror + Legal Jeopardy (the rules say you can bin one genre) and started throwing ideas around, then the required elements were announced and we felt it was clear we wanted to make silly ‘horror’ and ran with that. There was a bunch of us at our place all pitching in with ideas until we had the basic story beats down, then myself and Rossella locked ourselves away and set about the script.
Would you ever continue working on the film after 48 hours for your own personal satisfaction, or once the deadline is complete do you walk away from making any tweaks?
For me I feel it defeats the point to continue to refine it after the fact, I like to be able to say “this is what we made in 48hours”. Having said that… I did make two very very very small tweaks removing a few frames from a couple of shots in the file that’s now on Vimeo, but I put that down to sleep deprivation towards the end of editing on the Sun! Am really proud of what we managed to achieve this year, the whole team was really awesome.
If you had more time to work on this project, what is the main thing you would like to change/develop further?
We would have definitely liked to have more time to work on the characters/story. The cast did a great job with what we had to work with, but we all felt there was more to explore both with the two guys, childhood friends, a shared passion, where are they in their lives now? And of course, Crystal, how did she get involved in what she's doing, how does she keep getting away with it? We kept joking there was enough of a foundation to work it up to a feature, which is an idea I haven't fully let go of yet...
After a 48 hour competition is over, what's the journey of the film look like in terms of trying to reach a wider audience?
Doing stuff like this? :) Am also submitting to a few small festivals, but it’s a weird one as obviously you’re going up against people who’ve spent months refining their films, so, we’ll see what happens!
Words of wisdom. What advice would you give to other filmmakers?
Collaboration. As a writer/director I find it absolutely essential to be able to be open to ideas from other members of the crew, you don’t always have to go with them, but at the very least be open to hearing ideas. Filmmaking is very much a team sport. By all means, have a vision, but let others collaborate with you to make it the best version of that vision.
What are you working on now?
Am back at the day job while I plan out my next short, ideally want to get something new done early next year, but still kicking around ideas right now. More long term I’m working on my first feature script with plenty more ideas waiting in the wings! And of course, keeping an eye on the job boards for other projects to help out on and meet more people!
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?
The first thing that popped into my head is ‘Prisoners’ by Denis Villeneuve. It preceded Sicario/Arrival/Blade Runner 2049 which obviously raised his profile considerably. It’s an incredibly tense movie with some outstanding performances that provide uncomfortable viewing at times, but a really beautifully made film. On the other end of things we recently re-watched ‘Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping’ by the Lonely Island guys, I love everything they do and am very curious about their involvement in the upcoming Naked Gun reboot…!