Written & Directed by Alastair Train
Alex joins an advanced Yoga class to try and get fit, after failing at every move he knows he only has one more chance to impress.
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH ALASTAIR
Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background.
I’m a London based Writer/Director who’s been making short films for the last 8 years.
I always connected with the way films told stories so effectively. As a kid I have so many vivid memories of watching my old Star Wars VHS over and over again. It felt like I was transported to another world every time I watched them. But it wasn’t until I saw John Carpenter’s The Thing on a windy and rainy night up in Scotland with my uncle that I truly got the filmmaking bug. It’s a terrifying film and it felt so powerful at the time. It’s amazing that something as a simple as a movie could make me feel so many strong emotions. It’s a feeling that I want to emulate with my own films.
After I left university, I did a year-long filmmaking diploma where I made a lot of great friends who I’ve been making movies with ever since. The moment I finished my filmmaking course I started writing. I got my first taste of festival success with my short film Osteopathy, which was also a dark comedy.
This is a genre I love to work in as it allows me to subvert expectations and also give a comedic take on dark subjects. There’s nothing more satisfying then hearing your audience laugh and gasp in horror a few moments later.
What is your inspiration and influences behind ALL STRETCHED OUT?
The inspiration for All Stretched Out came from an exhausting Yoga class I took a few years back. While I was doing one of the moves, I felt like I was literally going to rip in half. Along with a giving me a rather sore back, it got the cogs in my head spinning. I wanted to make a film which conveys that sometimes trying too hard is the worst thing you can do.
A lot of the inspiration for the tone of the film came from quirky comedy shows like League of Gentlemen, Inside Number 9, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and of course Monty Python. I just love how those shows can set up what seems to be a perfectly normal situation and have it completely turn on its head in the most ridiculous way possible.
So, I thought let’s do the same with a yoga class take those comedic elements and then mix it with the B-movie aesthetics of a classic body horror film.
What obstacles did you overcome while in the making of this film?
The last film I wrote and directed before All Stretched Out was a much longer short film at nearly 20 minutes in length, so I wanted to make something a lot shorter and theoretically a lot simpler. Needless to say, shorter didn’t mean simpler.
Our main challenge was self-inflicted. We decided to shoot on Super 16mm as we really wanted the natural warmth that film can bring that evokes the feeling of a hot and sweaty yoga studio. Super 16mm also has that scuzzy B-movie quality, that felt perfect for the aesthetic we wanted for All Stretched Out.
Film obviously brings its own issues and we only had three rolls of it. Everything had to be rehearsed multiple times before we could even go for the first take. When you have a limited amount of film you don’t have the luxury of going for multiple takes. Luckily, we had a truly amazing team who did such a great job at bringing the film to life even with the added challenges of shooting on film.
Can you tell us about your experience creating the practical effects for the film?
From the moment I got the idea for All Stretched Out, I knew that I wanted to use practical effects.
When I was at Cannes Festival back in 2017, instead of catching the exclusive premiers or stepping onto the red carpet I found myself at a bar that was hosting an event for the Production Company Troma, famous for B movie classics like “Toxic Avenger” and "Class of Nuke 'Em High”. It was a hell of a night.
Not only did I wake up with a brutal hangover but also with the number of an amazing SFX artist called Dave Darko. It wasn’t until a few months later that I decided to give him a call to see if he could turn my vision into a reality.
Luckily, he could. When it came to the shoot, he brought with him a torso ready to be split in half. Due to a combination of budget constraints but also to get that B-Movie aesthetic we wanted to go for more of an old-school look with the prosthetics. While the skin tone was a little Simpsons yellow (literally) the actual effect worked amazingly well. With a lot of fake blood and rolled up newspaper for guts we managed to create something really effective and with a little bit of VFX magic we managed to fix the skin colour.
I can’t wait to work with practical effects again, literally seeing something happen in front of your eyes is so much more satisfying than waiting to see it created in post.
Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences.
I decided to work with the amazing festival strategy company called Festival Formula, who helped me develop a list of festivals to submit the film to. They did a brilliant job cherry picking the festivals the All Stretched Out would find its most suitable audience.
It’s gotten into some amazing festivals like Loco Comedy Film Festival, London Short Film Festival amongst others and it had a great response from the audiences that saw it.
I do wish I could have attended more festivals in person but as Covid-19 came in it pushed a lot of these festivals online.
Now after nearly 3 years I’m looking to finally release All Stretched Out to the unsuspecting public and let them see the dangers of yoga firsthand.
What are you working on now?
I’m just finishing postproduction on a short comedy called Tin Man, about a guy who wins a lifetime supply of baked beans and the “obvious” dangers involved in that. I’m also looking to get some of the feature films that I wrote over lockdown funded. In an effort to branch out I’ve written a sci-fi drama, an adventure movie and a Horror Action movie. I’m sure I’ll get back to writing dark comedy soon enough…it’s probably the area I’m most comfortable writing, but it’s nice to experiment and explore different genres.
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?
Too many; obviously I’d say watch John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982). Another classic that I feel should get more attention is Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation (1974). It’s a harrowing film about a surveillance expert who accidentally uncovers a murder. The way sound design is used to heighten the tension is truly brilliant and it’s something everyone should watch when they’re learning how sound design can elevate a film.
More recently, a film which I loved was Pig (2021) starring Nicholas Cage, from the synopsis and the trailer I expected John Wick with a pig. Instead, I got a heartfelt and rather emotional story which I think a lot of people will enjoy.
Some of my other favorites are Blue Ruin (2013), Mandy (2018), A Serious Man (2009), Blood Simple (1984), and for a good time Big Trouble In Little China (1986)