Directed by MARK VAN HEUSDEN
Up and coming rock band Bad Penny are doing their first headline tour, but they have a problem. The support band French Kiss, fronted by the charming David French, is becoming more popular than them. In addition to that James, the singer/guitarist of Bad Penny, seems to have lost inspiration. Dean and Anthony, fraternal twin brothers and the two remaining band members of Bad Penny, devise an evil plan to help James find new inspiration and make their band gain popularity again.
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH MARK
Welcome back to our Short of the Week series! What have you been up to since we last interviewed you for British Graffiti?
I've been working on a few things. I wrote a new short that I'm trying to shoot next year and am currently talking to a band to direct a music video in January. I also edited a short film, Like Waves, for a friend of mine (Miles Berkley-Smith) which will release next year. I just really enjoy making films so when he was looking for an editor I volunteered and had a good time cutting it!
What was your inspiration behind David French?
Long story short I went through a tough time after graduating. I was living alone in an unknown city and wasn't getting anywhere near making films which was very frustrating and I felt creatively deprived. My mom has always been a huge support and when I gave her a call she told me that it's not uncommon for artists to derive inspiration from painful experiences and that I would probably come out of this with some kind of idea. I found that an interesting idea and so I came up with the idea of someone inflicting trauma on a person in order to give him the creative push to create something beautiful. The title came about because it was a line I wrote in one of my depressing episodes in which I was lashing out against some people who weren't very helpful when I was having a branding issue with my grad film. Whenever I got nervous and didn't know what to do I got very angry which I don't like about myself, so I used that as a central theme too to try and exorcise and study why I feel that way.
What obstacles did you overcome while in the making of this film?
Too many to count really. The main scary part is that we had to record the music before we went into production. I had a great time working with composer Pablo Scopinaro. I frankensteined together pieces of tracks I liked, (this kind of drum intro and baseline similar to this etc.) and sent that over to him, and he then made the rock tracks you hear in the movie before we even started shooting. Without that music we wouldn't have a film! One thing that went way smoother than I thought is to make the music performance seem genuine. A huge shoutout to the actors who were playbacking to the music on set the whole time.
David French is a very ambitious film. Did you always envision it as a short or is there a desire to develop it into a feature?
For me David French was always meant to be a short, I don't really want to spend anymore time with these horrible characters! I did want it to feel like a feature in terms of content and scale because I eventually want to direct feature films and have written a vomit draft of my first feature last year.
Are you happy with how David French been received by audiences and festivals?
The festival run was tricky because at first there were quite a few it didn't get in and it was also the height of the pandemic which made me feel a little blue. But eventually it picked up and we got into the Academy Award Qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival which was a great experience and actually near the end of our run we got into Kino Film People's Film Festival which was really good and through both these festivals I've met some interesting filmmakers. After the lockdown ended I have been able to see the film with an audience and that is a great experience. It's a very satisfying feeling to hear people laugh at the ridiculousness that happens at the end and for them to approach you and say that they liked the film. The audience reaction has made me a little prouder then I was before, because I still find watching my own films unbearable.
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?
I recently did a deep dive into the filmography of Akira Kurosawa, his use of composition almost gives me anxiety as it's so good. Difficult to pick a favourite but I'd go for High and Low (1963). Other than that I recently really liked C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills), Tomboy (Celine Sciamma), Secrets & Lies (Mike Leigh) and About Elly (Asghar Farhadi). I can also recommend Brother (Alexey Balabanov) for people who are interested in micro-budget feature filmmaking.