Written, PRODUCED, & directed by Rhys Aaron Lewis
One scorching hot summer, two misfits come up with a get-rich-quick scheme: illegally selling ice cream out of their car.
ABOUT THE FILM
Hundreds & Thousands was the winner of the night at Raindance’s Open Screen event. It also screened at OnlyinPeckhamplex short film night, the Stockholm City Film Festival and the Greenwich Film Festival.
ABOUT THE FILMmakerS
Rhys Aaron Lewis is a writer-director from London working across both documentary and fiction. His past work has been supported by the BFI, BBC, The Guardian and most recently, Amazon Prime. His films have screened at several BAFTA qualifying festivals such as Aesthetica, Bolton and SOUL Fest as well as appearing online on popular short film platforms such as Omeleto.
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH RHYS
Welcome to our Short of the Week series. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your filmmaking background?
My career started as a documentary filmmaker. I always planned to eventually make fiction, but documentaries seemed like the easiest way to start making films, as all I needed was a camera. I began making a bunch of shorts (that no one will ever see) and eventually was awarded a grant by BFI Doc Society to make a short documentary. That was really my entry to the film industry (the process of making that film felt like doing a year of film school) and the experience gave me the confidence to start self-producing a series of comedy shorts. Each project has really led to the next and it’s been a bit of a snowball effect.
Can you tell us about the genesis of Hundreds & Thousands and how you came to be attached to the project?
I wish there was a deep reason why I made this film but it actually had a really simple genesis. About a month before we made the film I was shadowing on a film shoot where I met the DP, India Opzoomer, who was shooting the project. We really got along and decided to meet up again to talk film. We wanted to work together but she was heading back to film school in the USA like ten days after our meeting. So we knew that if we wanted to make something it’d have to be something super short, super cheap and super simple. So we decided that we would shoot everything in a car, using natural light. It was a really, really hot summer so I thought it would be funny to shoot in an ice cream van - but that would’ve been too expensive. So I thought if I can’t shoot in an ice cream van, then I would just make the story about two guys selling ice cream from their car. So the story emerged really organically from this desire to make something with the DP as quickly as possible!
What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making of Hundreds & Thousands and how did you overcome them?
I wrote the script in a few hours on a Sunday morning and immediately sent it to India so that she could prep for the shoot three days later (the only day that week we were both free). I called up Maayan, who plays Alcia, an actor I’d wanted to work with for ages who was fortunately free on the shoot day. I found Naweed (who plays Matteo) online and fortunately he was free too. The only problem was that they were free at different times of the day with only a short overlap where they’d both be available. So we had to shoot everything really quickly. I spent like £20 on Fabs and ice lollies for the shoot. Maayan ate about ten Fabs during the shoot before she told me that she’s vegan - woops. I had an actor in mind to play the traffic warden but he couldn’t make it as it was too last minute. So I decided to play the part. So this is technically my acting debut haha
Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences.
The film sat on my hard drive for a long time because I initially thought I’d just use it as a proof of concept and as I shot it so cheaply I didn’t want to spend loads on festivals. Eventually I submitted it to a short film night organised by Raindance Film Festival. I wasn’t really sure what to expect as no one had seen the film yet, but we ended up winning Best Film that night! After I saw how much people loved the film I was encouraged to start sending it off to more festivals so that more people could see it.
What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?
Film festivals are really expensive and if you’re anything like me you’ll get rejected from A LOT of the ones you submit to. It took me a while to realise that sometimes it’s better to immediately release the film online (especially if you do so on a platform with a lot of subscribers). Not every film is a “festival film” but that doesn’t mean it’s not a “good film” and that it won’t find an audience.
What do you think is the biggest challenge short filmmakers face trying to break into theindustry?
Finding funding for projects is probably the number 1 challenge in my opinion.
What's next for you?
I have a bunch of projects in the pipeline. I just finished working on my biggest short yet, which I’m really excited about. I’m also writing my first feature.
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?
I wanna recommend a short film that’s probably one of my favourite films (short or feature length) of the past few years. Fauve by Jeremy Comte. It's a popular one (it was nominated for an Oscar) and I know a lot of filmmakers have watched it but I’d say it's really the film that showed me that a short can really be a work of art in and of itself. It's genius and I think it fits the short film format perfectly.