Directed by DUSTIN CURTIS MURPHY
Produced by ADNAN RAJA
This is Nora. She’s about to turn 70. This is not how Nora wanted to spend her birthday...
In 1948 the largest universal healthcare system in the world was founded in the UK. 2018 marks it’s 70th birthday. We live in a critical time for our society and healthcare. This is our creative look at the NHS turning 70.
WORLD PREMIERE:
TEDxNHS, British Film Institute IMAX, London (Aug 18)
Director: DUSTIN CURTIS MURPHY
Producer: ADDY RAJA
Writers: DUSTIN CURTIS MURPHY & ADDY RAJA
Starring NICCI BRIGHTEN, ALVARO CEA, CHRIS HORTON, MIKE KELSON, ALASDAIR C. MELROSE, JENNIFER PRESTON, & RACHAEL SPARKES
Cinematography by KAMIL IWANOWICZ
Assistant Director TOP TARASIN
This week we’ve chosen to highlight a Kino Original as Short of the Week in honour of our amazing frontline NHS staff (of which the producer of this film is a part of). NORA was birthed out of a Kino networking event, and in a matter of a few months director Dustin Curtis Murphy and producer Addy Raja were in production to ensure that the film’s release would coincide with the 70th birthday of the NHS. Their project got the attention of TEDxNHS which was hosting it’s event at the BFI IMAX. Soon this Kino original was having its world premier on the largest screen in the UK. From there it went on to a successful festival run, winning 18 awards, and you can now watch it streaming on Amazon Prime.
We were able to catch up with Producer Addy Raja in between hospital shifts this past week to get his perspective on the project.
WHAT WAS YOUR INSPIRATION TO WRITE NORA:
Since childhood I’ve always been interested in filmmaking, but I decided to pursue a career in medicine instead. Still, that itch to pursue film was always there. Wanting a more creative outlet, I joined the Kino London network by attending their Open Mic nights, networking events, and Filmmaking workshops. I found myself spending more and more of my precious time off on film sets, whether that’d be holding a boom mic in a dinky East London warehouse, or donning a clown outfit in a short comedy that I’ve ensured no one will ever see.
NORA was the first film project that I really sunk my teeth into, and stepped up as head producer. It was my first baby in the world of filmmaking. Taking into account my day job, I figured my USP against most other filmmakers was to focus on healthcare stories. However rather than focusing on corporate and educational projects, I was keen to produce more creative and narrative films in healthcare.
With a few concepts bouncing around my head, I decided to springboard my first project with the upcoming 70th birthday of our precious NHS. I knew this would provide me with enough of a catalyst to make a medical film with a receptive audience around the world. After discussing various ideas within my filmmaking networks, I pursued the project with the key collaborator on the film, Dustin Curtis Murphy, a writer/director from Los Angeles. Dustin was new to Kino London and keen to get his hands on a project, and from there we developed the concept of NORA – personifying the NHS through a fictional elderly lady also turning 70, surrounded by her bickering family and the threat of being moved to a private nursing home, much like the threat of the NHS being privatised.
Since then Dustin has gone on to run the Kino London network, start the Kino Short film festival ‘The People’s Film Festival’ and grow the Kino Events to a wider audience. Utilising this network and Dustin’s passion for nurturing the independent film industry have been key to NORA’s success.
WHAT'S YOUR WRITING PROCESS:
As a doctor I work in Acute Medicine. This is where medical patients end up after being admitted into hospital via the Emergency Department. Whilst it is not a specialty that focuses on a particular area of the human body, the breadth of knowledge is the specialty itself. Your skills lie in having a broad understanding of various areas of medicine, and bringing together the right team at the right time for the benefit of the patient.
Similarly with filmmaking, I don’t regard myself as a writer, or director, but I have a lot of ideas and a general oversight of what’s needed. From there it’s a matter of finding the right collaborators to bring the idea to life. Initially my idea was to produce a standard documentary about NHS70, but it was in fact through discussions with Dustin that he suggested to turn it into a fictional mockumentary, that enhanced the creativity of the story and provided us with a lot more freedom on the characters and storyline.
Having not had any formal filmmaking or writing qualifications myself, I regularly met up with Dustin who had a lot more experience in this field as an award-winning writer. We took our time, hashing out the concept, thinking about the themes we were trying to illustrate, figuring the who the characters were, their needs and wants, the motivations behind their actions. Once we had that all figured out, along with the story arc, I then employed Dustin to write out the script. We went back and forth a few times until we had our shooting script.
Key to the writing process was the idea of open collaboration. Although Dustin was a seasoned writer, he knew that what I brought to the table were my creative ideas, unique medical insight, and a level of authenticity to the story. By working together in a level playing field, we were able to produce a truly unique script, and I strongly believe that our working relationship was just as important, if not more, than any technical aspects of our screenwriting process. This working relationship continued on set with an element of flexibility, where we ended up making some minor changes to dialogue and story arcs whilst filming. Dustin’s flexible and collaborative approach were a joy to work with, and in stark contrast to many others writers I worked with, whose scripts are still un-produced saved in a computer file somewhere in the world.
WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO BRING THE SCRIPT TO LIFE:
The process of production was both an exciting experience, but also tough. Working on a limited budget and tight deadline brought along it’s challenges, but also kept us on our toes. I chose the topic of NHS70 on purpose, to give us a deadline we had to work too. I’ve started too many short film projects that have ultimately led to nowhere because passion and enthusiasm has faded away. This was the opposite, we knew we had just under four months to make the film, and we were going to do it no matter what. For added pressure our writer, and subsequent director, Dustin, was going to be a father around the same time of the NHS70.
Pre-production is always the key to a successful project. We quickly found ourselves casting actors from across the world, desperately scouting for hospital locations, and pulling in al favours for crew and equipment. Due to the nature of the project about the NHS, we were overwhelmed with the response to our online advert for help, with over 100 responses for casting roles, and numerous filmmakers battling for crew positions. I found myself doing medical ward rounds in the morning, and skype calling actresses in New York in the evening. However the processes were the same, have a vision in mind for what you want to achieve, and find the right people to make it happen.
Not all of it was plain sailing though. On our first day of filming our lead actress called in sick. Luckily we cast one of our smaller roles Jennifer Preston to step up, and I ended up playing the small role myself as a non-screen filmmaker. Jennifer went on to receive a number of awards for her role, I unfortunately just missed out on a BAFTA nomination. I also underestimated the role of a producer in a low budget short film, and actually spent more time making sandwiches and picking up people from the train station, rather than being on set with the action, but that’s just as important. As a producer, you have to look after the cast and crew as a priority, just like doctors looking after patients. Other highlights included finding our locations the day before filming, not realising that catering and crew expenses would take up half our budget, and not getting the level of support I expected from healthcare organisations as a doctor making a creative project. But in the end it was the fantastic cast and crew that ensured we completed the project, and had fun whilst making it.
DID YOU HAVE ANY CREATIVE SOLUTIONS FOR WORKING ON A SMALL BUDGET:
As an independent filmmaker, you’ll never have the time budget you need, so you have to use what you have. Due to the time constraints we weren’t able to apply for any grants, but that’s always an option. Rather than the traditional film grants that are usually over competitive, think laterally about where else you can apply for funding. Four our project there were a number of ‘creative medical’ grant we could have applied for from various healthcare organisations such as the Wellcome Trust. We also could have raise money through a crowdfunding campaign. However given out timeline I decided to push forward and self-fund the project.
We were able to pull a lot of favours though. Starting with the cast and crew, we had an overwhelming response to our NHS story and many filmmakers made adjustments to our timeline and budget. It’s part of the reason why we picked this story. We also received free access to a hospital location after I literally begged all of my healthcare contacts. During our casting auditions we asked the actors if they had access to a rural house for filming, and we in fact ended up shooting most of our scenes at the main actresses home, Chris Horton, who played Nora. Ultimately what was most important was collaborating with filmmakers who were passionate for the project, rather than the size of the pay check, as we knew this was the only way to ensure the film was completed to a high standard within our budget constraints.
WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE PART OF THE FILMMAKING PROCESS:
I grew up watching films with my father as a child, and for me that’s the magic of filmmaking. I make films for the audience, not for myself. By far the most enjoyable aspect of filmmaking is watching my films with a live audience, seeing their reactions, watching them escape reality for a few minutes. When we completed NORA, we set up a cast and crew screening. As this was my first film, I invited a lot of my friends and colleagues from work. For them it was an opportunity to see my in a different light, and show them my creative side. This was the highlight for me, second to our world premiere at the British Film Institute IMAX in front of an audience of 500 people attending a TEDx talk about the NHS. I’m an audience led filmmaker, and always will be.
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