Above Photo: Justin From his Facebook Page
Greetings
my esteemed Dan's Movie Report readers who enjoy sci-fi with a dark
and foreboding future slant. As promised, Justin Trefgarne.
writer/director of 'Narcopolis' shares his perspicacious insight into
the process behind the film and his goals for the future. Step behind
the camera, learn about the process. From script to screen and
beyond, Justin is perhaps one of the most intense film makers on the
planet, enough of my inane ramblings, time to take a textual mind
trip to the world of 'Narcopolis'! Play Safe! 3-2-1- GO! Yeah I know I went white on the background, it is intended, a white scary future!
DMR: Chat
about the script writing process for Narcopolis, did you have to get
into a "Dark Mood?" Curious what films were inspiration,
the feel of the film was "Strange Days" type near future
shock darkness comes to my mind.
JT: Narcopolis
sprang from my two loves: detective fiction and Hard Sci-Fi,
especially the works of Philip K Dick. In Dick’s work you have the
paranoid, the obsessed and the mentally fractured protagonist and you
also have drugs. My favorite of his books, 'A Scanner Darkly',
combines these elements to brilliant effect. I also love Richard
Linklater's movie adaptation by the way. What PKD also supplies is a
sense of the city not far removed from our own – in other words
it’s our world, distorted, rather than an alien civilization or
whatever. These things really appeal to me and the idea of putting a
broken, messed-up cop into the heart of a city where the legalization
of narcotics is now fully integrated into society was very
interesting to me. But what was most interesting was not depicting
drug use for 90 minutes but the idea that once we open the doors to
legalization, whether you think it’s a good or bad idea is
irrelevant. What’s going to happen, if it happens, is you’re
going to legalize a global market that is potentially extremely
profitable. So that means large corporations will want a piece of the
action. But as we've seen, when large companies get involved, the
profit-motive usually overwhelms ethical responsibility, and… well,
you know the rest. That was interesting to me as a background to this
story. Time Travel, which I guess is the left turn the film makes
around the half way mark, was the third element which came in to play
early on. I love time travel movies and I had never seen one where a
physical ‘time machine’ wasn’t used. I thought the idea of the
by-product of developing designer drug was the accidental invention
of time travel was weird and cool at the same time, and something no
one would have seen coming. It also made the story feel less
predictable, which was very important to me.
DMR: With regards to
the script process, did you have specific actors in mind to play each
character or was it organic? Written as a base, to expound upon.
JT: Having
made a handful of super-low budget shorts, I learned that one of the
most important things in the whole process was actors who are willing
to jump in and work with you in that down-and- dirty fashion. Over
the years a few actors have become my close friends through working
together repeatedly in this way. They are hard-working, loyal, they
are wonderful people. Having spent a lot of time working in theater
when I was younger, I was very comfortable with the idea of a company
of actors. When I was growing up one of my heroes was Kenneth
Branagh, and I always admired the way he worked with a core group of
actors again and again. So I saw no reason not to transplant that
logic to my film: I wanted my first feature had to be as crammed with
as many of these people as possible. So although I didn’t
consciously sit down and go “right, here’s my phone book, let’s
create a movie with a role for each one” - the story had to come
first - what did happen was as I conceived the plot and characters
familiar faces popped into my head. So the characters started to
mould themselves around specific people, and I could move forward
confident that I had a handful of actors who could fill out these
supporting roles. Adam Sims, who plays Eddie and Molly Gaisford, who
plays Angie, had been in a nearly all my shorts and I knew they would
completely nail the roles I was writing and also be there as creative
support for me. I also needed a child actor and I had seen my son,
Louis, play some stuff at school. He had a raw quality that really
suited the part. It felt really like a good idea to give him a
go on a project like this. The only other role I wrote with an
actor in mind was Yuri Sidorov, played by Jonathan Pryce. Although I
didn't know him personally, Jon was the only actor I wanted for that
role. I have long been an admirer of his work, ever since “Brazil”.
It was an amazing, magical thing that he actually agreed to do the
role.
DMR: How
involved were you in the actor selection process, as writer director,
was it hands on? If so perhaps share a unusual audition story.
JT: I
was intensely involved with the casting process from the start, aided
by our brilliant casting director Manuel Puro. We had a few strange
and awkward moments including one guy walking out after I told him
the movie was English (as opposed to US-English accents), but it was
fairly painless. The only real disaster – which turned to our
advantage in the end – was we had in fact cast a different actor as
the lead, but he fell off his motorbike and broke his collarbone two
weeks before we were due to shoot. That was intense. I knew that if
we put the production on hold we would lose too many elements so I
trawled through the casting video and of course Elliot Cowan’s
audition leapt out at me. Very different to the other guy, but it
turned out to be a stroke of good fortune. Not only is Elliot great
in the film, he became a close friend.
DMR: Justin, that is one
wild and crazy ride of casting, chat about the post writing process
of 'Narcopolis'. With a completed script did you try to sell the
project to make it bigger budget, or was this an passion indie all
the way?
JT: This
film as always conceived as something to be done on a smaller budget.
I wanted to direct it and my track record would not have brought in
big bucks so the only way was to be as independent and inventive as
possible. We had a tiny budget, really, really small. But I didn’t
want to make a ‘low budget movie’ – from the work I'd done on
my shorts I had this ridiculous idea that we could make something
that felt, and looked, like it was way bigger in scale. So whatever
resources we had needed to stretch across a very big canvas.
DMR: Discuss
the Kickstarter funding concept, did you have a plan B just in case
the additional funds were not raised?
JT: Kickstarter
came late in the process. The funds were used to support our
post-production and initial marketing costs. So in a way they were
plan B!
Above photo: London Premiere of Narcopolis.
DMR: Ah yes, more of a finishing process, thank you for
refreshing my memory, let us shift gears a bit, to the casting realm.
As you now know since the 'Narcopolis' was filmed Elodie Yung has
been cast in several films and now is Elektra, must make you thrilled
as a director to have her on board, perhaps share an Elodie on set
moment, I know she is intense, curious how collaborating with her
onset was. How she was approached with script?
JT: Elodie
was amazing – she brought a completely unique feel to the casting
session we had and I knew there and then she was the one for that
role. I also knew she was a bad-ass – I’d seen her kick the crap
out of people on camera but I wasn’t sure what her process would be
like as a dramatic actress. She is intense on set – not for any
strange reason other than the fact that she was determined to do the
best possible job, and with English as her second language, she was
fearful that she was going to stumble over the dialogue. She’d
never done anything like 'Narcopolis' before in the English language
so the only real issues were shaping the dialogue so it sounded like
something she would say, rather than words on a page written by me.
But she’s very cool and we were very lucky to work with her before
she became a bona fide star as we’d never get near her now!
Above Pic: Jonathan Pryce and Elliot Cowan in 'Narcopolis' a Dan's Movie Report exclusive.
DMR: Do
not sell yourself short, Elodie is about the creative process, she
just worked on a short film called 'Believe'. Same Question with
Jonathan Pryce, another amazing actor, how was he approached with the
script and share set stories.
JT: Like
I said Jon was top of my list and it was a very simple question of
sending him the script, meeting him, and then him agreeing to play
the role. It really helped having Elliot on board as Jon was a fan of
his work, so I think there was a sense of an older actor wanting to
support some new talent. But he was a dream to work with and he
taught me a hell of a lot about screen acting. Not literally – he
didn’t take me to one side and lecture me – he just knew,
instinctively, when and how to move on camera, when to give me a
reaction, a look… it was beautiful to watch. He’s also a funny
guy and in fact, once we were into reshoots, he put forward both his
son and daughter to help out on set and play small roles. I remember
he sent me an email saying that if we employed his wife too we’d
get a family discount. He’s a great man and in fact I am developing
a TV idea for him at the moment.
DMR: Narcopolis
was released in the U.S. on Blu-ray in March of this year, plans for
US sci-fi convention? I think that would be radical.
JT: Sadly,
no Sci-fi conventions planned just yet.
DMR: IFC
Midnight, very cool get, how is the promotion going on that, I see
also a Netflix release now?
JT: IFC
and Scream Factory have been great. It’s incredible to see the film
on Netflix. If you’d told me that would be the outcome four years
ago I wouldn’t have believed you.
DMR: Have
you thought about a sequel to Narcopolis?
JT: Not
a sequel but I am developing a prequel. That’s all I can say right
now!
DMR: Wow,
a prequel, time to take a road back down the mean streets, once
again! Please discuss some of the downsides of 'Narcopolis' filming,
and indie film in general, besides just the small budget.
JT: Well,
the obvious one is money. When you’re working with limited
resources you have to make every dollar stretch about a hundred times
longer than it usually would. So that means calling in favors and
asking for help every step of the way. Because I was producing the
film as well (although I did have help!), it meant that I was never
able to switch off the producer part of me, as problems never stopped
coming my way. But for all that, the independent film making
experience gives you just that, independence. And that is an
incredibly valuable thing on your first film. I got to see every
single aspect of this film through, way past the point most directors
sign off. For example, I was doorstepping sales companies,
negotiating with locations people, driving vans, designing logos…
so much stuff besides pure 'directing'. And it was probably the most
exhausting and exhilarating time of my life. It never stopped so I
never stopped. I made new friends, I lost myself, I found myself
again… it was relentless! But the thing that I loved most about the
whole thing was the collaboration with like-minded souls. There are
some immensely talented people out there, I got to work and play with
some of the best of them. I am not exaggerating when I say we became
a family. It was life-changing.
DMR: Very
insightful. Advice for new film makers with Kickstarter, anything you
would have done different, even though successful?
JT: We
raised more than our target, which was amazing, and thanks in many
ways to the support of people like you out there helping promote this
kind of movie. It was a full-time job while the campaign was running
so you have to be mindful of that going in – you can’t just sit
back and watch the donations come – every one has to be earned. I
think the other thing we learned is that people really invest in the
story of you, the team, so you have to put a lot of energy into
creating that story and making it feel personal, intimate, and not
try and pretend to be something you are not.
DMR: Discuss
upcoming projects post 'Narcopolis'.
JT: I
am currently casting a movie called Solomon’s Children which is a
thriller, set in the present day. It’s a little smaller in scale in
some ways to 'Narcopolis', but the characters are incredibly rich and
complex. It’s a hugely exciting, atmospheric movie which has a
similar tone to Denis Villeneuve’s 'Prisoners' – dark and
brooding and full of really big twists and turns. But the thing
that’s most exciting is all the major character are female. So
we’ve started to send the script out to some amazing people…
Above Picture: Issue #1 of the four issue mini series comic on Heavy Metal Press.
DMR: That
sounds thrilling, cannot wait to have some exclusive Dan's Movie
Report coverage of 'Solomon's Children'. Back to the 'Narcopolis'
realm. Discuss the 4 issue comic series tie in.
JT: Scott
Duvall who’s a brilliant comic writer approached me with a
suggestion of making a spin-off comic series. His take, which was
brilliant, was instead of just adapting the movie, which would be
boring, his idea was to re-tell the story from the POV of Ben, the
lead character’s son. So the comic picks up from the day Frank
disappears and runs with it. It’s incredible – there are moments
where he weaves the narrative into the film’s narrative and it’s
really, really clever. I am absolutely delighted with how it’s come
about. And Heavy Metal jumped onboard which is also very cool as they
are exactly the right people to publish something like this.
DMR: Final
thoughts, on the film business, and goals for the future.
JT: I
don’t have any wise words to share I’m afraid. The business is
changing all the time, and what Narcopolis showed me is that now more
than ever you have to shape your story and your process around who
you want to see the film. The more control we had, the more we could
go out and out the film in front of the right people, and get the
results we needed. The flip side of that is once you start working
with other partners, especially distributors, is you have to retain
that investment. What I’m saying is no one cares about your film as
much as you do, so you have to stay on it and make a nuisance of
yourself because if you don’t, decisions get made that will
inevitably be generalized ones that don’t always suit your product,
and then you’re wasting time trying to correct these mistakes and
play catch up. As for goals… I have a bunch of really exciting
projects in development. I’m working with a couple of awesome
producers and we’re looking to continue to attempt these ambitious,
character-driven genre stories. For me the goal has always been the
same, namely to tell complex and challenging stories through the
medium of genre. First and foremost movies are entertainment, but if
you can get people engaged with ideas and emotions that they didn’t
see coming, that’s really, really exciting. And I'm really excited
to be working with some US-based companies too, which takes me a step
closer to my ultimate goal, to live and work in Los Angeles.
Thank
you so much Justin, for an interview as earth shattering and mind
bending as 'Narcopolis'. Deflecting the past, and rushing headlong
into the future is Dan's Movie Report! If any of my audience has yet
to see 'Narcopolis', Netflix has it now! It is on DVD and Blu-ray in
the U.S., U.K., Japan, and the comic is available through Heavy Metal
Press, and on Amazon!
