Episode 1 - Mark Griffin Lawrence After Arabia Director Renderyard Interviews

Today we speak with Mark Griffin the director of Lawrence After Arabia as part of the Renderyard Interviews. To find out how he produced and created his movie.
Was a motorcycle crash an accident or attempt at assassination by the British Secret Service? Lawrence: After Arabia tells the story of the last years of the life of the 20th century hero, T.E. Lawrence. Starring: Brian Cox, Hugh Fraser, Michael Maloney, Nicole Ansari Cox, Tom Barber Duffy

Interview Transcription

Speaker 2: [00:00:05]

Welcome to Renderyard interviews. We talk with filmmakers and creative's from the indie film industry. Joining me. Today, is the filmmaker Market Griffin. The director of the war drama. Lawrence after Arabia. We will be talking with Mark about how he produced and created his movie and finding out about his journey through the Indie filmmaking process, including producing directing. And film release today. We are with the director, Mark Griffin of Lawrence, after Arabia. How are you, Mark?

Speaker 1: [00:00:37]

I'm doing great. It's great to be here, Mark,

Speaker 2: [00:00:42]

Thank you. And I want you to catch up with you and basically introduce you to the rendered subscribers and go over your film, your film history. Your influences, things that have led. Towards development of your latest feature, film Lawrence after area and the film began as a radio play and then turned into a script. Was there a time in between that period of writing it and turning writing the radio play and then turning it into a script. Was there anything that actually, you know led to that decision to turn it into a movie and Lead it away from Radio.

Speaker 1: [00:01:30]

Yeah, I mean it I'd originally I'd never written for radio. I'd written some plays before but I fancied doing, I thought I'd written two pieces. Actually. Well, one was about the last the death of Shakespeare, you know, I lived in Warwickshire. So one radio play was about his last days and I also for years, you know, it. This goes back to when I was a child. I've been absolutely obsessed with Lawrence, T, Lawrence Lawrence of Arabia. So I I wrote it as a radio player that, as I as I sort of kept sort of revising it. I realized that it, that it had a very filmic quality. If you, like, and I have quite a cinematic view when I, when I right. You know, I've written some novels and we can talk about that a little later. But when I write, I tend to see what I'm writing as a, as a, as a scene, from a player from Gil. And as I, when I was writing the radio person who realize this, this had a lot more potential to be a film. So I think II very, very quickly kind of went. No that's put More effort into this. And I think it's it grew and grew into a screenplay. And I started putting pieces together of what I wanted to show. And, I mean, the key story about Lawrence after Arabia is really how long it's, as a character was a was an agitator, and if you was murdered, why would you want to murder him? So yeah, that That that's how it grew into a screenplay.

Speaker 2: [00:03:35]

You've had a real kind of connection with loans as a character as a person. Yeah, since childhood since visiting his Summit a half and it's this something that has always just stuck with you and you felt that you needed to All or have other things into woven themselves, you know, I'm just guessing, you know, watching movies at the cinema when you were growing up as a child and then coming to the realization maybe in later life. Hey, why don't I try to explore this and and the why did he die? And you know, what? What can I, you know, add to this story to bring it to everybody's Consciousness into yes.

Speaker 1: [00:04:30]

Well, I guy. Yeah, she said I stole story started when I was about 10 years old and I went into the church. He's got this Effigy, which is like a medieval statue. If you like in the wall in Wareham and this poor thing was it's life-size and it's it's what you would see on top of them. How are you and imagined? A medieval effigy on top of a tomb in a church. And so it was carved by his friend Eric Kennington. A lot of lot of drawings of him. And after his death. This thing was supposed to go to Westminster Abbey, and some Paul's, and it Salsbury, Cathedral Winchester, and eventually ended up in this little church. If Market Town very close to where he live. Okay, absolutely. Perfect. Because it's an old Saxon church and Lawrence would have loved it. But he's very much a case of the church not really wanting to have this. In. Anyway, I went in, there was a bit of

Speaker 2: [00:05:47]

an appreciation at the time ago,

Speaker 1: [00:05:50]

correct? But like, I went in there when I was about age 10, and I started talking to the guy who was polishing it, you know, the curator accurate of the church, whatever. And II talked much about his life. And that was the thing that kicked me off. He and he said this very enigmatic phrase. I always remember which was not all accidents, are accidental and he obviously believed that Lawrence was assassinated and it's a very polarizing subject

Speaker 2: [00:06:23]

in that kind of understanding flashing your mind as a ten-year-old or you

Speaker 1: [00:06:28]

dislike well, Fire at the time. It was I you know, I kind of got I'd heard about Lawrence, but I didn't know anything about him. Look my grandparents are very supportive and they took me to his grave and took me to do where he did to clouds Hill and all the Lawrence Sign. When I started reading avidly and because the way I am, Starting to become a bit of a Lawrence. Experts only and I picked up books and I'm, you know, by the time I was in my 20s, I mean, had about 20 books on Lawrence, which I'd read cover to cover over and over again, as you know, I started started writing and I'd started to think I need to look more about his death because his death is an interesting story. No, you know, his biographer didn't want to look at it in. Jeremy Wilson who wrote his bogey. In in that book, simply says, and he died. He died in a motorcycle crash. That's it. You know, they didn't go anywhere. I said, I need to, I need to look at this a lot more. So, as I said get started, I wrote a radio playing eventually. Yeah. And into a screenplay. And I think it took about 10 years to get to the point where I went. Okay. This is ready to be filmed and that Time, of course, all the ideas of who was going to direct it, who would buy in it. Originally. It was send the screenplay off to production companies and get a production in you to pick it up. That was that was where I was going.

Speaker 2: [00:08:12]

So who did you envision as the Director before yourself? If

Speaker 1: [00:08:17]

any home? I actually one of my favourite director actors. I'm very keen on actor, directors and Kenneth Branagh. Yeah, Kenneth Branagh with the guy that I went, he would like This and I managed to, I managed to get the script to him and he wrote a nice little letter basically. Well, a little note back and basically said well, thank you very much interesting story. But, you know, production diary is full. I think at the time he was just about to kick off, Direct Thor or something

Speaker 2: [00:08:51]

and then he's that kind of time frame. Okay, that's correct. Correct, though.

Speaker 1: [00:08:57]

I do know, I am. Remember when this was you must have been mad 2011-2012. I printed the screenplay as a little A5 book that I found. Very easy to hand out to people. So I send it off to crikey 60 production companies, you know the usual suspects. Universal, Sunny Paramount, ambling. You know, anybody I could I could think of Teague has Kevin Costner. Well, I know I sent it to think. I sent it to George Miller. I mean, it was them all told it was a sent it to an awful lot of people and it was funny. The reaction I I can split the reaction to three times. One was no response whatsoever. Yeah. To was a the reaction from what I call the mainstream, you know, the Paramount's, the So which was don't ever send us an unsolicited script ever again. Okay, I'm cool. I'm cool. And then finally, what I call the British production companies that the small people like well Renee songs can expand our spam Stephen Fry. I got little notes back, which was well, thank you very much looks interesting. You know, how you got a reply? Yeah, very Positive, but nothing, you know, the answer was very much. It looks interesting but not sure what it's for us or not. Sure. We, we can fit it into our production schedule. So I think I waited, I think it was about 18 months to two years after I sent those out to basically so, right? I'm not going to get any more reactions back here. Okay. How do we proceed? So this one Studio at 2014? 2013. Something like

Speaker 2: [00:11:01]

that. Yeah. I know that the time frame, that you've held on just creating this and bringing it to film has been a very long process. What was your experience of, you know, what was your experience of moving towards? Raising production, the funds to produce the film and get it off the ground. How did he go about that? Did you have any current experience? So was it a kind of I'll buy fire. You just you know, start researching and move forward. How did that work for you?

Speaker 1: [00:11:37]

Well, I I done theatre work before so I sort of thought how would this work as a theatre piece and started to apply? Some of my I mean my background is project management. So a lot of what I do is thinking about resources and costs and all of those things. And so, I started to think, you know, how much wood. Well, I mean to be quite honest, the first decision and I think it was around 2013-14 was okay. I'm not going to get more, any more positive answers on this. Nobody wants to make it. But I, I've put so much energy into this. I think it's important. It's made this story needs to be told and that was often the reaction. I would get from, you know, the people that I I shared it with, you know, friends and Dorset people. So that's what I decided to. Do. You know, I said, we'll make it now at the time. I had no idea whether I would direct it myself, but I said, no, I know, you know, let's let's put together a plan to make the film and I, you know, you you chop it up and you say, right? Well, there's this scene to shoot. We need this location and these, these actors. And I To essentially create this huge plan of how much the movie would cost. And I think the original budget I had was about 100,000 pounds. I said, that's how much I'm prepared to spend on it. If I can raise those funds. Now I again that that I mean, the first, the first idea was try, you know, the kickstarter Roots sponsorship that sort of Stuff. And I raised tiny amounts of money. I mean, I'm a unknown and unknown director, a known actor, you know, under own film maker.

Speaker 2: [00:13:41]

Well, though, that's incredibly common on Kickstarter. It's ninety percent of the people out there. It's a passion project, most of the time.

Speaker 1: [00:13:51]

Yes, how did you follow? You know, I raised. Well, it was them. I think on Kickstarter had we're, I think I set a target of 10 grand and the 10 grand was just you pre-production. Maybe have a little bit more left over. Well, the, it raised, I think just over 5,000 and some people sent me the money. Anyway, of know, we didn't reach our Target. And by that time I'd already begun pre-production, which was, I think, 2017-18 and I got to the point where I had a plan. I'd started to get the cast together. I'd started to get a crew and the budget was starting to solidify and this number of 100,000, with dongle and little bit, but, you know, within the bounds, it wasn't, it wasn't, you know, it. I'm very much pragmatic. And the way I've often been is, you know, if you're doing a certain project, you know, whether it's building a house or doing an IT project or whatever, your often, a situation where you have to do. If somebody had said, you know, you've got, you know, a budget of a million. I mean, maybe there's a whole different, you know, I love about apps employ the director and but a lot of the time it was okay. I can't afford to. Have a costume designer or I can't afford to, to have an assistant director. So I'm going to have to do a lot of this myself. So you see some of the credits in the film, you know, we my wife and I made props. I designed this Nets, you know, I created the original music for the soundtrack which Clifford used as a as a template and we used we had to use at the time for the trailers. So a lot of it was, you know, having to do it myself because of necessity. There was no, there's no money to pay anybody else. So that's where we got it.

Speaker 2: [00:16:01]

So just to kind of summarize that without you giving an actual Financial amount. What percentage if any of the overall production would you say was from your own pocket?

Speaker 1: [00:16:15]

95% 95%. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. There was I could have gone, you know, I got a consulting company and essentially what I did was for two or three years, the money, though. There was a, there was money from that from the work that I did that. I basically said, okay, you know, we paid off our mortgage anyway, and you know, You with that sort of time of life that we said. Okay. Well, I'm going to start putting savings away. So I'd already got this idea in my mind of about 100,000. So that's what I did. I put, I think over over two or three years I put away about 80, 90 thousand pounds to pay for the project. And that's where we were

Speaker 2: [00:17:06]

there. Yeah. It seems to be the case that Many other directors that run the other works with 90% are self-funded until they move into their second or third film, then they're able to raise Equity capital from private investors. Because, without having something to show, it's very hard to get people to back you financially and

Speaker 1: [00:17:33]

unfortunately, absolutely.

Speaker 2: [00:17:35]

Absolutely. I mean, you've written books and you I wrote a book. I think the first book you wrote was about the musician. Vangelis.

Speaker 1: [00:17:46]

Yeah. Now that yeah, that goes to that goes back a fair way back to the 90s. Yeah. I wrote a biography called Vangelis. The unknown man. It's I think it's still the only biography there is and you know, it it kind of what do they say cells steadily. It's ready. I think for a fourth edition. I think it refers to Dish. Ian was self-published. The second was Lulu. So, Lulu. You can do went bye-bye, you know, you can print 51, however, many, so, you know, just keep them, but on the back of that, I started writing novels. And so I think I've written five novels now. And again, one of the things Noted when I was writing the novel's was the chapters tented tended, to be constructed in my head very film it clearly. It was almost as if I was watching a scene from a movie and then writing it down. So, you know, there's a couple of the books that might One Day end up as a movie. So we'll see

Speaker 2: [00:19:02]

there is that? Yeah. Now that you understand the craft as it were. Yes, actually I don't your feet wet. You never know. You may. A step back to some of that material and bring it forward as your next project. So you've also actually written an album music why it's you got quite a bit of experience and how have you found that your music has influenced the film? You seem a very visual base person. Yeah, acoustically has that also had an influence. It's

Speaker 1: [00:19:42]

yeah, I am back in about 2011. I had been playing experimenting with synthesizers and various musical instruments. I mean, I kinda wouldn't describe myself by any means as a musician, but I created I'm called eclectic, which is kind of a mixed of Vangelis and tangerine dream and you know, bits of Alan Parsons and very Eclectic. And when I was making the movie, one of the first pieces, I wrote put together was the original opening closing tire at all's. And I wanted this piece of very, very mysterious music. Now, I'd convinced myself very early on that. It wasn't, it wasn't quite right. It wasn't good enough, but interestingly. Did get used in the movie as part of the inquest seen because I'd, I'd, I felt that it needed quite a very, very professional touch. So, I handed over the soundtrack to a guy called Clifford. Why? Dude, who it's done some. Fantastic electronic symphonic music and Clifford's done a fantastic job. But before Clifford came on board, I we need Added music for the trailers. So they were two or three trailers came out, where I wrote the music. And then when Clifford came on board, I handed over the musing said, well, this is what I can thought we could use and sometimes Clifford. Well, yeah, well, will I can do something without all threw it away completely. So and it's so eclectic. Still carries on them. Gives me a few pennies every month from streaming but

Speaker 2: [00:21:41]

Another one's got to fry has a lot to live up

Speaker 1: [00:21:44]

to. Yes. Yes, correct. So yeah, that's where the soundtrack started.

Speaker 2: [00:21:49]

That's brilliant. So I mean over say a 20 year, time frame, you've written a number of books, you've composed and released an album. Would you say that finally just end the kind of production side of the question. Do you feel that the royalties from those creative Endeavors? Have Help to finance this film or were they just very subjective and

Speaker 1: [00:22:16]

very, very few gave you. And no, I wouldn't say what they have done is they've given me the confidence to first of all, hone the craft of writing. I think of all the pieces of the, the movie, the screenplay is very strong and it's one, you know, I think it's three. Or towards apt as the independent film festivals. So it's hone my writing and it was the, you know, it's all down to for me a good film is based on a fantastic screenplay and I feel the screenplays very strong

Speaker 2: [00:22:54]

Florence. Excellent. The film has gained a large amount of awards from the festival circuit. Yeah, how have you found the kind of Response and the way the audience of have interacted and you know, discuss this film amongst themselves during the festival circuit internationally. Yeah,

Speaker 1: [00:23:27]

I think I think first, first of all, the there are certain festivals that really locked onto the to this movie, you know, they there was, there was obviously a comparison in Cases. There was a comparison being made between the David lean Lawrence of Arabia and this on this movie. I mean, it's funny the reviews that we get. We're currently what 7.1 7.2 on. I am B DB and there's a hits a mama. It's almost a Marmite movie, you either love it or you hate it. And if you hate it, you know, it really gets. It gets, you know, gets a bit of appalling but, you know, You look at IMDb. There are you know, half a dozen really bad, you know, very good at some point personal

Speaker 2: [00:24:19]

attacks.

Speaker 1: [00:24:22]

Yeah, and you kind of think, no, I think you, you know, you need to have a little bit more experience and making your own movies be before you start making those sort of criticisms, but on the other hand the you know, there are The 30, you know, absolutely incredible reviews. We I mean we let me and we had a fantastic review from the

Speaker 2: [00:24:48]

paper. She yeah. What you've achieved with the film and and self-production and the release of the film and its success internationally just you know, currently on Festival screenings has been absolutely outstanding. I know that you've had a great response with UK. A cinema screenings. Since the lockdown has been lifted. Can you tell us a little bit about why you've chosen to screen in cinemas instead of just jumping straight to digital? Yeah. Why did you decide to wait? And yeah, keep the film off the internet as it were.

Speaker 1: [00:25:31]

Yeah, good question. Well, the film the film was he was ready for release. I think it was the very good. Very beginning of 2020 and we'd plan a premiere on the 19th of May 20, 20, and, of course, we all got covid and we got pushed back, push back and the Comfort there was conversations between. I would say the main cast and the crew to say, so what do we think? Do we just hang on, do we wait for the, for the theatrical release? And that was that was, you know, the decision. Anonymous. Let's wage and give it a proper send-off because everybody had worked so hard on it. So we push the premier back originally to October, 20, 20, and then eventually I think we pushed it to March 20, 21, and eventually, of course we got the October 9th, Premier Lighthouse pool, which is fantastic amazing. Yeah event Premier. So yes, some hundred seven hundred seats sold out brilliant. It was and it was a great send-off for the film because the The thing about it is that the film is the story is very personal. If you like to do or sit the that County. Everybody feels that Lawrence is the son of Dorset. I mean, he's actually sort of born in Wales from an Irish family. So he's got quite a colourful background but he's some it's very personal to Dorset. So many of the screenings, I did twice, I think was 28 or 29 screenings. All of which eight of them were outside. Yeah. Outside Dorset. Okay. Now all the ones I did, endorse it pretty much was sold out, you know, so there's a theatre called the Christchurch reagent which seats 450 Sold out. So it was amazing.

Speaker 2: [00:27:40]

I just wanted to ask a question that I'm sure a lot of filmmakers would have regarding showing their films in independent Cinemas. Can you give any advice how to approach either, an independent or a recognized Cinema chain? How do you get them to actually scream your film? And do they just say? Oh, you've got one evening or do they offer you our number? Dates, how does it

Speaker 1: [00:28:08]

work? Yeah. Well, I mean, the first of all, first of all, the key thing was publicity, making sure everybody knew. So we did a lot of work, getting the word out in terms of, in terms of getting it to the chains. That was nine impossible, absolutely impossible because the chains most of the chains around by distribution and Pub production companies and they're showing their own movies. So, I learned a lot of this, the cinemas, if I'd have gone to the independence and said, will you show my movie on a split basis? The usually the split is 6046 to the cinema 42 distributor to. Well this series of the filmmaker the they would have gone. Hmm. Not sure about this. Hmm. No, we're not. Yes, and you could, but you can hide the screen. So I did it in plenty of time. And most of the time I was hiring. I was hiring venues at about 400 pounds a night £400, a screening and saying, right? I need to sell tickets to 10 pounds and I need to, you know, fill it. But

Speaker 2: [00:29:34]

moms on seats is my name. So again correctly. Yeah, entrepreneur area, love you. And it seems that you've got this kind of vision of self, you know, finding the audience, getting the foot traffic you've had radio interviews on the BBC in England. I think you've had some television interviews as well. So you've really nothing working as hard as you can which is fantastic. And another reason why I wanted to be a.

Speaker 1: [00:30:08]

Yeah, I mean my long-term view of the movie is I'm going to have to keep working at the same intensity to sell this movie probably for at least the next 12 months. I've got to make sure it's on all the streaming platforms. We can get it on. I need to do, I'm doing another. So we did a screening tour of what twenty-nine twenty-eight, twenty-nine dates back in October. I'm doing another one at the end of January, 8 dates. In Dorset, most of those funnily enough. Our venue that. Well, there are three or four venues where they've actually invited us or invited us back. And I'm going to do another one in May which would be is usually anniversary of Lawrence's death from the 19th of May. And we're going to do a big data at the tank Museum, which is kind of where he was. He was stationed for a while. So I've got I've got to keep bringing in the revenue. Now at the moment with the hmrc BFI funding, the twenty percent funding that you go on production costs. Plus the revenue. I think we've brought in roughly 45 to 50% with merchandise. That was we do a little bit of merchandise as well. We've paid around about 50% the movie cost.

Speaker 2: [00:31:39]

That's awesome 100,000 production and well 120

Speaker 1: [00:31:46]

the fact the final production cost was 122 lat. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, we've done about 50 percent streaming will give us a bit more DVD release will give us a bit more. Another tour will give us a bit more. So I'm hoping that Talent of the year will have paid for the movie which would be grand and then

Speaker 2: [00:32:05]

amazing. Less than a 12 month time frame. You've really, you know, bitten very deep into pain yourself like which is brilliant.

Speaker 1: [00:32:16]

Well, yeah, I think I want to, I want to, you know, pick up on your point. I get the same thing from a lot of filmmakers. They think that you just give it to the distributor, your once you've got distribution distribution of some type, or we should give it to the middle, right? I'm on to my next project, but no, no, I Oh, I think you've got it. You have to have to own it. Be passionate about it and keep pushing it and go makers. I know who do that and they do an awesome. Awesome job of doing that. So yeah. Yeah, we'll work on that. On your project.

Speaker 2: [00:33:00]

Yeah. Work harder on your project. Exactly. Obviously as a filmmaker, you've been influenced by other. Filmmakers other films are there any people director wise that have had an influence on you? And the way you decided to style your movie?

Speaker 1: [00:33:18]

Well, the guy that, I mean, the one of the key players in the production of this movie is about a bad guy called Simon Lawrence. He's absolutely no relation. But Simon I met or about? I think it was 2016 and we he was he he was a photographer but also worked on some TV programs, things like Top Gear and some some of those type factual programs and he was very keen on the story and we hit it off. We really, you know, got on well and at the time I still wasn't, I was kind of, you know, how we're going to make this movie and he was, it actually said, well, why don't you direct it? And I went, what me. I don't see it to play Direction, but I've never done film Direction. So this is going to be and well as we got to talking, he said well, you know, you know, the story, you know, how it works. You know what, you want to see and essentially what I'm going to do is be your technical eyes. And so well, well if we shoot it like that, it's going to look terrible. But if we shoot it like this, it's going to Look really good. So, you know, he was that he was my, you know, he was my mentor for a good while all the way through the film pointing me in the right direction in more ways than one. So, someone someone was fantastic. And I mean, the members of the crew the same of tiny tiny crew, but they were all people that were, you know, would pick up a boom mic or, you know, go mate. Or do you know, everybody looked in to this tiny? Crew?

Speaker 2: [00:35:12]

How did how did you attract your

Speaker 1: [00:35:16]

crew?

Speaker 2: [00:35:17]

Was it was, it was,

Speaker 1: [00:35:19]

it was a bit like The Magnificent. Seven. I think, you know, magnificent five Simon came on board. His son jack had done some done quite a bit of work. He for example, designed the posters a very sort of eclectic. I He helped with Sound and Lighting setup. I'd done some lighting as well and sound Workhorse, that help the hair and makeup. But there was a story in the paper about the film that we were about to make it. And I got a call out of the blue from Kirsten Sarah, who was a hair-and-makeup worked on Broadchurch, and she said, look on the bill. Um, she came on board. Jenny Vale, who did the Wardrobe was local. And I called her out of the blue. I was sort of a friend of a friend of a friend said that, have you talked to Jenny about this. So, I called Jenny and she said, oh, yeah, I'd love to work on this. So the crew came together quite nicely. Yeah, and

Speaker 2: [00:36:25]

what to see, you've got the glue and you're going to attract everybody around that.

Speaker 1: [00:36:29]

Yeah. There were a few. There were a few people that wanted to come on board, but I was a little concerned that they weren't they were doing it more out of being on a film Project than interested in the store. You know, when I I did originally search for a director way back when to work with Simon. I was going to just act as a producer if you like, but that the only directors I could find who wanted to work with it were, you know, they're fit, previous experience with slasher flicks and zombie. So yeah, I think you know taking on was a big was a risk, but I think you know it was the right decision. It was a good

Speaker 2: [00:37:17]

decision could have had a completely different look good. Yes director. So you you've got your crew and now you've got to get your actors. How did you go about attracting the actors to do to send everybody a script

Speaker 1: [00:37:35]

as you can site called Mandy? This and it was there was kind of I called it. I called it my, my football league and I had a premier league and I'd already realize that there were various parts in the movie that were what I would call Cameo. Oops. Sorry about there. Were, there were various parts of the move movie were Cameo. That would just one day's filming and I decided I wanted certain actors. And I think any filmmaker I will tell you that they'll come up with their Dreamcast, you know, our Mantra flow to do this. And now, of course, I was exactly the same and I got certain actors in my in that pool of Dreamcast. That I said. Yeah, he'd worked very well. I mean, he froze her and Michael Moloney were both in that pool and I thought and Essentially, what you do is you contact their agent, you know, point, you know, a lot of people will try and find out what their personal email is or, you know, connect, so, yeah, you, you essentially contact their agent. The first question. The agent will ask is, is this fully funded? That's mostly agents. Yeah. Well, I mostly agents will also say Because you are because you are a known, quite right? And we've only got your word that is fully funded. We want our actor to be paid up front. So before they step before they step onto the onto the, the location, you know, you've got to pay the actor and, you know, usually a proportionately expenses. Luckily, I'd only go Well, I only really got four or five actors who I, you know, I'd who were what, I call Premier League, who, you know, and I trusted, you know, once you've got the agents involved, the agents are very, very supportive and Hugh. Fraser, Michael Maloney, Nicole and Nicole. And sorry Cox. Nicole was very excited because she'd never made a movie in England before. So she was she was fully on board and we were we were all shoot was all complete by June. That's 19. So all done. It just sits there. So yeah, usually having to pay actors at fun. Yeah, then I had the other thing I did was I wanted actors who were local to Dorset and there's two reasons for that one. Only you don't have to pay accommodation for them because Live locally to. I wanted that sort of accent to run through the film if you like and really. There was there's a huge pool of brilliant actors. If you've seen movies like Rachel or ammonite, there's a lot of Dorset act that in that, that film and it. So I managed to find a Dorset talent agent. He basically helped me to get most of the key actors in the movie. Then I also contacted equity and they helped. So in the end the whole team came together quite well,

Speaker 2: [00:41:20]

that's brilliant. And on, on a sort of average, daily kind of time frame. How many days shooting was it from, you know, beginning to end of movie, or did you come back to it?

Speaker 1: [00:41:35]

Was, it was leading me? Yeah. What's your 20 days shoes? No, no 20 days. Shoot, but we did it differently. Yeah, we chopped it up. But because Simon and I were both, you know, just clocking on 60. We kind of, you know, there's no way we're gonna survive a six-week season will be, will need. It will need a, you know, Cardiac Arrest unit on site. So we what we did was What we did was we chopped it up into four weeks. So we did a in October. We did a studio shoot in March. We did a another week in man as week in June and when we did them in human shoots, we said right one of those weekends or one of the weekends was going to be what I call a big shoot. So I think it was May was the inquest so you're talking 60 extras and then we did the funeral shoot another 60 70 extras with you know, 15 key characters as well. So that was a big weekend and that's how we chopped it up. And yeah managed to manage to film it. I think, I think we've we actually did 18. We did an ADR on the cup on a couple of scenes, but most of what you hear is the original sound that we Corded at the time on the, on the, on the scene. And we had a rule of three 2p. Well, we use the Clint Eastwood, three take rules. So three, take

Speaker 2: [00:43:17]

some kind of spontaneity with the actors where they could just live a little

Speaker 1: [00:43:23]

bit. Yeah. There's a guy, there was a couple of a couple of actors which Tom Bombadil fee for example, and Steve Took and sorry, Steve Rollins who plays Tyrell the bad? Guy, they have a very relaxed acting style and often. They're not following my script letter and I can you know, there were occasions when I went on now. I'm sorry. You've got to you.

Speaker 2: [00:43:54]

Yeah, it's to the

Speaker 1: [00:43:56]

letter. But most of the time, most of the time it was it was it was pretty good. My direction is like lightweight anyway, So but I mean, in terms of, in terms of there's a couple of lines in the movie that's in our Maj to, to the original movie, The David lean version. So the it was like lemonade, we use that one. But yeah, there's a couple of couple of lines that are no Marge to David lean. And I mean, I love David lean's work, Mike. I mean, my favourite directors Ridley, Scott, so he's just saw something. Absolutely.

Speaker 2: [00:44:34]

How did you get Brian Cox?

Speaker 1: [00:44:36]

All right. Well Brian II. When we had the first of all Brian is married to Nicole. Now. It's a kind of one of these synchronicity things. I knew Nicole and sorry as an actress. I mean, you off her, I lived in Germany for years and she was in a TV series over there, caught a tort and she was from nothing and really intense and funny enough when I started. To cast, Sarah Lawrence. I wanted that sort of intensity. So I it she was the top of my list and I approached her and she was so surprised, you know, bit my arm off because she really wants to make a move in England. So I said, right. Okay. Well, you know, and, you know, it's part of the October shoot, October 2018. So one of the first scenes we shot was with Nicole. Now we filmed in our old house. House not far from what on the on the Isle of purbeck and she arrived the night before and she arrived very early. So we basically put her in a taxi and she got shown Dorsett. So we kind of really looked after her and no gave the David dinner looked after and then she had a great day. She really enjoyed it and kind of left it. She could have left by lunchtime because we'd finished shooting but they Right. To the end of the day. We put her in a taxi, got a back to the. So I took it back to the station in my car. And I asked at the time, you know, is do you think you're Brian your husband suddenly realized? After I take them Nicole on as the actress for Sarah that is of course. She was married to Brian Cox. So one of my favourite actors, I saw him years ago in Hamlet playing Hamlet's Hammer. Let's go. Ghost and said yeah, well would Brian do this and she kind of went well, he's very busy, but I'll ask I'll ask him but you know, you'll need to go through the agent. Anyway, I went through

Speaker 2: [00:46:51]

Jade, you

Speaker 1: [00:46:53]

should channels and she said well, hmm voiceover. Yeah, shouldn't be a problem, but it's going to be short notice. And I think about three weeks later. I got a call from The agent said, look, if you can be in London on Tuesday, the nth of November in Primrose Hill with a studio. He's got two hours. Wow, and that was

Speaker 2: [00:47:18]

it.

Speaker 1: [00:47:20]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, finding a seat. The first thing I went was Studio Primrose Hill. All right. So yeah. Luckily, there is a studio in Primrose Hill. We hide it for a few hours and Brian came down, lovely guy. Why? There's a couple of photos. We took it. We did it. He's a lovely accent to work with.

Speaker 2: [00:47:42]

How do you feel about the digital distribution landscape with all the, the current changes that are occurring?

Speaker 1: [00:47:51]

I think, I think it's fair to say that like, technology is very, very difficult to keep up with. What's been going on. You know, when I started the movie, you know, three years ago. I kind of had a clear idea. Dear of where I wanted it to go in terms of the what I call the digital distribution, but all of that changed very quickly and certainly affected by covid, you know, the payback from people like Netflix and, you know, some companies have, you know, with music distribution is the same, the payback is peanuts. So, the first thing, the first thing I kind of realized was that the physical distribution Lucian was going to be very important in terms of the payback of the movie. So I wanted a company who understood digital and that's what I got when you know, when we spoke the fact that you could you had lots of ways to go and that you knew the different markets and you could say well I'll cry. If I want to get this. This, the film to this Market. This is how I need to press their buttons and Frankel. Yeah, that that That's why that's why we you know, that's why we came to you because we thought you knew those markets and you know, obviously now we're on reasoning has been proved. So

Speaker 2: [00:49:17]

it was great to know the film's just gone live on Amazon. Kafir England, and.com for America. It's available in Germany,

Speaker 1: [00:49:28]

Germany, France. Yeah. Yeah. Well we did that's another action that since the point that was one of the conversations we had, which was the subtitles, you know, I mean, having lived in France and Germany, France, won't watch a movie in English. They'll want to see the subtitle, or in Germany. It will be dubbed. So, you know, we've prepared the, the, the, the M any file, so that you could do bit if you wanted to. So, yeah, we've got Dutch German, French Spanish, and English

Speaker 2: [00:50:02]

subtitles. So

Speaker 1: [00:50:05]

that's very important. To do. I think well, yeah, it was it was a dodgy moment that, you know, the fact is that we back in what February 20 2008, I was looking straight at the screening tour, those two those, twenty-eight twenty-nine days, ready for May, 20 2008, and of course you all got pushed back. So we changed it three times and at the time I thought, oh my God, you know, my actually going to sell tickets, you know, people going to going to Watch it. So that's why I was very keen not to release on digital until we done the cinema tour. And yeah, I kind of, I found it quite interesting because there was a universal. It's a bit of a backlash against Universal. When they started to release movies like trolls. I think it was,

Speaker 2: [00:50:59]

that was the first move trolls. Who was the first one that came out, but it was a really Rocky time. I just kind of I watched it like a slow motion car

Speaker 1: [00:51:08]

accident. Yeah, he's interesting. I mean, my, the Lawrence film in terms of a product, if you like. It's a, it's a movie that is very attractive to people who, like, period, movies, period movies tend to be liked by, by people who are over 40 that like the sort of the, the Jane Austen Charles, Dickens, that's of look of movie. And, and that's what Lawrence after a beer is. So, so I think the feedback that I've been getting, which is why the theater cinema tours were now being so popular, is that the people of that age still want to go to the movies, still want to see it in a cinema? And yes that you know, the I've done a lot of work to get the link out for Amazon and so people can watch it through streaming, but I'm still getting people saying oh, well, you know, we'd rather see The cinema, you know, it coming to Yorkshire it sometime Leo. Well, you know, yeah, if you go to easier and better Lawrence after over, www, Lawrence after Arabia .co.uk events. Well, it's nice to event or click on events and you get the, the ticket links down there. So,

Speaker 2: [00:52:27]

yeah, and I just like to thank you, Mark. It's been really fascinating play again. I wish you every success with the movie and You know, hopefully we'll be able to work together in the future on whatever you choose to do next.

Speaker 1: [00:52:42]

No worries. Thank you very much. Mark pleasure. Thanks for listening.