The Sound of Us Q+A
When is the release date for The Sound of Us?
Due to film festivals soon approaching, I am hoping to release the film to the public in February/March. However, I shall be premiering the film to close friends and family initially. I shall showcase the film to the public on YouTube, but please keep an eye out on our social media pages for updates on the film's official release date!
What where your inspirations for the film?
Interestingly, one of the main inspirations for this film came from a book I read that I initially disliked. The Road by Mathew McCormac was this book, and I believe that although I didn’t like it there were elements I felt interested me in making a short film. It is a story where everything about the context is mysterious. You are given characters you know very little about in a world you know very little about. The world has ended but you don’t know why, and you are left with more questions than answers. I guess that’s something I felt works well for the structure of a short film. Not going into too much narrative and allowing the audience to conjure something up in their heads. The Sound of Us plays on the same idea of mystery. We know there is something apocalyptic about the setting, but we know nothing about how it gets that way. You are given little hints to elements of life after this great tragedy has happened but nothing is complete. I wanted my story to compel people to think beyond the film and question things. This is something that inspired me from The Road, and believe this device truly made for an interesting and engaging story.
At the time of drafting scripts I was also in the process of learning guitar and just fell in love with the idea of playing it. Music has always been a huge part of my life, and I felt like I wanted to incorporate the idea of music as memory into the story. This for me was a huge influence into the characterisation of Parker and Sal, making it something that is sentimental and beautiful. The Sound of Us is not also just about legitimate music, but also how it metaphorically encumbers the music we make through our stories in life.
How did you work with your actors?
As this was my very first film where I had to work with dialogue scenes, it was important to me to allow my actors to feel comfortable in their roles. During pre-production I spent a lot of time with my actors trying to map out everything about their characters, including their characteristics and gaining an insight into their thoughts about everything going on beyond the script.
Emma, Helena and Katie are all theatre trained actors and for the most part this is their first time acting in front of a camera for a film. So, initially trying to ensure that they felt comfortable with film acting was something I wanted to focus on immediately. I would provide them tasks in rehearsal like playing a game of noughts and crosses whilst going over their lines to improve their pacing during scenes. This worked effectively, and each of them have been amazing to work with and taken everything in their stride.
During shooting I would allow them much control to get in-touch with their characters and would ask questions to try and seek out their own interpretations of their characters. For me, this allowed them to release their characters more naturalistically and would allow me to direct them in a way that would allow the characters to come to the forefront. This was made easy working with these amazing actors who were so keen and enthusiastic about this story, and the characters.
Where did you film?
We are so lucky to be living in the wonderful countryside and coastal area of Kent, and it was important for me to utilise both of these elements effectively in this film. I am also very lucky to have family members who own a private woodlands which we actually used for a lot of the film - including parts of their amazing garden.
Other woodland scenes we filmed were shot at a local woodlands in Hucking, Maidstone. This is a fantastic location for long walks and some fantastic sights of the downs upon Maidstone. My first short film Night Fall was also filmed here.
We also used coastal locations between Rainham and Chatham which funnily enough is the same location I filmed at for one of my Media projects at school! So, I guess in some way there could be a crossover in narratives there...
What attracted you to your characters?
Without giving too much away about the story, the thing that was the most appealing about my character was she is nothing like me, well I would like to think that anyway. Jess comes across, when you first properly meet her, as an acquaintance of Sal who needs help. However, you begin to learn quite quickly she is far more complex than you think. Jess is a true product of the world this story is set within, and I found that really interesting. It is always fun stretching yourself as an actor, so to play someone who is so far away from your own character is always attracting as you know it will be a challenge and you can't shy away from them.
Sal's bravery is the main thing that attracted me to her character. She has nothing left yet she keeps fighting, not giving up and doing whatever it takes to make her father proud. Sal also tries to see the best in people and that kindness brings out that quality in Parker too. Whether this is maybe her own naivety is debatable, but for me Sal is the "good" in the world she is now left in. Sal has taught me that even in the darkest of places, there are people in any situation that are there to try and see the good in things.
Personally, I haven’t experienced playing a character that has had a loss quite like Sal. Connecting to Sal and understanding her feelings towards losing her father I found hard to begin with, and it really challenged me to dig deeper into my emotions. She is a complex character trying to remain stoical yet still strongly attached to the loss of her father. Really understanding her loneliness was a challenge for me and took some time to get to grips with. However, I felt once I was on-set in the rather open environments I began to understand it a lot more.
For me, there was always something about Parker’s character and backstory that intrigued me. She’s been through quite a journey running up to the events of the film. Although she presents a strong, tough exterior most of the time, there has been a lot of conflict, self-doubt and hardship in her past. From the events of her past, Parker has had to learn to be resilient and survive on her own. This has caused her to create quite a harsh front, and practicality is always the first thing on her find. Through her unexpected meeting with Sal, I believe Parker finds something of a companion that she didn’t even know she wanted or needed. Meeting Sal shows her that there is another way of survival, and reminds her of many aspects in her life that she had long suppressed.
As an actor, Parker was very interesting to get to grips with. It was particularly interesting to play the contrasts in her; from the original harsh front she presents when she first meets Sal, to the vulnerability she shows in her past, and then following her journey to opening up and letting her walls start to come down for Sal. This emotional journey was especially challenging as we filmed a lot of the scenes out of sequence; therefore, I had to tap into the different levels of Parker’s journey across our filming days. On the whole, Parker has taught me that female characters can be strong and in control, but that it is equally important for them to have balance, to let people in and always find the joy in life, even when hard circumstances prevail.
What preparation did you take for your roles?
Tom (director) had the script for this particular film ready very early on so we could get a real grip with our characters straight away. But even before that we all auditioned for all of the roles so we had an idea about the roles from the word go. Tom made sure if he wanted to make changes to the script we would know as soon as possible so we were never blind sided with new lines. We would meet up as a group as much as all our schedules would let us so we could have lots of discussions about what we think of our characters. One of the best things that I found when preparing for this role was Tom asks us our opinion about what our characters would wear, how they would talk, walk and react to certain situations so once filming commenced we was fully prepared.
As a busy cast and crew split between Kent and various areas of London, we had limited time to all meet as a full group. However, prior to filming, we were able to have a few key sessions together in which we broke down a lot of different aspects of our characters and the plot, discussing them in great depth. Tom wanted us to be very involved with every part of the film, and gave us as actors a lot of free rein with inputting ideas and suggestions. Due to our limited time together as a cast, a lot of our scene preparation happened on set. This was great as we got to really feel the characters come to life in the real settings, and as actors made us trust our instincts with our characters. It was also good from the point of view that most of our characters were either complete strangers or had very little knowledge of each other; therefore, having little interaction as our characters prior to filming kept that unfamiliar dynamic between them on screen.
Tom has been a brilliant Writer and Director, always keeping us up to date with script rewrites and including us in decisions by asking our opinions. The whole process has been so positive and informative. It has been such a great experience working with Tom, as well as acting alongside Emma and Katie. Filming days have been such great fun, and have always been filled with lots of laughter - regardless of whether we were in blistering sun or knee deep in mud. We’ve all bounced off each others energies throughout the entire experience, and I couldn’t have asked for a more wonderful project to be a part of.
The others have touched upon many things I would agree with and would like to repeat here, but I'll try and discuss something different!
I guess one of the main aspects we spent a long time with when preparing for the role was during the pre-production process was discussing costuming. It was very apparent that we all agreed each of our characters would have something simple to wear but distinctly different. During the discussions with Tom about characterising Sal, I felt Sal would be the most "stylish" in a way due to her living a rather sheltered life, and not being thrown into a battle environment like the others. She has had more freedom than Parker or Jess. However, Sal to me is also very aware of her surroundings - even if she isn't completely comfortable in it. This came to the decision for her to wear clothing that would camouflage her into the environment. She is afraid of what is left of the world behind, and now has to venture alone into the wilderness. I feel that these moments of discussion were so crucial in our preparation and was a great opportunity to apply what we had discussed when on-set.
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