Shorts not Show Reels

The event at the Prince Charles included the short Screen 1, a suspense-heavy story that was actually shot inside the very same cinema. It was made after hours over the course of a single night, which was a big undertaking fraught with unexpected challenges such as drunken revellers knocking on the doors and waving. In fact, such challenges are the norm when trying to get films made of tight budgets.

A five day shoot for the story of a fisherman and a troubled young woman, Scallywags, saw Freeman stumbling into a turf war between rival lobster fishers which led to the boat they were using suddenly sailing off during the shoot.

On another, torrential rain lost them a whole day’s shooting. “You’re constantly on your toes,” says Will, “which is exhausting. I spend a fortune on insurance because when you have 10 or 20 people in a location things can always go wrong.”

“All these films are shot cheaply, and permits are expensive, so often we ‘run and gun’. One time we were in the Czech National Forest and got stopped by a ranger telling us we weren’t able to film. We’d come prepared and had a bottle of vodka for him and he went away quite happy, which was a lot cheaper than paying the fees.”

The screening also included The Mushroom Picker’s Daughter, a prequel to an as-yet-unmade feature film dear to Will’s heart. He’s desperate to use these shorts as leverage towards funding and making a full-length feature. It’s something he’s confident won’t actually cost much in the eye-watering world of movie production, particularly with his trusted crew, enthusiastic actors and broad experience to add to the mix.

“I’ve now got a large enough portfolio that I think the fundraising can be done,” he says. “I’m trying to write a script that isn’t overly demanding, but also isn’t boring. As soon as you start adding storylines like a car crash, or a scene where it’s snowing, you can’t afford it. Sometimes it gets depressing, as you cut back and cut back, but there are also some clever ways around it.”

Meanwhile, the process for turning out fully fledged shorts for actors continues, with the Freeman/Davidson dynamic in much demand. The way they operate offers the actors something incredibly rare – the chance to be coached live on the set, so that when the cameras roll, they are able to access the full depth of emotions required to deliver a truly outstanding performance. 

Often this will mean things head off script, but the results are so good that the co-directors relish the prospect of just seeing what comes up in these moments. Their partnership has the endless potential to lend everyone involved the platform from which to shine most brightly. 

“Our age gap means we have different perspectives, but I can trust her, and I love her insights,” he says. “On a shoot, she focuses on the emotional release of actors while I deal with the crew, and then we overlap when it’s time to call ‘action’. There’s a strange balance, and I think the actors like it that they can do voice exercises and work on the script in a way that’s not normally possible on a set.”