D+CFilm caught up with filmmaker Mike Parkinson about his latest project After Dark, to find out more about the scope, pitfalls and triumphs of putting a project together (watch a segment below).

What project are you working on at the moment?

Currently, I’ve been working on a project called After Dark, which I wrote last year. The original concept was to create a film that had around three different segments, a portmanteau of sorts.

However, recently, due to some unforeseen issues, we had to edit the concept and come up up with a way that our original segments could work as one story. It was quite challenging, but I came up with an idea on how we could fit them all in along with new set pieces. I thought it would be really interesting to explore the idea of dreams and nightmares, as the original idea was a horror piece, I thought exploring the somewhat terrifying dreams we all have would be really interesting.

So now the story follows just one character through these different “dimensions” you could say, he is totally aware, yet confussed and terrified as he goes through these ordeals, which include him waking up on a isolated beach, walking around a empty, seemingly post-apocalyptic plymouth, and being thrown into the horrors of war as a soldier facing something strange that’s following him around a forrest. These are just a few of many narrative segments that our character goes through in this “nightmare”.

What gave you the idea?

I’ve always been interested in how dreams can be so vivid and effective. Why certain unexplainable things happen in them. And the sometimes sheer terror you experience in them that you can’t experience anywhere else. I thought these themes would be highly interesting to try and portray on film.

What’s your background in filmmaking?

So far, fairly little, other than numerous little youtube projects I’ve done over the last few years.

I always try to do as much as I can with a film making, it’s my passion. I did two years media studies at Liskeard Sixth Form and passed with an A with that before moving on to St Austell College to take on Film Studies & Photography to further my understanding and love of the business/production/and technical sides of film making and equipment, and I’m hoping to eventual go to university to take on a film production course.

How have you been going about getting the film off the ground?

After numerous attempts before to try and make a project, with next to no equipment, they basically never really got past the first three or four minutes being made. But I guess that’s how you learn.

I tried to get a few older people with a love of film for this project in order to try and be more successful with getting the film made. I was lucky enough to have a friend who has an equal passion who put up the money so we could buy the equipment we would need in order to make the feature. And it’s been an eye-opening experience shooting it, I have learned valuable lessons but have had so much fun shooting so far, and count myself very lucky that I was able to get the stuff needed to make the film. It was like a dream getting to do this stuff that I have watched and learned about for years, I can only hope it continues.

What have been the most difficult issues you have faced?

Lighting has been one of the most challenging issues, especially night location lighting. Getting the perfect light balance when you shooting up on the moors at 10pm is quite challenging. But we have had an excellent DP who has worked around the kinks. Another big issue was obviously the change in concept for the film. Due to certain cast members being unreliable for certain reasons, we were unable to replace them, so we had to cut down our cast, and found we could no longer do the segments. And as I didn’t want to lose the ideas I had written, I found it a challenge to come up with an idea where I could keep what we had, and also add a lot more, but so far were managing.

How have you come up with actors, crew and locations?

Devon and Cornwall has some absolutly breathtaking scenary, you can find tons of stunning locations. We’ve been shooting in Dartmoor, some woods here in Cornwall, as well as some of the countryside, some rural areas, as well as Plymouth, the sheer ammount of different locations down here has allowed for such a great array of on screen locations. And in instances where we have needed to shoot something we can’t get a location to, we have opted to use a greenscreen, but only very sparringly. As for my cast and crew, with it being so small, on most occasions, I’ve had to use my actors for crew also, it takes a while to set up each shot, but it’s worth it. You work with what you have!

What are your influences?

In regards to this project David Lynch has been a massive influence. His nightmarish imagery is breathtaking, and some of his ideas have definatly passed on into this project. And growing up with film makers like George A. Romero, Jim Cameron, Stanley Kubrick, and Martin Scorsese, have all inspired me to make films, and while some of them are less evident in this project, I’m certain they and many others have had a key influence on me.

When will the film be completed and what do you plan for it?

We’re hoping the film will finish post production towards November of this year, we’re around half way through production right now. It’s a slow process with so few resources, I shoot it and then edit it on the fly as much as I can, but weather and numerous other issues mostly prevent us from shooting the project in order. But we’re definatly hoping for a November finish so we can hopefully start looking in how we can get the film into festivals, but that is something im totally new to.

What next?

I already have a flurry of ideas for future projects, depending on how After Dark goes will let me know how well I can make those in the future, but I definatly plan on keeping making them until I hit the right spot, and I love doing it, and want to carry on.

Posted by Cptn

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 12:44 pm and is filed under Local . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.