Your upcoming film Malady - in a few words, what is it going to be
about?
It's a dark love story. The film explores the relationship between two people
being built out of grief and obscurity.
Basic question: Why a love story?
It's what felt natural. The love story is the journey and the purpose of the
whole film; Holly is trying to build something beautiful out of her grief and
turn that into a positive thing whilst Matthew is trying to create a new way
of living and feel something he's never felt before; the love story is the one
shining light throughout the journey the two of them take.
Jack, what were your inspirations when writing Malady, and was any
of he script based on personal experience?
There's a lot of different subject matters explored within Malady, which are
all things I've been interested in a long time. I think the idea of familial
abstractions was a big influence; attempting to fill in large gaps of
information... Sound played a big part in the writing as well; I listened to
lots of different atmospheres and tones whilst writing, along with the songs
of Abba.
I know the two of you have worked with each other before, so how did you get
together in the first place, and what made you decide to team up once
again for Malady?
Kemal: While I was in pre production for my film Rose
I met Jack
as he came on board the film as my editor. The edit of that film was a
double edged sword, it was a tough yet fun experience trying to complete
the edit and it was then I saw how we both just had the a similar view
on our work. I also noticed how creative Jack is and wanted to help nurture that ability so we dediced to embark on his first feature
Malady.
I am very honoured to be a part of it as it is a brave and assured first
feature.
Jack: It's rare you find someone who understands your ideas and that you
can work under such difficult conditions with. Kemal was insistant
I should make a film, was very enthusiastic about producing with me
and helping me make something. We had very similar ideas about working
methods as well, so it was an opportunity for the both of us to work in
the way we wanted and Kemal was very generous in offering himself up to
me wholly and allowing me to mould Matthew into what he needed to be.
Kemal, what can you tell us
about your character Matthew, and what did you draw upon to bring him to
life? Matthew is running from a dark past, someone who is
trying to restore balance in his life while battling his inner demons.
When I first read the script and discussed the character with Jack I was
amazed at how similar his vision was to my initial thoughts on Matthew. The exciting part about playing Matthew was the way in which
Jack's
directorial approach mirrored the way I like to work while acting. Total
immersion was the way I wanted to play Matthew and that means to transform
and live as the character to fully give truth the character's journey. I
don't believe in drawing from my own life or baggage so I create realism
for the character and his journey. I had the best experience working on
Malady as we all had the same vision and had a director with real vision
and gave all the actors space and time to create.
What can you tell me about the rest of Malady's
cast, and why exactly these people?
Casting for Malady was an incredibly challenging and lengthy process; I
knew I needed a very particular kind of person for each role and we had a
lot of people applying because people seemed to engage with the
characters. But I had a very distinct vision for how the set should be and
exactly what would be required; the people involved had to be pretty
fearless and had to be willing to abandon themselves and offer their
absolute trust in me to push them in the right direction - I was very
lucky to find those people. Do talk about the look and feel of your
film for a bit?
Me and my assistant director (Gareth Haynes) tried to do our best
to make every frame look like a painting. We had very specific colour
palettes in mind throughout the film and artworks we were looking to
make reference of, and we tried to keep everything very natural. I think
it helped shooting the film in a very loose verité style, it made
everything feel much looser and less staged; it helped a lot with the
cast in terms of freedom of movement and being in the moment of the
scene we were shooting. I think those two elements really
bounced off of one another and created something visually interesting.
What can you tell us about the actual
shoot, and the on-set atmosphere?
The shoot was turbulent but incredibly exciting. I made
it clear that the set would not be ran in a normal fashion; it involved
isolating the cast away from the crew, each other, and on the last shoot,
I ensured everyone was trapped inside for the duration. The entire cast
was in a heavy state of immersion and had to lose any semblance of self
they had. I tried to create tensions and moods around the sets that would
then resonate on screen, because of the subject matter in the film, at
times the set was incredibly tense and would often turn into quite a
fragile thing. Everything was very low key and on the last shoot in
particular, everything was incredibly silent and still.
The $64-question of course, when and where will Malady be released onto the general public?
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Well we are in the very final stages of post production right now and
have just started to release the film out to festivals, so with some luck
people will be able to see Malady in one of those festivals soon!! There
will be constant updates through our website
www.maladythemovie.com and
our twitter feed. Any future projects
beyond Malady you'd like to talk about? We're both
in the very early stages of working on new projects, under the guise of
our production company Realist Productions, but for the immediate moment
our efforts and time is still being put into Malady and getting the film
in the right places.
Anything
else you are dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? We
wish to thank all the passionate people behind the scenes of Malady
for
their belief in the film and to you Mike at (re)Search my Trash for your
support! for anyone interested in Malady you can find us on
www.maladythemovie.com
Follow our FB page: https://www.facebook.com/maladythemovie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Maladythemovie Thanks
for the interview!
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