You get into some bizarre situations as an interpreter such as the time my leg was severely harassed by a hearing dog for the deaf but I shan't go into that. Instead, the bizarre situation I'm referring to was interpreting a live Psychic show. My client and long time friend was a massive fan of this particular psychic and asked me if I'd mind doing the show. Well, as a lover of the slightly odd, I jumped at the opportunity and soon found myself sat in a village hall facing a sea of expectant grey haired fans. well from the moment this guy burst from behind the curtains we were hooked. He was good. He flew around the audience speaking on behalf of their lost relatives, all apparently queuing like shadows around him, trying to get their little comments through to this interpreter of the dead, 'Your uncle Reg wants you to water the roses more', 'Your mum says you put something in the washing machine you shouldn't have and it dyed everything pink, is that right?'. His attention to these little domestic details was amazing and if you didn't believe in ghosts or the afterlife it certainly had you doubting. After the show, the sceptic in me came out as I tried to figure out a way of finding out this information about people. If you had to send off for tickets then he'd have your name and address - if he had that and access to government records then perhaps he could look up all kinds of things about you, the car you drive, who's recently died in your family, when you got married, who to, your children's names and ages.
Life moved on and like most interpreting assignments it faded into the dark recesses of my mind.
In October 2009 BSLBT advertised opportunities to make a short film for television. My colleague and co-director of VS1 Productions, David Ellington and I saw this as an important opportunity. If successful we would for the first time receive a budget to make a film. We'd been making short films for the previous five years and had won some prizes at international deaf film festivals. We'd won 'Best Film' for 'DANNY' at the 2009 Reims festival in France and really wanted to build on our success. The BSLBT opportunity would really help us take a step up, to have one of our films aired on television and so it was with great excitement that I sat down to a blank computer screen and waded through that foggy bit of my brain where the ideas come from. I'd previously had an idea about a psychic that wanted to retire and settle down but kept getting hassled by the dead and so the memories of my psychic interpreting experience were rediscovered.
I worked on a three act structure for the original outline and wanted my characters to be full of quirks and strangeness in order to make them as realistic as possible, I also managed to create a twist at the end. I was fairly happy but really only had a one page outline. When BSLBT responded positively to the script outline we were thrilled and then about three seconds later scared to death. It meant I had to write the actual script and then we both had to put the thing into full production, creating budgets, finding actors, a camera-man, sound, light, we'd have to wear french berets, flying trousers and start smoking big fat cigars, there was so much to do and so little time.
I remember sitting in a meeting with Terry Riley and him saying that this will take over our lives for the next few months. He was totally and completely right. I worked like a demon for the next four months.
Regarding the script, I really wanted to create something that didn't focus on deaf issues. I wanted it to look at characters relating to each other. I wanted to explore the comedy in a relationship where two people that are stuck together can't remember why. I remember a film I love, THE ODD COUPLE where two friends end up sharing the same house but drive each other bonkers. This was the type of relationship I wanted my main Characters, Andy and Jez to have. I also wanted to bring in a Deaf writer to advise and add to the script development process. I must admit I was a bit nervous about this as I'd always written things completely on my own but I was beginning to understand that writing is an iterative process, meaning that in order to improve a piece of writing it needs to be re-written and changed a number of times before its any good. I was also beginning to realise that in order to be a good writer I needed to learn from other people.
I'd first met Donna Williams at the house of a film-maker friend of mine, Liz Crow and Donna and I had talked about writing after she told me she had written a few plays. So I contacted her and asked her if she would help me as a script advisor on 50/50.
When we finally met up and started work on the plot and characters I was blown away by her insight and creativity. Between us we polished up the characters, cut unimportant areas of the script and tightened up the plot and pace of the film. We worked on several drafts of the script firing ideas back and forth until we felt we had something strong and within the 27 minute time limit.
I always think that making a film is a bit like trying to carry a huge watery jelly across a room full of people. It feels like at any moment the whole things going to topple and end up as a huge red splat mark on the floor. Well the script is the shape of the jelly you want to deliver and the splat mark on the floor is what you finally end up delivering if it all goes wrong. What I'm trying to say is that the Script is just the first third of the process but is the most important third of the process, it underpins everything. During the endless hours of filming and editing, when everything is running late and things are going wrong if you've got a bad script then you'll never find the energy to keep going In the end, I think we created a good firm jelly that stood upright, proud and with just the right amount of wobble.