Farrell Film Name: Good Choice, Joseph
Director: James Farrell
Writer: James Farrell
Starring: Ollie Dickens, John Rose
A man who feels paralysed by choice is sent into an existential spiral after he finds a mysterious tape player that can tell the future.
In a new Exclusive Interview on Blazing Minds ahead of Horror-on-Sea I got a chance to ask Writer/Director James Farrell a few questions about his film ‘Good Choice, Joseph
Good Choice, Joseph will play at Horror-on-Sea on Sunday 12th January at 12:30pm.
Q. Your film has been selected to play at the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival. Can you tell us what we can expect?
A. What an honour! I’ve been a Horror-On-Sea attendee for the past few years now, and to be part of 2025’s selection is a real thrill.
I’m hesitant to reveal too much about our film, it’s only six-minutes long and I think people are best going in blind for it – there are certainly a couple of twists and turns which I wouldn’t want to spoil. What I will say is that viewers can look forward to an off-beat, existential rumination about the nature of choice and free will.
Q. What were some of your influences when writing the script?
A. My main inspiration for the script was a video game called The Stanley Parable by Galactic Cafe, which I seem to remember playing a few weeks before the idea came to me. This was a few years back, mind you – I wrote the first draft way back in May 2019. The game is structured around the player’s choices, it has this meta-narrative about the interactive nature of video games; I wanted to take that concept and invert it to fit the medium of film, whereby the plot is pre-determined and the character instead grapples with being powerless to change their fate.
The game also features a fantastic voice performance by Kevan Brighting, which was another huge influence on my script. In writing the monologue for the narrator in Good Choice, Joseph, I would read the lines back to myself in Brighting’s voice to see if they fit. For the longest time, I couldn’t hear anyone else’s voice in that role – this was, of course, before I met the phenomenal John Rose. Now I can’t imagine it being any other way.
Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?
A. I definitely pinched a couple of shots from The Shining – I don’t know that I’d necessarily describe our film as being scary, but it certainly borrows a few tricks from Kubrick’s book about cultivating an ‘unsettling’ atmosphere.
Stylistically, I can’t say that any one source of inspiration really stands out – my only real motive was to tell the story as efficiently and succinctly as possible. I suppose in that sense I was influenced by TV commercials, which are always wrestling with their runtimes to tell a story with the greatest economy of statement, and I adopted a lot of the same visual shorthand to make the viewing experience as dynamic as possible.
Q. Did you make any changes from the original script during filming?
A. For the most part we had to stick quite rigidly to the script for the timing of the narrator’s monologue to sync with our footage. However, there was one big edit we made after filming. Without giving too much away, the ending is heavily monologue-oriented – and was terrific fun to write. I loved reading it aloud to people during pre-production, I was quite proud of it. It was only during assembly that we realised ‘oh, this scene is almost half the runtime of the whole film’ and decided it needed to be cut down. It was definitely the right thing to do, but a part of me does still miss that original speech.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
A. No one specific moment jumps out, but the experience of being on set and seeing an idea that I had dreamed up years ago be realised by such a talented cast and crew was genuinely surreal. Even more special was the experience of filming it locally in Southend with a team of so many of my friends.
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
A. I remember on the day of filming feeling so heartbroken by the rubbish grey weather that we had on the beach. The conditions were miserable, it was freezing cold and we were stood outside in gale force winds for eleven hours straight. Our lead, Ollie Dickens, definitely had it the worst, he was criminally under-dressed in his costume. It was fortunate in some ways though; it did mean the beach was almost completely empty for us to use.
The changing tide also caused us lots of problems. I had totally miscalculated the tide times on the day of the shoot, and it meant we spent most of the shoot without any sea. This meant that we had to totally rewrite the schedule that morning, shoot the film entirely out of order and use sky replacement tools and colour grading trickery in post-production to try to get the shots to match. It was a nightmare.
Q. What makes it stand out as something different in the horror genre?
A. I hope that the film’s strange, off-kilter sense of humour makes it stand out. It doesn’t indulge in any of the violence or gratuities typical of the genre, and I imagine the overall tone will be much lighter and sillier than many of the other entries in the festival. The original draft of the script did end with a murder, but I was worried that the story beat wouldn’t land with enough impact after just six-minutes of screen-time. I’m much happier with the psychological turn that the film now takes instead.
Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?
A. At best, the film is a whimsical exploration of the age-old free-will versus determinism argument, but I didn’t really set out to leave viewers with any profound philosophical ideas or political messages. However, the film does tackle the nature of choice paralysis, which is something I’ve long struggled with in my own life, and I hope people will at least heed the warning message of the film not to let such things consume them. There’s no use in waiting for someone to come along and fix your problems for you, be proactive and do something about it!
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
A. I have just begun work one my first feature film, which will be an exciting new frontier for me as a filmmaker. I don’t want to say too much else at this stage because we are still writing it at the moment, but I am hoping to be ready to shoot it by next summer. Watch this space!
Q. If someone was looking to write and direct their own film what advice would you give them?
A. If you’re a first-time filmmaker, the process of making your own film can seem really daunting. The truth is, there really isn’t any one good place to start. It’s all about baby steps, and my advice would be just to start writing and see where it takes you. When you finally find that one idea that you fall in love with, you tend to find that the rest of the pieces quickly begin to fall into place. The other key is to collaborate with a good team, a director is only as good as their crew, after all, and working with like-minded creatives who share your vision really is half the fun.
Social Media:
- Director – @jamesfarrellfilm
- Producer – @riaztv
- Director of Photography – @v_stanek
Good Choice, Joseph will play at Horror-on-Sea on Sunday 12th January at 12:30pm.
You can find out more about the festival and purchase tickets here
Published in various websites, Philip is a reviewer who is best known for his interviews and media coverage of independent projects including; films, books, theatre and live events. Always on the lookout for something different to cover!
