Director: David Gardner 

Writer(s): David Gardner 

Actors: Jamie Evans 

Synopsis: A character study of Tom who lives in Southend with his invisible best friend, Dan.  

With The Southend-on-Sea Film Festival will be returning once again from 26th – 29th May, I got an opportunity to ask Writer-Director David Gardner a few questions about the film ‘My Invisible Friend’ which has been selected to play at the festival on Saturday 28th May at 9pm.

Q. What can we expect from the film?  

A. Hopefully, a touching film about how people deal with loneliness, grief and isolation that will also make you laugh. There’s other stuff in there to do with mental health, prejudice and misrepresentation in the media.  

Q. How did the idea for the film come about?  

A. It was my first short, so I wanted to make something quite simple, so the initial brief was to make something that had 1 actor in 1 location (it did expand a little from there). But I found it hard to create conflict/drama from having just one character, so I thought why not include another character who is invisible and that way I still don’t have to worry about casting and multiple actors’ schedules.

Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?  

A. It was all quite instinctive/practical, so a lot of the look and style was borne out of necessity and budget. It was my first film, so I didn’t want to get loads of people involved and spend loads of money on equipment because, in all likelihood, it probably wouldn’t turn out that good anyway and I would have wasted loads of people’s time and my own money.  So, I borrowed a cheap DSLR and shot it myself (and I have very little clue as to what I’m doing with it), but I did my best to get it in focus and ensure the most important aspects in the shot were the most prominent in the frame. 

I wasn’t conscious of it at the time, but as a first-time filmmaker, choosing the mockumentary format was quite a wise move, as it’s very forgiving in terms of sound recording etc. 

In terms of influences, I was very drawn to the music choices in ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ (which also has an invisible friend funnily enough) and wanted the soundtrack (written by the excellent Luke Branch and Jennifer O’Neill) to feel like a warm hug.

Q. Were there any elements of the original script which were adapted during filming?  

A. The voiceover was very scripted, and we didn’t really deviate from that, but for the diegetic dialogue I kept it very loose (a bit like how episodes of ‘Curb Youth Enthusiasm’ are written I think). I was very lucky to have Jamie Evans play Tom in the film, because not only is he a tip-top actor but he is also a very gifted writer-director. Often times with the diegetic dialogue in the film I would explain the scenario and give Jamie some lines as suggestions, but he would quite often riff on that and came up with some great ideas.  

Q. What were your favourite moments whilst making the Film? 

A. Because it was my first, I really storyboarded the hell out of it, but there were one or 2 instances where I tried something else, and it ended up working much better. For example, the scene where Tom has writing on his forehead I had storyboarded very differently, but I ended up doing it in one continuous shot that followed him around the flat and it gave the moment real energy, compared to what I had planned initially. Generally speaking, I ended up including a lot less than I originally planned, not because of time – but because it made the film better to shoot things more economically. 

Q. Did you experience any issues whilst making the film?  

A. Sure – I could have done without actors cancelling on us 20 minutes before we were due to film. Also, we really didn’t know what we were doing with the sound recording, so had to use the camera mic for quite a lot of it in the final edit. Luckily the voiceover papered over a lot of the cracks!

Q. What do you hope people will take away from the film 

A.  Mostly I hope that they laugh, but also that they take away the message of to not judge others for living their lives differently if they aren’t hurting anyone else. 

Q. Do you have any other projects which you are working on?  

A. Yes! I’m prepping my next short, called ‘Nuts’ and will be filming it in August. It’ll be more ambitious than ‘M.I.F.’ as I’ll be working with a crew this time. Plus, there’ll be stunt work and it’s a narrative film this time, which has been a (good) challenge for me in terms of writing. Technically I’ll need to be on top of things like continuity editing, which I didn’t have to worry about really for ‘M.I.F.’ 

Q. If someone is looking to direct their first film, what advice would you give them? 

A.  Just make it. For better or worse, set out to make something and do it and be very forgiving with yourself if it doesn’t turn out to be a masterpiece (it won’t). Whatever comes of it, you will have made a film and learnt from that so that the next one will be better. 

I’d also say try to keep it simple. Not because you should have a lack of ambition for your first one, but because whatever simple idea you come up with will bring up complications later on anyway and if you keep it simple to start with, there’s more chance of you finishing it. Also, the restrictions of making a ‘simple’ film, actually force you to be creative and focused and really make you think hard about what you want to achieve/say. 

You can watch more from David Gardner on his YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/MrGardnersFilmStudiesChannel

The Southend-on-Sea Film Festival runs from 26^th – to 29^th

You can find out more about the end and purchase tickets on the website here: https://www.southendfilmfestival.com/

Philip Rogers

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!