Film Name: Members Club
Director: Marc Coleman
Writer: Marc Coleman
Starring: Dean Kilbey, Perry Benson, Liam Noble, Mark Monero, David Alexander
Wet Dreams, a middle aged male stripper group, take one last gig at a rural working mens
club only to discover they are to become sacrifices in a plot to raise a murderous 16th
century witch from the dead.
In a new exclusive interview on Blazing Minds ahead of the Dead And Sudburied Film Festival, I got a chance to ask co-writer/director Marc Coleman a few questions about his film Members Club.
Q. Following the world premiere at FrightFest your film ‘Members Club’ has now been selected to play at the Dead And Sudburied Film Festival. Can you tell us what we can expect from the film?
A. If you’re a fan of visual gags, nob gags and people being gagged, you’ve probably just found your new favourite film. If you’re not a fan of any of those things… Peter Andre’s in it.
Q. How did the idea for the film come about and What were your inspirations when
writing the script?
A. Like my first film ‘ManFish’ (2022), the idea came from a list of loglines that I dreamed up years ago and Members Club, originally called ‘Forbidden Nights’ (then for a brief while ‘Wet Dreams’), was the only other film on the list I could see myself making on a limited budget and because the idea was semi-plausible. I’ve just gone back and found that list and here’s an example of another logline from a movie I aptly/badly titled ‘Henpecked’ – ‘A feature length comedy-horror about a group of vegan activists who get locked in a battery hen farm and must overcome their values and beliefs when the mutant birds rise up and take an evil turn.’ God knows what I was smoking back then.
Green Room (2015) and From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) were big inspirations when writing this film. I don’t usually focus on the comedy first, I focus more on the drama and characters, then the comedy is born from that. Like most of my films, I’m a big fan of cementing a very silly idea and bringing it into the real world and giving the characters real world problems. That’s always a lot of fun for me.
Maybe I will take another look at Henpecked, could be a masterpiece. Anyone know anyone who can make realistic looking mutant chicken puppets?
Q. You have brought back several actors from the first film ‘Manfish’, as well as some new familiar faces such as Perry Benson. Did you have any of these actors in mind when writing the script?
A. Yes originally Members Club was going to be made for peanuts, just like ManFish, so I wrote specific parts for lots of that cast – Dean Kilbey, Emma Stannard, David Alexander and Liam Noble. I had a blast working with those guys on the previous film and it was a joy to be able to bring them back.
Then Black Water Pictures picked the film up and gave it a proper budget which allowed us to get some names in the film. That was really cool and fair play to Black Water for letting us stick with the cast we’d already written in, as they’re all extremely talented and brought so much to the film. It was a dream come true to be able to work with Steve Oram, Perry Benson, Mark Monero, Alan Ford, David Schaal and Juliet Cowan but the icing on the cake for me was being able to bring along up-and-coming actor friends for the ride too. That’s where I think the film really shines.
Fun fact – in the first 15 minutes of the film, there’s a scene where we meet Alan’s flatmate Lewis who is played by Matty Noble who played the role of Manfish! I wrote the flatmate part especially for him as it was hard to fit him into the script anywhere else due to the average age of the cast being 52.
Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?
A. I always liked the idea that Members Club took place in the same universe as ManFish, so we carried over lots of similar styles. We tried to keep some of the Ken Loach realism bleakness from the first film but turn up the saturation. Some of the corridor scenes were lit and coloured in greens and blues, a big nod to Green Room. I was never really interested in making it look like a comedy with high key lighting, we wanted to add the horror first then sprinkle on the comedy, whether that be with overly bright colours in costumes, performances production design.
I remember spending days in pre-production with Dann Emmons, the cinematographer, looking at and creating a master list of stills on Shot Deck. Out of that came a look book that we shared with the rest of the crew which helped communicate our vision. I think every scene in Members Club had a still from another film that we would use as a jumping off point. I am very fortunate to work with Dann and such a fantastic lighting and production design team.
Q. Where there any elements of the original script which were adapted during filming?
A. There’s an entire sequence with Mark Monero who plays ‘Ratboy’ where he comes face to face with the evil 15th century witch ‘Agnes’. In the script, this was originally set in a large men’s bathroom but when we found our main shooting location (The Rainham Working Men’s Club, Rainham, Essex), it didn’t really have a suitable bathroom, nor did any of the other smaller locations. But what RWMC did have was a very beautiful looking snooker hall upstairs. So my production designer Jim Walker and DOP Dann Emmons convinced me to relocate the entire sequence to that room and I’m glad they did as it became one of my favourite locations in the film. It just looks so good on camera and the guys did a fantastic
job making it look that way. It also doubled up as a very comfy green room when we weren’t shooting in there. Double bubble!
Q. What were some of your favourite moments whilst making the Film?
A. As it’s a film about male strippers, there are of course some dance sequences in it and these were always a lot of fun to rehearse and shoot. My wife is a dancer and she choregraphed all the routines and taught them to the guys. The first day on set was at the Kenneth More Theatre in Ilford where we shot an the opening dance routine on a massive stage with the lead men dressed as sailors. Cherie, my wife, did a fantastic job at getting the men in time and on point as frankly they were all terrible – except Mark Monaro, he’s VERY good.
There’s also a scene in the film where Dean Kilbey shares the screen with a toad and that was a really special scene to film. Not only is it a tender moment in the story, but I also vividly remember looking down at the monitor, seeing Dean and the toad in frame and thinking “I can’t believe somebody funded this film”.
Q. Did you experience any issues whilst making the film?
A. The toad. Absolute arsehole, wouldn’t do what we told it to do, it kept looking into the lens, it wouldn’t eat the packet of Scampi Fries we laid out for it, it wasted my time and the productions money.
Other than that, it was all very straight forward. Of course, like any film, you’re putting out fires every 10 minutes for 5 weeks but I secretly enjoy that and some of my best work has come out of when things don’t go to plan. That’s where the magic happens and the stuff I thrive off. That’s why I love directing. It would be sooooo boring if all that work that you planned in pre-production went exactly to plan.
Q. What do you hope people will take away from the film?
A. Without giving too much away, there is a rare genetic condition that infects 1 in 6 million males across the globe that I try to tackle head on in the last 15 minutes of the film. I want people to know that this is a real condition, I haven’t made it up for the sake of a gag and I hope people, mainly men, will walk away thanking their lucky stars that they don’t suffer with the condition.
Also, Peter Andre’s in it!
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are working on?
A. Yes I’ve spent the past eight months co-writing a Sci-fi Comedy with a brilliant writer friend called Jon Barton which is currently titled Meet the Parasites. It’s essentially Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) set at a suburban swingers party. Gav (my producer) and I are really excited about it and Jon and I have had a blast writing it. We’ll hopefully go into pre-production towards the end of 2024.
Q. If someone is looking to write and direct their first film, what advice would you give them?
A. I’ve been teaching practical filmmaking for many years and my main piece of advice that I give out time and time again is don’t bite off more than you can chew. Focus on the story.
There’s a running theme with most first-time directors films – set your story predominantly in one location and build your characters around it. Don’t focus on cool shots, exploding heads and men kissing fish straight away – put all your energy into trying to tell the best story you can for the budget / timeframe / location you have and go from there. Story is key, I can’t stress that enough.
It also depends who you’re making the film for too. I make films for me and try to tell a story that my friends and family would enjoy. But I always try my best to make sure those films have commercial value too so that they can be sold. Otherwise, it’s just a very expensive hobby and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. What a great hobby to have! But for me it’s a career and I have to be able to make living out of it so I can spend that money on putting my daughters into nursery and being left with £2.80 at the end of every month.
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!
