Film Name: Collection Only
Director: Alun Rhys Morgan
Writer: Alun Rhys Morgan
Starring: Tomos Gwynfryn, Steffan Evans, Olwen Medi, Chris Woods
Nye has dragged his estranged best mate Daf, to collect a free armchair from a fearsome old house. A chain of sinister events follows, as Daf and Nye grapple with their fractured friendship, while trying to make it out alive… with the chair.
In a new Exclusive Interview on Blazing Minds ahead of Horror-on-Sea I got a chance to ask Writer/Director Alun Rhys Morgan a few questions about the film ‘Collection Only‘
Collection Only will play at Horror-on-Sea on Sunday 19th January at 5.30pm
Q. Your film has been selected to play at the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival. Can you tell us what we can expect?
A. Curdled tea, grotesque décor and (hopefully) a lot of fun.
Q. What were some of your influences when writing the script?
A. Being a huge horror fan I drew from a lot of influences. I wanted to play on horror tropes so I watched my favourites – The Exorcist, Evil Dead 2 and The Conjuring. I also watched In Bruges as I felt that married couple dynamic between friends would really add comedy/balance to the horror setting and enable me to have a lot of fun in the writing, building up tension then killing it with humour.
Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?
A. A big influence for me was a scene in IT: Chapter Two where Jessica Chastain’s character visits the old lady. Me and the DOP really loved the harsh/orange lighting where the practical lights set the colour tone of the scene. It made it feel like they were in a hellish type living room stuck in time.
Q. Did you make any changes from the original script during filming?
A. The script stayed pretty much the same throughout the shoot. One of the actors, Steffan, who is also a stand up comic, would approach me in between scenes sometimes and suggest extra lines or ad libs which cracked me up, so they naturally made it into the film. The long monologue about sparking the old lady out was originally just that one line, but he made it this massive rant which had the cast and crew laughing out loud, so it had to stay in!
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
A. I think my favourite moment was on the second day when we filmed the one take 360 shot in the hallway. It came together so well and was a great feeling seeing all the cast and crew working so hard to get it looking the best it could. I really felt at that point that it was going to work as a film.
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
A. The shoot was an absolute dream if I’m being honest. The smoothest shoot of my career to date, partly down to our amazing 1st AD Tom Gripper who kept us ticking. All the cast and crew were so passionate about the project so that really helped. Pre production was a different story, with the location being the biggest headache. I had a very specific idea about how I wanted it to look and we couldn’t afford to build a set. In the end we used our producer’s house and decided to do a massive set dress by raiding household auctions of old trinkets and some funky sticky back wallpaper on discount from Wayfair.com! Adam Holt, our production designer, really went to town with it and the result was terrific.
Q. What makes it stand out as something different in the horror genre?
A. I don’t necessarily believe it’s different to anything out there. It’s playing with horror tropes from many influences then having fun with them. I always liked the idea of putting two characters into a horror situation where they weren’t necessarily aware they are in a horror which gave me a lot of opportunities to kill tension to get a laugh, or play with an estranged friendship in that setting.
Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?
A. I hope people come away having had fun watching it. Hopefully they get a little flavour of Welsh culture/myth/humour too!
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
A. I am currently developing another short horror film with Ffilm Cymru/BFI focusing on two cockle farmers who are stalked by a sea witch.
Q. If someone was looking to direct their own film what advice would you give them?
A. My advice would be to just crack on! Don’t wait for permission to make something, just do it. Film funds are incredibly competitive and demoralising. I saved up money to make Collection Only out of frustration of constantly being turned down by film funds. Collection Only was submitted to x 6 film funds and it didn’t get longlisted/shortlisted for any of them.
Collection Only has gone onto be selected at 23 festivals worldwide (x3 BAFTA, X5 BIFA qualifying festivals) and even won best film at Abertoir Film Festival which is great considering it was just a self funded passion project. You have to start thinking, if you don’t make your ideas a reality now, then when will you? Also, don’t make something that you think people want to see, make something YOU want to see.
Collection Only will play at Horror-on-Sea on Sunday 19th January at 5.30pm
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!
