Film: CHAD
Director: Kerry Skinner
Writers: Stewart Alexander
Actors: Stephen Fry, Stewart Alexander, Kerry Skinner, Sam Lockhart, Alice Walton
Synopsis: When their genius child CHAD takes a homework assignment too far, Mum and Dad suddenly find themselves embroiled in an urgent mission to save the planet.
In a new exclusive interview on Blazing Minds ahead of the Southend Film Festival, I got a chance to ask Director-Actress Kerry Skinner a few questions about her film ‘Chad‘.
Chad will be playing at the Southend Film Festival on Saturday 7th June at 11am as part of the Mostly Made in Southend Part One.
Q. Your film ‘Chad’ has been selected to play at the Southend Film Festival. Can you tell us what we can expect from the film?
A. I’d describe it as a ‘domestic’ Sci-Fi film. So, lots of nods to the Sci-fi world but grounded in the relationships of an unconventional family.
Q. The script was written by Stewart Alexander who also appears in the film. What first attracted you to the script when you first read it?
A. I love Stewart’s writing. He has a great skill for taking serious subjects and injecting humour and pathos into them. We’ve worked together on 3 of his screenplays, all very different, but each with his distinct writing style.
The themes in CHAD really struck a chord with me and the characters were great, so I knew it would be fun to bring his script to life. Also, I’d never made a sci-fi film before or worked with animators, so this provided an exciting challenge.
Q. What are some of your influences for the look and style of the film?
A. Rather than creating a sinister foreboding AI character, I wanted to create a childlike innocent. (Taking cues from WALL-E rather than HAL.) For the voice of CHAD we cast two great local young actors, Sam Lockhart and Alice Walton. Their voices make CHAD feel warm and relatable, an AI child trying to do what’s best, please their parents and make the world better. From this, the animation team took their cues to design CHAD and the family unit became whole. For the scenes in the cupboard under the stairs we took our lighting cues – all deep yellows and dark blues – from sci-fi films like Super 8, Close Encounters and A.I. The yellows gave us warmth, like a family chatting around a fire, while the blues gave us electricity and mysterious shadows in dark corners. In the kitchen and living room, we went for pink and golden hues, magic-hour lighting, and filled the rooms with ornamental nods to sci-fi and colourful props covered in animals, floral motifs, and plant life, little reminders of what a beautiful planet we live on.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments whilst making the Film?
A. We had a really great team working on the film, so it was a pleasure collaborating with them and bringing Stewart’s script to life. The key missing component during the shoot was the title character, CHAD. They were created completely in post-production so throughout the shoot we were having to imagine that missing link.
Once we’d cast the actors who would play CHAD and recorded their voices we handed that responsibility over to the fabulous team at Yes&Pepper who went to work on designing CHAD and creating the animated character who completed the family unit. I’ve never worked with animators before so this was a fascinating process and I’m so delighted with their amazing creation.
Q. You play ‘Mum’ in the film. What sort of preparation did you do to portray your character?
A. It’s a dialogue heavy script so I wanted to be fully prepared as I knew my focus would have to be split between acting and directing when it came to the shoot itself. Stewart and I did lots of rehearsal prior to filming and also blocked the film while doing so. This meant I could draw up my shot-list based on what we discovered during that rehearsal time. It was only a 3 day shoot for a 16minute film in various locations, so a very tight shooting schedule, which meant we had to be super prepared before everyone arrived on set.
Q. Did you bring any of your own personality into the character?
A. Well, Stewart and I are a husband/wife filmmaking team and he wrote the script, so he might be better placed to answer that…but yes, I could relate to a lot of Mum’s character traits so there’s definitely some of me in there.
Q. Did you experience any issues whilst making the film?
A. We learnt our lesson from previous films that were shot entirely outside and weather reliant. CHAD was shot entirely indoors, which meant it was much easier to control sound and lighting, which made the whole shoot much more consistent, smoother and pretty much free of issues. That said, a new film we have just completed was shot almost entirely outside again. So maybe we haven’t learnt our lesson at all!
Q. What do you hope people will take away from the film?
A. CHAD examines some serious themes but there’s also a lot of humour. My aim was to balance all the disparate elements in the script to make a film where audiences might experience laughter and possibly even tears together in the cinema, and still have plenty of food for discussion in the bar afterwards.
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are working on?
A. Yes, we just shot a no-budget film on a mobile phone while we were travelling in Spain. We’ve just finished post-production on that, so will start to find ways of getting it in front of audiences. It’s just been selected for its first festival in Barcelona in October, and hopefully we’ll be able to bring SALLY’S SUNSHINE to the Southend Film Festival next year.
Q. If someone is looking to get into filmmaking, what advice would you give them?
A. Make sure you love the script and the story you are trying to tell. It will be all consuming for weeks or months, so you need to be prepared for that and have the passion to drive it over the line. Surround yourself with a great cast and crew who love to collaborate, they will help elevate your story. And finally, just do it! You learn so much by doing. Find a great script, grab a camera, and get out there!
Chad will be playing at the Southend Film Festival on Saturday 7th June at 11am as part of the Mostly Made in Southend Part One.
You can find out more about the festival and purchase tickets for ‘Chad’ 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!
