Film: The Lone Wanderer / On Reflection
Director: Alexander Chettur
Writers: Alexander Chettur
Actors:
The Lone Wanderer – Wendy Morgan, David Streames, Oscar Degirolamo, Rosie Rees-Brown, Harry Fitzpatrick
On Reflection – Alexander Chettur, Jake Webb, Sophie Winter, Bryony Pollard, Patrick Crowley
Synopsis:
The Lone Wanderer – The Lone Wanderer follows an Old Man that takes a walk to a place that is peaceful and quiet, however, he is faced with difficult odds to get there.
On Reflection – 8 People within 2 different environments take a moment within life to look back at people that were special to them.
In a new exclusive interview on Blazing Minds I got a chance to ask Writer-Director Alexander Chettur a few questions about his short films ‘The Lone Wanderer’ & ‘On Reflection’ which have been selected to play at the festival.
‘The Lone Wanderer’ and ‘On Reflection’ will be playing at the Southend Film Festival on Saturday 7th June at 11am as part of the Mostly Made in Southend Part 1.
Q. Your shorts ‘The Lone Wanderer’ & ‘On Reflection’ have been selected to play at the Southend Film Festival. Can you tell us what we can expect from each film?
A. From ‘The Lone Wanderer’, you can expect to see a story that unfortunately plays out more commonly in this day and age with regards to how people are treated by others along with the heavy weight of grief one is carrying and being stepped down by society without any hint of this until the end of the story.
As for ‘On Reflection’, you can see a story of grief with a sense of optimism within dealing with the loss of someone close, whether it’s a friend or family member, people go through significant losses by using two different backdrops to represent this, it goes to show this can occur anywhere.
Q. How did the idea for each film come about and What were your inspirations when writing the script?
A. So both ideas came during times of grief for the loss of my late grandparents, ‘On Reflection’ was a creative piece I wrote on the last day I saw my Grandmother and did a speech of at her funeral, I was walking near a river in my home town which then gave me the idea for ‘On Reflection’.
For ‘The Lone Wanderer’, this came down as a what if for my late Grandfather who would have a routine, but would always wonder if a situation where he comes into conflict would occur and knowing his pacifistic nature, how would he deal with it given the burdens he had to deal with and wasn’t transparent with them.
Q. What were some of the influences for the look and style of the films?
A. I knew both films needed to have the Black and White look to show the contextual nature of the worlds they take place in, which is similar I would say looking back on them.
In regards to the look of ‘The Lone Wanderer’, I knew there had to be a small section of colour in the film right near the end of the film to provide our main character Jonathan (played by David Streames) when he sees Hilary (played by Wendy Morgan) to give him a sense of hope in life and then for the hope to disappear for him hitting back to reality.
As for ‘On Reflection’, I knew the pace of this was going to be significantly slower, so I wanted to show a split screen effect of both locations with the distinction of the grief and walk occurring for each of our characters.
Q. Where there any elements of the original script which were adapted during filming?
A. I wouldn’t say there was too much that was changed from the original script, there was an alternative ending for ‘The Lone Wanderer’ that heavily featured voiceover which I wanted to see the actual person in the film which I think works better for the final version of the film.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments whilst making the films?
A. For ‘On Reflection’, I would say working with some amazing people and filming in two very distinctive locations, London and Essex to showcase the City and Country landscapes for the film.
For ‘The Lone Wanderer’, for me, it was working with the incredible and determined cast and crew and having the faith from David Streames and Wendy Morgan to bring this project to life!
Q. Did you experience any issues whilst making the film?
A. For ‘On Reflection’, I would say this was more of a challenge rather than an issue, but did occur during the production, we had to film this project over a few months which was due to availability of everyone which worked out, but, it would have been perfect to have done this during the same time of year.
As for ‘The Lone Wanderer’, there was much more challenges we had to deal with as the time of year we was filming, there was a Storm, more specifically, Storm Dennis, which brought many obstacles including weather conditions and sound recording, however, we all powered through with an optimistic mindset and got to the final film we have today.
Q. What do you hope people will take away from the film?
A. I hope people watching both films are able to look at Grief in two distinctive ways, for ‘On Reflection’ looking at the world and taking time with your grief along with remembering those you love who you have lost in the best way along with having people to talk too and going through it in your own time.
With ‘The Lone Wanderer’, I hope people can look at how they behave around strangers and know that people deep down have their own problems and baggage they are dealing with and just to walk away from conflict if this occurs as sometimes, its not worth it.
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are working on?
A. So currently, I’m wrapping post production on a comedy western called ‘D R A W !’ which follows 3 bounty hunters that are tracking down the most dangerous person in all the west, The Grey Death. And for this current year, I’m not planning on shooting anything, however, I do have some ideas for 2026 and all I want to say is that it involves superheroes and that’s all for now.
Q. If someone is looking to write and direct their first film, what advice would you give them?
A. If you have the idea, the drive, the determination and know people who want to do it, do it! As there are more ways to make a film now compared to the early days of Stephen Spielberg and Edgar Wright making their films, so if you have an idea, you have the ability to tell your story.
‘The Lone Wanderer’ and ‘On Reflection’ will be playing at the Southend Film Festival on Saturday 7th June at 11am as part of the Mostly Made in Southend Part 1.
You can find out more about Writer-Director Alexander Chettur and the production Company Silver Moon Pictures using the following links: LinkedIn – Facebook – Instagram – YouTube – IMDb
You can find out more about the festival and purchase tickets for both ‘The Lone Wanderer’ & ‘On Reflection’ 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!
