Film: The Woman In The Plastic Skin
Director: Thomas George
Writers: Thomas George, Harvey Thompson
Actors: Sam Jones, Courtney Middleton, Harvey Thompson, Thomas George
Synopsis: A disgruntled investigative journalist consumed by an old case uncovers a box of videotapes that promise to answer his questions, but each tape brings him closer to a chilling truth that could cost him everything.
In a new exclusive interview on Blazing Minds ahead of the Southend Film Festival, I got a chance to ask Co-Writer Harvey Thompson and Co-Writer / Director Thomas George a few questions about his film ‘The Woman In The Plastic Skin‘.
The Woman In The Plastic Skin will be playing at the Southend Film Festival on 7th June at 6.30pm as part of the Mostly Made in Southend Part One.
Q. Your film ‘The Woman In The Plastic Skin’ has been selected to play at the Southend Film Festival. Can you tell us what we can expect from the film?
A. First, we want to thank the festival for choosing our small film to be screened at the festival. It’s a great honour to share the line-up with so many filmmakers we respect and admire. In terms of our film, expect to see a genre bending and visually striking film that will hopefully leave you scratching your heads and trying to piece together the ultimate message of the film. The film was the inaugural winner of the Bristol 48 Hour Film Project, so just getting screened anywhere is a major achievement for us.
We hope the film can inspire others to pick up a camera and make something of their own, if we can make this in one night fuelled by energy drinks and pizza, so can you!
Q. How did the idea come about for the film come about, and what were your inspirations when writing the script?
A. Well, the film was conceived, written, shot and edited in two days as part of the 48 Hour Film Project, contestants are given a genre, a prop and a character and must make a film inside of two days. We were very lucky to have gotten horror/thriller, so ideas came to us very quickly as this is a genre we have both grown up watching and working within. We had an old idea for a script a few years ago about a loner that
spends a lot of time going down online rabbit holes, and this film kind of stemmed from that original premise, although now much shorter and simpler. I am very interested in the extremity of human behaviour at times, what makes people tick, why are people obsessed with seemingly weird or unusual
things? This kind of came from going down a rabbit hole of my own a few years ago while researching
kinks for another project that ultimately merged into this one. We are hoping to evolve this story in the
future, with more time, budget and crew, so watch this space for updates surrounding that.
Q. What were some of the influences for the look and style of the film?
A. David Cronenberg and Jane Schoenbrun were two huge influences on the writing and filming of the film, especially in the sense of technology being a focal point of our film and their films. Blending these two filmmakers together allows us to appreciate the old and new voices of horror, especially as both filmmakers explore sexuality and technology marrying the two themes together, something we wanted to
replicate in our film. We’re All Going To The World’s Fair (2021) was a particular influence for us based on the presentation and its underlying themes, something we found so fresh, exciting and innovative. In my
opinion, its one of the best films of the last decade.
Having both grown up in the 90s, VHS technology and the emergence of the internet were big developing points of our childhood. We wanted to replicate that low-fi tech feeling in our film, we shot on three different video formats for the film, and we are hoping it comes across as an authentic piece, capturing a moment in time.
Q. Where there any elements of the original script which were adapted during filming?
A. Yes, we basically re-wrote everything and changed a lot of it due to the restrictions of the shoot itself.
Limitations often breed creativity, though, and it felt as though we were having to think outside of the box with a lot of the shoot. One example is that we originally wanted the film to be set across multiple days and multiple locations, with the time perimeters in place, though, this was impossible. We decided to
change the script to fit one location and one character. This made life so much easier for us but did make
up a lot of bickering on set between the two of us.
Q. You both appear in the film. Did you write the script with yourselves in mind when writing the script?
A. Haha, no! Due to the constraints of the shoot, finding two people that were free to come over and record voice over was very difficult, we just decided to do it ourselves. We are not actors, so please do
not judge us too harshly on our voice acting ability. I guess this is the charm of independent filmmaking
haha!
Q. What were some of your favourite moments whilst making the Film?
A. Given the perimeters of the shoot, it all happened so fast. I think just finishing the film on time was an achievement unto itself. The final day, I sat there for what seemed like hours editing the film together, it was getting close to the hand in time, and it seemed as though we may not make it in time.
Thankfully we did, and we ended up winning the whole competition, which was a surprise to all of us. It was honestly just great to spend time with Harvey making this film, we have both worked on other people’s projects for the past few years, so it was great to put our heads together and come up with our own ideas for a change. It was really refreshing, and it has now opened doors for us that were not open before.
Q. Did you experience any issues whilst making the film?
A. Yes… A lot! Filming on a two-day schedule was very difficult, finding actors and crew that could film on such short notice and with demanding hours was always going to be an impossible task. We managed to rope our partners into helping us (Courtney playing the titular Woman, and Ffion helping us design the sets.) This meant myself and Harvey were having to do multiple jobs at once, sometimes I was directing, whilst editing and doing sound, and Harvey was running the cameras and doing all the lighting simultaneously. We also run into several issues while using the VHS playback, we lost wires, had to run out and buy some more, even knocking on neighbours’ doors at one point to try and find a specific VGA converter cable. At the time it was draining, but looking back it was a whole lot of fun and has made us better filmmakers.
Q. What do you hope people will take away from the film?
A. We are hoping people can see the potential that Harvey and I possess, with this being made in 2 nights, we want people to get inspired and hopefully pick up a camera and decided that they can do this too. We have both worked in the industry for close to a decade now, and we have always been hired guns for other people’s projects. This was the first time we worked on our own script, and we would love if people vibed with the material, understood what we were going for and saw how much love and care we have for genre films. Genre films can be super violent, scary and silly but they can also make you think and challenge social norms, oftentimes holding up a mirror to society’s insecurities and fears. We want our voices to be heard and for people to come up with their own interpretation of what they think the film means, we would love to hear any thoughts.
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are working on?
A. Yes, we are currently wrapping up production on an upcoming documentary that is centred around a Welsh Miners recounting his and his father’s life and struggles during the Miners’ strike. Filming for this has been very rocky and has taken a lot longer than anticipated… mainly due to the Welsh weather. We are hoping to get this released by the summer holidays and shown in festivals around the UK and beyond. After that we have a script underway on another short film, this time revolving around a young boy growing up in the South Wales Valleys in the early 2000s, the film is sort of autobiographical and will be our most ambitious project together so far. While we both are huge genre film fans, my heart really lies with British Social Realism cinema as those are the stories I find myself relating to the most.
As previously mentioned, we are hoping to turn THE WOMAN IN THE PLASTIC SKIN into a bigger project in the future, we have so many great ideas for where it could go. We have discussed potentially trying to crowdfund it next year, but time will tell!
Q. If someone is looking to get into filmmaking, what advice would you give them?
A. Find your own voice and don’t try to follow in others footsteps or follow trends. Make the film that you want to watch, because chances are, somebody else does too.
You can find out more about the festival and purchase tickets for ‘The Woman In The Plastic Skin’ 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!
