Not Yet the Hero (2019)
Director: Peter Finlay
Writer: Peter Finlay
Stars: Marius Clements, Megan Condon, Wendy Morgan, Keith Chanter, Lewis Sheldrake, Samantha Anderson, Angela Clements
The Southend-on-Sea Film Festival will be returning for its 11th year from 23rd May to 27th May. In preparation for the event I got an opportunity to ask writer-director Peter Finlay a few questions about the film ‘Not Yet the Hero‘ which has been selected to play at the festival.
Q. What can we expect from your short film, Not Yet the Hero has been selected to play at The Southend-on-Sea Film Festival.
We feel that we’ve produced what feels like a big film. That it’s got big production values and one thing that you can’t argue with, for a fifteen-minute film it has a very big cast of 94!
Q. What were your inspirations for the story when writing the film?
Well, it’s about a young chap who is writing a film script. I’m not young, quite the opposite, but I have written and am writing lots of scripts.
Q. What were your influences for the look and style?
We were looking to make some parts very naturalistic, very normal but then to create some big occasions and there’s certainly one scene where I definitely was aiming for a Cohen Brothers look to the setting and action.
Q. Did you experience any issues or challenges whilst making Not Yet the Hero?
The biggest challenge was co-ordinating the cast with when the locations were vailable. Sometimes it was like carrying water in a sieve that as fast as we got the location sorted and some of the cast available others were suddenly unable to make it. Luckily everybody eventually did arrive at the same places at the same times.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
The first day, on a deserted Westcliff seafront at six in the morning was really exciting as we parked the van and set up for a scene halfway through the film. A beautiful morning and bloody cold, especially for our character ‘Beach Babe’ whose costume was little more than three eye patches.
Q. Did you make any changes from the original script during filming?
I re-wrote a number of scenes and added two completely new ones during the shooting. The final script was version seventeen.
Q. Do you have any new projects which you are working on?
I have a couple of short film scripts almost ready, a stage play ready to try out with a cast and I’m writing another stage play at the moment.
Q. If someone is looking to direct own film, what advice would you give them?
Re-write the script. Â Get someone who has made a good film to read it and then re-write again and get the best Director of Photography you can afford. Dan who shot my film is always in demand for a very good reason.
The Southend-on-Sea Film Festival runs from Thursday 23rd May to Monday 27th May. You can find out more about the event and purchase tickets on the website https://www.southendfilmfestival.com
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!
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