A Walking Shadow (2017)
Director: Bradley Barton, Alice Ryan
Writer: Bradley Barton
Stars: Natalie Sheriff, Penny Peters, John Newell, Alice Ryan, Cresseida Barton
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 producer and co-director Alice Ryan a few questions about the film
A Walking Shadow which has been selected to play at the festival.
Q. A Walking Shadow has been selected to play at The Southend-on-Sea Film Festival. What can we expect from the film?
A beautiful dialogue driven drama that will really get you thinking about life, the universe and everything! It has a positive message for all, written from a place of love about how the struggles of life can actually guide you to be the best you can be.
The acting will really draw you in and our DOP and editor Dan Keeble has done a wonderful job of making it look gorgeous.
Q. How did the original concept for the film come about?
Not only has Bradley been influenced by some fantastic directors and productions, but I believe that the very basis of the story, learning to ‘live after death’ was also influenced by a family bereavement, which makes the story so much more personal and easier to connect with.
Q. Where there any elements in the final film which were different from your original script?
When I first read the script, one of the great things about it was that the characters were very interesting and were described on the page in such neutral way they could have been any age and any gender, leaving a great variety of options for casting. Which was so refreshing to read!
After noticing this I approached Bradley to ask how he would feel about making the leads Rikki and Sam, female and thankfully he was very open to the idea. We need more scripts like this where there aren’t continuous male and female stereotypes and all characters are strong in their own right.
It’s rather shocking how many castings I see or scripts where the female characters are relegated to ‘girlfriend’ or ‘mum’, the majority are rather two dimensional and considered ‘middle aged’ by the age of 30. So to have a script where both characters are well rounded and female, we’re hoping we can buck a trend of generic male lead characters and female characters that have no worth on screen. Natalie Sherriff as Rikki and Penny Peters as Sam are truly superb, and we were very lucky to have them on set.
We also added a character, originally written for a named actor that we were unable to secure due to scheduling issues, but that didn’t stop us! Local actor John Newell did a wonderful job. (And this proves in filming that you should ALWAYS have a Plan B!)
Bradley was very open to the changes and as the script was very close to his heart, I thank him for being open minded enough to recognise that often in the filmmaking process scripts needs to adapt and evolve to be the best they can be.
Q. Alice, in addition to co-directing you also produced the film, can you tell me a little bit about your role as a producer?
I produced A WALKING SHADOW as well as working very closely with the actors.
A ‘producer’ is a term that covers a variety of different jobs to help put together a short film. On a bigger budget production there would be multiple producers with different tasks. That would include working on pre-production such finding crew, cast, locations, props, costumes etc. and post production working with the director and editor and helping to promote the film. But as I say when it’s just one producer it can be a bit tiring! But it’s a very rewarding job being able to bring likeminded creatives together to make a great movie!
It’s certainly a juggle when you have to act and produce as I have done for another one of our films SILENT HYMNS OF LIGHT CAFÉ and for Reset Media Productions HUMAN CARGO (To be shown on 25th may) If you have the right team around you they’ll give you the time to get into character before you start your scenes. Jumping from checking if everyone else is ready and ok to making sure you are set to go can be rather tricky, but so far, the balance has worked well with the understanding teams I’ve worked with.
Q. What were your influences for the look and style of the film?
Bradley and Dan worked tirelessly to make sure it looked the way they wanted and I certainly couldn’t be happier with the style and look.
Q. What was the hardest part of making the film and did you experience any difficulties?
Getting cast and crew together is always tricky job, let alone throwing in locations, catering and promoting it. Thankfully our cast and crew were very professional and our locations not very complicated.
For our first film we were very lucky that we only had a few setbacks. Certain shots had to be dropped simply due to time restrictions which is a common issue on film set- I’d always recommend giving yourself more time then you’d ever need in case of problems out of your control. Overall the shoot was very smooth.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
I enjoyed all of it! The atmosphere on set was great, the actors were very professional, and everyone had a mutual respect for what our crew and cast were doing. It was an absolute joy to work with the team, you cannot beat the buzz of a film set.
Q. Do you have any new projects which you are working on?
We’re looking to do another short film as soon as possible! Scripts are being edited as we speak! And networking is taking place to ensure we have another great team once again.
Q. What advice would you give to someone who is looking to direct their own film.
GO FOR IT! Get networking, read up on what you need to make a film, meet likeminded individuals, recognise your strengths and weaknesses and be aware that your first film not be perfect but if you’ve succeeded in one challenge then you can do it again!
It’s a lot of work but really a lot of fun, remember all the work you’ll have to do post-production as well as pre-production and get a good supportive team behind you.
If you have a dedicated cast and crew then you can do anything!
Thank you to EVERYONE who helped us make A WALKING SHADOW, we couldn’t have done it without you.
You can find out more about future project from Tulpa Films by following them on Facebook and Twitter and for enquiries you can email directly on
Tulpafilmproductions@gmail.com
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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