Lee Kemp

When I watch films I haven’t seen for years two things usually happen. I realise the film isn’t as good as I remember which is a shame but it does happen more often than I like. But I also spot actors from early parts of their career. I’m pretty good with actor’s names so I tend to go “oh look, it’s…” rather than “isn’t that…?”

I know that makes me an insufferable smart arse. Even worse, it’s a cross I bear with nothing even approaching dignity I’m afraid. But it is a fun game to play. As well as spotting Richard Branson in movies (Superman Returns, Casino Royale) and other little oddities that i’m convinced other people don’t quite spot.

The best example of this is Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album cover cleverly projected at a certain point in Almost Famous (if you haven’t spotted it, i’m not telling you).

Yesterday it was Paul Giamatti in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

When I watched Rock ‘n’ Rolla I had a reverse “oh look, it’s…” moment. Given that i’ve seen Toby Kebbell in a smaller, far, far, superior in every single possible way kind of movie; Dead Man’s Shoes. He played Anthony, mentally handicapped brother of the protagonist Richard. If you haven’t seen it please go and buy it. It’s probably dirt cheap in HMV, it’s British in a way that doesn’t need a cultural test to prove it (yes Potter, I’m looking at you). It’s got the mighty, mighty Paddy Considine and it’s directed by Shane Meadows. Both of whom score very highly in the “who would you have a lock-in down your local with” stakes.

Then there’s Good Will Hunting. “Oh look, it’s Casey Affleck“. I haven’t yet seen The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford but I have seen Gone Baby Gone and it’s excellent. Casey Affleck just nails this character and here’s when you know it: there’s a moment that Patrick (Affleck) gets into a scrape in a nasty bar and escapes through a combination of being insanely ballsy and knowing when to pull his gun and smack someone with it. The biggest part though is being ballsy and he knows it. He gets back outside, the gun goes back in his pants and relief is pouring out of every sweaty pore as the camera circles around him. Just as we start to fade, just at that final moment with the sun behind him, he cracks the tiniest, slightest relieved smile. It’s a smile that just says “fuck, I can’t believe I pulled that off” and it’s just glorious acting made even more perfect by the editor’s timing of the fade.

So next time you watch Good Will Hunting you can go “Oh look it’s Casey Affleck” because he’s proper famous now, and hopefully on the trajectory he deserves, like Toby Kebble.

*33.3% of the title of this post is punctuation. I’m not sure that’s ever going to be a good thing.

Following a cheeky request from me to get a total stranger to design something for me, I got invited to write a guest post on the One Day for Human Rights campaign. I was very late getting it back to her but I finally got it finished yesterday and you can read it here if you want

I used to get kind of annoyed at Uni because people would ask me if, because I’d been in the army, whether I’d killed anyone. About halfway through the second year it changed, and people would just ask me how many people I’d killed. So I have a bit of a ‘thing’ about how people perceive soldiers. That’s what started it anyway.

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I love this Ad. Ed pointed me at a cool website for people that like to know about the movie business called Dolly Grippery. The most recent post on there is about excellent dolly moves and this ad was one of their favourites. Personally I like it for the idea, but either way it’s brilliant.

I was in a funny situation the other day. It was the last day of our Land Rover shoot and we were shooting around Limehouse Link tunnel in London to fulfil a particular shot requirement. We had two very experienced car photographers with us. Given that we shooting from moving vehicle to moving vehicle in the tunnel they wanted to be driving the camera vehicle. This made sense given that they had vastly more experience. Further, the tunnel was open to the public so unpredictability was a factor. The crew were strapped in the back with five point harnesses, risk assessments complete, safety briefings done, permissions completed and police guidance and approval sought and confirmed from the Metropolitan Police Film Unit. The problem was that the photographers didn’t have the correct vehicle authority forms filled out for Land Rover so wouldn’t be insured.

I had been working very closely with our producer in the weeks preceding the shoot. We even did the same health and safety course a few months ago with 1st Option. She had jumped through all kinds of hoops to get the Vehicle Loan Authority forms filled out by the right people to have enough drivers for the mass convoy we were dragging around the country and to make sure we were covered in case anything went wrong. The photographers didn’t have the forms so they wouldn’t be insured and if anything went wrong Land Rover would look to us for the repair or replacement of damaged vehicles, about £650k in total. Furthermore I think our public liability insurance would likely be invalid or irrelevant for any injuries caused.

Having the photographers drive was actually a safer option. Vehicle to vehicle is one of those things that becomes more complicated just because you think it is and you’re suddenly devoting 90% of your brain to driving when it’s normally it’s probably 15% at best. It’s like doing your driving test, suddenly people are watching and it’s harder. But safer wouldn’t cut it because you can’t legislate for the disturbing proportion of idiots on the roads or the common sense bypass many drivers undertake when getting behind the wheel. But they’ve done lots of this kind of driving over many years and experience is crucial.

Ultimately it wasn’t my decision but it was within my power to influence my producer and here was my dilemma. The right decision was obvious. I’ve spent three years helping build my company and I wasn’t going to lose it because someone random driver was texting behind the wheel and ploughed into a vehicle we weren’t insured to drive.

But I couldn’t help thinking that James Cameron would steam on regardless because he’s James Cameron and he gets to scream at studio executives to get off his set. I couldn’t help thinking that Michael Bay would manage the same sort of thing because apparently he wants to be a lot like James Cameron. And I couldn’t help thinking that David Fincher wouldn’t be considering any of this because he’s just about the most prepared director in the world and he probably gets the Stig to drive his camera cars.

We talked about it for a little while. I didn’t think it would make that much difference who was driving but I damn sure wanted my company to be covered in the unfortunate event of an accident. But the main reason I decided not to push it was that I work closely with my producer every day of the week. I couldn’t overrule her, but I could have been sneaky and swapped drivers once we were out of sight or put emotional pressure on her to relent or thrown a Cameron style tantrum to get my own way. But ultimately I’m conscious of and place great store in loyalty. I like to have it in the people around me and I like to show it to the people I work with. Our shoots are generally built around the same core team and though we sometimes have turbulent relationships between the key people, we can and do rely on each other to do what each of us does best.

I made the decision to back my producer up and we went and spoke to the photographers. They put up a valiant defence and we were ultimately forced to pull rank. It was our shoot.

In a bizarre twist of fate it turned out they did have the correct forms, they just hadn’t mentioned them before now. So they drove and we all got the shots we needed. The downside is, they really did show what advantages are gained by having plenty of experience in this area and we got shots we wouldn’t have come close to if someone else had been driving.

So if i’m in the same situation again, I know i’ll make the same choice but this time i’ll know what i’m having to give up.

I like to think the holistic approach works. I’ve produced, first AD’d, written, directed and shot stuff before. All of which is at a pretty minor level and generally when the right people weren’t available. But when you’re up against time and the light is running out, pressure tends to build up pretty quickly regardless of the stakes. I’m sure multiplying pressure by the budget has a chronic effect but in those cases where there is a budget to multiply by, there’s a lot more people with their eye on the ball.

If you know how hard someone’s job is then you know how hard they’re working, or you can recognise when they’re not. You’ll know if they’re better than you (they should be) so you’ll know when to listen to them. You’ll also know when to overrule them because you’re the only one that really knows how important any one shot is.

The point of all this is that I think a lot of directing is about getting the best out of people. It certainly helps knowing and understanding what you’re asking them to do.

As always there’s a counter-argument. You have to be ignorant of some things or risk being ignorant of everything (I can’t remember who said that). I have this pinned up next to my desk at work to inhibit my desire to be the best at everything. It’s an annoying trait that is massively counter-productive to my true ambitions. It’s also the one quirk the four directors of my company share. It can be counter-productive there too.

I guess finding the balance is always the hard part.

It’s been a long week. We had scheduling fun all week, particularly trying to fit a photoshoot into an already packed film shoot, but the results always looked good on the monitor. Sufficient preparation allowed us to accommodate a constantly changing schedule, mainly due to the vagaries of shooting in the Dorset countryside in December.

I have some more tips for myself, next time round:

If you’re doing a car film, there is much better stuff around for cleaning it than the first stuff that comes to mind.

Sometimes its ok to step back. If you’ve got two very experienced specialist car photographers (David Shepherd and Nick Dimbleby) and a DP with a gift for lighting putting magic together in front of your eyes, you don’t need to stamp your mark on it. Incidentally Ed put together a great team with Phil Wood as camera assistant and Michelle Arbon, fresh from her MA Screenwriting as pretty much every other job.

A British Army identity card is sufficient permission for filming at Canary Wharf.

If you leave ‘wiggle room’ for soldiers to interpret instructions in a way that is fun and interesting for them. They will. I already knew this. That is not the lesson. Here is the lesson, make sure EVERYONE else knows that.

Write down the relevant name and address of every location you like. You never know when you’ll need them again.

A 5 point harness when shooting vehicle to vehicle doesn’t really solve any safety problems, but it keeps the police happy.

Preparation is absolutely King.

The most common question you will be asked is “what’s next?” Always having the answer only comes from being prepared (spotting a theme yet?)

Everyone has good ideas. If you’re the director, it is apparently ok to steal them. You won’t get to have personal conversations with everyone that watches the film and explain who specifically did what, so people will eventually think it was your idea. That’s really cool for you but sucks for everyone else!

I’m stealing this one from Nick Booth. It doesn’t matter how beautiful it is, if it doesn’t cut together it’s a waste of time.

As Roy Batty was feeling in Bladerunner. Time is very, very precious.

It’s the end of day one on our shoot for the Armoured Land Rover Discovery. Generally went ok. This is the biggest shoot i’ve directed in every respect, budget, actors, length and scale of production, you name it.

Here’s the list of stuff i’ll be writing down to read through before I prepare my next shoot:

When someone from a location that you’ve paid a lot of money for lies to your face, call them out, or smash them in theirs. Fuckers.

Secure permission, or at least warn people, that you’re gonna let off smoke bombs.

Scheduling is king.

It is impossible to overprepare, despite trying really hard to do that very thing.

Hot food is one up from being king.

When you get to direct stuff, all of those other little jobs you’ve had to do in the past that were all equally the most important part of your job, are no longer your job. Let someone else worry, your place is by the monitor or talking to actors.

Actors are ace.

It’s not just this shot, its the shot before and the shot after.

Every single thing in the frame is your responsibility.

This is the single best job in the world besides RAF fast jet pilot or astronaut.

Hand brakes serve a valid function and should be used whenever they’re available.