Midlands on the Move: Emmeline Hartley interview Part 2
As part of our new Midlands on the Move features, we've spoken to local filmmaker Emmeline Hartley about upcoming film Closedown. Check out part one of our chat by clicking here, and in our continuing conversation, Midlands Movies finds out about Leicester actress Parminder Nagra's involvement as well as the exciting developments for soundmixing. Read on to see insight into Emmeline's latest project, which was filmed away from the Midlands region...
Midlands Movies Mike: Parminder Nagra is quite a big name in the film world - did her involvement open any doors for you?
Emmeline Hartley: I actually don’t think I thought to mention Parminder when booking locations/in-kind support as I’ve never needed to name-drop before when filming regionally. I’m a believer that Midlands filmmakers don’t need a big name to acquire support for a short film - aren’t we one of the friendliest places in the world? We’ve certainly filmed in loads of locations across both East and West Midlands where the people who own/run them went out of their way to accommodate and were just happy to be involved. “How can we help?” “What can we do?” “Do you need any food making?” etc.! I’ve had to work so often without a name attached, and have always been able to rely on my community.
MM: What else did you learn from your travels? Were any other places considered?
EH: The biggest thing for me is that I knew I wanted to give London a wide berth! There’s a lot of bureaucracy and locations are so used to film crews that they charge extortionate fees. Not only that, the expenses matter. Trying to work out travel, parking, permits, and logistics can be a nightmare - it’s like producing a film in a different country. And you can’t help but feel like you’re inconveniencing everyone, whereas in the regions, people want you there and seem to genuinely want to help.
MM: Did you need to find any other crew further afield once you knew you weren't filming locally?
EH: Yes, thanks to some trusty WhatsApp groups I'm in, we found a lovely makeup artist in Kent and a couple of crew from London who were happy to make the commute. We also put the odd tweet out on Michael's twitter as he has a decent following, and through that, we managed to find an amazing 70s TV that we used as a prop, and we also met our amazing supervising sound editors Nina Hartstone and Louise Burton, who were epic to work with and were fans of Michael's work, which was lovely.
MM: Wow. What happened next?
EH: Nina brought in her own all-female team and they were so helpful. Later, myself, Simon (our editor) and Michael were invited to watch the final mix at Pinewood which was quite a thrill. Also, a few of her team and others that came on board throughout the project are from, or have strong ties to, the Midlands, so despite being down south a lot for this project, it was really cool to still be like, “Midlands Represent!"
MM: It’s great to hear you still maintained the flavour, and attitude, of a Midlands production.
EH: Yes, my approach and attitude to making films, like fundraising for example, is to think very outside the box. I think there are some limitations that come with learning or intellectualising everything before getting stuck in, and when I started producing I managed to avoid that by throwing myself in the deep end and figuring it out along the way. That means obviously I’ve had my share of mistakes and difficulties, but I’m good at finding creative solutions, and turning limitations into opportunities. It’s sometimes like playing a game without knowing the rules, because I might ask questions that others might see as an overstep, but that’s what unlocks doors. But, and I think this is in true Midlands style, I make sure to always go above and beyond in what I can give back to others, as I wouldn’t have achieved anything without incredible support from them.
MM: So what’s up next for the film?
EH: We are now approaching film festivals but our funding is tight and they are expensive to submit to. We’ve sent it off to a few though and crossing our fingers that we get a couple of nice selections. I’m sure we’ll eventually look at putting it online. We are very proud of what we’ve made, and hoping we can come together again for another some day!
MM: Thank you so much for speaking to us about your project. Your insight into undertaking production work "on the road" is a huge eye-opener into the world of filmmaking away from the Midlands. And one that fellow local creatives will no doubt learn a lot from. And best of luck with the film for the future!
To find out more about Closedown and the cast and crew check out these links:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt37728473/
https://www.instagram.com/mrmichaelspicer
