Did you have much experience in film before you
made Black Biscuit ?
Nothing but a love for movies.
I’ve always been into underground cinema, stuff like Andy Warhols early Edie
Sedgwick films, Tarnation, Julien Donkey Boy, Buffalo
To get rid of
professionalism, actors, plot, story boards, traditions and create a film that
stands alone and new.
How did you finance the film ?
I didnt sit down one day and
say ‘Im going to get a budget together, then Im gonna find some actors, then
locations…’ no, I just did it on the run.
Filming took about 1 year. If
I met someone who was interesting, or charismatic I’d ask them if they wanted
to be in a movie with me.
Whatever. Some of the cast were
people who aspired to be actors but I had them play themselves. We’re
surrounded by superstars and we don’t even see it.
I was working as a life
model, and I just fed that money into the project. I also went from door to
door asking people to donate 1gbp.
The film cost about 500gbp to
make. It was shot on my mobile phone, and some childrens cameras. I was going
through a Jim Jones cult, vampire, psychedelic 60’s faze when I made it.
It’s a very distinctive film, what gave you the
concept ?
I just thought that there
were a lot of unwritten laws, rules, and targets that filmmakers subconsciously
have tattooed on their brains about cinema.
That cinemas should look and
be a certain way.
All this film dogma come’s
from critics, film teachers, internet trolls, and some of the film festival
submission rules. And for a young filmmaker all that can really kill your
style.
I don’t like being told what
to do when it comes to being creative, so I made a film that would burn all
these misconceptions on how to make a feature film.
You don’t need experience,
technology, money, or even a plan to do it, just let the love of being creative
take over you on the spot.
Theres a lot of footage ?
There’s a lot of life out
there.
What is the plot of the film ?
The film is more about a spirit
than a plot, I guess I wanted to capture today’s zeitgeist.
I see a lot of disappointment
and isolation. Young kids who cant find direction or work, mass social
surveillance with CCTV, celebrity culture, governments you cant trust.
We’re living in an untrusting
world, we’ve almost got too much freedom, but no freedom.
This century is going to be a
Catch 22 I can feel it.
I chose to look for the most
common character of our times. Lost misfits.
People that don’t belong
anywhere, a Black Biscuit. They live way, way out on the outskirts of society.
Whether your homeless, or a internet
media whore your still missing.
I wanted to show the world these
characters, and to get rid of some of the myths that surround’s the lonesome
drifter anti-hero. The Film director as the new modern rebel.
The films technique is very diverse, what led
you to this style ?
I just work off the cusp, I
don’t plan at all. I sit down and follow a path. Some days I’ll feel like Im
from the 1920’s, another day I might be choppy or in a cinema-verite mood.
Im constantly changing,
shedding my skin, Im like a rolling stone not gathering any moss. I don’t follow
trends, I live in my own strange universe.
I guess Im a bit like that
character from American Beauty, the one who films the plastic bag….Ricky
something.
I see beauty in a lot of
trivial things, stuff that gets lost in this fast world we live in.
The types of films I love
often get called pretentious, but I feel that’s just from people who don’t have
an open mind and are scared of the unknown.
Try something new, and be a
creator not a critic.
