Film / News
Bristol student’s £350 indie feature gets private screening at Watershed
Written, directed by and starring Bristol student Sam Toller on a budget of just £350 (no misprint!), Alan is a locally shot coming-of-age yarn about the eponymous 17-year-old who thinks his life has peaked and it’s all downhill from now on. Displaying a flair for PR as well as filmmaking, Sam describes it as “Skins meets Woody Allen”. This is his debut feature after a series of shorts and will be screened at the Watershed on June 11, though this is not part of the media centre’s public programme.
“The film emerged out of a teenage break up and living through the scary process of looking at universities and trying to feel out some sense of your future at the age of sixteen,” Sam Tells us. “I’ve been writing and filmmaking since I was fourteen, so even at seventeen it seemed like a good way to understand all the changes and to lighten my own mood was to write a film script, exacerbating the idiocy of it all for comedic effect. A few years later still, I was in my second year of university and decided to make the film, which was written in a style that would be achievable on a small budget.
“Woody Allen’s films were a big inspiration for me, hence the name of the title character. I always describe it in a nutshell as Skins meets Woody Allen; you take the classic coming of age plot-lines, but focus on this 17-year-old who is pessimistic yet ambitious, fearful, clingy and self-centred to try and produce some comedy and some poetry too. I really love the directing style of Woody Allen, as it’s simple yet beautiful and lets the actors really perform and tell the story. I’m a massive filmie, and so there are countless references in the film; scenes inspired by Pulp Fiction in their direction, countless Shaun of the Dead references, and a lot of literary references too. As a sixth form student, half of your life seems to revolve around the books you study. One of my favourite parts is a mock essay a character writes about The Great Gatsby, which is analogous to the situation of Alan, and to an extent me when I wrote it; I love a sprinkling of meta.”
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Bristol, he says, was great to shoot in. “As a Bristol student, many of the University buildings were easily accessible, which meant that scenes involving Alan looking at the Uni were relatively easy to set up. There’s also a scene in The White Lion bar in Clifton, which has a beautiful view of Clifton Bridge in the background; perhaps another, less intentional Woody Allen reference. My shooting style has always been quite guerrilla; it has to be when shooting on a no-lo budget. We used The White Harte too, which actually stands in for a London pub. Being a student here and using actors from the city means that Bristol stands in for London quite regularly (as Alan lives in London) but Bristol has and is fantastic for a large number of things, filming here being one of them.”
But how on earth to you manage to turn out a feature for just £350? “Keeping the script simple was vital for keeping the budget low. Focusing on humour, character and good dialogue means that you don’t have to spend money on explosions and costumes and things. You just get a small but solid crew together (of likeminded students who are willing to work for passion and a credit) and make sure that your actors are giving a performance that’ll keep the audience engaged, and then your overheads are relatively low. We also used equipment from Inhouse Media, a student production company at the University of Bristol that I’m part of, which kept costs low. And then it’s just getting creative; in Hollywood they’ll throw money at a problem, but as a small filmmaker you have to use ingenuity instead.”
So what’s next? “What a scary question for someone about to graduate with an Arts degree. I plan to move back to London and continue acting, get back into stand up comedy which is great fun and keeps you sharp, to keep writing and see what happens. I’ll be coming back to Bristol frequently. How could I not? And I’ll be sending Alan to some film festivals in the near future. I’m actually about to start crowdfunding to support the festival run, so people will be able to download the film and watch it within the next few weeks.”
For more on the screening of Alan, see the event’s Facebook page.
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