Andrew Haigh By Jonathan Hyde
Andrew Haigh returned with his second feature length movie Weekend last year, a film that took the festival circuit by storm.
The film has just been released on DVD and I caught up with the director to talk about the movie, the casting and how well the movie has been received.
- Weekend is about to be released on DVD so for anyone who hasn't seen the movie yet can you tell me a little bit about it?
It is a story about two guys who meet on a Friday night and they spend the weekend together basically. So it’s kind of a love story, it’s a character story and it’s a story about these two guys who fall for each other.
- You penned the script as well as directed so where did the inspiration for the story come from?
Like a lot of things it was just wanting to tell this story about these two guys and about doing a love story about two gay characters.
It was about that period at the start of a relationship when people start to get to know each other and become intimate and share things and don’t share things. And so it was about that really and also trying to make a movie that didn’t cost too mush money.
- In mainstream cinema we don’t get to see gay relationships portrayed that often, particularly in the detail that you have, so how important was it to you to show a section of society that is perhaps not represented an awful lot on the big screen?
Yeah it was really important I think there are so few, British films anyway, that have dealt with gay subject matter. And I think that it is important because there are a lot of gay people that live in this country and it is important that those issues are discussed.
Times have changed and things have become more equal but there are still issues that are interesting to me to talk about, discuss and explore, and also do it within the confines of a love story.
- This is only your second feature film so how have you found the transition from making shorts?
Not too bad actually. I always found shorts to be a strange thing anyway because you spend so much time working on them that you could have made a feature film in that time.
So it hasn’t been too much of a transition I think. Also I have kept the crews very small and kept everything quite intimate, so it’s not the same as working on a massive feature with two hundred people.
- And what did you learn whilst making your debut feature Greek Pete that you were able to take into this shoot?
I learnt from the documentary aesthetic that that film had and I think I brought that onto this film. And also I wanted to make this feel like this is very real and honest and realistic, so I almost took a documentary approach to making this movie.
- Tom Cullen and Chris New are just two of the actors on the cast list so can you tell me a little bit about the casting process?
We did a relatively traditional casting process and we saw a lot of people. I saw everyone individually and then put them in pairs as I tried to find two people who had chemistry, that was the most important thing for this film; if there was no chemistry that this film was just not going to work.
When I saw Tom and Chris for the first time I just saw something between them that really worked and I just hoped that that would translate into chemistry on screen.
- Well you have touched on my next question really what were you looking for in your central characters and what did you see in Tom & Chris?
The back-story that I had for the characters was quite well defined and even in the casting process I gave people quite a lot of information about the back-story of the characters, so when I saw them they embodied that anyway.
And personality wise what they gave to me just felt right for the characters. But there was just something that they had between each other, it’s really hard to put your finger on that chemistry is but you just see it, we all experience that everyday as you can meet a complete stranger and just gel with them and that is what it is.
- A lot of the movie is shot on the streets so what challenges did that pose as a filmmaker?
It wasn’t really too bad actually, it is difficult because you are out on the streets and while you do get permission there’s just members of the public walking around, But really I think that it just helps the authenticity of the film and I am really glad that we did it like that.
The funny thing is when you do have more money you end up having to recreate situations that you can actually do for no money (laugh) and that is really interesting because they are not as real those situations that you are trying to recreate.
I think if we’d have had more money I would still have done it the same way. It does pose challenges such as people jumping in front of the camera and those sorts of things.
- The movie screened at a whole host of film festivals last year so how have you personally found the response to the movie?
It has been really really interesting as the response has been so good, and that is really nice to see.
And it’s nice to see that it resonates in different parts of the world and with different people and different groups of people; gay and straight, American, Australian Polish, so it seems to work in different places and that is really good to me. I was really happy.
- The film was also screened at the London Film Festival so how was that experience?
That experience was great. We had played at a lot of festivals and in fact the movie was released in America in the cinema before it even played in England, so that was strange to us. But it was nice to come back to England show it here it was really great. There was a really good crowd so it was good.
- The London Film Festival is backed by the BFI so as a new filmmaker how important do you feel that their work is in supporting new talent?
I think it’s really important, as long as they make the right decisions. It is a very tricky job that they have in terms of who do they support and who they don’t support.
But it is vital really because we need that support and we need the money, so thank god they are there really.
- And we are always hearing how difficult it is to get a movie made in this country so how difficult was it getting this project off the ground?
Yeah it was difficult (laughs) it was very hard. We got rejected a lot of times and we didn’t think we were going to be able to make it and there wasn’t enough money. We did get some support at the end and that was good.
So it was hard but it should be hard because they are giving you quite a lot of money, even if it’s low budget it is still money, no one is entitled to get the money so I don’t think that it should be easy.
Yeah it was tough but these things make you believe in your project enough and if you believe in it enough you will get it made and you will find the money from somewhere. It’s a good struggle… sometimes.
- Before moving into directing you worked as an assistant editor on the likes of Gladiator and Mister Lonely so how did those experiences prepare you for making your own movies?
They helped enormously because being in the edit room is really useful just to see the decision making process that directors and editors make; what’s important and what you need and what you don’t need and how to tell a story I suppose.
You realise how much people shoot, they shoot so much stuff on these big films, and they never use half of it. So for me it was about refining what you need and working out what you need and what you don’t need more than anything else.
- You are just staring out on your directing career, but you have had a lot of experience in the industry over the years, so what kind of filmmaker do you see yourself becoming? Are you more interested in independent projects or do you want to move into blockbuster movies?
I can’t ever imagine that I would ever get into blockbusters as I just don’t think that it is for me, you lose so much control. I certainly want to go up the scale and make bigger films, work with different people and try different things out.
But I can’t imagine that I am ever going to be making Transformers or anything like that (laughs). So there are lots of films out there that I want to make and stories that I want to tell you just hope that you keep getting supported really.
- Finally what's coming up for you as both a writer and a director?
I am working on a few things and writing a couple of projects that I hope to get into production next year. They are different from Weekend, different subjects and a different kind of world, so I am just going see what happens really and what I can get funded first.
Weekend is released on DVD 19th March
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw