Zam Salim
Up There marks the big screen directorial debut for Zam Salim and the film has already being receiving some award recognition.
I caught up with the writer/director to chat about the new movie, making the transition into features and what lies ahead.
- Up There is your new movie which is released this week so can you tell me a little bit about the film?
It is a film that is set in the afterlife and it is a comedy about death (laughs). It is basically just about ordinary people and their experiences of death really.
The movie follows a guy who was accidentally run over a couple of years ago and now works in the afterlife as a clerk.
One day one of the people who is supposed to be helping out runs off and he and his partner have to go out to find him.
- The movie marks your feature film directorial debut so how have you found the transition from shorts and TV?
It has been interesting and it has been challenging. But it has been great it is just a very different form from working in the short form really. There is a lot more too it and you have to worry about different things.
- How did you work in these two areas prepare you for the move into feature film?
I think it has just helped in understanding how you tell a story really as well as working with actors. But also just to see how things work in front of an audience as well and getting a real sense of how comedy works and how drama works.
You just learn by doing so if you just do as much as you can that will teach you as there comes a point where reading books and watching films is not enough.
- As well as directing Up There you also penned the script so where did the idea for the story initially come from? And what sort of ideas did you want to explore with the film?
It just came about - I have to be honest - it came about by being unemployed for a bit and going to the cinema during the day or going to the shops during the day and seeing the same people wandering about.
Everyone else was bustling around getting on with their lives and I was feeling a little bit left out.
So I just thought it would be quite fun to imagine that that is what is would be like for dead people and spirits just wandering about.
I thought it was quite comic to take something fantastical and spiritual and make it everyday ordinary and about real people. So that is how the idea really came about. And then it was just trying to find the story for it really.
By making it an investigation it allowed us to find out more about the characters and the world. So that was the way that I made it into a feature film script.
- Burn Gorman takes on the central role of Martin so what were you looking for when you were casting this role? And what did you see in Burn that you thought would be great for this part?
I thought that Burn was great because he has obviously got an amazing face an amazing presence and a real understanding of comedy/humour.
He has also got a real sense of urgency behind the eyes and I thought that that was important for the film to have someone with that quality - you could just tell that he wanted to get on. He was really good.
He studied silent movies and actors like Buster Keaton just to understand how to make the character feel quite strange - he has been dead for quite a few years so he couldn’t be ordinary there had to be something about him.
So it was just the way that he got his walk right, he had a particular walk that he developed, and that told you everything you needed to know about him really.
- Well you have slightly touched on my next question really how did you find working with him and what did he bring to the table in the development of this character?
He just brought his stillness really - it’s funny when you are acting as it is really daring to do nothing. You are in every scene for the full four week shoot and so for him to have that patience and to be able to work through it and know that less was more.
We didn’t have any special effect or anything like that so that entire character I developed through his face and through his performance and it was an interesting thing to do.
One of the issues that we did have originally was ‘how will people know that they are dead? How is that going to work?’ And that question is never asked again you just take it as given that there is no real difference between the living and the dead.
- Warren Brown, Jo Hartly and Chris Waitt are just some of the other names on the cast list so can you tell me a bit about the casting process?
We had a create casting director in Debbie McWilliams, she cast the Bond films, so it was really great that she kept an eye on this. She has got a great eye and it was Debbie who suggested Burn Gorman in the first place.
It was great getting the other actors was great and it was great to get Jo Hartly involved - it would have been nice to have her in the film more. She was just fantastic.
Warren was great as well - he has quite a pivotal cameo at the beginning of the movie - he came in was fantastic. They were just all really great to work with and really brought something to it.
- How have you found the response to the movie so far it does seem to be going down quite well?
Yeah it is great. We are being released on the 16th November and so it will be interesting and I am keen to see how it goes down.
It is that weird thing of making a film and you are very close to it and then you see what other people think of it. It is a strange thing and so I will be interested to see how it goes down.
- The movie has also picked up some Scottish Bafta nominations including Best Picture and Best Director so you must be delighted by that?
Yeah, that was just really nice. It was perfect timing as well as it coincides with the release of the film as well.
We are an independent film so we are just trying to get as much exposure as possible and this may give people the interest to go and take a look at the film. It is really great timing.
- You mentioned that you shot the film under quite tight time restraints of four weeks so how do you find working those conditions - that is a pretty swift turnaround?
Yeah, please don’t make me do that again. It was really challenging because these characters are dead do you can’t shoot in the rain because you have the question ‘are dead people going to get wet?’ (laughs).
The other thing as well was we decided to shoot by the seaside for much of the film but we couldn’t afford to base ourselves there so we had to travel ever morning and every night.
It was just really challenging really and it was just great that were able to get what we did. I am moaning but I am sure that it is the same for everybody.
- We are always hearing about how difficult it is to get films made here in the UK at the moment so how difficult was getting this movie up and running and ultimately getting it made?
Well it got made so I shouldn’t really complain about anything else. But yes it is tough but where there is a will there is a way. It did take a couple of years to get this made but I have been told that that is actually quite fast (laughs).
Jimmy McGovern was saying that he wrote a script, I think it was Mary Queen of Scots, and he can now see a child who is twelve years old who was born on the day that he finished the script - so it is a long process because of the things that are involved. So to get it done and get it made is just great.
- Now that you have made the transition into features is that where you want to stay - or are shorts and TV still areas you would like to explore?
I am just really into story telling really and I can shoot in all forms. So sure I would love to stay in features but TV is an exciting form at the moment - so it the right thing comes along then definitely. So it is whatever the next challenge will be really.
- Finally what is that next challenge for you?
I just want to see how this film goes down really. I am working on other bits of things but I don’t want to say and jinx myself.
It is going to be great not to have to think about dead people for a while after dwelling on it as much as I have. But I feel quite energised now.
Up There is released 16th November
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw