Ben Crowe
Ben Crowe makes his big screen directorial debut next week with his new movie Verity’s Summer - a film which sees him makes the transition from shorts and documentaries.
We caught up with him to chat about the film, the inspiration behind the screenplay and what lies ahead for him.
- Your new film Verity’s Summer is about to be released so can you tell me a little bit about the film?
Verity’s Summer is a story about a young girl who comes back from boarding school to her family in Northumberland for the summer. But she discovers that her father is not the war hero that she always thought that he was.
- You have penned the script as well as being in the director’s chair so where did this project start for you?
The project started with two things; first I wanted to make my first feature film in the North East as it is an area that I know well having grown up there. I wanted to show the landscape and use the environment there as a character in the film.
The other side of it came with a moment a few years ago when some of the questions around Britain’s involvement in Iraq were beginning to be asked in public enquiries; there were allegations of mistreatment by British forces of Iraqi detainees. There is actually a public enquiry that is being launched in March and that is looking into some of these questions.
So it was around that time I was thinking ’what does the current generation think about these issues? As they are the generation who are going to have to deal with the fall out of Britain’s involvement in conflict elsewhere’.
Also the returning soldiers and families have been impacted by these wars and the allegations as well. So I wanted to ask that question ’how does this generation begin to deal with this legacy?’
- You have slightly touched on my next question, while this film is set in a normal family environment it does look at the role of British troops in Iraqi and this idea of torture. So I wondered what sparked your interest in this area?
I had worked on documentaries and I had done some research, before I started to write to script, about soldiers returning for Iraq.
I think my interest came as I tried to understand what British society and the wider public makes of these foreign wars - often we don’t have much contact unless you are part of a family of a serving solider.
Yes we get information from TV but I don’t think that we really grasp how destructive and how significant these wars have been to British personnel and also to people in those places themselves. So I think that my interest really came from a humanitarian perspective.
- We have seen other films such as In Our Name and Stop Loss look at this idea from a working class point of view but never from those who served as officers. So why did you decide to go down this path?
I think that there have been some films that look at the implications of allegations of torture and mistreatment and often they are set in working class families.
For me there is often a sense that the idea of torture and mistreatment being the actions of a few bad apples - that is used as an explanation of why that happens.
I think that public enquiries over the last few years and now have provided an increasing amount of evidence that indicates that it was a lot more systemic - it wasn’t just a few bad apples or people who have gone a bit crazy in a conflict environment - it was part of a wider policy.
Officers are people who are supposed to be managing the war as they have a role of planning, coordination and to implement the decisions of the chain of command. If this evidence suggests that it is more systemic and it was even partly a policy of the British state then there are many people who have been witnesses and who have knowledge of allegations of torture and abuse - from middle class families.
So that is why I was interested because if you look away from the working class/bad apple idea and it was systematic and policy for me that located itself quite interestingly in a middle class family.
- The film doesn’t go into too much detail or show the torture that is talked about but what kind of research did you do into this subject? And the effects that it has on those retuning from war?
I did a lot of reading and I spoke with charities that are responsible for assisting and helping those who have returned - particularly those who have post traumatic stress disorder.
This was all five or six years ago when I started developing the idea. I also read a lot of the testimony and witness statements that have come out of public enquiries into Britain’s involvement.
So it was a mixture of journalistic reports, newspaper coverage, and research with organisations helping returned soldiers as well as legal testimony.
- Indea Willson makes her acting debut in this central role of Verity so what were you looking for in an actress to take on this part?
I was really pleased that we were able to cast Indea. What I was looking for was someone who had a freshness to her approach - she has had some training as an actor but she is also very flexible as at this stage of her career she is learning.
It was that kind of newness that really appealed and it really spoke to the character as well as this degree of innocence being lost as the character learns about her family’s silence about her father’s involvement in Iraq.
- James Doherty and Nicola Wright are also on the cast list so can you tell me a bit about the casting process?
The casting was done in London and the casting directors were keen to come on board after they had read the script. This is a done with a very low budget so it was really done with many people’s assistance.
We put out bulletins to various online casting forums as well as the network they had with agents to find possible actors. Over a week we saw dozens of people of each part - and I filmed all of the auditions.
And it was only really in the last couple of days that Indea turned up; we knew after only spending a few minutes with her that she was going to perfect for the part of Verity. From that point the other cast members fell into place.
We had already identified James and Nicolas as potential actors for Jim and Anne - and when Indea came along we could see the potential of them all working together.
- Going back to Indea how did you find working with her given her inexperience as this is a very complex and emotional role for her?
She was very open and honest in her approach. The truth of it is although I had made short films this was my first feature and so I was, to a degree, inexperienced working with actors; even thought it is a small cast it was still more actors then I had every worked with before.
So we were learning together really. I was also quite open and available to discuss what we were trying to achieve. She gave the character and the role a lot of thought and she had closely read the script.
We did some read throughs and improvisation work prior to shooting the film to make her feel comfortable working with the different characters - particular Cristi Hogas who plays the Polish taxi driver Karol as they have a sex scene together.
It was very important for me that Indea felt comfortable working with him as an actor and that there was a trust between the three of us.
I think that we built that up before we started shooting and then when it came to the filming of that scene we were there with trust and we were able to go into it quite clearly and without any in trepidation.
- You have already talked about using the scenery of the North East in the film but not only do you use the landscape very effectively you also use musically in the same way was well. So how did you find the balance between actors & performances and landscape & music - it all fits together really well?
I’m glad you think that. It is very difficult and sometimes when I watch the film I do think that there is too much music. There are a hundred different ways you can layer these different elements together and it is very difficult.
I guess I was trying to use each part to emphasis emotions or to point up parts of the actor’s performance. I am very musical myself, I play a few different instruments, so working with the composer Alexandros Miaris was a real joy because he composed most of the music himself.
So he had a version of the film, a rough cut, to view while he was composing; so he was very much looking at the story and the landscape whilst writing the music. I am very pleased with how those different elements work together.
- How have you found the early response to the film so far?
The early response has been very interesting. It is not a film that everyone is going to like; it is an art house film, it’s a low budget film, it’s a family drama but there is also a political commentary that is part of the story.
It has been quite warmly received by some critics and also audiences. I have had a guy over fifty come up to me and said ‘maybe you have to be over fifty to understand this film and really get it’ but on the other hand I have had young women in their mid twenties say that the depiction of Verity really spoke to their own experiences of childhood and growing up with arguing parents.
It has been interesting and it doesn’t seem to have been narrowed to any particular audience as people from different backgrounds and different countries have found it very interesting.
- As you have mentioned already this is your feature length directorial debut so how have you found the transition from short?
The transition has been quite a long one as it does take quite a long time to make feature films in the UK if you are working on a low budget and independent.
We have been totally independent so we haven’t taken any public funding and we haven’t worked with any big production company in the UK.
So it really has been a labour of love and you have to put all the pieces together from writing the script to putting small pots of cash together to finding the right team.
While it has been a long process it has also been a great learning process as I have been involved in every stage of the production process and I have now got an incredible perspective about low budget British filmmaking.
I have met a lot of other directors during the process and I have spoken with a lot of producers and so it has been very exciting. By meeting all of these different people it has also built up a network for the next project.
- How has your work with shorts helped and prepared you for the leap into feature film - if it has helped at all?
It definitely has. The short fiction films that I have made it past I filmed and edited myself and so those are skills that I have developed on my short films.
I also make documentaries for a none governmental organisation and so I often work abroad on human rights and development issues - it is usually just me filming and interview people - they have allowed me to become quite flexible in my filmmaking process and adapt to the scene that is being filmed.
So I don’t need to rely on a huge amount of equipment or a huge amount of lighting or a large crew to get the material that I am looking for.
So I think the experience of short fiction films and documentaries have put me in really good stead for low budget films because you have to be very mobile and flexible.
- Finally what’s next for you?
I am currently developing a number of feature projects and I am pushing half a dozen forward and I am in the process of deciding which I want to take forward first.
So I am writing and researching and I am going to begin looking for collaborators, producers and production companies to work with for later this year. So hopefully I will be spending this year getting another feature film off the ground.
Verity’s Summer is released 5th March.